Minami-ke Okawari

Summary -
Overall, I wouldn't recommend Okawari to anyone. Even if they loved the original series by all their heart. Okawari is a poor continuation of the orignal series and I wouldn't be honest if I said that its worth watching.

Story -
Okawari is a continuation of the original Minami-Ke series, which focuses on the lives of Kana, Haruka and Chiaki. Like the first season, there's no plot or greater goal for the main characters to accomplish. The Minami family has been normalized and you forget, occasionally, that you're watching a comedy anime. Okawari picks up where the original series left off and they rarely introduce anything ... new to the series and offers next to no variety which makes it very plain and boring. There's no reason for the audience to watch the next episode unless they want to know whether or not X will ever get along with Y sooner of later.

Art -
Okawari is superior to its predecessor in terms of quality. The animations are well-drawn and the lineart itself is rather detailed. However, the style doesn't fit the anime and those who have watched the original series will most likely frown upon it.

Sound -
Okawari has some nice, yet simple, sound effects which, inc comparison to the original series, is far less comical. Some might consider this to be good while some won't.
The background music often tends to be rather loud and pulls away the audiences attention from the dialogues.

Character -
Seeing as the original series already had fleshed out the characters. I'm rating the new series as to how the characters have been adapted.
The personalities are pretty much the same. Haruka has hardened a bit but is still the considerate host and 'mom'. Kana is still the hyperactive junior-high student which puts little, if any, consideration into her actions. Chiaki, however, has almost completely resigned from being the mix of an overly intelligent and violent sister and has taken the role of a victim that Kana can freely harass without having Chiaki saying more than 'Dumbass'.

Enjoyment -
The good sense of humor that I enjoyed in the original series is, in the lack of a better term, completely gone. Its a stretch to call Okawari a comedy. It's just a slightly romantic slice of life anime which resorts to fanservice by putting weird images into the viewer's head.
I found myself hoping,no -- begging, for something awesome to happen whenever Hosaka appeared but even here, I was let down. He simply appears, says something that doesn't make sense (Without being humorous in any way) and someone smacks their forehead and mumbles something along the lines of "Idiot", "Weirdo" or "Gross". I can't express my dissapointment enough. I watched the original series in a relatively short time and I loved it to the very last drop - Okawari feels like an angry sumo-guy stomping your crotch all the way through. It's a pointless anime with no common sense of humor and just a lot of odd references to japanese commercials and culture that few people will understand.

Even more of same stuff with INCREASED fanservice, more CHARACTERS and extra neko scenes!! With a fleshed out story in place, you're basically getting more bang for your buck the second time around!


Story (Very Good)
As the description says, its a continuation of the daily lives of the three Minami Sisters. Thats a plot to the uninformed. Also called a sitcom (google it). Now this time around they actually have a rather large cast of characters supporting the three girls. The girls get put into more silly antics than before and all at the same time showing a lot of skin in the process. If ... there was any fan service suggestions you thought of that was missed in the first season, its most likely in the second season. Common situations like bath house antics, winter time hijinks, and even valentines day blues they're all there and accounted for. Its all very cliche' but for such a great show as this one can't help but watch the girls in their form and laugh out loud. If you cant realize the story/plot in a sitcom is all about the comedy than one doesn't know what a comedy anime is all about.

Characters (Great)
You get to see all three sisters in every episode but now they're almost always surrounded by their friends in one situation or another. They follow the 'more the merrier' approach and put all of them in such hilarious situations. Their facial expressions are still as classic as ever complete with the arms in the air. If you had a favorite character you'll just like them even more (Haruka for me) as they're all are even cuter than before. Well aside from their thigh high and miniskirt school uniforms, they wear a lot of different fashions every episode. On top of that theres more antics and silliness in every episode as well. My only gripe is that their friends are a little too friendly. Meaning they like to do things for the minami sisters more often than a normal friend would do. But then again, thats a large reason why this show so funny.

Sound (Very Good)
The background sound effects are all there, the same as before. A lot of bare feet running on hardwood, the sound of the computer fan running, etc etc. All the same as before. The music is exactly the same as before which is fine for such a light hearted, brightly colored, cute anime such as this. Mainly piano solos and light percussions and wind instruments. The opening theme isn't as great as the first seasons but the ending theme is pretty good but really flashy and loud. At least the singers were the same.

Art (Great)
As hard as it may seem the art actually seems to be kicked up an extra notch. The background art is the same style as Season 1 but this time theres even more settings in every episode. Theres a lot of random still shots of their apartment, school, etc. But on top of that you will even get to see more things throughout their apartment than just their living room and kitchen. Also, they do a lot more things outside. But the obvious difference isn't just from the background art. The static objects are everywhere from random underwear hanging to dry to uncooked meat getting tossed in a fryer. It all looks like they're done up an extra notch. But the main difference of the artwork, are with the characters. Sure theres more main and supporting cast on screen but how they manage to give them ALL different outfits for almost every show (apart form the school uniform) is pretty impressive in my opinion. You almost wonder if they have a fashion stylist on their payroll.


Overall, its like what the first season should have been. So in essence its a perfect sequel. More of the same stuff, with A LOT of extra additions in every episode. Slight word of caution a lot more skin is included with what I previously stated. But with the addition of all the extra characters theres bound to be a chuckle or two somewhere. It's obvious the different production company tried to emulate Domu's classic hilarity. For the most part it stays pretty well in tact although fans of Domu can spot slight differences. Its so well done, even a normal anime viewer (like me) could hardly tell that it was made by a different company.

