To begin with, the initial concept is great. Nyarlathotep, the crawling chaos, servant of Azathoth, transforms into a little anime girl. Great start. That's why I watched this in the first place. It seems like it would appeal to a fan like me. However, everything went downhill after that.
Now, Nyarlathotep was a unique entity in the Lovecraft mythos. Attempting to create an established race out of the shapeshifter is a bold move to say the least. As far as Nyaruko's personality goes, while it is true that Nyarlathotep was a fair bit more sociable and scheming than the other Outer Gods, it was by no means a ditz. From this, and from the depictions of Night-gaunts (they're supposed to be dead silent!) and Shantak-birds. it was clear that the creator (creators?) only had a surface-level knowledge of Lovecraft. Whether this was due to laziness or availability of the stories is unknown to me.
It's not like the non-Lovecraft parts are any better. That weak-ass fight (complete with Pokemon reference) was equal parts not funny and boring. The slice-of-life aspect is probably the strongest of them all, but if I wanted good gimmick-less high school anime I have plenty of those to choose from.
I may be a sperg for getting picky about source material and giving this such a low score, but when I hear the phrase "Lovecraft anime", I expect a bit more. I'll keep my eyes peeled should anything of similar concept appear in the future.
