Nyaruko: Crawling with Love

Nyaruko: Crawling With Love (這いよれ! ニャル子さん, Haiyore! Nyaruko-san, lit. Crawl Up! Nyaruko-san), also known as Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos, is a Japanese light novel series written by Manta Aisora and illustrated by Koin. It was inspired by the H. P. Lovecraft Cthulhu mythos. The series' twelve volumes were published by Soft Bank Creative under their GA Bunko imprint between April 2009 and March 2014.

A flash-animated original video animation (OVA) by DLE titled Haiyoru! Nyaruani was published in between October 2009 and March 2010, followed by a television series, Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Mr. Lovecraft, which aired in Japan between December 2010 and February 2011. An anime television series by Xebec aired in Japan between April and June 2012 and a second season aired between April and June 2013. Two manga adaptations have been produced.

A video game adaptation, developed by 5pb. for PlayStation Vita was released in Japan on May 30, 2013.

Plot

The story of Haiyore! Nyaruko-san centers around Nyaruko, a formless Lovecraftian-deity of chaos (Nyarlathotep) who can take on the shape of a seemingly ordinary silver-haired girl. Mahiro Yasaka is a normal high school boy who is being chased by a fearsome black alien one night, until Nyaruko saves him. She explains that the creatures from H. P. Lovecraft's works are actually races of aliens, and that she has been sent to Earth by the Space Defense Agency to protect him from being kidnapped by an alien trafficker. Aliens find Mahiro and the Earth strangely attractive, for entertainment, auction or resources. One by one, the Great Old Ones enter Earth illegally. Eventually, Nyaruko and two other Lovecraft-creatures, Cthugha and Hastur, end up being freeloaders at Mahiro's place.^[4] Mahiro has become accustomed to his protection detail of Nyaruko, Cthugha, and Hastur making his life fascinating.

Characters

Main characters

Mahiro Yasaka (八坂 真尋, Yasaka Mahiro)

Voiced by: Eri Kitamura

A human boy who reluctantly finds himself under the protection of Nyaruko. He tends to attack aliens by stabbing or throwing forks whenever they make him angry. He appears to attack so fast that currently no alien has been able to dodge yet. At first he dislikes aliens and wants to kick them out, but as the story progresses he starts to become more tolerant toward their actions. He is attracted to Nyaruko (in her human form), but is put off by her aggressive advances at the same time. He has also kissed her a few times, the most prominent being their on-screen kiss during the events of the final OVA, Nyaruko F. According to Nyaruko and Kūko, Mahiro's appearance is strangely attractive to aliens, which explains why Nyaruko falls in love with him after only looking at his profile, as well as why alien criminals wanted to kidnap him.

Nyarlathotep (ニャルラトホテプ, Nyaruratohotepu) / Nyaruko (ニャル子)

Voiced by: Kana Asumi

A Nyarlathotepian (alien from Nyarlathotep) who is sent by the Space Defence Agency to Earth to protect Mahiro Yasaka and ends up falling in love with him. She takes a human form of a girl with long, silver-colored hair. She is always friendly to Mahiro, eager to pursue him, but often shows abusive and brutal habits to any hostile aliens. She is also obsessed with otaku culture. She takes the name Nyaruko Yasaka as Mahiro's cousin when staying at Mahiro's house and attending his school. Her actual age is unknown since she and Kūko always stop Mahiro whenever he becomes curious or questions her age, although she states that she has already graduated from space college. She happens to be smart and self-confident, as she graduated from one of the best universities at the top of her class, and entered the Space Defense Agency after her exam. She is also quite wealthy, capable of spending a lot on otaku-related products. As a top agent, she mainly uses space CQC to fight (note that the definition of "space CQC" is defined by the user and is not restricted to close quarter combat weapons). She claims to be one of the best fighters on Earth, as she states that her combat level is 530,000, while a normal farmer armed with a hunting rifle is 5 (a parody of Dragonball Z). Despite this, she is always unsuccessful when dodging Mahiro's fork attacks. Her power form is a Kamen Rider-like set of black armor that covers her entire body.

