這いよれ！ニャル子さん/Haiyore! Nyaruko-san Episode 07

Nyarlko’s attempt to become one with Mahiro at the resort fail as he binds her in sheets to a mattress propped against the wall. At breakfast, she complains about how mean he is to her, but tells implies to the others that they had sex, and that she’s now pregnant. Mahiro attempts to get his mother to help him, since she’d previously opposed Nyarlko dating Mahiro, but now, she’s OK with it. Hastur nearly dies at this news, so later when Mahiro finds him on the beach, Hastur says that he’d be OK raising Nyarlko’s baby with Mahiro. Before Hastur can do more, Mahiro teleports in and send Hastur flying into the ocean. Nyarlko becomes very clingy, forcing Mahiro to hide from her.

Mahiro finds Cthuko in the beach’s tea house playing a classic video game, still depressed over the loss of Xoth. Mahiro comforts her, and though cheered, she tells him that triggering her flags won’t work. Luhy passes by, revealing she’s opened a takoyaki restaurant on the beach. Everyone is enjoying the takoyaki, but only Mahiro notices that this takoyaki is made from an alien creature. Now that Nyarlko has found Mahiro again, she returns to being very clingy.  Mahiro’s cold attitude starts to make her question whether he likes her. When he tells her straight forward that he doesn’t like her, Nyarlko is devastated, so much so that Mahiro has to rescue her from Cthuko attempting to take advantage of Nyarlko.

Yoriko tells her son that he was too harsh with Nyarlko, especially since Nyarlko risked her life to help the family. Mahiro decides to be kinder to Nyarlko, and agrees to go on a date with her to a local, traditional Japanese festival. Yoriko keeps Cthuko and Hastur from interfering as Nyarlko wears a yukata and does the festival with Mahiro. They pay a visit to the shrine at the top of the mountain and pray, leading Mahiro to wonder if a deity like Nyarlko should be there. After sharing a drink at a cafe, Nyarlko buys sparklers and lights them with Mahiro at sunset. He agrees to walk the beach with her, making one of her dreams come true. She explains why she acts the way she does and confesses her love for Mahiro.

Man, this episode was someone surprising in that it was very funny at times, yet poignant and touching at others.

I was surprised that this episode picked up where the last episode left off.  I had assumed that this beach stuff was filler, but clearly, that started a whole new story piece, which concluded here.  One of the things about anime series like this one is that there seems to be a tendency to make each episode have a conclusive ending. So, if you don’t have enough material, you pad it out. If you have too much material, but not enough for two episodes, you might cut stuff.  So, having an episode finish one tale and start a new one is different, and I liked it.

The funniest moments of the episode were in the first third of it, such as getting to see what really happened with Nyarlko when she tried to physically express her love for Mahiro in the night. Of course, Nyarlko’s tales and stated pregnancy, combined with Mahiro not getting support from anyone (because Cthuko was too busy “meditating” about Nyarlko) just had me laughing out loud.

Nyarlko’s excessive, clingy attitude this episode had me uncomfortable.  Personally, I can’t stand clingy girls (of course, I am older so that does play a role).  They start becoming less and less attractive the harder they cling.  This episode made me remember a girl I dated who LOVED playing that hideous, “you hang up first” phone game. Well, I did and she was hurt by it.  However, I was at work and had a job to do, which didn’t seem to matter to her. ^_^;;;

Anyway, Mahiro’s harshness to Nyarlko also reminded me of the above moment from my past, and thus I felt sorry for Nyarlko despite how uncomfortable I was seeing her clingy ways.  That’s a pretty wild swing of emotions, so I guess the folks at Xebec are to be commended for this. ^_^

Mahiro’s and Nyarlko’s festival date was cliched, but no less sweet. I did get a laugh out of Mahiro worrying about Nyarlko praying at a shrine, which in Japan are supposed to hold deities of some kind.

Nyarlko’s serious confession to Mahiro was almost like her setting a death flag for herself.  I am now suspicious that there could be some sort of sad ending, were at best, Nyarlko is forced to leave and Mahiro realizes he loves her.  I guess we’ll see.

Speaking of flags, I got a chuckle out of Cthuko cautioning Mahiro about setting her’s and his response to that. Got to love those visual novel references eh, where flags are set to get the girl and a good end, or fail and have a bad end.

I guess I was wrong about Luhy being a teacher. I knew from the light novel artwork that she’d done the alien takoyaki stuff, but I figured that wasn’t a job, but just something she was just serving. Go figure.

There were a few other parody references that I noted.  When Mahiro was devastated and turned white, the eyecatch made it clear that they were referencing the classic Ashita no Joe manga series, where Joe the boxer does that very thing at the end of it (or so I’m told).

I believe the 2CH Touhou “Yukkuri Shite Ittene” meme of KIRISAME Marisa and HAKUREI Reimu is parodied here when the depressed Cthuko and Hastur aren’t allowed to interfere with Nyarlko’s and Mahiro’s date (you can see a bit more about that meme in another review I did for Natsu no Arashi).

Tokyo Big Sky got a parody nod with the Ariake Space Colosseum, and subsequent Comiket implied nod.

So, another really enjoyable episode with lots of laughs, but also some nice, sweet moments too.