Subculture Anime Blog

OP: “Kokoro no Tsubasa (ココロノツバサ)” by Rina Satou, Marina Inoue & Minori Chihara – Holy crap! This was like the coolest thing ever, haha! It’s kind of like the Genshiken 2 parody, but not really. Anyways, I love it.

Summary:

Kana gets off of the phone with Uchida Yuka, before getting into the usual trouble with Chiaki. Kana also wonders why their uncle Takeru is with them on the break, but it is obviously because he has nothing better to do. Kana expresses her wish for Haruka to preform for them, and even Chiaki is unable to resist agreeing with her. Kana answers the door while Haruka prepares, finding Makoto and Touma in normal clothing. Makoto suggests that he would like to return to being a normal boy, but Kana denies his entrance in that appearance. Kana finally lets the two in after Makoto changes his appearance, making Mako-chan despair inside afterwards. Touma tries to convince him that it is fine, when Haruka suddenly enters the room in an extremely embarrassing way. Haruka settles down and serves everyone cake afterwards. Chiaki believes that Kana has eaten some of her cake, but her sister is not in the condition to do something like that. This makes Chiaki start investigating under the kotatsu the group is sitting at, but she loses her strength when Haruka mentions some other foods she would like to try. After Chiaki lands on her bear Fujioka, she discovers that he has been keeping something for her. When Kana suddenly mentions her belief that Chiaki has eaten some of her cake, she gets scolded by her younger sister. After eating some ramen, the group suggests their want to travel somewhere. They don’t believe this is realistic, until Takeru walks into the room after returning with drinks.

Takeru begins driving the group to their location, with a bit of trouble after hearing Kana’s usual thoughts. Takeru brings up Fujioka’s coming along with them to Haruka, but she is more concerned with the directions to their location. Kana finally reveals that they are going to a hot spring, putting Mako-chan and Touma in panic. The Minami sisters enjoy themselves in the bath when they get there, while Mako-chan and Touma struggle outside. Touma suddenly realizes that there is no problem with her entering, as she is not hiding anything, so she leaves Mako-chan behind. Takeru suggests that Fujioka head to the bath before him while in the room with him, but not before questioning his relationship with Kana. The Minami sisters find that Mako-chan and Touma are not entering the bath yet, so Kana suggests that they do something fun before then. Kana gets a suggestion from one of the employees there, but they discover that Haruka is actually very bad at reading maps on their way to the location.

The sisters return to the springs, but Mako-chan and Touma still have trouble deciding what to do. Fujioka is also still being questioned by Takeru. When the Minami sisters find Mako-chan and Touma outside again, Haruka suggests that Mako-chan go in. He decides to take this chance, but Touma stops him in wonder of which bath he intends to enter. Kana disappoints the two once again, suggesting that they all play table tennis. Kana is extremely bad at this, but the group discovers that Haruka is very good. The girls enter the bath for a third time, when Touma and Mako-chan finally decide to make a move. Fujioka is finally allowed to go to the bath, but he panics when he seemingly enters the wrong bath to see Mako-chan. He quickly enters the opposite bath, shocking Touma. Touma suddenly tells Fujioka that the baths would switch soon, quickly going to get Mako-chan. He has already started to undress, however, making Touma slap him. Mako-chan quickly transforms back into Makoto, but Fujioka has already decided to take a peek into one of the baths before they switch. He runs into Kana who has just decided to leave, causing an extreme amount of confusion for the both of them. At the Minami apartment, a forgotten Yuka waits outside.

ED: “Sono Koe ga Kiki Takute (その声が聞きたくて)” by Rina Satou, Marina Inoue & Minori Chihara – Aw, what the heck! The ED is so standard this time around, and it’s honestly a disappointment after the OP. I do like the song itself though.

Preview: Back to the usual fun with classmates and family.

Impression:

One word: Awesome. There was a lot of speculation about this season of Minami-ke before the season started, but I can tell you now that it is safe. I was not disappointed at all, and I’m actually really liking the new art and animation. There were a few changes coming from the “Shuffle” team though, such as the little icons popping out of everyone’s heads and the way the title was presented. It really did feel similar to Shuffle, but I have no problem with that. That show was one of the eroge adaptions that I actually really liked. I also really liked the color isolation with Chiaki’s inner thoughts, and her now moving ahoge is amazing. Her strangely colored hair might be the one thing that takes some getting used to. I’m not gonna lie though, I did have a thing for tear drop mouths.

The actual story and direction of the series remains very much the same to the last seasons, and it’s more like a direct continuation. It’s continuing in the same time frame and everything, and they still have the nostalgic humor with things like playing video games in the car. All of the jokes were just as laugh out loud hilarious as the first seasons, from Haruka’s antics to Takeru questioning Fujioka’s relationship with Kana. Poor Mako-chan, poor traps! You are all probably going to ask about the fanservice, so yea, it was definitely upped in this episode. I seriously doubt they will continue to be doing it so excessively though, as the preview for the next episode looks a lot more similar to the first season’s feel. It was more of an introduction thing, you know? Well, if you haven’t already figured it out, I’m definitely continuing right where I left off with Minami-ke. More fun awaits!