The story goes something like this. Aliens have come and invaded the earth. But rather than taking over, they have decided to live among the humans, as their mother ship has broken down and they can not leave the planet. We follow the dirt-poor student Chigasaki Mayuko who finds herself living with one of these aliens named NieA. NieA is what is called an Under Seven alien who does nothing buy laze around, eat lots of food, and builds space ships. While Mayuko is trying to go to cram school to get into college, as well as earn enough money for herself to be able to eat everyday, which proves very difficult with NieA around.
This show is mostly a comedy slice of life type of story, but it's also got a lot of themes of class difference and discrimination. This makes the show not just a fun watch, but also makes it interesting to see what will become of a girl living by herself and an alien who officially doesn't even legally exist.
The most important characters in this show is obviously Mayuko and NieA. Mayuko is a dilligent student and a hard worker, who's just doing her best to survive, and NieA is a lazy freeloading slob who won't do anything. But other than them you've also got some minor characters like Chiaki Komatsu. She goes to the same cram school as Mayuko and is a total geek for aliens. She ends up becoming Mayuko's friend. You've also got Kotomi Hiyama who runs the bathhouse that Mayuko stays at. She is a hard worker who is doing everything she can to keep the bathhouse from closing, even though it seems like an impossible task. She's also a character that Mayuko can turn to and vent her frustrations or just get advice from.
The animation in this show is nothing to write home about. It moves, but it can be very clunky at times. Kind of annoying since there isn't so much movement to animate. That said though, a lot of the animation is pull and stretch techniques to try make situations more funny.
Overall I enjoyed this show. Going into it I didn't really know much about this show, so at first I thought this was just gonna be a straight comedy. The comedy was funny, but when the themes of discrimination and class difference started to appear, as well as Mayuko's very real struggles of trying to make ends meet financially in an unstable economy, as well as the lonliness she feels being away from her family, and with no really close friends to speak of, seeing her find a home in the Enohama bathhouse, as well as make friends was a lot more heartwarming than I was expecting from this show. I would honestly recommend you to check out this show if you are at all curious, but if you're not into random comedy or very slow paced shows you might just want to give this show a miss.
