Minami-ke Okaeri 13 (the end) review; a toothache, clinging to your sister, and Tanabata wishes.

 

     This episode begins with Chiaki and Haruka sitting at the Kotatsu when Chiaki notices that something is wrong with Haruka. As soon as Kana gets home Chiaki expresses her concerns to her, Kana tells her that she’s worrying too much, and she even tells Chiaki that sometimes Haruka might be worried about something so don’t make it worse. That night, Chiaki wakes Kana up with her worries and Kana again just blows it off. The next morning Haruka still seems down in the dumps and Kana also begins to wonder what’s up with Haruka, Kana and Chiaki agree to talk about this after school.

     So, Kana meets with Chiaki after school, and they seem to have a long conversation at a park bench. Meanwhile at the Minami household, Yoshino and Uchida are having tea with Haruka when Uchida notices that something is wrong with Haruka so she asks her about it. Haruka tells them that she has a toothache, but she also has another problem, lately Kana and Chiaki have been acting strangely around her.

      Haruka asks Uchida and Yoshino if they’ve heard anything from Chiaki? No. But, Yoshino suggests that Haruka should make them laugh by making funny faces, she proceeds to pull Uchida’s face in a funny manner and Haruka begins to laugh loudly. At that very moment Kana and Chiaki get home, and Chiaki begins to cry saying that Harukahas grown tired of them and wants sisters like Yoshino and Uchida. Kana says no-way, it’s just because they’re making funny faces, and she goes in and joins them. Soon everyone is laughing out loud, Chiaki is laughing even though she’s still in tears and she doesn’t really know why they’re laughing.

      That night we see Chiaki waking up from a horrible dream, she gets out of bed and checks on Kana, and she climbs into bed with Kana. The next morning Kana awakens to find Chiaki sleeping next to her. When Kana enters the kitchen Haruka notices that Chiaki is clinging to Kana, and when she asks whats up, Kana tells her that Chiaki had a dream where she went shopping and never returned.

        While they’re eating breakfast Chiaki continues to cling to Kana and she even asks Kana to feed her, Kana asks Haruka if she’s got anything to say about this? It’s OK for this to happen once in a while, it just shows how close you are to each other. Soon, Haruka leaves to do some shopping with Maki and Atsuko, and Chiaki continues to cling on Kana. After a while, Kana gets bored with Chiaki’s clinging and manages to break free from her, Kana says that she’s tired and lays down to take a nap, and a moment later Chiaki snuggles down next to Kana for a nap (how cute). When Chiaki awakens she finds Kana sitting at the Kotatsu, so she goes back to clinging, but somethings wrong with Kana. When Haruka returns home she sees that Chiaki is still clinging to Kana, but a second later Kana rushes to Haruka and starts hugging her with Chiaki following right behind, it seems that Kana had a dream that Haruka went to the bathroom and never returned.

     The next skit involves Uchida and Yoshino stopping by the Minami apartment so they can get Kana to write her Tanabata wish  out so they can place it with theirs. A few minutes later, Haruka sends Kana off to do some shopping, Kana wants to buy sweets but Haruka tells her to only buy the basics. As the hours pass, Kana hasn’t returned home yet and Haruka starts to worry, but Chiaki says that she just probably doing something stupid, Kana being Kana. Then Chiaki sees that Kana left a Tanabata strip by her Kotatsu cushion, and it says that they no longer need her so she’s going to disappear. They wonder if it is a suicide note but Haruka says “no way”, then Chiaki says that it’s Kana after all, and Haruka wonders if she should have just let Kana buy the sweets? Chiaki wonders if it was her fault because she was mean to Kana in the other episode and she thinks back to the times when Kana was really nice to her. Haruka kind of breaks down for a second or two then she tells Chiaki that she’ll go look for Kana while Chiaki goes to buy the sweets, and just as their about to leave Kana returns home saying that it took a really long time because everywhere she went she only found old milk.

      So, the next night we Haruka, Kana, Chiaki, Fujioka, Touma, Mako-chan, Yoshino, and Uchida all gathered around the Kotatsu, Kana tells Haruka and Chiaki that she’s sorry about the misunderstanding about the note, and they soon get a Tanabata  party going. A little while later they all end up on the balcony looking up at the stars and joking around about Tanabata, and they have a good old time. The episode ends with a montage of scenes showing how nothing has really changed, Riko stills pines for Fujioka while he only has eyes for Kana, and so forth. The last clip in this series is of Hosaka waking up from a horrible dream where Hauka went away and never came back.

     Well, I really enjoyed the way that Minami-ke Okaeri finished up it’s run. This series has always been about the importance of family and friends, and this episode really hit on this topic hard. Most of this episode was about how much Haruka, Kana, and Chiaki mean to each other, even though they sometimes get on each others nerves they really love and cherish one another. The last skit summed up the entire series, Haruka, Kana, and Chiaki enjoying a holiday party with their good friends.

     In the end, I like to think of the Minami-ke franchise as a slice of life show about the importance of  family, good friends, good food, and lots of laughs. I hope that they find some way to get another season out of this series, because after watching 39 episodes I find myself wanting more laughs from the Minami sisters and their silly friends.