Cthugha (クトゥグア, Kutugua) / Kūko (クー子)

Voiced by: Miyu Matsuki

A female Cthughan (alien from Cthugha). She takes the form of a slender, red-haired girl. She is in love with Nyaruko despite that her race is the archnemesis of Nyarlathotepians, and appears to be clingy. She is hostile toward Mahiro and threatens him to stay away from Nyaruko in the beginning of the story. As the story progress, she becomes more friendly towards him. She transfers to Mahiro's school and takes the name Kūko Yasaka, Nyaruko's "wife". She is also obsessed with otaku culture and video games. Kūko was Nyaruko and Hasuta's space elementary school classmate and appears to at the same age as them, although she became a NEET after graduating from high school, and become a Space Defense Agency agent and colleague to Nyaruko later by using the relationship of her uncle who is an employee in the human resource department of the Space Defence Agency. She concealed her feelings for Nyaruko from her family and lied to them that Mahiro is her fiance, as love between Nyarlathotep and Cthugha are considered a shame of the family among Cthughans, however she has displayed having feelings for Mahiro. She possess the power of fire, able to control fireballs, heat, or drones that fire lasers; she refers to them as space CQC - Cthugha version. Her strength in combat is lower than that of Nyaruko's. Her combat form is covering her lower body with red fire patterns.

Hastur (ハスター, Hasutā) / Hasuta (ハス太)

Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya, Tomokazu Seki (young man)

A male Hasturan (alien from Hastur) who was the space elementary school classmate of Nyaruko and Kūko. He is the son of the owner of CCE (Carcosa Computer Entertainment, parody of Sony Computer Entertainment), a famous video game company in space. He was first sent to get intel of Earth's entertainment from Yoriko, but he failed and decided to stay on Earth, and was later hired as an agent of the Space Defense Agency and colleague to Nyaruko and Kūko. He has feelings for Mahiro and enrolls in Mahiro's school under the name Hasuta Yasaka. He possesses the power of air, fights by creating strong wind, vacuum blades, or forming nearby vacuum areas around enemies. He is known to be stronger than both Nyaruko and Kūko; since he is the one who always stopped their fights during space elementary school. His normal form appears to be obedient, shy, and can be easily mistaken for a young girl, but when switched to power form he will change to a more mature personality and appearance.

Humans

Yoriko Yasaka (八坂 頼子, Yasaka Yoriko)

Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (drama CD), Aya Hisakawa (anime)

Mahiro's mother, a real monster hunter who started her career during college. She has a young appearance that makes it hard to believe that she has a son in high school. She conceals her true job from her son until returning home during the plot. She is kind to friendly aliens, accepting Nyaruko, Kūko, and Hasuta living in the house, and their actions to pursue Mahiro. She advises Nyaruko to take her relationship with Mahiro a bit slower at first, but permits their relationship later after they rescued her. Just like her son, she uses throwing forks as her main weapons, being better skilled and able to carry more "ammo" than him. She is obsessed with video games, buying different game machines whenever she returns home from hunting. She also has a habit of hugging Mahiro, claiming she's replenishing her "son-onium".

Takehiko Yoichi (余市 健彦, Yoichi Takehiko)

Voiced by: Wataru Hatano

Class representative of Mahiro, Nyaruko, Kūko, and Hasuta's class. A friend to Mahiro, often giving him advice in school.

Tamao Kurei (暮井 珠緒, Kurei Tamao)

Voiced by: Yuka Ōtsubo

Mahiro, Nyaruko, Kūko, and Hasuta's classmate. Nicknamed "Walking Speaker". Very talkative, likes to gather and spread gossip among the class. She became a close friend to Nyaruko and often gives advise for her to pursue Mahiro, despite often feeling depressed as her plans fail. She actually has feelings toward Mahiro, but decided to give up and support Nyaruko since she feels that she is no match for her.

Aliens

Kūne (クー音)

Voiced by: Ryōka Yuzuki

Kūne is a Cthugan and Kūko's cousin (the daughter of Kūko's uncle in HR). Her appearance resembles Kūko's despite being taller and has better body figure. Her personality is described as vulgar by Mahiro. She introduces herself as a member of the Galactic Defense Force tasked with overseeing her cousin's job, while her true intent is to buy otaku-related products. She has feeling toward Kūko, and is also clingy that she treats Kūko similar to how Kūko treats Nyaruko. In order to stop her pursuit, Kūko lied to her and said that she is in love with Mahiro and they are already engaged, which made her very depressed. She looks down on Mahiro because he is not as powerful as the aliens, as well as acting hostile toward Nyaruko, as their races are arch-nemesis. She is also a friend of Luhy Distone.