So, Minami-ke Okawari, is, as anyone who watched the first series would know, a continuation of the original Minami-ke series. The first thing to be said is that it's not as half as good as the first season. The second thing to be said is that despite that fact, it's still very enjoyable.

I was following Minami-ke Okawari as it came out but I stopped around ep 4 and wasn't really watching it anymore. And with the first season, I searched for the new episode every week until the very last one. It took me a few months to get into Okawari to watch it, ... but once I started watching it again I realized it wasn't so bad.

One thing, I guess, is it just doesn't seem to have the charm the first one did. It's not as funny, I can tell you that. It has its moments, but some episodes in Okawari were just sort of mildly amusing.

The story and voice actors and character do not differ from the first, which is good at least. If you don't know, the story consists of three sisters living under one roof and their daily lives. And that's about it for the story and characters. It may sound boring at a glance, but it's done so well that it never drags.

However, the characters and story is not portrayed as well as in the first, so I give a little bit of lower of score than I did on the first season. The animation is very different, but I didn't find too much of a problem with it, though there's much more fanservice in this season which irked me a bit. Okawari's animation is not done spectacularly, but it is sufficent, and I liked how the kept the "regular to serious" style going in this season.

While I enjoyed it, I couldn't give it too high because at first I was struggling to watch the episodes and didn't even watch them as they aired each week. If you were a good fan of the first season this may come off as a little dissapointing. However, I was glad to embrace some more Minami-ke, and it is still a good series.

Okay, this is my first ever review in this year and my seventh reviews since last year. I started to took interest in this series after I watched Minami-ke the first. Sadly, This series isn't within my expectation. Want to know why? read my review.

Story~
... Yes! Minami-ke is back again! This is what I said before I actually watch the Okawari. ... Huh? Isn't this joke a bit lame? This is what I said after I watched few episodes of Okawari... This is the bad point. For the one who've ever watch the first season might end up just like me. Disappointment. Guess this ... can't be helped since other company remake the shows.
Since this series is just about the ordinary days of three Minami sisters, nothing can be said regarding the plot because it is... plot less. Nothing is weird since this is just a slice of life anime. Step aside this matter because their ordinary life is not ordinary to us. Thus, their every actions will definitely carves a smile on everybody's face. This is the good point.
Fan services? Yes of course I like it! But sadly, not for this series. Yep, I think the person who was in charge with this series is definitely a half bald perverted geezer. They just can't think that we will happy with it! What we want in pure comedy anime! It is just... comedy. I'd like to give this a good point but... Sorry, bad point for it because I don't really like it.
Well, when we (who watched the first Minami-ke before) watch some episodes of Okawari, I is just like a flashback to us. Yes, this is the truth. They simply just modified the story from the first. Some are better than the first but some are worst than the first. So, overall for the story is 7, good.

Art~
Nothing much can be say about the art but I still have some comments regarding with it. The color of background and character is stronger in Okawari compared to the first Minami-ke that just use smooth color in their works. Nothing to say about them since both of them got their own unique characteristics in their arts. But for character's coloring, I don't really like them. They just change the color of some of their character's hair. Chiaki for examples, why the hell she got 2 colors on her hair!? I understands the fact that they wanted to give some tone to the color, but this is too much. I can't seems to get used to her hair color even after I watched 10 episodes of it. Ok, if they don't recklessly change the color, I would give 9 but... sorry, you can be satisfied with my 7.

Sound~
This is great, really well made. Well they did changed the company, but they still preserved their original seiyuu. They got outstanding OP and ED and I can'r seems to be bored or get annoying with it. Their background music is still preserved and what can I say? No flaw at all! 10 to sound!

Character~
Yeah, their characters is weir... I mean unique. Their every characters got their own personality and it is quite enjoyable to watch their silly actions. Hosaka! How can I possibly forget about him? Yes! He is the most unique character in all the anime I've ever watch! But sadly, they'd really ruined the Hosaka's personality in Okawari. This is a shame. How could they change a pure hearted (but weird) person into a pervert? This is too much! can't give 10 but 9 to the characters.

Enjoyment~
7 without hesitation. It means good enough. I can still continues to watch this series without drops it. They maybe have some bad arts but still... who cares about that? They are still Minami-ke! I love Minami-ke so thre are no reason for me to give it lowers than that.

Overall~
Very good, except for some flaws they made. Regardless, this is still a great anime. If you into the comedic genre, then this is for you. 8.

Thanks for reading my reviews. Hope you read my other reviews too. Thanks you. (I know I can't really compares this series with the first, but they are still Minami-ke right?)

Following on from the hilarious slice of life anime series Minami-ke, Okawari continues the story of the daily lives of the Minami family and their friends. For its second season, Minami-ke switches to an entirely new production staff (though the voice actors remain the same), and the difference shows. Okawari changes quite a few things about its predecessor... mostly for the worse.

The main problem with Okawari is the fact that it often seems to forget that it's supposed to be a comedy. Opportunities for jokes frequently go wasted, and the jokes that do appear are usually rather lame. There's the occasional moment of humour, but ... for the most part with Okawari, it's like just watching the daily lives of the three sisters, waiting patiently in the hope that something funny might happen. Most of the cast from the previous season make a welcome return (although Hosaka isn't as funny as he used to be, as he now just does random things for no apparent reason), but newcomer Fuyuki is a somewhat annoying and tedious character. We never even get to see Touma's brothers ("the other Minami family") in this season, which is a shame because they were pretty good characters in Minami-ke.

