Minami-ke

There are three of the Minami sisters: Haruka, Kana and Chiaki, who have an average life. The girls only have each other to depend on and help each other get through everything from love confessions to cooking. Source: AnimeNewsNetwork.com


Wow! Crazy first episode. Definitely no expense spared on the animation. I probably saw more styles in that one episode of Minami-ke than I did in the last 2 anime titles. The slow-motions and rotating camera angles were superb. Character movements were also very fluid. Strongest point of this anime is definitely the animation. The scenes in which they zoomed in on the eyes were very interesting at first. But it got bored as it was way overused. Almost on every single punch-line! Didn’t take long for it to lose its effect. The upwards pointing triangular way in which the mouth is drawn (especially obvious with Kana) is something new and feels rather unique.

The script clearly expresses the characteristics of the characters and the voice acting was superb. Sound effect is good too. Nothing feels amiss and every action is accompanied by a complimenting sound effect. Top notch combination.


From the start the anime sends a clear message what type of role the 3 sisters will play. Chiaki is the youngest of the 3 sisters. She is definitely the smart and wiser of the bunch. Kana is the middle sister, who definitely has more brawns than brains. The livelier of the bunch with spontaneous burst of energy. Haruka is the eldest sister, portraying a motherly figure for the younger two. Always caring and looking after the 2 sisters. Definitely someone Chiaki looks to up deeply.

Unfortunately, that’s that. Viewers won’t get to explore the characters any deeper than that. The intro pretty much says it all “This story is one that lightly describes the ordinary daily lives of the three Minami sisters. Please don’t expect too much from it”. And that’s exactly how it goes. As it said, don’t expect anything, in terms of a strong plot or a touching story and you will do just fine. Initially I thought it would be fine with just episode to episode laughter and randomness, having no storyline and all. But I was definitely wrong, things just got really boring as the comedy didn’t hit.


By episode 3, I was already thinking of dropping this series. But I still couldn’t give up on the animation quality and voice acting. I was just hoping for some slight bit of context so that I can enjoy Minami-ke just for a little bit. But by episode 8 I got so bored that I started to listen to my m3 player instead and just watched the series without listening to it. Chiaki and Kana take shots at each other so often that it got too predictable to the point that it was no longer funny. Feeling bored from episode 3, I thought it would be interesting to take count of how many times I smiled throughout the series (smirking would count too, just to give Minami-ke a handicap of some sort). And the total…? 7 times. Once in ep 1, 2, 3, 4 and 11, twice in ep 9. The Loincloth Festival news and the “Sensei and Ninomiya-kun” series was actually more interesting and funnier to me. Lol!

Chiaki’s acting in the anime describes exactly how I got past this anime. Throughout the 13 episode I was watching with half-opened eyes. Widening my eyes at the rare sight of actual comic relief or an interesting plot. Before getting let down and going back into half-sleep mode. Minami-ke truly is an anime where nothing ever happens.


So the question is, will I go for season 2, Minami-ke: Okawari? And the answer… Zetai Yada!
I had a hard enough time going through season 1. No way am I going to even try season 2. Even so, I’m still going to hand 2-Stars over to Minami-ke. Why? Because even if it failed at being a comedy, it still has superb animation and vocals under its belt.


Minami-ke
Rating: 2-Stars
Torrents: A-E & Saizen

Now I know why I’ve came across discussions where most was saying how Taiga from Toradora and this Chiaki were staples of each other. The both of them really did look and sounded similar but I wouldn't call them copies.