Minami-ke Okawari - Episode 13 (Completed)

While Minami-ke Okawari has disappointed throughout its run, rehashing the same tired old jokes, the penultimate episode at least improved enough to hold out some hope of not being a complete disaster. In fairness, the this series did end on something of a high note, abandoning many of the principles that made this show so boring (particularly compared to the relative funniness of Minami-ke itself) and preferring instead to focus on the emotional aspect of Kana and Chiaki's relationship with Haruka.

While the series finale was maybe too saccharine for the tastes of some, I personally found it to be really quite sweet - Despite all my criticisms of this series, I have enjoyed the characters (despite their often being rather clichéd at times), and thus the ending left a bit of a lump in my throat, while the episode as a whole left me with a bit of a smile.

Overall, this is a series to avoid if you're looking for a slice-of-life comedy due to the simple fact that it's so repetitive and forgettable. The first thirteen episode run of Minami-ke showed what could be done with the characters on show with a reasonable degree of competency, but sadly that all seemed to drain away with Okawari, leaving this likeable trio of sisters to do little more than drown in mediocrity.

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.

Minami-ke Okawari - Episode 11

While Minami-ke Okawari really hasn't held a candle to the series' original run, thanks mainly to the fact that it hasn't looked to progress at all beyond the general plot points established all those episodes ago, I have to credit episode eleven for at least offering up an improvement in that sense (although it seems the writers still couldn't resist bringing up some of the show's 'gender confusion' issues for at least one portion of the show).

Thus, the mainstay of this episode is Kana's decision to feign illness to get out of certain things, only to be caught out with a real cold the next day when the things she actually wants to do happens - and let's be honest, I'm sure exactly that kind of kismet has happened to all of us at some point in time. Anyhow, what follows is Kana's attempt to recover from said cold in less than a day (another thing we've probably all tried at some point), which wasn't laugh out loud funny at all, but it got me smiling which is a start for this show, so it is at least a step in the right direction.

The only thing that does remain truly positive throughout this series are the three sisters themselves, who can't help liking for their own respective personalities and quirks - if it weren't for this trio's characteristics (coupled with some of the supporting characters, who also do their part to be broadly likeable), I think I would have given up on this series long, long ago.

Minami-ke Okawari - Episode 10

After finding Minami-ke relatively amusing at times, its continuation in Okawari hasn't really worked so well in its opening episodes - A trend which continues through almost inevitably into episode ten.

Once again, all of the main characters in this slice of life series are likeable enough, which makes it more than a little difficult to actively dislike the show, but at the same time there's nothing that really appeals to my sense of humour, with most of the running gags now seemingly entirely exhausted. For example, we get that Kana is hyper and a bit stupid by now after having spent twenty-three episodes watching her, and although this episode finishes with a nice little twist on her usual characteristics (which is simply cute rather than funny) everything else is very much predictable. So we could go on with every major character, to the point where you can guess pretty much everything way before it happens. That in itself isn't a bad thing (it happens in plenty of series of this ilk), but without some snappy one-liners or clever skits to drop those characters into, it simply never takes off.

Once again then, Minami-ke Okawari managed to be 'nice' without ever really being funny, and remains a shadow of its former self.

Minami-ke Okawari - Episodes 1-9

It's taken a while of playing catch up, but at last I'm up to date with all things Minami-ke. While the first season of this show wasn't particularly a classic, it was still both entertaining and amusing enough for me to look forward to a second series. So, how does this second helping taste so far?

Coming straight from viewing the first run of the show, watching Okawari is actually a little disconcerting from an animation point of view, as things have changed rather a lot - while the overall look and feel is the same, the addition of computer animation and some subtle character and colouring changes have really altered part of the feel of the show. When you've spent thirteen episodes getting comfortable with a set of characters, even such subtle changes can be quite distracting, and I'm not sure that work done here has been for the better (although doubtless it's made the life of the animators easier).

Having watch through to episode nine of this series, I can only wish that an equal amount of effort had been made in changing and progressing the storylines in Minami-ke Okawari - although the first series was hardly rife with laughs, it did have enough going on to get the odd smile or chuckle out of me, but somehow these further episodes seem completely devoid of much of that humour. Instead, we seem to end up being pushed down the same old tired pathyways over and over again, focused around cross-dressing, Kana's stupidity and so on. Even introducing new characters hasn't particularly pulled the show out of this rut, leaving it feeling rather stale.

That isn't to say that Minami-ke Okawari isn't at all entertaining - it's a non-taxing, relaxing show to watch and unwind, and the overall personalities of Haruka, Kana and Chiaki remains watchable, but beyond that the majority of the nine episodes of this series so far have been largely wasted, a trend which doesn't seem likely to shift any time soon. It isn't quite enough to stop me watching, but it really would be nice to see a departure from the tired old jokes and interplay between characters in the last few episodes of the show.