Another problem with the series is the gratuitous amount of "fanservice", to the point where this could essentially be called an ecchi anime. The series never misses a chance to follow the characters into the bath or show them with little or no clothing for whatever reason, and of course there's the obligatory public baths episode, which seems to be mandatory with all slice of life anime these days (though to be fair, that particular episode is one of the funnier ones).

One thing that has improved over the first season is the art. For the most part it's pretty competent and there's no significant problems, however there is one issue: for some reason, background characters are all fully animated, with hairstyles and everything, except they're blacked out so you can't see their faces. It looks kind of creepy when you see it in motion, and takes quite some getting used to. Especially when they talk...

The sound and music are fairly good. Both the opening and ending themes for the series are a little strange and don't quite fit the tone and genre of the series, but at the same time they're not bad.

For all its faults, Okawari could be a lot worse. The series can be funny when it tries, and it never gets bad enough as to be unwatchable. Okawari fails to live up to the standard set by its predecessor, but it's not a bad series either. If the writers had concentrated less on unnecessary ecchi and more on humour, it could have been a winner.

“Minami-ke” and “Minami-ke ~Okawari~” are such hilarious series, each time I had watched an episode, I couldn't help but watch another one right away or watch one of the previous episodes again.
Focused on the daily life of the Minami sisters, Haruka, Kana, Chiaki and their many friends, it's a nice mix of a slice of life series rife with comedy and conversational banter between the characters, especially between Kana, Chiaki, Touma and Makoto.

It's a solid comedy that never fails to make you burst out laughing, which I can appreciate. While the series is mostly carried by the antics of Kana and Chiaki, and how ... their elder sister haruka has to deal with them, I also particularly enjoyed the episodes where their friends Touma and Makoto were prominently featured. Both school friends of Chiaki, Touma is a tomboyish girl that is branded by Chiaki as her 'brother' and most often goes around pretending to be a boy, Makoto is a wimpy boy from Chiaki's class who through circumstances cross dresses as a girl -and starts liking it to boot-. The humorous situations arising from their combined cross-dressing proved to be more entertaining than the main character's silliness at times. I did miss Touma and Makoto more in the latter half of “Minami-ke ~Okawari~”, they are featured less prominently among the Minami sister's many friends (and Touma's brothers disappear altogether in this season).
It also made Touma and Makoto slightly more original characters since the Minami sisters themselves are more stereotypical, the eldest sister Haruka is the perfect housewife with good looks and great academic skills, the middle sister Kana is the lazy troublemaker who will constantly tease the youngest sister Chiaki, who is a very serious bookworm that greatly admires Haruka. It's made clear throughout the series that regardless of their character, all of the Minami-ke sisters became who they are out of affection for their sisters.

Both seasons were done by different production studios so there is a clear difference in character design, but this didn't bother me at all, especially not since both animation styles kept the 'serious' face mode the characters sometimes are portrayed in. (Instead of chibi facial expressions sometimes observed in other series, here their faces will become more realistically styled giving them an absurdly serious undertone compared to the light-hearted and silly content.)
The different styles for both series gives a unique feel to each season which would else not be remarkable since they aired back to back and contained mostly episodic plots and events. For both “Minami-ke” and “Minami-ke ~Okawari~”, the animation itself is good, it never particularly excels but also never drops in level, it remains solid throughout all episodes.

While the soundtracks are more unremarkable and are typical for comedy series, the opening song 'Keikenchi Joushouchuu' of the first season “Minami-ke”, sung by the main seiyuu is a very catchy and happy-go lucky track that fits the series very well.

Both “Minami-ke” season were fun from start to end, so if you're looking for a good laugh, you might want to check this series out.

Story (6/10)

Okawari follows on from Minami-ke starting the morning after New Year and once again follows the lives of the three Miname sisters as they enter their third semester.

When an anime changes studio’s it’s always worrying, especially on the back of such a successful first series. These fears are realised in Okawari and there are large differences in story styles between the first and second series. Firstly Okawari plays a lot more on the slice of life genre, whereas the previous Minami-ke had some ridiculous, but none the less hilarious moments (Who can forget Kana tying Chiaki up to ward off the rain), this ... series tones down the ridiculousness and concentrates more on the character interactions. Also changed are the episode styles, whereas in the first series each episode was split into miniature stories, Okawari dedicates the entire episode to one storyline.

This may not seem like a bad thing and there are plenty of series that pull it off but whereas the first series jumped from incident to incident with little need for build up, Okawari has to build up each joke and follow it up with some relevant storytelling to get to the next laugh which is a little long winded. I found this especially hard during the 7th episode when Kana continually foils Chiaki’s good work and actually got me annoyed at Kana’s character. Kana was probably my favourite character from the first series and for it to turn round to me actually finding her irritating is a prime example of bad storytelling. There have also been a few losses in the studio takeover with the rest of Touma’s family disappearing (I thought Natsuki and Haruka were getting on nicely) and the addition of a new next door neighbour who does nothing for the storyline and is a pretty pointless character.

However much I may complain that the story isn’t up to the excellent standard of the first series, the majority of the storylines are decent themselves, and it still provides a good laugh from time to time, with the addition of some fan service from the girls (not that I felt the series needed any of it) in the traditional onsen sketch and then on every occasion the girls get to jump in the bath.

Art (9/10)

I have to admit, I fell in love with the first season’s ‘soft art’ (serious poses aside) so I was worried to see what the new studio would change. It’s a pleasant surprise then to find that without notable exceptions the artwork is still the same soft art styling as before, and does contain the serious posing. What the new studio has added to the anime is better backgrounds – Okawari has lots of small unnoticed background objects that look like they should be in focus and also takes place in far more locations than the first series all of which are animated beautifully.

