Minami-ke: Welcome Back #13 — Sweet! Angst!

March 29th, 2009

 

Well, at least it’s over…

Impressions:

Meh. This show has certainly seen better days. The brief upward spike in animation quality last week was not maintained, and with all the flashbacks through part 3, the argument could certainly be made that there was actually more of a dip. Overall, an extremely boring episode all around. Chiaki clinging to Kana was sort of cute, but that’s literally all that part 2 was, and that was the only non-dramarific (and if that’s not a word, I’m coining it now) thing thrown in at the end here. Way to use bad drama to end a comedy. *sigh*

Chiaki got self-conscious over Haruka seemingly not enjoying being around her in part 1, then had a nightmare and became extra clingy to Kana in part 2. Part 3 was Kana’s stupidity leading Chiaki and Haruka into thinking that Kana had run away from home. Talk about eleventh hour fabricated drama with budget saving flashbacks.

Final Thoughts: 

Can I just copy and paste my thoughts from the end of the last season, add something about the worse production all around, but praising the lack of Fuyuki and call it a day? No? *sigh*

The biggest problems with this season outside of the continued degredation of the production values was that everything has just gotten stale and boring and they really aren’t doing anything to spice it up. One new character was introduced in this season and she had about 6 total minutes of screen time. Outside of that, there was so much focus on Touma and her brothers despite only maybe Natsume being funny in the slightest. What’s worse is that they barely used their best character at all through this run. Poor Hosaka.

The show’s had a decent… well… had a run, but it’s time to let it peacefully die.  The creativity has been tapped dry and while there are a few really enjoyable moments here and there, my interest here has just about run dry. They’re not going to recapture the charm of the first season, and the production is getting pretty embarassing.

Posted in Minami-ke | 9 Comments »

9 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Chen says:
    March 29, 2009 at 8:39 pm

    Did Hosaka experience an epiphany in that last shot or what? He always gets the last word (laugh?) at the very least.

  • Aroduc says:
    March 29, 2009 at 9:11 pm

    Nah. Just an unshown nightmare.

  • Chen says:
    March 29, 2009 at 9:30 pm

    So it’s a premonition of a fourth season.

  • Anonymous says:
    March 29, 2009 at 9:35 pm

    It seems to be too difficult to look at the past two seasons, find the episodes people liked, and focus on humor similar to that, that just makes far too much sense.

  • Haesslich says:
    March 29, 2009 at 10:24 pm

    … oh god, no. Haruka looks like a totally different person in those early shots, and they fell back into the angst trap that swallowed Okawari, did they? Ah well – at least Hosaka’s still not angsty.

  • Sheba says:
    March 30, 2009 at 9:17 am

    Unless Minami-ke get back in the hands of Doumu, yes the charm of the first season will never come back. To give third season its due credits, it did remember what was Minami-ke to begin with, but it did not make enough efforts to reach it with the exception of the curry fairy in episode 2 and Natsuki’s Bark + Ignore + Rapist Smile routine in episode 11. Moreover, some guys at Asread seems to have a dislike for Haruka and the brothers, as shown by the QUALITY bits with them, while others absolutely liked Maki, Uchida and *shrugs* Mako-chan.

  • Nagisa says:
    March 30, 2009 at 12:52 pm

    I hope there’s another Minami-ke Okaeri 4th Season???

  • MikeW says:
    March 30, 2009 at 8:15 pm

    Contracting the project to Doumu means jack unless they retain the original staff and allocate adequate time/money. It isn’t really asread’s fault but rather StarChild and other members of the production committee.

    On the whole, Minami-ke suffers from the usual problem with anime sequels, which is essentially a lack of care from the financiers. New seasons only get greenlit to exploit a property once more (figures, CDs, DVDs, more copies of the manga/novel, etc.), and no one really gives a damn about the content they produce.