After the first two episodes of Minami-ke Okaeri, this series is turning into more of what I feared than what I hoped, but I guess that was almost to be expected. The same people who did the 2nd season are doing this one, and despite my hopes, though not to my great surprise, the amount of humor in this series is similar to that in the 2nd season, which is to say, it’s somewhat amusing, but has very few actual real laughs. Which isn’t really a good thing for a show that’s supposed to derive most of it’s entertainment value by being funny.
Does this show have potential? Yes, it still does. The story and the character itself presents itself for a pretty funny series, as the first season proved. However, the writers actually have to make it that way, and now after 15 episodes by the current production company, they have yet to match the magic of the first season. Having said that, at least the music and animation quality remains very good, much like the past seasons. The only thing that really tends to bug me is having the OP and ED stuck in the middle of the episode instead of, you know, the beginning and ending of it.
It’s time that I actually decide what series I’m going to watch and blog for the upcoming season.
As I decided and noted earlier, the only series I’m going to blog is the second half of CLANNAD: After Story, to give me as light a workload as possible as I go into the final semester of getting my masters (yay!).
As for series that I’ll watch. I’ll definitely continue to watch the two other series that are carrying over from the Fall 2008 season: Toradora and A Certain Magical Index, and with Soul Eater getting licensed, that gets dropped as a show I’m watching.
As a result, my target was to add 3 or 4 shows to my watch list this season. In my season preview, I already said that I would watch Birdy the Mighty DECODE:02, Maria Holic, and Minami-ke Okaeri, so that gets three shows out of the way right off the bat.
Black God (aka Kurokami) probably would be added to this list, but Bandai licensed it and appears as like they won’t distribute it online, so I won’t even get an opportunity to watch it. However, if they pull through on having it online, I probably will watch it.
That leaves me torn between the Munto TV, the second Druaga series, and White Album as series to watch. However, in the end I think my decision will be this:
I’ll watch Munto, I’ll hold off on Druaga to see if I hear good things about it, and I’ll pass on White Album for now.
That makes my slate this season thus:
Blogging
CLANNAD: After Story
Watching
A Certain Magical Index
Birdy the Mighty DECODE:02
Maria Holic
Minami-ke Okaeri
Munto
Toradora!
Pending
Kurokami (pending it being distributed online by Bandai)
Tower of DRUAGA -the Sword of URUK- (pending good word)
It’s that time again: It’s time to look at what anime is airing in the Winter 2009 season. Shows are listed in alphabetical order.
There are 5 possible levels of ratings that I’ll give a show:
Will Blog
May Blog (presumes Will Watch)
Will Watch
May Watch
Won’t Watch
As usual, I’m leaving out anything that seems to obviously be a children’s show. Like always, thanks to the Fansub Wiki for keeping a great list of upcoming shows.
Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way…here we go! Read More »
Name: Miname-ke Genre: Comedy Episodes: 26 (13 episodes in both seasons 1 and 2) Released: October 7, 2007 – March 30, 2008 Based On:Miname-ke manga by Coharu Sakuraba Director: Masahiko Ohta (season 1), Naoto Hosoda (season 2) Produced By: Starchild (both seasons), Doumu (season 1), asread (season 2) US Distribution By: N/A
Major Japanese Cast
Haruka Minami: Rina Satou Chiaki Minami: Minori Chihara Kana Minami: Marina Inoue Makoto: Rika Morinaga Toma Minami: Nana Mizuki Fujioka: Tetsuya Kakihara Yoshino: Aki Toyosaki Yuka Uchida: Eri Kitamura Keiko: Saori Goto Maki: Reiko Takagi Atsuko: Ryoko Ono Hosaka: Daisuke Ono Hayami: Saeko Chiba
Minami-ke is show about the lives of the three Minami sisters: Haruka, who attends high school and is the caretaker of the other two sisters; Kana, who attends middle school and who is rather clueless, lazy, and impulsive; and Chiaki who attends elementary school and who is intelligent and precocious, but rather rude as well.
There’s not much else I can say to describe the series since it basically is about the random things that the three girls and their friends do in life. However, one thing this series does to exceptionally well, especially in the first season, is be absolutely hilarious. The fact that the three girl’s personalities don’t mesh at all – especially Kana’s and Chikai’s – just adds to how great this series is. Add into the fix each of the girls’ friends and their own quirks, and you have a show with a rather consistent supply of hilarity.
The one thing I should note is that the first season, which consists of the first 13 episodes, is a bit funnier than the 2nd season, and that is really the only thing keeping the score down for this series, as the story and gut scores are largely an average between the first and second seasons (with the first season getting an easy 10 while the second season kind of splits between a 7/8). Even so, the second season is still a respectable watch, but may pale somewhat in comparison to the first season.
The animation and music for both seasons are pretty good, even though both seasons were handled by different production companies.
If you’re looking for a series with a lot of random laughs, and don’t care much about a central story line, then definitely check out Minami-ke.
First Watched: October 2007 – April 2008 Do I Own: No Do I Recommend: Yes
Name: Miname-ke
First Impressions: Minami-ke – Okaeri
Does this show have potential? Yes, it still does. The story and the character itself presents itself for a pretty funny series, as the first season proved. However, the writers actually have to make it that way, and now after 15 episodes by the current production company, they have yet to match the magic of the first season. Having said that, at least the music and animation quality remains very good, much like the past seasons. The only thing that really tends to bug me is having the OP and ED stuck in the middle of the episode instead of, you know, the beginning and ending of it.