Sunday 3 February 2013

Minami-ke Tadaima - Episode 5

Another week means another serving on misunderstandings and stupidity courtesy of Minami-ke.

With the winter over and summer on its way, the change in season turns thoughts towards such seasonal affairs such as swimming and swimsuits - who knew Chiaki wouldn't fit into Haruka's old swimsuit?  Can Haruka keep up with the latest fashions in swimwear? - as well as what to do over the summer vacation and how to keep in shape for such all-important activities... the answer to that final question being "don't eat any meals prepared by Chiaki".


It's Fujioka who gets to enjoy the limelight for much of this episode however as his pursuit of Kana continues.  First up, the opportunity to go out and eat chilled noodles with her looks set to allude him on account of his refusal to do away with wearing the winter school uniform just yet - however, Akira's advice for him to get invited by making it plain how hot he finds the weather has anything but the desired effect, instead leading Kana to believe that Fujioka has suddenly become a delinquent.  Nonetheless, Akira has now become Fujioka's go-to man for life counselling, as his next task is to steer Fujioka through the maze that is the summer holidays with a view to ensuring that as much time as possible is spent hanging out with Kana.  Unsurprisingly, this doesn't quite go to plan thanks to some tunnel vision on Fujioka's part, but there are still small (very small) victories to be found for him.

It might not have made me laugh my ass quite like last week's episode, but this was still another solid instalment of Minami-ke Tadaima - you always know what you're going to get with this show once a segment starts, so obvious is its use of character traits and relationships to spur whatever confusion is required to mine for humour, but that doesn't stop it producing some pretty funny moments in the midst of a generally more than pleasant viewing experience.  It won't win any awards, but there's still something to be said for this series as an easy-going comedy that knows its strengths and never fails to play to them.

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