Anime Minami-ke

[Shinmaru]

Thanks to Desbreko's wonderful [url=http://www.theotaku.com/worlds/watercooler/view/40985/anime_club_-_minami-ke_ep10-13/][b]Anime Club[/b][/url] on theOtaku, I had the opportunity to watch this funny slice of life series (I had watched the first episode before at my school's anime club but did not keep up with it after). (BTW, we'll be watching [url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=5720][b]Tales of Symphonia[/b][/url] next -- Saturday at 10 p.m. eastern time!)

Anyway, if you haven't seen it yet, Minami-ke follows the daily lives of the Minami sisters -- Haruka, Kana and Chiaki -- who watch crazy J-dramas (NINOMIYA-KUN~), kick rocks, cook (with good and bad results) and more. What makes Minami-ke work is it has strong characters and lets them do their thing. Just about every character has a distinct personality, and those personalities come into conflict quite often, which is where a lot of the show's humor comes from. Count on watching plenty of hilarious fights between Kana and Chiaki. :D

My favorite character in the series is Makoto. He is so hilariously earnest and dim-witted, and once he made the transformation into [spoiler]Mako-chan[/spoiler], he earned a spot in my hilarity hall of fame. Every scene with him thereafter is epic win on a scale I can't describe. I don't even know if I could choose a favorite moment of his -- [spoiler]the part when Haruka feels him up, the magic trick, the kimono[/spoiler] and so on are all brilliant. Makoto is the best.

A close second in the character department is Hosaka. His random fantasies about Haruka marrying him (and raising Kana and Chiaki as their children) are wonderful. His one-sided battle to win Haruka's heart (without her knowledge) is fantastic. Plus, he makes great food.

As for the sisters, I like them all about the same for different reasons. Haruka's [spoiler]banchou storyline[/spoiler] is very funny, Kana is a lot of fun and wonderfully energetic and Chiaki's sarcasm is ftw. Can't wait to watch season two. <3

[The Spectacular Professor]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Fun fact: [spoiler]Mako-chan[/spoiler] appears as one of the chibis that pop up from time to time in the opening. Never payed enough attention to notice until someone pointed it out, but it's hilarious.

Anyway, this show is great. I love how Sense and Ninomiya-kun are in everything, I love Chiaki's scathing sarcasm and Kana.

Just Kana. Everything about her. I don't even know why. It's amazing.

And that's all I have to say about that.

...

Chocolate?[/FONT]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]Minami-ke seems like a pretty unknown/underrated series so I'm glad I got some more people aware of it with the Anime Club. It's incredibly funny but I never hear anyone talking about it.

Myself, I actually didn't pick it up or was even aware of it until about three fourths of the way through the season when it aired. I stumbled upon it while looking for subs of another show, I think, and then couldn't believe I had missed it.

I love Chiaki's sarcastic, cynical, yet still naive attitude. And the way she completely changes personality for Haruka; I can relate to that since I'm the youngest in my family. When I was little, I loved my oldest brother but the second youngest above me was the bane of my existence. The way she's sarcastic and all but still acts fairly realistically for a gradeschooler isn't something I've seen much in anime.

Besides just the Minami sisters, though, there's just so many little things that add up to make each episode hilarious that it's kind of amazing. More and more gets piled on as the show continues so that nothing has a chance to get stale. Even the little repeating gags become more absurd and funny. I can't help but cheer whenever a Sensei and Ninomiya-kun bit comes on.

As for season two (Minami-ke: Okawari), I didn't think it was quite as good as the first. It doesn't pile on as many new characters and gags, so things get more familiar and predictable, but that's kind of hard to avoid in a second season. I just wish more quality subs of it would be released; Ayako-sae lost their translator and had to drop it after ep11, and Ayu only has through ep4 done so far.

A third season has also [url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-08-30/young-magazine-to-announce-minami-ke-3rd-season][u]been green-lit[/u][/url], though no other details have been announced yet. Here's hoping for a 2009 release.[/color]