September 7, 2009
Well, I would like to wish all the American anime fans out there a happy Labor Day, this is the one day where we all should spend a nice relaxing day sharing your favorite ice cold beverage with family and friends.
For your enjoyment, please watch these lovely girls sing about their tough working life.
April 3, 2009
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.
March 21, 2009
This episode begins with Fujioka asking Kana to give Chiaki a book that she wanted to read after he was finished with it. After thinking about it for a while, Kana just tells Fujioka to stop by and give it to Chiaki himself, he seems happy. All the while, Riko is watching from the other side of the classroom, she wonders aloud how she can get closer to Fujioka? Then Hiroko shows up and starts making observations of Fujioka and makes some comments about the Fujioka/Minami bancho triangle. Soon, Hiroko is giving Riko advice on how to snag Fujioka from Kana, she tells Riko that even though Fujioka only has eyes for Kana, Kana has no intentions with Fujioka, so confess to him, but don’t look weak. Keiko doesn’t think this approach will work, but she holds her tongue.
So, during break, Hiroko takes Riko and Keiko to see Yuu, she wants Riko to practice confessing to Fujioka, Hiroko has a less than enthusiastic Yuu pretend to be Fujioka. Well, Riko tries her best to practice but when she finally gets out the nerve to see Yuu as Fujioka she freezes up, and Yuu chews Riko out for concentrating on looks vs conversation. Then Kana walks out of the classroom and Yuu rushes over and starts talking with her, telling her how cute she is, and touching her hair. Hiroko who has a girl crush on Yuu gets upset and grabs Yuu away from Kana.
Later that day Kana asks Riko is she would be interested in coming over her house for a study session with Keiko and, oh-my god Fujioka. Riko is so shocked by the offer that Kana thinks that she might not want Fujioka at the study session, but Riko soon agrees to come over. Once Kana gets home she soon wonders what hospitality is? Warmth.
The study session seems to go very well, Haruka and Chiaki serve the guests refreshments. After a while the guests are offered a bath, Riko and Keikoseem too embarrassed to go first so Fujioka is offered first use, he says he’s going home soon so he’ll pass. But Kana asks if he’s refusing her offer of hospitality, and even Chiaki offers him some towels, so he can’t refuse. So, when Fujioka enters the bathroom he thinks to himself that this is the bath Kana uses, he doesn’t want to dirty the tub so he takes a shower. After Fujioka is finished, Riko enters the bathroom she thinks that this is the bath that Fujioka used. So, she ends up taking a shower too. Then it’s Keiko’s turn, she thinks to herself that using someone else’s bath is scary, so she takes a shower too. Then after all the guests have used the bath Kana decides to take her turn, she removes the cover and hops in the tub and we see that Kana has added chili peppers to the water to add warmth. After a few minutes in the tub Kana finds out the meaning of warmth, she rushes back into the room and asks the guests how the bath really was?
The next day, everyone is discussing their test scores, and Riko did very well. When Keiko asks her why she’s happy she tells her that someday Fujioka will ask her for help (Riko then goes onto Hosaka mode). But, Riko finds out that Kana and Fujioka also did very well on the test due to Keiko’s help. So, when Kana asks Riko for further studying help, she feels pressured by Riko to refuse Kana (more Hosaka mode). Then Riko finally agrees to help Kana, but she only helps in a half assed way. When the test results come in Kana managed to outscore Riko with a 99, (poor Riko, the best laid plans of mice and men are often foiled by fools).
A few day later, Kana, Touma, Mako-chan, and Chiaki are discussing Valentine’s day, Kana just blows it off saying that she’s got no one to give anything to anyways, she just wants to play Othello. Soon, Kana decides to teach Chiaki about the V-day art of making homemade chocolate. But in the end, Mako-chan and Chiaki end up making everything while Kana just plays Othello. Chiaki’s chocolate turns out really tasty, even Mako-chan made some chocolate, and Kana chides her/him about who’s she’s giving it to? No one. Why not Chiaki? Kana then tells Chiaki that she should give anyone within reason some chocolate for experience purposes, Chiaki thinks long and hard about the within reason point. So, the next day Makoto is thinking that Chiaki will be giving her chocolate to someone who doesn’t matter, after all, that chocolate was dropped on the floor. Makoto is really getting his kicks over someone getting her “doesn’t matter chocolate” until he gets Chiaki’s chocolate. Well, that’s all for this episode.
Very nice episode, I really liked how Riko went into Hosaka mode when she was thinking about plans for getting alone time with Fujioka. As the Minami-ke series goes on it seems like whatever brain disorder Hosaka has is very contagious and is quickly spreading. I can’t believe that Kana missed her opportunity to get free food, she should have figured out that if she gave Fujioka some V-day treats he would have to repay many times over on White Day. But, it’s also not surprising that she can’t figure this out since she seems to be the only one who doesn’t notice that Fujioka is seriously crushing on her. Poor Makoto, he thought that his status with Chiaki had improved, he seems to be confusing his relationship with Chiaki as Mako-chan with his real life status. But, he should take this chance and get Chiaki something really nice for White Day? Could it be that he is getting a little too comfortable as Mako-chan?
Overall, I’m really enjoying this season of Minami-ke, I could care less about the animation style issues, I watch Minami-ke because I love the comedic interactions between the characters, and it’s outrageous stoylines.
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