24 minSeason 1 • Episode 13
LatestThings continue pretty much as normal after the disappearance of the mothership. Chiaki and Mayuko talk about things now that it's gone and how NieA is doing. Later, Kotomi tells them that the bath house actually turned a profit. Genzo shows up with a large load of rice for Mayuko as Chiaki is leaving. Suddenly, NieA appears in a new UFO she'd been working on in secret. When the power on this runs out in mid-flight, she lands on the roof of the bath house and blows another hole in it.
Mayuko Chigasaki is an ordinary girl from the countryside, who now is attending university in big city Tokyo. She struggles each day to make ends meet while studying for her exams, barely scraping up the yen to afford bus fare to and from school. And at the end of the day, she comes home to a gluttonous, freeloading alien living in her closet!
Writing
Slice-of-life mastery that finds poetry in poverty.
Acting
Yuko Miyamura's chaotic NieA voice work is *chef's kiss*.
Direction
Yoshitoshi ABe character designs hit that perfect ugly-cute.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Created by the Serial Experiments Lain team as deliberate palette cleanser—same existential dread, now with more bathhouse scenes. The 1999-2000 Japanese recession context makes Mayuko's poverty hit harder than typical 'cute poor girl' anime tropes.
NieA's design deliberately evokes 70s shōjo manga aliens while the show parodies the very 'magical girlfriend' genre it appears to inhabit. The lack of background music in key scenes was Yoshitoshi ABe's call to emphasize urban isolation.
JP
