這いよれ！ニャル子さん/Haiyore! Nyaruko-san Episode 09

Mahiro dreams of confessing to Nyarlko, then awakens to find a dakimakura of Nyarlko in his bed. When he realizes she’s inside, he throws it out, leading Nyarlko to complain about Mahiro’s poor treatment of her to Tamao, who encouraged Nyarlko to continue as she always has. Since Yoriko is out on a mission, Mahiro has to help Hastur purchase some household necessitates, and they are joined by Nyarlko and Cthuko.  Nyarlko tries to entice Mahiro by trying on some glasses, but fails. Cthuko tries the same on Nyarlko, but fails.  Nyarlko manages to convince Mahiro to try on glasses, which has her and Hastur panting over the results.

After finishing shopping, the group stops and takes a break at an outdoor table, where Nyarlko has made a purchase, but refuses to let the others see what it is. Mahiro is amused by this when Nyarlko gets a call from her boss regarding Dreamland, which she and the others are helping protect since it is currently empty and could be used to invade Earth. Luhy shows up on stage as a mahou shoujo character battling an alien, but seeing the group, she flees.  The group heads home, where they are confronted by Tamao, who has been taken over by a Yith alien named Isuka. She fires her weapon at them, causing Nyarlko and Mahiro to switch bodies.  After apologies and explanations, Isuka says that the gun will recharge in a day, at which point Nyarlko and Mahiro can swap back.

After Mahiro gets over his rage, he ponders skipping school, but that notion is rejected by Nyarlko, who wants very much to go to school as Mahiro. Nyarlko goes to the toilet, leaving Mahiro with Cthuko and Hastur. When Hastur comes onto Mahiro, Cthuko ties him up and goes after Mahiro since he’s in Nyarlko’s body.  Since she won’t be put off, Mahiro ties her up.  Nyarlko comes out of the toilet all aglow after learning things about Mahiro’s body.  Her afterglow effect causes Mahiro to lose it and give her a beating, even though he’s beating his own body.  While taking a bath, he notes how Nyarlko’s body is so delicate and ponders being nicer to her, but when she comes in, he again beats “her.”

That night, all three girls want to sleep with Mahiro for various reasons. Mahiro decides to take advantage of being in Nyarlko’s body by writing up a pledge in her own handwriting and sealing it with her thumbprint, whereby Nyarlko pledges herself to Cthuko body and soul. Since it is a legal document, Cthuko agrees to obey Mahiro in exchange for eventually being given that document.  He commands she take the others out of the room, which she does. At school, Isuke-Tamao doesn’t show up, nor does Yoichi.  Nyarlko decides she has only one course of action since she’s in Mahiro’s body, and thus leads Mahiro to the front of the classroom where she, as Mahiro, proclaims “his” love for Nyarlko.

Thoughts/Review:

Hoo!hoo!  This episode spotlight two other light novel art pieces I have, now completing everything I collected a while back (the glasses moment and “Mahiro” confessing his love for Nyarlko in class).

What do you want to bet that the dakimakura featured in this episode is in fact one that a person could buy. I decided to play it safe and not investigate since many of these hug pillows are pornographic in nature. ^_^;

Anyway, there were a number of parodies I noticed, but as always, I’d appreciate folks pointing out ones I missed. What is Yoriko parodying?

Also, what game is this from?

I saw the Digimon poster in the window as Nyarlko shopped. I’ve never seen the show, but obviously I am aware of it.

I’m 99% sure that Nyarlko’s calling Mahiro “Usagi-san” and her remarks thereafter are a Sailor Moon reference. Sadly, that was missed by the translations (some other things were missed in the official subs from what I understand).  If I’m right, then either the translator was so keen on purging Japanese references from the official subtitles (’cause nothing remotely Japanese should be used in English subtitles, don’t you know) they missed it, or they didn’t know, or both.  I vote “both.”

I almost missed this one, but there’s an Azumanga Daioh reference on the back of Nyarlko’s phone. WOO!HOO!

Moving to the story, the Freaky Friday body switch stuff rocked. Nyarlko using the toilet in Mahiro’s body, then coming out all aglow and going on about how great boys have it made me laugh out loud.

I also got a good laugh at Mahiro using Nyarlko’s thumbprint and handwriting to craft a note in order to get Cthuko to obey him and clear his room.  I figure that piece of paper will somehow get destroyed before this story arc is over.  (As an aside, it is interesting that Cthuko used the English “Your Highness” when obeying Mahiro. That made me laugh too.)

Nyarlko using her time in Mahiro’s body to make it appear he’s confessing in front of the entire class that he loves Nyarlko had me laughing out loud as well.  Since this series has shown that it does multi-part episodes, I’m loving the notion of seeing the two in swapped bodies some more. ^_^

The whole Dreamland stuff didn’t play as big a role despite the amount of exposition given to it.  I suppose it will come into play more next episode, or somewhere down the line.

I have to say that I’m rather looking forward to seeing where this whacky adventure takes our merry cast.