Anime: Minami-ke

Note: This review only covers the first season of Minami-ke

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Review
Minami-ke is some sort of successor to a few interesting and successful shows of the early years of its decade like Azumanga Daiou and Ichigo Mashimaro. This means its essence is being comical, almost nonsensical, and offer a lot of crazy moments involving girls-only without resorting to ecchiness and perversity. It is a formula that have proven quite effective with the female audience, yet it can also make its cash with boys too. Today most shows trying to veer into this area end up as moe-fest, yet here it is not the case.

The core of Minami-ke is the main trio: Kana, Chiaki, and Haruka. The plot-line? Well, that is not what this kind of show is about. Minami-ke is more about giving you the most ordinary daily life events of the three sisters, but hell, when one is a crazy teenager, another a maniac child, and the late one a innocent responsible young woman that is bound to be interesting, right?

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1. Yup!
   Minami-ke's heart is its comedy, surely. It tackles daily-life moments with absurd interventions, mostly due to the excessive lack of common sense of Kana, the inherent evilness of Chiaki, the responsible innocence of Haruka, or the dumbness of Fujioka and other support characters. It succeeds nicely here, crafting funny scenes after funny scenes, catching the essence of Azumanga Daiou and others of the kind. However...
   
   It manages to be more grounded
   The main trio delivers most of the great comical moments of the show, but their independence, their life together, and many other non-comical moments also aid to turn those three into interesting characters that go beyond just plain comedy. They become charismatic not because they embrace funny templates and make you laugh, but because you start to see them as more complex characters like what happens in slice-of-life shows with focus on dramas. These short grounded moments mixed with the constant comedy helps to make Minami-ke something different than its predecessors, perhaps giving a value to it beyond what those achieved.
   
   There's a good pace too
   Although plotless, Minami-ke does have a sense or progression while showing new friends, progressing the bits of love interest of Fujioka, and adding some small relevance to past event when tackling new ones. Comedy is always present, the slice-of-life part boosts it nicely, and the support cast also gains a bit of development (and aids the trio into growing while doing so).
   
   Even the animation is a bit less nonsensical
   Minami-ke can also be traced as one of the first of its kind to make use of a less cartoonish art direction. Unlike Lucky Star where all girls look like 7-year-old lolis, studio Daume used its experience with ecchi shows with a bit serious themes to turn Minami-ke into a cleverly interesting piece of work. It feels generic, yes, but less annoying and with a less loli-inspired aura. It is not as a cartoon as Azumanga Daiou or Luck Star, but it does use smart artwork changes to improved the comedy here and there, much like Excel Saga did back in its days. Those who know other works from Daume, such as their interesting Onegai Teacher or Onegai Twins, will certainly see their hand and the good it does to make Minami-ke different than the average.
   

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Comments
Minami-ke is simply fun. Kana's dumbness and violence mixed with lack of common sense rob the spotlight of the show and is spiced by clever additions from the rest of the cast. What truly makes the show stand, however, is its ability to provide comedy without resorting to being excessive in many terms, such as artwork, plotline, or character templates.

At many points Minami-ke reminded me Excel Saga, at others it brought me back to the early years of its decade with Azumanga Daiou and even Love Hina. It is a plotless show with a bunch of smart characters and a good pace, a sure hit for anyone looking for a show to laugh and perhaps even bringing a good change of pace to those who are tired of seriousness but is not up to facing something that tries to be comical more from the looks than from what it does (yeah Lucky Star, I'm looking at you!). If, however, you are not up to comedy and slice-of-life, better watch something else.

This anime is better than the 7.65 rating that it has. I am not sure why its rated low.

This is a slice of life anime (There is no greater plot) with tonnes of comedy. I guess comedy is the main aspect of this anime.

The sisters are 3 totally different characters who will make your 20min full of life. And add to that a tonne of super fun friends of the 3 sisters and something whacky will be happening all the time. I enjoyed it as much as Silver Spoon. And I can confidently recommend this anime to you.

Minami ke is about three girls (one in elementary, one in middle, and one in high school) and their daily lives (sort of like Lucky Star but without all the otaku-ness).

The three sisters all have unique personalities that begets a few occasional laughs. It is a really light series that can be watched at random and doesn't really have much of a storyline. There is very little plot in this so if the characters don't get you interested in the first two or so episodes, you probably won't like the rest of the series (though so far the series is 2-for-2 out of my friends).

There is also a large cast composed of support characters (since there are THREE schools involved here) which adds some variety to the episodes.

All in all this is a comedic, slice-of-life anime that is free of magic and fantasy.

Animation:
The animation is fair overall. There are some action sequences (not fighting but just running and such) that are done quite nicely but the color palette used is a bit dull. The drawing also isn't all that crisp for a 2007 anime. However, I really liked how the style emphasized facial expressios (the drawing style dramatically changes at times, zooming in on the faces when something serious -or seriously funny- occurs).

Sound:
The OP/EDs were okay but I've heard better. The BGM is also minimalist (similar to Lucky Star) but it fits since there really isn't any tension/plot sequence in the show anyways. The VAs are very good and fit the character personalities extremely well (especially Kana and Chiaki). Music: 3/5, VA: 4/5.

Story:
Don't expect much story out of this, as the intro warns, it is literally a depiction of the daily lives of the three sisters and nothing more.