Shantak-kun (シャンタッ君, Shantakkun)

Voiced by: Tomoko Kaneda (drama CD), Satomi Arai (anime)

Nyaruko's pet. A female shantak (monster in Cthulhu mythos; a bird with a horse's head and a bat's wings). Has many different forms including sizes as tall as a building or as small as a rabbit. Can also turn into different vehicles. According to Nyaruko, the eggs of shantaks are precious and expensive food in space, though Mahiro never accepts to eat them anyway. Nyaruko arrived on Earth by taking a spaceship transformed from Shantak-kun.

Luhy Distone (ルーヒー・ジストーン, Rūhī Jisutōn)

Voiced by: Mariko Kouda

Luhy Distone is a Cthulhi (クトゥルヒ, Kuturuhi), also known as the star-spawn of Cthulhu, who was working at Cthulhu Corp., a space company that produces video games and other entertainment that rivals that of CCE. Like Hasuta, she tried to get intel of Earth's entertainment from Yoriko, while preparing to show the new developed video game platform. The video game platform turns out to be a disaster, being too high-end to ever be affordable to consumers, and is destroyed by Kūko. Luhy was then fired by Cthulhu Corp. and become a vendor selling Takoyaki. She starts to have feelings toward Hasuta in the latter part of the story and declares to Mahiro that she will become his opponent.

Atko (アト子, Atoko)

Voiced by: Azusa Kataoka

An Atlach-Nachan. Her character design resembles Hatsune Hirasaka from the visual novel Atlach-Nacha; an outfit with a spider motif. (It is named after Clark Ashton Smith's creation Atlach-Nacha, the spider-god from the Cthulhu Mythos.) She has an appearance that is more mature than Nyaruko, Kūko and Hasuta, despite the fact that they are all around the same age.

Atko appears in the 10th light novel. Her family owes the largest Textile manufacturing company in space and she is on a trip to earth to do a research on a new material, and decided to stay in Mahiro's house. She was Nyaruko's classmate and friend in high school, and also Kūko's online friend that makes bodypillow with Nyaruko printing for her. Since high school, she has a bad habit of seducing other girls' boyfriends, as she felt pleasure when doing so, but dumped them once they are separated from their girlfriends. In novel she deliberately hugged Hasuta in front of Luhy to get pleasure from the latter's jealousy. She also states that she will support Nyaruko's pursuit toward Mahiro, and seduce him after they become couple so the guilt of robbing best friend's lover can bring more pleasure to herself. According to her, she can smell the scent of falling in love, and Mahiro has that scent, despite latter's denial. She fights with her own spider silk, web, and poison; according to Nyaruko, she is not as strong as them, but dealing with her attack is troubling.

Ghutatan (グタタン, Gutatan)

Voiced by: Shiori Mikami

Only appears in the 2012 anime, Ghutatan comes to Earth from the planet Ghatanothoa for Mahiro to take care of her as if he were babysitting her. She is kind of childish for an alien, as seen in episode 11 when the Nyarlathotepian trio chases Mahiro for her. She has a butler named Roy Fooger the Lloigor. It was revealed that in episode 12 that Lloigor has been using Mahiro so he can bring all of Earth's adult games into space, as Ghutatan has completed her purpose on Earth. After Lloigor is destroyed, Mahiro and the Nyarlathotepian trio wish Ghutatan goodbye as she departs for Ghatanothoa.

Isuka (イス香)

Voiced by: Satomi Arai

A Yithian who swaps bodies with Kurei to stop a group of extremists.

Isurugi (イス動)

Voiced by: Wataru Hatano

A Yithian extremist who swaps bodies with Yoichi to capture all of Earth's entertainment.

Tsuruko (ツル子)

Voiced by: Saki Yamakita

An alien from planet Ut'ulls-Hr'ehr who enters Earth illegally and has an obsession with Mahiro. She is a fujoshi.

N'tse-Kaambl (ヌトセ＝カアムブル, Nutose Kaanburu)

Voiced by: Yuka Ōtsubo

A member of the Planetary Defense Organization's Dreamlands Management Division.

Bast (バースト, Bāsuto)

Voiced by: Wataru Hatano

Another member of the Planetary Defense Organization's Dreamlands Management Division.

