hill.columbus - 2014-08-19 18:35:34

Minami-ke
4 Seasons
13 Episodes per season
3 OVAs
Sub Only
Slice of Life Comedy

Premise: Minami-ke is a slice of life comedy show about a group of 3 siblings. The show gives light and funny stories about the sibling’s day to day activity in every single episode. So essentially, it’s a normal slice of life show.

Story: Minami-ke has no story. It’s a slice of life show, so what did you expect? It of course follows the usual slice of life formula of giving you 2 or 3 subplots about normal everyday activities that for some reason we find completely hilarious when it happens on TV, but wouldn’t even blink if it was in real life. The individual episodes themselves are pretty funny, but nothing you probably haven’t seen before. The characters all mesh well and create some pretty bizarre antics. One thing that bugged me with this show is how slooooooooooow the 2nd and 3rd seasons are when compared to the 1st and 4th seasons. I didn’t find the episodes nearly as entertaining and it felt like something just wasn’t quite right. Also, this takes place in high school. ( but you probably already assumed this )

Characters: Most slice of life shows typically suffer from having cardboard cutout characters, and Minami-ke is once again, no exception. However, this only really applies to the main 3 characters. Haruka is the motherly character that serves as the mentor throughout the show. Kana is the most energetic character in the show by far, and Chiaki is the youngest sister who is basically the shows token Tsundere character. She does have a bit more of a fleshed out personality that the others however, and does actually have a small amount of development throughout the show.

The SUPPORTING cast on the other hand, includes some very interesting characters. These include but are not limited to, a boy who has to cross-dress if he wants to go the the Minami sister’s house, a tomboy who is trying to make her senpai think that she is a guy, and a master chef who is worships Haruka like she is a goddess. These characters are definitely what made the show for me, and those are just a few examples.

Enjoyment: Let’s do this season by season. Season 1 was pretty funny and it brought me many laughs. I got addicted to it even and pretty much finished it in 2 days. Season 2 wasn’t quite as funny, but had a few good moments sprinkled throughout. Season 3 fell flat on its face and I didn’t have the same satisfaction from it as the other seasons. Season 4 took everything I loves about the first season and increased its hilarity to levels that were probably over 9000. I personally enjoy a good slice of slice show, but if you don’t, this isn’t going to change your mind.

Animation and Sound:
The animation for this show, like the seasons, varies between them. The first season is the most dated looking, and all the characters have weird looking upper lips that look like the logo from Assassin’s Creed. Also, when times are intense, the faces get super detailed in an almost…creepy way. The 2nd and 3rd seasons are essentially the same minus the creepy faces and weird lips. The 4th season takes the most dramatic changes with a lot of the assets being recolored, and everything having a nice little shine to it. The sound is nothing unique whatsoever. Well, that would be the case, if it wasn’t for one of the openings. The opening for the second season was unique and felt like something that you would see in a fantasy type show. I can’t really describe it so just watch it yourself to see.

Final Verdict:
Story: 6
Characters: 8
Enjoyment: 6
Animation/Sound: 7
Overall: 7 out of 10

It is a fun little slice of life show that doesn’t exactly change the formula at all.
The main characters are just stereotypes, but a good chunk of the supporting cast isn’t, which keeps things from being the exact same as other shows. The quality also tends to fluctuate between seasons, which annoyed me a bit. If you enjoy slice of life shows, give this a shot. If not, then don’t bother with it.

Pros:
Great supporting cast
1st and 4th seasons are very well done
All around fun to watch

Cons:
Main 3 characters are just stereotypes
2nd and 3rd seasons are disappointing
Fluctuating art styles and production values

damion33 - 2013-12-27 05:24:59

The reason why there aren’t many reviews of pure slice-of-life series on this site isn’t because I dislike the genre, or anything. Instead, when I need to drop series to prevent myself from watching too much at once, these shows also seem to be the ones to go down first. This season I felt in a bit of an experimental mood, though, and I decided to stick with the third season of Minami-Ke, even though I never watched more than one or two episodes from the first two seasons. What I got was a pretty enjoyable series about the lives of a bunch of sisters, living together and their classmates.

While I could go all anal and be like “zomg, it’s nothing but fillers so it sux0rz”, but even though there’s hardly any continuity, and all of the different stories are just random strings of five minutes packed together, it’s in this case perfectly enjoyable to watch the antics of all of the different characters in this series. While it’s not as gut-achingly funny as other comedies, I found that Minami-Ke Okaeri was often able to put a smile on my face.

This is a typical show that never really hits any highs or lows, and instead is just enjoyable to watch and perfect if you’re feeling lazy and have half an hours or so to burn. The Minami-sisters are quite likable, and they’re funny while not trying to be. This review is short because there’s not much else to say about it, but I’m definitely going to check out the first season, which is rumoured to be even better.