TAKE one squid, cut off its head and watch the rest dance on a bed of rice and salmon roe. Eat. Or not.

This Japanese delicacy known as odori-don or “dancing squid rice bowl” is a variation on traditional squid sashimi and uses soy sauce to create the disturbing illusion of bringing a dead squid back to life.

YouTube user Richard Fan shot the above video on a visit to Hokkaido’s Ikkatei Tabiji restaurant and explains that sodium in the soy causes neurons to fire, making the muscles twitch.

The dish comes with the head cut into small sashimi slices and the rest joins as a side plate once the “performance” is complete.

Mr Fan said the squid was completely motionless before the sauce was poured on and was definitely “dead at the time of serving”.

This controversial method of preparing sashimi while it’s still alive is known as ikizukuri, and is banned in Australia.

Of course, the dish is definitely not for everyone and will probably get us into no end of trouble should alien squid monsters ever decide to invade planet Earth like in a manga movie.

The chemical process for the “dance” can also be done with fresh frog legs, as seen in this demonstration below: