AnimeSugoi

Or is it?

Minami-ke has recently ended with the 13th episode. With the end of this anime comes a lack of slice of life anime for me, though that time will be short as a new season of Minami-ke has been announced, Minami-ke Okawari (which actually airs tomorrow). It’s basically a remake of Minami-ke with a new studio in charge, you can definitely tell the difference between the two. The fall season of Minami-ke was something to remember and is one of the better slice of life anime that I have watched. The characters were interesting, memerable, and were in situations we can relate to. One of the best animes of 2007 in my opinion.

Let’s start off with a look at the final episode. Episode 13 of Minami-ke brought us the two cross dressers, Touma (the girl with the black hair) who dresses in the traditional male garment and Makoto (boy with light chestnut hair) who wears a kimono without any resistance besides his plea of “manliness” as they welcome the New Year. Yoshino, one of Chiaki’s friends, stops by and tells everyone that her mom told her the traditional way to wear a kimono is without anything underneath (O_o). This strikes something in Makoto as it might be “cuter” and impress Haruka lol, so he rushes to take off his underwear. Yuka, another of Chiaki’s friends, attempts to stop Makoto as Touma attempts to stop Yuka from stopping Makoto. Later on, Kana talks with her friend Keiko while Kana’s classmate, Fujioka, tries to call Kana to go to the shrine together for the new year. Another of Kana’s classmates, Riko, tries to call Fujioka to invite him to the shrine, but keeps getting a busy signal as she dials him exactly when Fujioka dials Kana. Kana is on the phone with Keiko for hours resulting in Fujioka and Riko ending up with busy signals for hours. Meanwhile, Natsuki has invited Hosaka over to the restaurant where he works to make the “ultimate” New Year buckwheat noodles for Haruka, which he managed to accomplish; then goes off to deliver it to her home. Back at the Minami home, the doorbell rings and Haruka’s sempai, Hayami, has come over as the Minami family and Haruka’s friends would go to the shrine together. Hayami has brought over “top-quality juice” as a present to the Minami family and celebrates the New Year with a toast of the juice. The juice is actually quite “strong” and causes everyone to be a bit drunk except Kana who doesn’t drink any. The drink causes Haruka and Chiaki to pass out as well as Haruka’s friends who came over later. Hayami is still up but drunk, which she exhibits through “perversive acts” on Kana ;p. We end Minami-ke with Hosaka lost in a mountain range looking over the town as he enjoys the noodles he had made as the New Year bell has started to ring.

Not a bad ending but I believe the show really picked up when Touma appeared. It’s pretty funny how this tomboy acts, the fact that she accepts being Chiaki’s “little brother” is hilarious enough. Now to talk about the characters.

Kana is probably my favorite because of her spunky attitude and somewhat dopey character. She acts like Chiaki’s better but calls on her for help, even going as far as calling her Chiaki-sama to enlist her aid. Although she is a bit dopey, you can tell from her actions, that dopiness is what draws me to her lol. The way she makes things bigger than they actually are is another plus for me. Also, the way she raises her arms when she runs is hilarious.

Chiaki would be my second favorite of the three sisters. I like her tone of voice and speech which usually involves “baka” (stupid) in it lol; mostly towards her sister Kana and her behavior. Chiaki is quite cute and the little tuft of hair, that can move in this episode, makes her very kawaii. Her attitude towards “Haruka-neesama” is cute as well, always wanting to be close to her sister. A bit too close in episode 13 lol (look below).

Haruka was probably my least favorite due to the lack of comedy from her character, though it was funny when she punched Natsuki in the face for running into her breasts. The random moments of anger is pretty interesting, as you usually see Haruka in a happy mood. But I admire Haruka’s motherly attitude as she tries to take care of her younger sisters by herself. I wonder where the income comes from? Does Haruka have a job to support the three of them?

There were lots of side characters in Minami-ke, my favorite being Touma (top left), for “her” tomboyish attitude. It was pretty funny how she kicked her brothers when Christmas approached as they did nothing for Christmas, just like they years before. Makoto (top right) was just weird, he doesn’t mind to cross dress as long as he can get close to Haruka and when he finally admits that he is a boy to Haruka, she pays no heed as she believed Haruka was imitating Touma who was “acting” as a boy. Natsuki (bottom left) represents all of the Minami brothers (no relation to the Minami sisters) that were pretty funny in their own way, even with the lack of air time. I especially like Natsuki who thinks women are a “paradox” and when he saw Haruka’s partially exposed chest caused him to have a nosebleed and constantly plop his head on the table pretty hard causing more blood loss. Hosaka (bottom right) was questionable, for he likes Haruka but acts pretty “yaoi,” especially so because he always asks Natsuki for advice on the food that he cooks and his “yaoi” like actions.

Well Minami-ke was a good show overall and one of my favorite slice of life anime, we will see how well it does in the next season. Btw, did anyone else notice that they used an English instead of Japanese when they announce the warning to stay at least 3 meters away from the TV and in a well lit room when watching the show?