Wednesday 25 March 2009

Minami-ke Okaeri - Episode 12

I'm beginning to suspect that Minami-ke Okaeri is a bit like that old legend about versions of Microsoft Windows, where odd numbers are good revisions and even numbers bad. Thus, oddly numbered episodes of Minami-ke Okaeri have been pretty average at best, while even numbered instalments have been far better.

This theory certainly seems to work for episode twelve of the series, which manages to entertain and amuse in equal measure. The episode starts out with some kind of tag-team arguing contest with Kana, Maki and Yuka all trying to persuade Chiaki to leave her place in the sun and sleep elsewhere so that they don't have to be so quiet. This being Minami-ke, all bets are off once food becomes involved...


From here, we get a couple of top notch Minami-ke moments - First, Maki visits and expresses concern about the potentially debilitating affliction that is having a stupid sleeping face. Thus, Maki implores Kana to watch her sleep - Probably not the most sensible of ideas, as of course the ubiquitous drawing on the face of a sleeping person takes place, with highly amusing consequences. After that, we're witness to a clothing alteration accident which inadvertently sees Haruka's school skirt caught up in Kana's desire for a "new look" - An accident which goes unreported to the eldest Minami sister, building to a punchline that wasn't any less amusing for its predictability.

Finally, Kana worries that Chiaki has gone through some kind of life of being maltreated, and so tries entirely too hard to be nice to her, causing Chiaki more than a small amount of paranoia as to her real goals, especially coming as it does after Chiaki being a little overly rude and violent to her sister.

So, this probably wasn't the best episode of the series (and the animation quality was all over the place from the best I've seen this series in places through to the worst) in terms of humour, but it was well up with the better ones - Its best gags were blindingly obvious and old school ones but hey, sometimes the old ones are the best.

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