My main complaints stem from character design changes and one of the biggest one for me being a layout change to the Minami household. The first shot of the first season shows each of the girls waking up in their respective rooms, whereas somewhere lost in the time which is New Year is the wall between Kana and Chiaki’s room. They have been shifted into a smaller room separated by a curtain which doesn’t really make sense from a continuity or production viewpoint. Secondly are the character changes to the eyes and hair, the eyes are given more depth and more colour – but I was seriously put off when viewing Haruka’s eyes turn red (I checked back in case I had missed something and they were definitely light brown in the first series), the hair also is given brighter colours and even two tone colours – Chiaki’s hair turning from Haruka dirty blonde into some blonde/dirty brown two tone combination which just looks weird.

Once you get used to the changes you hardly notice them, but for the first few episodes it does sometimes take your attention away from the story when you are trying to figure out if someone on screen is a main character which it will be if they don’t have a blacked out face. The credible art of rendering additional background characters to a high standard, with lots of variety is utterly defeated when the studio isn’t going to actually add in facial features and just blacks out the rest of the character. It looks really odd, and just doesn't fit it with an otherwise fantastically animated show, ruining what is almost a perfect mark.

Sound (7/10)

All of the voice actors have stayed the same, so there is no change in the characters. The OP doesn’t really work well with the series I don’t feel, it’s not quite lively enough for the series nor is it catchy enough, it’s alright but a lot of songs out there would have been better choices for the OP. The ED is better than the OP but again doesn’t really catch the essence of the series which is a bit disappointing, the animation sequence with Kana wiggling her bum as she walks is a bit odd as well, there’s just something not quite right about it. The background music throughout the show is the same brilliant work as in the original however and sets up the jokes well.

Characters (8/10)

The main characters all stay the same and are all brilliant. The only completely new character in the series is Fuyuki, who moves in next door to the Minami’s and is such a disappointing character. He’s a restrained good guy type character, always doing things for other people etc but he never really makes an impression on the series at all, even though he may be mentioned or involved with more than half the show you never actually miss him or want the girls to become distracted with him.

As for the cast from the previous series we get a lot more Touma, Fujioka, Hosaka and Makoto (mainly in the guise of Mako-chan), with the banter between the characters bringing the extra dimension that was in the first series. Gone however are the rest of Touma’s Minami’s which I thought was a shame as I liked Natsuki’s character as a counterbalance to Hosaka’s weirdness.

Enjoyability (8/10)

With the new episode format and the move to a more slice of life type show I think that a little bit of the Minami-ke charm has been lost in the mix, it’s just not as fun to watch as the first was. However comparing it to what is probably the most enjoyable show I’ve watched recently is perhaps not very fair, Okawari is still very fun to watch and the escapades in which the characters get into as still very enjoyable to watch once you get over the new styling.

Overall (8/10)

If you break the scores down its actually 7.6/10 but I really felt that Okawari was probably more than one mark away from the original (which I gave a 9), while still being good in its own right. In the end what brings the score down is the changes involved in the story, with the story focusing more on slice of life than humour the enjoyment of the series decreases, and the addition of Fuyuki is detrimental rather than positive. It’s still a good show and if you enjoyed the first series then I would recommend it, but with the warning that it is not Minami-ke as you know it.

Upon going into season 2 of Minami-Ke (Okawari), you will first notice that the most noticeable change has come from the art style, it's been almost "re-done" from the first season. However, most of the content that it has should be familiar to the Minami-Ke fans out there.

The story seems to have picked up sometime later from where season one ended. Since this is a "slice of life" anime it has to be rated on its episode by episode plots. Her we find ourselves partaking in the daily lives of the three Minami sisters, who live alone in an apartment. The story will range from ... one of the supporting male members trying to confess their love for one of them, to the girls having problematic trouble at school. This season seemed to be a bit more outgoing than the first one, and has a lot of episodes taking place outside (where as the first seemed to be limited more to their apartment and/or school). One important aspect that this title makes sure to do with its story, is keeping the audience entertained. This is especially true with "the slice of life genera." And I am happy to say that Minami-ke does it very well. The situations that occur can be down right funny at times. Kana is probably the funniest of the anime, she is so random and says things that might fly over the viewer’s head, its the kind of humor that is intentionally not suppose to make sense though. (especially since her sisters don’t get half of them either) Now its not all left up to this one character to keep the episodes funny, as Miname-ke is also complimented with a very funny supporting cast. I was pleasantly surprised to see the "Makoto cross dressing" running gag still going on. Unsurprisingly there isn’t any real end to this season, as you could pretty much place the final episode anywhere in the count and it wouldn’t matter. But that won't come as a surprise if you are familiar with the whole slice of life theme. Some jokes in the series were not as funny as the original, while some came out even better.

Miname-ke Okawari doesn’t push any envelopes with its content, but does include some "brief ecchi-ness" on episode one, that may raise an eyebrow with younger children. Nothing over a PG rating though.

As I said before, the art has been changed, and I feel that this was totally unnecessary to do and makes it feel a bit awkward when going into it, (though you do get use to it eventually). The series still retains it's soft anime art style, and that is how it can be best described as..."soft art." For some reason the characters mouths seemed to stand out, because of their more triangular shapes, they almost would remind me of rabbits...or perhaps fish. (maybe its just my own imagination) One thing I found to be kind of creepy, was when ever on of the sisters would get into a more serious mood, they drew them like evil eyed adults. Not sure why they did this, it seemed a bit out of place and unnecessary, and felt a tad over used in the end.

