Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

     It’s been quite a while since I’ve blogged on the Minami-ke series, after finishing the first series which I really enjoyed I was slightly disappointed that it looked like no group was going to pick up the second series. Well, I originally watched the first two episodes of Okawari raw and I was going to review the animation quality and so forth but my Japanese language skills weren’t good enough to actually give a proper review of the content, being able to order food and ask for directions in a foreign language is one thing but it’s quite another thing to accurately review the full content of a show, but to my surprise and my pleasure a couple of groups picked up the series, so here’s my review of Minami-ke: Okawari 1.

     This episode begins with the Minami sisters and Takeru sitting around acting very bored, and it’s just after the New Year, a while later Makoto and Touma show up but in normal clothes and Kana won’t let them in until Makoto become Mako-chan, so a while later they show up with him dressed as a girl again. Then while they are all sitting around Haruka comes out of her room dressed in a cat suit, she didn’t know that guests had arrived, so she was very embarrassed.

     Later Chiaki get nervous about a misplaced notebook, and then everyone eats a meal together. Just as Kana and Chiaki are about to fight out of boredom Takeru returns from a store, the girls want to go on a trip, so they head off in his van for a trip to a onsen (hot spring). At the hot spring Touma and Mako-chan wonder about what side of the bath to use and Takeru asks Fujioka what’s his relationship with Kana. Then the 5? girls head out for a walk to a find a spring and they end up finding a waterfall instead, upon returning to the onsen Mako-chan doesn’t want Touma to leave him alone because she/he can’t use the women’s side without being busted. Later Makoto decides to use the men’s side and Touma the girl’s side and Fujioka walks in on Mako-chan and he gets confused thinking he entered the girl’s side, so he then walks in on Touma, while Fujioka’s waiting Touma to check if the other side is clear she tells Makoto to act like a random guy in the guy’s bath, but before that happens Fujioka opens the door to the girls side thinking that it might be coed just as a naked Kana is leaving, he sees her naked and she turns around and goes back to the onsen confused about want she thinks of feels, Fujioka is left wondering how this happened to him, well he finally got a look but I don’t think he wanted it to happen that way. Well that’s all for this episode below are some screen shots.

     irst of all I have to say that there is definitely a difference between the first anime series and the new series, I think that the first series had better animation quality and better backgrounds. But I feel that the funny vibe I liked so much in the first series can still be found in the second series. The second series is not a new retelling of Minami-ke but a continuation of the original story. In the original series the first several episodes featured the relationship between the three sisters before introducing additional characters to the mix, but in the first episode of this series several of the supporting characters were present right away. One difference is that in this episode you saw more of Takeru that did in the entire last series. 

     One thing that I did notice is that this episode had more fan service than the entire last series did but that might just be because this episode featured a onsen visit but who can argue against more Haruka and Kana fan service. Oh, by the way what the hell is the deal with that ending animation with Kana doing that weird but shaking walk?  Again I’d like to apologise about the blogging delay I’ve been following with great interest certain events occurring on the Internet over the past week or so, all I can say about this is that their cause is righteous and just, rock on.  

After looking over the search engine terms leading people to my blog I have decided to occasionally, every two weeks or so to post some pictures of my favorite Japanese/Asian idols.

My first idol I’ll post some pictures of is Yuko Ogura she was born on November 1, 1983 in Mobara, Chiba, Japan. She began modeling and appearing in commercials at age 17, and now at age 24 she is one of the most popular idols in Japan she has appeared in over 60 idol videos, and has made more than 28 photo books. Her vital statistics are:

H-162cm, B-80cm, W-56cm, H-83cm

Below are some pictures from one of her first photobooks, age 18, enjoy.

     This episode begins with Rahzel thinking back to the question Alzeid asked her about being betrayed and how she had to answer no, just then she finds a lost boy at a town fair, so she takes it on herself to have her and the crew look after him until they find his parents. After returning the boy to his mother, she treats Rahzel and Alzeid to the circus performance where they find Baroqueheat in the lead clown role, later he tells her that he did juggling and so forth a few years ago. Later the female circus magician uses the boy for her disappearing sword illusion, the only problem is that after the show the boy really disappears, and no one can find him. Later Rahzel tells the guys she was happy that they were out just having a good time together, and then she sneaks out of their room because she felt something suspicious about the circus. At the circus she gets attacked by a clown and defeats him, after that she confronts the magical who shows her where the  missing child is, the woman is building a “child” out of parts of kidnapped children. The woman has the circus clowns attack Rahzel, using her magic Rahzel defeats them but they begin to keep getting up like her magic has no effect on them.

     At the last minute, Alzeid and Baroqueheat show up to help her, and they chew her out for taking independent action. After fighting the clowns for a while they discover that their not human but just dolls being controlled by someone else. The group thinks it is the circus magician woman but she tells them it’s not her but her “child” and she orders her child to protect her mother. The “child” tries to force the three to attack each other, but at the last minute it stops trying to force them to attack each other. The “child” then kills her mother with her own hands, Alzeid tells Rahzel that the “child” just followed the literal orders of her mother. After the woman is dead Alzeid takes his gun out and walks towards the “child” while Baroqueheat covers Rahzel’s eyes and ears, telling her she doesn’t have to watch if she doesn’t want to. She breaks free from Baroqueheat and runs towards the child saying she doesn’t know what to think or what the right answer is, and all she can see the “child” as, is a crying child, but before she gets there Alzeid kills the “child”. Rahzel is depressed for along time until Alzeid and Baroqueheat finally convince her to get up so the can go outside and play. Well that’s all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

     Well this episode continues with the one adventure per episode format, so far all of Hatenkou Yuugi has been pretty light adventure viewing, all of the resolutions until this episode have been neat and clean. In the first episode they convince the ghost to move on, and in the next episode they take down the corrupt prison and warden, but the end of this episode is not neat and clean. The poor little boy that Rahzel returned to his mother was killed and his body parts used for the “child”, so there is no bringing him back, and as Baroqueheat and Alzeid tell Rahzel that “child” is a monster and never should have been born. I think that Rahzel understands that the “child” was too dangerous to leave alive, but this was the first time Rahzel has faced a situation where there was no good answer. Also, I feel that this is probably the first time that Rahzel has seen someone killed right in front of her. Oh, by the way my title come from a recent UK medical study that found that children don’t like/fear clowns when they are having a hospital stay (sorry Bozo).