Antagonists

Nodens (ノーデンス, Nōdensu)

Voiced by: Bin Shimada

A space smuggler. He attempts to kidnap Mahiro, planning to use him to star in a yaoi film. He sends nightgaunts to attack Mahiro while hiring Kūko as a bodyguard. After he is defeated and reveals his true plan, Mahiro orders Nyaruko to "destroy" him. Note that the name "Nodens" include any alien from Nodens, while this space smuggler is one of them.

Nyaruo (ニャル夫)

Voiced by: Takeshi Kusao

Nyaruko's older brother. He has great hatred and jealousy toward Nyaruko since she graduated from one of the best colleges in space as the best of her year, while he dropped out of a third-class college. To seek revenge, he arrived on Earth and killed the gods in Dreamlands. He is defeated by Nyaruko with Shantak-kun in her motorcycle form; in the novel he was run over multiple times in Dreamlands and later taken into custody by the Space Defence Agency; in the anime he is bumped on the leg and sent flying. Nyaruko looks down on him as she calls him a "wild Nyarlathotep" rather than her brother in the story.

Lloigor (ロイガー, Roigā)

Voiced by: Jōji Nakata

Ghutatan's butler who takes the alias of Roy Fogger. He arrived on Earth for Mahiro to look after Ghutatan, but was later revealed that he was the one who hurt Ghutatan so Nyaruko can fight the monsters. It is also revealed that he blocked the communication between Mahiro and Ghutatan, as seen in episode 11 of the 2012 anime. He then turned out to be an evil monster as of the finale. He wanted to bring all of Earth's entertainment, including eroge, but was unsuccessful and was defeated by Nyaruko.

Zhar (ツァール, Tsāru) and Lloiger (ロイガー, Roigā)

Voiced by: Atsushi Imaruoka and Takamasa Ōhashi

Two deities who attack Celeano library in search of a book. They are later revealed to be environmental extremists who simply want their organization to continue receiving funding by creating new endangered species to protect.

Clark Ashton Smith (クラーク・アシュトン・スミス, Kurāku Ashuton Sumisu)

Voiced by: Kōji Tsujitani

A Cthughan who takes over Mahiro's school in an attempt to better understand Earth's analogue games.

Boss Mi-Go

The leader of a group of Mi-Go that land in the Arctic Circle to mine Earth of all its resources. His gang once trampled the Earth in the Mesozoic era. He is shown to be quite clever, having planned for virtually every eventuality but is ultimately defeated by his convenient weakness to music.

Media

Light novels

Haiyore! Nyaruko-san began as a light novel series written by Manta Aisora with illustrations by Koin. The series, spanning twelve volumes, was published by Soft Bank Creative under their GA Bunko imprint between April 15, 2009, and March 17, 2014.^[5][6][7] Short stories have been published in Soft Bank Creative's GA Magazine.

Anime

A Flash original video animation titled Haiyoru! Nyaruani (這いよる!ニャルアニ) was produced by DLE and directed by Azuma Tani. The first episode was streamed on October 23, 2009. Further episodes were published on December 19, 2010 on DVD as part of the GA Magazine Vol. 3.^[8] All 9 episodes were released on March 15, 2010 as part of the Haiyore! Nyaruko-san 4: Special Box (這いよれ!ニャル子さん4 スペシャルボックス, ISBN 978-4-7973-5782-0). The first eight episodes are about one to two minutes in length, while the final episode is about six minutes long.

Another anime series titled Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Mr. Lovecraft (這いよる!ニャルアニ リメンバー・マイ・ラブ（クラフト先生）, Hayoru! Nyaruani: Rimenbā Mai Rabu(kurafuto-sensei)), also produced by DLE and directed by Azuma Tani, aired 11 episodes on BS11 Digital between December 11, 2010, and February 26, 2011.^{[note 1]} Each episode is about four minutes in length. The twelfth episode was released as an original video animation included with the Haiyoru! Nyaruani 1&2 Perfect Box, a DVD compilation containing both Flash anime series.