Both closing and opening themes are port-raid in a happy up beat song (yet a bit more somber than season 1). The background music is pretty sparse as expected, many scenes occur with no tracks at all, trying again to appeal to a more relaxed feel. When it does play some it comes in the form of a soft "piano style" melody, I really liked it! The only bad part about the tracks is that they have been recycled from season one, and I don't recall hearing anything new with it. The best part though is the character voices, all of them fit well with one another and I couldn’t find one out of place with the character. And yes, the original voice cast has returned for this season.

In any slice of life anime the characters are a crucial part of the series, you can’t enjoy it unless you like them. Thankfully these three sisters each have their own likable personalities; which range from out going (Kana), to very discrete (Chiaki), to some where in the middle. (Haruka the eldest) Some people may be turned off some what by Kana, since she tends to like doing things her own way, and does seem to interfere with situations at time, but nothing major. The only real bad thing I can think of regarding the characters, is that since this is a comedy title-- many of them (the supporting cast) tend to act like one another, and some of them we never really get to know who they are. To help with this though, the more unique supporting characters do get pretty good spotlight time, as the anime will tend to shift to their situations at times. Which was nice, and won’t make you feel like you’re just watching the three sisters all the time. New characters have also been added to the mix, such as a new next door neighbor. Out of all the characters "Chiaki" was the only one who had been a bit changed as far as personality goes. As she seems to be a bit more "nicer" in these episodes. Yet nothing too extreme, she still retains that personality of- "a 70 year old man, trapped in a 10 year old's body."

"Minami-ke Okawari"did have some hit and misses, a good number of episodes were funny, and some not as much, but it overall came together and shouldn't disappoint the fans out there. It's a nice title if you’re in the mood for a more realistic sense of humor. The characters aren’t particularly deep and not all episodes are the most funny. The cast are a likable and funny bunch though, and should capture your hearts when it's over. If you have already watched the first season (or are a fan of slice of life anime with comedy), then I recommend trying this one out.

I wrote this review after finishing season 3 (Okaeri), and yes, as much as I don't like to point cons to anime such as this, this needs to be settled.

Minami-ke fans know much of what season 1 offered: the Kana-ness, Chiaki-ness, and Haruka-ness that we all enjoy---and to which, almost none of this existed on this season.


Story = 6

Story picked as much as where the season 1 left. Not much to say, but it has its first flaw when we keep seeing "hot spring baths" and "less censored, more skin-showing" on its first episode. Not only that, but we keep seeing those in the further ... episodes. Minami-ke is not that wholesome, but animators know what not to show. Here, the second season seemed to have taken a different route, tried to allure the viewers of what fanservice is all about. Still, Minami-ke fans know better, and there are fans who still enjoyed this show, but we have to ask: what happened to the "Minami-ke" that we all know?


Art = 6

I'll give credit to the CG-oriented artwork, as much as it is better in technical-saying, it just didn't spark the "Minami-ke-ness" of the entire anime. This kind of artwork is suited for other anime, they'll do wonders with them, but not with Minami-ke, where we know what the first season just offered to us.


Sound = 7

The sound created new tunes, and they're good, really, just that the opening and ending song seemed like it's coming from Shuffle! and Shakugan no Shana. As the music is one of the identities in maintaining the good ambiance of the anime (like listening to Kotoko makes you think of Hayate no Gotoku), the new tunes of Okawari just didn't settle it.

Character = 5

At first, I thought that the characterization was applied with G&D (Growth & Development) for the characters, like Kana and Chiaki on their peak of puberty, and Haruka on her coming-of-age. But with season 3, it just went off saying that characterization in Okawari turned to be an "out of".


Enjoyment = 5

It was actually grueling. I can forgive this entire storyboard if it's used in a whole different anime, but with Minami-Ke, it's like there were a lot of elements you just miss out from the original.


Overall = 5

Minami-ke Okawari is a needless-to-watch season of the entire Minami-ke series. You could say that by the looks of it, maybe some writers/staffs planned to introduce Minami-ke with some ecchi and fanservice benefits---the kind of elements in anime I just loathe and hate. Best way to say it, you can forget Okawari and just jump right to Okaeri and you would not miss a thing. Okawari can be treated like an entirely different anime, every element (plot and character-wise) of it went out of the window. It went far from the original Minami-ke concept, tried to go on a different approach, but with the season 3 taking the original concept back to it, the Okawari season is just isolated--and maybe that's a rather good thing. You can rather forget this season ever exist in Minami-ke, and just go and enjoy yourself to Okaeri, the third season of Minami-ke.

However, for Minami-ke fans, you can still watch this season to complete the entire series. Maybe at one point you can just forgive the changes made in Okawari, and just let yourself laugh along with it. There are a lot of things to look forward in the season 3 after all.

The animation's better, as is the conclusion. That's all I feel I can say in favor of this season over the previous one. In every other way, Okawari falls short; not even the promise of gratuitous fanservice could help (which, by the way, the first season did just fine without). Not to say that it was bad. If you enjoyed the first season, then watching this one is the next logical step. Just don't expect any of the free-form plot progression that made Minami-Ke so outstanding. Apparently in the span of time between then and now the writers figured such unique pacing* was a bad ... thing, and proceeded to eleminate almost all trace of it. Furthermore, what plot is there feels recycled and tedious, even uncomfortable in some cases. The character development feels forced and unneccesary where it could instead have been pleasant and rewarding; the addition of a new character is well done, but seems to come at the cost of overlooking other promising minor characters from s.1 (why is the female boncho in the opening credits, but only appearse in one episode?). Lastly, there's the tone, which seems claustrophobic where season 1 was welcoming and comfortable, an effect no doubt aided by the fact that the show now takes place in winter. In conclusion, (I really do need to end it here or else I'd go on all night) it's okay, and even then only for people who're already fans.

*okay, so it's a bit like Lucky Star, but there is a subtle difference.

Minami-ke Okawari “second helping” is the second instalment to the series minami-ke which is all about jokes revolving around 3 sisters and their friends.

What you are going to get in this series, are all the usual jokes/pranks which is simply entertaining and all the silliness from all your favourite characters, but also the running gags from first season which become increasingly tiring to watch not to mention plain as well as the lacking of new material. You will soon realize that this “second helping” is more than you can eat and like myself, will struggle to find reasons completing the series.

Unlike its predecessor, ... the material in which all the jokes take place are no longer new for the most part which (as much as we might want to finish the series) requires too much willpower to finish it rather then being simply interesting like the first season.

Another thing is that the opening track also sounded out of place. The song seemed more fit for an action type anime, (you know, with like epic battles and possibly mechas) but was inserted as the opening for a Comedy/Slice of Life which didn’t exactly put me into the “laughing” mood. This is crucial as I am someone who would enjoy the opening just as much or more then the actual anime if it sets the mood well (or vice versa if the opening was terrible). Not to say that im "judging a book by its cover", but I would've enjoyed the series more if the OP was more appropriate.

With the lack of more new material, and the seemingly odd opening, Minami-ke Okawari lacked the attention grabbing and interesting elements the first season had, which I found hard to swallow as I feel like I am about to finish running a marathon. All redeeming qualities of this anime are staples found in the first season (for example: its simple humour which can be found in all of Minami-ke) so there isn't anything new. In the end, this second instalment wasn’t as “delicious” as its first.

Season two of the hilarious comedy series Minami-Ke had a lot to live up to but fell completely flat. It's hardly a comedy anymore and the "story" of their mild daily life is incredibly boring.
The art is relatively okay, but a show focusing on cute girls would be dead in the water without passable art. All background characters are inky black shadow people and they changed Chiaki to a blonde. Sadly the serious faces are gone with the jokes as well.
At the very least the music includes the usual happy tunes that you would find in a slice-of-life show. Truthfully it's probably the best element ... of this season.
They added a Milhouse-type character that doesn't do anything or go anywhere, and moves away at the end. What a waste of time!
BOTTOM LINE: Minami-Ke is a great show, but here's a tip- you can skip Okawari and be just fine. Season 3 is slightly better and season 4 is on par with the amazing first season, so if you want to cut the cruft then give it a miss. But if you love the Minamis unconditionally, go ahead and give it a try... just don't say I didn't warn you.

The first thing I have to say is that I'm not an English speaker, so please excuse my English mistakes.

It's the first time I write something about an anime on MAL, but for "Minami-ke Okawari" it has to be said:

*** Stay away from this anime! ***

I really enjoyed the first season which I completed in two days, it was so fun. The next day I was really excited about beginning the season 2, but a bit worried about the change of studio. I couldn't imagine how right I was to be worried...

First things first, the art. Many reviews here are saying the art is more ... or less okay, and even better than in season 1. I couldn't disagree more. The character design of the first season has its flaws (weird triangular mouthes and sometimes some weird foreshortenings) but at least it was original (and nice). In the second season, the character design is generic as hell, seen about 10.000 times. All the characters looks the same. Asread even changed the color of the eyes, you can hardly recognise Haruka. In addition to that I think the use of colors is very bad (it was very nice in season 1).

Then we've got the animation. Better than season 1? Are you kidding? From the very beginning of the opening you can see seemingly CG drawn characters, walking with loops of about 3 frames per sec, and the animation is so bad (jumpy and unnatural) it hurts the eye. Wow, bad start. And in the actual show? It's the same, not good at all.

As for the "fun" stuff, do you remember the small strand of hair Chiaki has on her head? Well, now it's animated... Sigh...

And on top of this, you've got a Onsen episode at episode 1. Yes ladies and gentlemen, a fan service oriented episode right on the first episode of the season.

Usually I watch 3 episodes to make up my mind before deciding to drop an anime but this time I've had enough with one. Stay away from this show, especially if you enjoyed the first season.

Minami-ke Okawari is a continuation of the first season, and you probably won't enjoy Okawari if you haven't seen the first season. The majority of the animation/sound/characters/humor remains the same. I don't think I cried from laughing as much, but it was still hilarious.

There are little changes here and there. Chiaki's hair color has mysteriously changed and Kana has some crazy dog shirt instead of I AM BOSS, which made me sad. The detailed animation style for some scenes is more downplayed so it's not as weird. Chiaki sometimes seems cross-eyed in this season, which is disturbing like an itch ... on the bottom of my foot. Sadly, Ninomiya-kun has (apparently) been either killed by rocks or canceled from poor ratings. As compensation, Hosaka was much funnier, and is now trying to free himself from the constrictive nature of shirts.

Also a minor plus - it's easy for me to remember that this is the second season compared to a lot of other multi-season animes with different names.

When I finished the first season,I immediately started watching this.The first season of Minami-ke is great.The second one is not.

One of the biggest thing I don't enjoy is the anime original character, Fuyuki. He is gloomy as hell and he makes everything gloomy as hell. I thought this suppose to be a comedy,but I just can't get a good laugh when I'm watching this.

