When she decided to invade the surface she realized that she would need a body that could function on land, and to that end she attacked some poor, anonymous swimmer and latched onto them headcrab style. This would explain a number of oddities within the series, all of which have been pointed out as unusual by the characters themselves:
- It's not that Ika would die if her "hat" is removed, it's that Ika cannot survive out of the water without a host.
- She is likely extracting oxygen directly from the host's bloodstream, which allows her to breathe air; without a host, she'll suffocate if not returned to the water immediately. She can't breathe underwater because this supersedes her own respiratory mechanisms; she relies on her host for nourishment so long as she's attached to it.
- Also explains her eating habits. Shrimp, lots of it, crammed into her (or rather, her host's) mouth.
- She is likely extracting oxygen directly from the host's bloodstream, which allows her to breathe air; without a host, she'll suffocate if not returned to the water immediately. She can't breathe underwater because this supersedes her own respiratory mechanisms; she relies on her host for nourishment so long as she's attached to it.
- Ika mistook Takeru for a comrade of hers when he was wearing a squid-hat not because she failed to recognize him with the hat on, but because she assumed that he'd been recently infested by one of her people. When she addressed him as a comrade, she was talking to the squid. And when she encountered Takeru's empty hat, she directed her grief at the hat, not at Takeru's hatless body.
- Ika does not know how to swim...with a human body. Without one she'd jet about as a squid usually would, but having a hundred-odd pounds of human weighing her down makes this rather more difficult.
- Wasn't that part just her having no experience swimming with her limbs?
- Ika's Easy Amnesia from falling down the stairs is a result of the impact jarring the interface between Ika and her host's brain. Attempting to remove her "hat" stressed the connection and allowed it to realign.
- And, finally and most damningly, she looks like a squid sitting on a girl's head.
- This troper doesn't think so. While the Puppeteer Parasite idea explains the hat and super powered tentacles, it doesn't explain her ability to hold her breath a long time, make her body glow (not just the tentacles), and spit squid ink.
- Just make some biological modifications. If that organism can link neural systems, surely a bit of in-vivo gene-tweaking is not beyond its capabilities. Also supporting this theory is that right after she came to shore, she introduced herself in Japanese, despite never having had the opportunity to learn the language. I think this show is about to take a turn for the darker...
- Ika has literally bonded with her host body, which allows her to modify it as she chooses, but at the cost of removal = death. If she were to jettison her host body, she could probably do so, but it would be a long and complex process, ending in the host's death. Or it could truly be permanent, and Ika is one of the few of her species to ever go through with this process (and also explains why we don't see more of Ika's kind.)
- She speaks Japanese because of Translation Convention, I guess.
- As shown in Season 2, learning languages is shown to be one of the things Ika's really good at.
- Just make some biological modifications. If that organism can link neural systems, surely a bit of in-vivo gene-tweaking is not beyond its capabilities. Also supporting this theory is that right after she came to shore, she introduced herself in Japanese, despite never having had the opportunity to learn the language. I think this show is about to take a turn for the darker...
- Cindy in the manga seems to think so too.
- An alternate theory is that she was a little girl who died (or was dying) at sea, and the squid latched onto her body.
- As interesting theory as it is, there is one thing that it does not explain. Ika's bracelets. It's already established in Season 2 that these trinkets aren't just for show, rather they are an integral part of her ability to use her tentacles. It's kinda hard to apply these to a parasite-squid idea. For starters, a parasite-squid would not only barely have any use for these, but would also be seemingly unable to use them (exactly where is it gonna wear those bracelets? On its tentacles?). So they must have been made with human wrists in mind. We might assume they are a human-made technology that was worn all along by the supposed anonymous swimmer girl who have fallen victim to a parasite... but this raises even more questions. Where did she get them? What purpose did they have (since not as a help in using tentacles)? What was she doing in the water with them? WHO made them? Certainly not Cindy's mad scientists gang, since they paid absolutely no attention to those bracelets... If the bracelets don't outright debunk this theory, they at least make it raise more questions than it answers.
- How very Invader Zim.
- Alternatively, She is a female tentacle monster. It would explain why males are so attracted to female humans, for the reason that female humans heavily resemble female tentacle monsters ( minus the Prehensile Hair)
- Comes from the depth of the sea? Check!
- Has a humanoid body? Check!
- Has tentacles growing from her head? Check!
- Wants to overthrow humanity? Check!
- Is 50 feet high? ... well, she's still growing...
- Which would explain Chizuru tearing up from the amusement park flashbacks.
- Signature Headgear? Check!
- Takes the form of a cute girl? Check!
- A bit of an idiot? Check! I'd say it's very likely that Ika is a squid youkai!
- As the opening of Season 2 she can glide if not fly just like a sea gull
- "Perhaps" isn't needed, really.
One of them may become the captain of the Dutchmen after Will Turner.
However, things between her and the middle child didn't go too well. Like Ika, she accidentally threw away something so precious that set a conflict between them.
But on the night of the Bon festival, things changed.
Instead of hiding in the festival grounds, she ran away, knowing that her once called best friend didn't care for her anymore. Along the way, she has learned that the human world isn't as bad as she thought. So she dyed her hair, painted her hat and started over again.
When she first recognized that Ika came to the surface, she knew that Ika would live the same life as her now. In short, she tries to change Ika's fate so she wouldn't live the life she is now living.
This was why Mr Tokita was really obsessed with Squid Girl; she was the closest thing to Kozue.