ANSWERS: Moving Staircases 2

Since it's been thirteen days since I posted my second "Moving Staircases" puzzle, it's now time for me to post the answers! Since there was a BONUS CHALLENGE attached to this one, this solvers list will work a tad differently than normal; the people who solved this puzzle's BONUS CHALLENGE gets plusses next to their name, while those that didn't will just get stars like usual.

• Eric Maddy ****
• Grant Fikes ++++
• Adam Weaver ++++
• Lynn Sweeney ++½ (The half was for the placement of the bottom-most "Short" and "Long")
• Mom ++++
• Tyler Hinman +++
• Cayden Curtis ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• YYW ****
• Paolo Pasco ****
• Giovanni Pagano ++++

Now just go below the break for the answers to the main puzzle, the BONUS CHALLENGE, and some solver comments!

The FINAL ANSWER is the two words highlighted above in blue: SQUID GIRL

As for the answer to the BONUS CHALLENGE, it's SPLATOON. You see, Squid Girl's getup is available as a costume that was added to the game for free last August (though that wasn't a factor in me purchasing that game). A month earlier, the Wii U's Crunchyroll app became free to use, and it just so happened that Squid Girl was one of the numerous anime it had available! So in short, Splatoon led to Squid Girl led to me trying to work Squid Girl into a puzzle!

Solver Grant Fikes said that he "Had to look up the anime title for the final answer. I'm pretty anime-illiterate. Luckily, nailed it on the random attempt to combine two words."

Callie (left) and Marie (right) waving to their numerous fans

Solver Giovanni Pagano solved this one fairly easily, and guessed the BONUS CHALLENGE correctly as well: "Did you start watching because of Splatoon? the connection between that clue, the bloopers and the Final Answer would make more sense if that was the case. Fairly quick puzzle for me, and thank you for the alternate clue for LIARS."

Okay, last squid-related picture, I swear!

Solver Tyler Hinman had to use a hint star to figure out the overlap between MARILL and MARIE, saying "Splatoon overlapping Pokémon at four otherwise unchecked letters? Not cool, man." Then his first guess of Hell Girl proved to be wrong (I had to clarify that the horizontal word consisted of an entire "Short" or "Long", not part of it), but he ultimately got it on his second try. I don't think he liked this puzzle, saying that it had a "Little too much obscure pop culture in this one for my taste, particularly so heavily overlapping."

"Marill, Marill!"

My Mom struggled with this puzzle as well, and even after successfully solving the BONUS CHALLENGE (as a complete guess, mind you), she still didn't initially know the connection between that and Squid Girl. After seeing Grant's quote above, Mom said she's "squid-illiterate!"