Subculture Anime Blog

OP: “Keikenchi Soku Joujou↑↑ (経験値速上々↑↑)” by Rina Satou, Marina Inoue and Minori Chihara – M-I-N-A-M-I-K-E LET’S GO. YEA.

Summary:

Haruka helps Chiaki get into her yukata for the family’s yearly shrine visit, but Kana seems to have trouble waking as usual. When the Minami sisters arrive at the shrine, they see that Uchida has already been buying several things from the festival. The girls all perform their usual new year activities around the shrine, but when Uchida sees that Chiaki has received a good fortune, she borrows money from Kana to get one of her own. Upon seeing her fortune, she is put into a good mood which lasts even when she visits the Minami sisters’ home afterwards. When the sisters ask her about this, Uchida describes her fortune as having a good message for love. Kana and Chiaki of course give her various explanations of how fate could play out, but she finally decides to wait and see if her destined person would come to her. Fujioka ends up showing up at the apartment, but despite Uchida’s flustered state, Chiaki simply brings him in to claim his lap as usual. Kana soon recalls that Uchida has not payed her back yet, eventually receiving her 100 yen back in a very odd way.

Touma one day visits the Minami household to learn from Chiaki her theory about the cup yakisoba phenomenon. As she explains, feeling like eating yakisoba or cup yakisoba are two very different situations. She further explains that although her stuffed bear appears to be a bear, it is actually a doll named Fujioka. Touma still seems to have trouble understanding Chiaki, so it is not until Haruka and Kana return home to meet Takeru that she would understand. Haruka serves tea for the usual depressed Takeru, but when Kana returns from using the bathroom, she sees that what Haruka served was actually aged tea. With this, Touma and Chiaki both explain to Kana that this is the cup yakisoba phenomenon.

Chiaki is surprised at school one day to learn from Nurse Kumada that she will be making a house visit to her apartment. When Chiaki returns home later, Haruka informs her that Takeru will be standing in to meet Kumada. When the meeting happens though, Chiaki sees that Takeru and Kumada’s interaction doesn’t seem to be one of a house visitation. When she asks a watching Kana about this, she can only credit the situation as an “omiai.” Fujioka suddenly appears at the house, and when Kumada asks him about his hobbies in the same way she did with Takeru, Kana again credits this as an omiai. Chiaki finally makes Kumada remember why she has come to the house in the first place, but when she presents some of Chiaki’s reports to Takeru, this only causes her embarrassment.

Chiaki has trouble finding her bear one day, so Takeru shows the Minami sisters the superstitious technique of finding an item by having a pen drop in its direction. To the sisters’ surprise, this actually works. But as Chiaki finds Fujioka in a pot, she soon becomes angry at Kana who is the only one who could have done such a thing. Haruka requests to have Takeru find her something next, though she is hesitant as to saying what. When the pen drops in Kana’s direction, she soon becomes angry at her for obviously being the one who ate her stored ice cream. When everyone next wonders if Kana has something she needs to find, she suggests her future marriage partner. The sisters are initially surprised to see that the pen does not fall from its starting position, but when Kana flicks it down in annoyance, it leads to the apartment’s entrance where Fujioka has just arrived. While Kana gets into idle talk with Fujioka, the rest of the family sees that she is completely ignorant as to what just happened.

ED: “Zettai Colorful Sengen (絶対カラフル宣言)” by Rina Satou, Marina Inoue and Minori Chihara – CHIAKI AHOGE RADAR. YEA.

Preview: uh….preview text goes here.

Impression:

GO HOME. Haha! Man, I missed Chiaki. Actually, I missed everyone in this show. From CUP YAKISOBA GENSHO to Uchida’s lovable stupidity, this episode brought back fond memories of everything I loved about Minami-ke before. After the criticism studio asread got for their production of Okawari, it looks like they’ve taken a lot of notes from the first season to make the third return of the Minami sisters a winner. Gone were blacked out faces and ridiculously misplaced drama, as we went back to the simple plotless humor that made us all fans of this series initially. I will say that some of the animation and art did come off as kind of awkward when the episode first started, with really weird facial expressions, but this wasn’t hard to get used to at all after a few minutes passed. I do want to know whose idea it was to go from nekoguchi(?) mouths to teardrop ones by the end of the episode though.

Anyways, yes. As this episode left me with nothing but a positive review to give, and it looks like the studio has learned their lesson after a long break, I will continue covering Minami-ke for the third season. Been here since the beginning, cuz!

Notes:

• asread thinks they’re SHAFT, placing OPs and EDs in really weird places.
• Omiai is like an arranged meeting for possible marriage partners.
• Kana fails at eating mikan.
• Nobody is allowed to have Fujioka’s lap but Chiaki.
• Aroduc joins me in returning, and posts secret logs in the progress.