The other thing I don't like are the opening and ending.I'm not saying that the opening and ending are bad.They are actually great...if they belong to an action anime.They just don't fit in these "Slice of Life" anime.

There are still a couple ... things I don't enjoy in this anime.Overall,I would recommend the other seasons of this series.But for this season?No,if you want comedy.

Wow, after moving from the first season to this, I am glad to hear that the reason the comedy dropped, the seriousness increased, and is even there at all for that matter; and the characters face new personalities are all relating to a new production crew.

Yes, unfortunately, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away as we are faced with another season of Minami-ke that unfortunately delivers the entire opposite of what our expectations were expecting. Coming from a fan of the first season, a BIG fan at that for what it did, this season is just depressing in a lot of ways. So, as a ... first, I will change up my format and list the negatives first.

The art style. Man, I can not tell you how much I enjoyed the colors, scenery and everything about the first season, so for it to take such a drastic turn was so weird. I even knew this season was going to be entirely different when I saw a preview of it after the final first season episode, so I feared for the worst and patiently waited a month before even watching it, as I had a similar experience before when embracing the way a former season is when compared to the latter. And, that wait helped me a lot here.

To go into further detail, the art is even more detailed than it was before and looks very beautiful, but the colors and a few other aspects of it are displeasing to the eye in a way where you grew attached to something, only for it to be replaced with something "similar" in nature, but not in essence. The characters themselves also faced a change that I did not like at all. In the first season, their eyes were drawn uniquely different than most anime, but in this season, they follow the cliché of being big and colorful like most do it. And I mean, BIG, since their eyes were small, yet detailed and original in the first season, and very circular. Well here, they are literally carbon copies of generic anime eyes.

Since you are here, I assumed you watched the first season so character spoilers should not matter anymore and you are probably familiar with everyone by now, so I will address one character that I felt had the biggest change and then will go about it in minor detail of the others. I will draw a comparison of the first season counterpart as well so that you really know how much has changed.

Chiaki

Season One: A tsundere-esque type of girl, Chiaki is very intelligent for her age. However, she is extremely ill-mannered towards many people, especially her older sister, Kana.

In spite of this, she will ask Kana of adult matters that she does not know of, as Chiaki still retains the innocence that is befitting of her age. Kana usually answers comedically, much to the annoyance of Chiaki, but will answer respectfully on a few occasions.

She is a very lovable character in a lot of ways, including her weird faces that she randomly makes, the very nature of her personality that is similar to Kana's in a sense that she can be both rude and nice (which I love a lot as it is very rich in writing), but the difference with Chiaki is that she does so with specific people instead of randomly. The most notable is with Fujioka, of whom she sees as a father figure; bringing forth a subliminal serious back-story to the anime that was not ever foretold before.

Appearance wise, she has brown hair, a pretty lovable face, despite how angry it usually looks; and can actually look very cute at times. She for sure looks the most similar to Kana, as a sister should, in this season than ANY other season of this anime.

She also has a noteworthy running gag of always sitting on Fujioka's lap whenever he is over, to accommodate the aforesaid information about how she sees him. She always seems to find pleasure well sitting on him and expresses a very innocent face when doing so, well Fujioka does not seem to mind it since he was trying to grow closer to Kana's family, as to grow closer to her, and he already jumped the biggest hurdle by actually managing to have a similar respect as Haruka does to Chiaki as she never insults Fujioka in even the slightest way and always speaks to him with a smile, just as she does with Haruka.

Season Two: Ah, and the fun comes to an end. Okay, she did not change drastically in personality, but her art style is what really throws me off. As I mentioned before, the characters now have cliché anime eyes in that they drew them bigger, but Chiaki stands out the most with hers. Hell, her facial expressions and more are also effected by the new change in peepers as she does not feel the same as she used to here because of them.

If you actually were a huge fan of the art style in the last season, which I sure as heck was because of how different it looks from most anime, it is depressing to see Chiaki just be given a makeover to look like most generic anime. Her hair is now blond, though has brown tips; hinting that she perhaps dyed it that way, as it was brown in the prior season. However, her eyes now match her hair, hinting that she just got a gene change for this season in that she now inherits a heavy mix of the blond hair from her mother's side overall and little of the brown hair from her father's through the tips.

Appearance aside, her personality is not too changed, but she seems to have actually matured a bit here. She still treats Kana as rudely as ever, but she is more open to listening to her now (when Kana is being reasonable, that is) than she was before and even aids her in her comedy routines sometimes, which is actually quite enjoyable. However, to fit the nature of this season now having a somewhat dramatic approach to it, Chiaki also has some serious moments herself that come off as a bit harsh and change her character a bit, too.

For instance, we just assumed that her rude nature was due to her being afraid to express her true self, as she does whenever she is around her more mature sister Haruka, but whenever she is being serious and trying to help someone out, she still does it in the same manner here; and it is a major turnoff since I was hoping her character was not actually that rude when she was trying to assist others. But, unfortunately, this season made her that way.

I have not seen this particular season in a little while since I wrote up the reviews for this anime a bit late, but I still remember enough to have a clear enough grip on the two natures of Chiaki. If you watched the prior season, you will be disappointed with her here, but it shouldn't be a big enough bother to ruin the anime for you.

Outside Chiaki, almost every other character looks noticeably different as a result of this new art style. One I would like to point out is Fujioka, mentioned earlier, whom now has blond hair instead of brown. It is a bit longer, more rugged and noticeably different. His reputation of being the popular boy is still intact, though not as major as it was before; and one of his followers brings forth the first love triangle of the series, and strangely the other follows of his disappear shortly after; and goes on to become one of the main cast members later on, alongside being a further hindrance to Keiko whom already has to put up with Kana's shenanigans as it is.

One note on the anime itself are the activities. It appears that they really did embrace the slice of life genre in that now the characters have much more active school lives than they did before; even having actual events in a few of the episodes, which took away from the casual feel a bit. It is also a bit disappointing that it resorted to adding in further anime cliché to try and make up for the new change in crew, rather than the usual, already enjoyable comedy of the first. But, I did not hate the events. They just felt a bit off.

On a mixed note I will throw in between the negative and positive. they made Haruka more of an authority figure in a more stern way in this season. They gave her red, menacing eyes and her hair has appeared to embrace the blond gene like Chiaki's did. One episode, notably, turned Haruka into a steaming powerhouse where, as implied, she punished Kana and Chiaki for something very simple to the point where the whole episode turned black and white and it got very disturbing. And then, you know, fades out to the credits shortly after. Overall, Haruka just became more aggressive and it was unfitting of her calm character.

Now, with all that out of the way, it is time for my favorite part: the positives. You may be wondering: why was the humor never mentioned? I did say they added drama, and I said they have new people making this season, but I never said the comedy changed. Yes, fortunately, the anime is STILL as funny as ever, though you now have to put up with actual negativity in this season than the none that you did in the first. Simply put, the delivery of the comedy is still really good, though now has to deal with some drama parts and a few other unnecessary bits here and there.

Most notably, every episode is now a whole episode instead of a segment show, which is possibly one of the reasons why they added in drama to begin with. Also, on an unrelated note regarding appearances, many of the characters look their age a bit more in this season. Most notably, Chiaki, whom when standing next to Haruka in one scene from a zoomed out isometric perspective, actually looks her age this time around.

Can I recommend this season? If you're a fan of the first for its comedy alone, go for it as it is still very similar in nature to that. However, that I can remember right now, it abandons a lot of the traits found in the prior season. Most notably, the hilarious Ninomiya-kun segments, the episode introduction that warns you of the simplicity of the "Minami household" and a few other little comedy aspects. Lots of design changes, drama and just a small bit of other changes that you may or may not like. Regardless, it still feels the same mostly and it would not be a waste of time to check out. But, you will have to put up with a lot of change.

the 2nd season of minami ke left me feeling a little dissapointed....okay a lot disappointed at first for a couple of reasons. One of the reasons being the sloppy animation not only did the new producers change the way the characters looked completely they were so lazy that they didnt even draw faces of the random pedestrians in fact they were just black faced people with clothes and hair (extremely creepy). Another reason why i was disappointed is because this season just wasnt as witty and funny as the last one dont get me wrong it was pretty darn funny but just not as much. ... But dont get me wrong i still really enjoyed this anime actually the last couple of episodes were my favorite and had me just as excited as the first season. Overall i still think that minami ke okawari is a good anime it just that the sloppy drawings and not as gut busting jokes didnt come up to par with the 1s season.

This is the Minami-ke series in its sophomore slump.

Rather than following my usual template (characters, story, art, sound, enjoyment) I'll keep it brief, since this is a sequel.

Minami-ke Okawari feels like the Minami-ke series got a bit lost trying to go into a new direction. The first noticeable difference from the first season is the art style. The lines are all very hard and everything looks darker. Sure, the backgrounds certainly have more detail, but perhaps too much hard-lined details. The art overall seems out-of-place for the lighthearted comedy we grew to love in Minami-ke. There also seems to be a bit more fanservice, which ... takes away a bit from what the series means as a lighthearted comedy.

The episodic stories are quite varied and still involve a plethora of characters, however, it seems like this season lacks the comedy we grew to love in the first season. Opportunities for punchlines are missed. For example, Hosaka appears multiple times but nothing really happens with him.

The characters, Haruka, Kana, and Chiaki are more-or-less the same as they were in the first season, with Chiaki probably being the most different in her attitude towards Haruka.

All this being said, because the MC's are so likable, I still enjoyed this series and went on to watch the rest of the seasons. I wouldn't recommend this season by itself; I think it's required that one watches the first season before this.

Season 2 of Mninami K. This time, it actually has a pretty nice plot!!!

The last few episodes were actually amazing! It toyed with my emotions and got quite a bit sad actually. I cannot believe a comedic SoL anime nearly brought tears to my eyes it is amazing.

Plot: Mostly Comedy with the last 3 episodes bringing in a touch of depression. No spoilers.

But it is about 3 sisters who live without their parents. Chiaki, Haruma, Kana. They are the Minami's. They all co-exist together. Kana gets into all the trouble and is the most rowdy out of the bunch. Each sister also has their ... own friends, but Mako-chan is a boy who pretends to be a girl to be closer to Haruma. Honestly quite entertaining.

Animation: Better than S1

Music: S1 OP is better

Consensus: Its better than S1 in my opinion, very rarely is a S2 better than S1 but this did it! COngrats Minami-K!

Final Score: 7.5/10 rounded down to a 7.
Thanks!
-CyanCheetah

While the first season was your standard "Cute girls are doing cute things", second season is weird, and mostly from the directing and animation point of view. Strange pauses, transitions, views and movements kinda catch you off-guard. Yet because of that it's way more memorable and interesting to watch. It kinda breaks itself, but not to the point of being unwatchable, but just weird, a tiny bit surreal even.
Plot-wise also gives you a bit deeper things, but again, does not overstay it's welcome, and most of the time it's your average slice of life.
Definitely not for everyone's enjoyment, but definitely worth trying.