An anime television series produced by Xebec aired in Japan between April 10 and June 26, 2012.^{[note 2][9]} Crunchyroll streamed the series with English subtitles outside Asia, along with the two Flash series, under the name Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos.^[10] A DVD containing a short original video animation based on the short story "Easy Way to Kill Enemies" (やさしい敵の仕留め方, Yasashii Teki no Shitome-kata) was offered to those who purchased all the BD/DVD volumes of the first season.^[11] NIS America licensed the series in North America and released on subtitled Blu-ray Disc on April 15, 2014.^[12]

A second season called Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W (這いよれ！ニャル子さんW) aired in Japan between April 8 and July 1, 2013,^{[note 3]} and was also simulcast by Crunchyroll.^[13] An OVA episode on DVD was released for buying all of the second season's Blu-ray Disc or DVD volumes.^[14]

Music

Opening themes

• "Taiyō Iwaku Moeyo Chaos" (太陽曰く燃えよカオス, The Sun Says "Burn, Chaos") by Ushiro kara Haiyori-tai G (Kana Asumi, Miyu Matsuki and Yuka Ōtsubo) (Season 1)
• "Koi wa Chaos no Shimobenari" (恋は渾沌の隷也, Koi wa Kaosu no Shimobenari, Love is a Servant of Chaos) by Ushiro kara Haiyori-tai G (Season 2)

Ending themes

• "Suki, Suki, Daisuki." (好き、好き、大好き。, Like, Like, Love.) by Kana Asumi (Haiyoru! Nyaruani)
• "Koisuru Otome no Catharsis" (恋する乙女のカタルシス, Loving Maiden's Catharsis) by Lisp (Kana Asumi, Azusa Kataoka and Sayuri Hara) (Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Mr. Lovecraft)
• "Zutto Be With You" (ずっと Be with you, Always Be with you) by RAMM ni Haiyoru Nyaruko-san (Kana Asumi) (Season 1, eps 1-11)
• "Magamagashiku mo Seinaru kana" (禍々しくも聖なるかな, The Evil and Young are Holy too) by Ushiro kara Haiyori-tai (Kana Asumi, Miyu Matsuki and Yuka Ōtsubo (Season 1, ep 12)
• "Yotte S.O.S." (よってS.O.S) by RAMM ni Haiyoru Nyaruko-san (Season 2, eps 1-2, 6, 11)
• "Wonder Nanda? Kataomoi" (Wonderナンダ？片思い, What's a Wonder? One-sided Love) by RAMM ni Haiyoru Jashin-san (Kana Asumi, Miyu Matsuki and Rie Kugimiya) (Season 2, eps 3, 8)
• "Kirai na Wake Lychee" (嫌いなワケLychee, I Hate Lychee) by RAMM ni Haiyoru Tamao-san (Yuka Ōtsubo) (Season 2, eps 4, 7)
• "Sister, Friend, Lover" by RAMM ni Haiyoru Kūko-san to Kūne-san (Miyu Matsuki and Ryōka Yuzuki) (Season 2, eps 5, 9)
• "Ai Crusader's†Striver" (愛クルセイダース†ストライバー, Ai Kuruseidāsu Sutoraibā) by RAMM ni Haiyoru Mahiro-san to Yoichi-san (Eri Kitamura and Wataru Hatano) (Season 2, ep 10)
• "Kimi no Tonari de" (キミのとなりで, Right Next to You) by RAMM ni Haiyoru Nyaruko-san (Kana Asumi) (Season 2, ep 12)

Manga

A manga adaptation titled Haiyore! Nyaruko-san illustrated by Kei Okazaki began serialization in Shueisha's Miracle Jump magazine on May 6, 2011. A four-panel comic strip manga titled Haiyore! Super Nyaruko-chan Time (這いよれ！スーパーニャル子ちゃんタイム) illustrated by Sōichirō Hoshino began serialization in Flex Comix's Flex Comix Blood on October 5, 2011. An anthology was published by Holp Shuppan on November 11, 2012.^[15]

Video game

In December 2012 5pb. announced the development of a visual novel, titled Haiyore! Nyaruko-san Meijōshigatai Game no Yōna Mono (這いよれ! ニャル子さん 名状しがたいゲームのようなもの).^[16] The game's story is based on the first season of the anime TV series, with some additional content.^[17] The game was released on PlayStation Vita on May 30, 2013, in both regular and limited edition.^[17]

See also

• Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game) - The major source of gags, characters from R'lyeh Antique Replays books also appear in this series.

Notes

References

External links

• Light novel official website (Japanese)
• Flash anime official website (Japanese)
• Anime official website (Japanese)
• Video game official website at 5pb. (Japanese)
• Haiyoru! Nyaruani (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia