Minami-ke Okawari - Episode 12

I've been giving Minami-ke Okawari a pretty hard time for not being funny or entertaining enough throughout its run, and while I can't say that episode twelve brought some much needed hilarity to the series, it did at least manage to find some plot development to speak of, and has actually left us with a bit of a cliffhanger going into the show's closing episode, which has actually left me wanting to know what happens next.

If only the writers of this show had realised ten weeks ago that deviating from the tried and trusted gender confusion and "Oh, isn't Kana stupid" gags was a sure-fire way to improve the series, then Minami-ke Okawari could have followed in the footsteps of its somewhat superior predecessor in remaining far more watchable. While even this episode was hardly a classic, at least taking some likeable characters and putting them in situations with some emotional meaning as happened here created a far more engaging spectacle, leaving you with at least some predilection towards said characters that went beyond such non-descript feelings as 'nice' (which is probably the one word I would have chosen to sum up the series thus far).

So, will the final episode of Minami-ke Okawari bring this series some last minute rehabilitation? To be honest, it's a little late for that, but at least this episode has left me caring what happens next, which is a vast improvement all in all.