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The Series

[Rating:4/5]

Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! (這いよれ! ニャル子さん) is based on the series of light novels by Aisora Manta, itself derived from sci-fi horror writer H.P. Lovecraft’s (From Beyond) Cthulhu mythos.

The first season of this quick-paced series set up the characters, the titular Nyaruko, the high school boy Mahiro, Nyaruko’s childhood friend, rival, and thorn-in-the-side Kuko, and the bishōnen Hasuta in an enjoyable laugh riot that combined harem, sci-fi, fantasy, teen romance, and traditional high school themes into a strange and eclectic hodgepodge with some nods to those who also like fan service, yuri and yaoi.

While the second season doesn’t progress the characters much, we do begin to see some hints that Kuko might be starting to have some feelings for Mahiro as well, even as her older cousin Kune appears and she is forced to pretend to be engaged to Mahiro. She’s already been engaged to Kune, who is madly in love with her. The season also has an oddball episode where Nyaruko’s pet Shanta, a sort of flying baby hippo who says nothing but “mii” is transformed into a little blue-haired girl who is determined to be useful to Mahiro.

Anyone who enjoyed the first season of Nyaruko will enjoy this second one, but rest easy, you won’t need to have seen the first to understand or love this one. This second season is more evolutionary that transformative, but sticking to the formula in this case works out for the best, rather than makes it feel repetitive. New characters and new battles with strange aliens refresh the series and keep it alive.

Video Quality

[Rating:4.5/5]

Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! Second Season looks gorgeous in this Blu-ray release from NIS America. It comes in an AVC/MPEG-4 1080p encodement of its digital animation that is crystal clear, sharp, clean, and has wonderfully saturated but not too pumped up colors.

Audio Quality

[Rating:4/5]

The Japanese soundtrack of the hilarious voice cast is provided in a competent LPCM 2.0 (48kHz/24-bit) track that has good dynamics, a natural sounding high end and clean dialogue free from any clipping.

Supplemental Materials

[Rating:2.5/5]

• Clean Opening
• Clean Endings
• Japanese Trailer (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:00:16)
• NIS America Trailers
• Nyarlathotep-tested, alien-approved hardcover art book (full color, approx. 36 pages) with episode guide, character info, and gorgeous full color illustrations.

The Definitive Word

Overall:

[Rating:4/5]

Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! Second Season still relies heavily on the high energy level of the titular character to drive the story and the laughs, but it works, and the second time around is still a charm for this zany series.

Additional Screen Captures

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[amazon-product]B00P2TXBS2[/amazon-product]