Ranked #592

Minami-ke Betsubara

Minami-ke Betsubara is, like any other episode of Minami-ke, about the three Minami sisters and their friends. The entire concept of Minami-ke is really very simplistic; it's about a group of teenagers and children doing whatever it is they do at home, at school and, well anywhere else they might go. The allure of Minami-ke as a concept is that it's relaxed entertainment with comedy and humor on several different planes. Some viewers might think it's funny for reasons others don't, while these others think it's funny for other reasons. It is needless to say that in an episodic anime characters are important. What's even more important is character interaction and Minami-ke wouldn't be such a successful anime franchise if it didn't possess both these traits and execute them well, this one episode OVA is no exception.

Minami-ke Betsubara could fit in to any of the three previous seasons, it's just like any other episode, no new characters are introduced nor does any life changing event occur to any of the characters. The episode is divided into three or four small portions where we get to see almost all of the characters that were in the main seasons. It's your usual stuff with Kana instigating mischief and misinterpreting things deliberately more often than not. I was pleasantly surprised to see Hosaka getting a bit more screen time than what we're used to which is always a good thing seeing as he is Minami-ke's absolute best character.

The art and animation are what we're used to from season 1 and 3, the OP and ED themes are performed by the three sisters and are made solely for this OVA which is a nice touch and gives an extra feeling of quality to the production.

All in all; not a letdown. If you're thirsting for more Minami-ke here you go. read more