There is some story in the form of a few crushes and some gender-changing-ness towards the latter half of the series but for the most part it is just daily humor. There really isn't a conclusion since there never was really any rising action at all.

Despite the lack of a continuous plot line, the sequencing and direction within each episode was great and lead to some extremely hilarious situations.

Character:
There are three main characters, each with their own personality and style.

Chiaki is the youngest of the three and looks up to her eldest sister (while ignoring/belittling Kana). She is extremely smart but tends to overthink things at time. She is pretty pessimistic/cynical for her age and really only served as a source of comedy with Kana for me.

Kana is the overly-outgoing middle sister in middle school. She is often seen with both hands raised above her head and ... yeah. She is very easy-going and tends to be extremely creative (creating lots of artistic but horrifically tasting dishes). Despite her vibrant personality, she is pretty much useless when it comes to school or housework. She is often the source of humor in the series and can easily be tricked by her sisters.

Haruka is the perfect eldest sister in high school. Since parents are mysteriously missing, she takes care of her younger sisters and maintains a huge popularity in school (esp. with the boys). She is somewhat reserved at times but is overall quite vibrant and a great leader of the Minamis.

Value:
This is not a plot-driven series at all. It is a very laid back, laugh once-in-a-while series that is enjoyable but doesn't really make any really large lasting impression.

It is a fairly enjoyable series overall and I look forwards to seeing what the new series will bring. It's enjoyable for one watch and maybe a few re-watches when there is absolutely nothing else to do or watch.

This is another of those shows which I try very hard to hate, but find myself liking despite myself. Minami-ke makes it clear from the start, with the logo and setting, that this is an attempt to follow in the footsteps of Azumanga Daioh. As might be expected, it doesn't quite attain that lofty target. But, nevertheless, it manages to be engaging and genuinely funny far more often than most.

Character development is the area where this difference is most clearly felt. Of course, as an observational comedy, there are those who would argue that no plot as such is needed, except in so far as there are running jokes. But creating characters whom we actually care about is what raises the great comedies above mere slapstick, and was something Azumanga understood very well. Minami-ke half "gets it". The characters are interesting and likeable, but we don't get any sense of progress over the course of the series; in particular, the treatment of the ongoing romantic subplots was especially disappointing. Romance in a comedy of this nature is very hard to do right, but too often it felt that Minami-ke was unwilling to even try.

The sound is good; good sound is usually noticeable by its unnoticeability, but the voices are clear and very well suited to their characters, and the opening and ending themes fit the tone of the show perfectly. However, an unusual stylistic choice makes the animation disconcerting; the show elects to give us a "higher detail", carefully shaded version of each character's face in close-ups. I'm perhaps being unfair in criticizing Minami-ke for this, since it is an innovation and I usually applaud stylistic experimentation. But this seems a bizzare choice of show in which to experiment, and sadly does detract a little from the enjoyment of the show.

It's hard to know how comedy will hold up to rewatching; with all the punchlines known, I think this particular style doesn't handle it very well, and Minami-ke offers very little to sustain interest outside of the comedy. But the comedy is done well; during the early part I felt it was too self-conscious, and too impressed with what it was doing. But despite my best efforts I found myself laughing a lot through the middle and end sections, and that's really all one can ask for from a show of this nature.

O My Goodness.

For the life of me I cant remember how I came across Minami-ke, just that it was abnormal, and the best thing that happened to me in the second quarter of the 2007 fiscal year.

This is superior.

Admittedly, not superior to anything specific, just generically superior.

The animation is one of the reasons why. For a start, its borderline ridiculously good on the tear-drop mouthed SD moments, and goes way the other way when required to emphasise that violence shall be done. Character designs/utilisation promises enlightenment very often, and goes so close to it that it gets rather dissappointing when it doesn't happen. Mobility and activity are handled very well, with nice personal touches on a lot of sequences.

Sound rocks, but in a subdued sense. OP is timid (its a song about powerleveling) but its put together fairly well, if a bit demented on the lyrics. Bgm is bouncy-good; the general theme of AzuDai with a more matured score. End theme is a bit generic though, and feels out of place at the end of something so patently awesome.

Voice actors win much here; there is not a twinge of genericness to be found anywhere, and they work extremely will in co-ordination with each other. Identity is present in each character, and even the borrowed voice actors what did some serious people elsewhere don't sound at all like it.

The story borders on type-generic but very rarely. Anything thats been done before is modified and polished up so much that it's almost un-recognisable for the same old. Then there are the episodes that something genuinely original happens incessantly, which is where Minami-ke starts netting awards.

Another nice touch is a varied focus, but not ultra-exclusive episode for each character, which brings them all up fairly evenly. Even the story progression is there, which is rather unusual for a snapshot animu, so again, Minami-ke earns praise for its composition.

Main character base templates have been done before, but never so well. The three, while naturally at odds with the other two are never broken into base exploitations of their identity, and simply bend the story around themselves naturally. Peripheral characters can actually have more into them than the main ones; which is a serious accomplishment as there are so blooming many of them.

Aye, value. Minami-ke is on the road to greatness, and while its not a demonstratively excellent series, it has a mountain of good points that many others never even approach. Rewatch-iness is there, but seeing an episode more than once somewhat ruins the effect of a genuinely original snapshot series.

So aye; Statistically this is a good series. In pink fluff terms (that what can't be quantified) its an excellent series that is unlikely to disapoint.

Get it and watch it before the next season starts; you wont regret it.