"This review is one that lightly describes the ordinary daily lives of the three Minami sisters. Please don't expect too much from it. Also, read in a bright room, and stay 3 meters away from your device while reading." — NextUniverse after getting some help from the Minami sisters.
Minami-ke is an anime that reminds me quite a lot of the days when I would sit down in front of a TV and watch whatever the hell Cartoon Network and other channels had. As much as I was an action-loving guy long ago, I did like the comedy that appeared so much. Countless funny shows going from "Chowder", "Foster's Home of Imaginary Friends", "Ed, Edd n Eddy", you name it, man I can even go as far as "Oggy and the Cockroaches". They were good times to live in, and Minami-ke only enforces the blessing of what may be considered an old-school comedy. It can be looked at as a reminder of what the past held in the comedy genre. The glory days of just simple laughs and giggles.
Narrative:
Minami-ke's story is like most s.o.l anime, even of the present, it develops as like how you would expect the family to develop, with funny encounters or relations resolving in unions of different characters for the series to share funny moments with. That is it, really. The other point of the narrative is that it is episodic, another thing s.o.l comedy anime is fond of using, but by no means it is performed in an awful way. I suppose the narrative of the anime isn't its strongest selling point, though considering the background of this just being normal humans doing funny human things, it isn't surprising, I am not trying to make this look bad but at the same time, it is nothing special. Only so much can happen in a "nichijou" themed anime. Everything just comes down to enjoyment on this end.
With characters, the chemistry is finer than wine. The realism is something to not be underestimated with these characters. Idiotic sister Kana + sharp mouthed Chiaki = ton of trouble between the two, with Chiaki constantly using physical force against Kana, and Kana lying to Chiaki about children beliefs and legends, like your average family with constant sibling feud every day on no end. Respectable hard-working sister Haruka acts as a successful role model for Chiaki, maybe on the more optimistic side of an average family but isn't one trope that is not realistic. Idiotic Kana and Haruka's teaching to make her into less of an idiot. The general family better one another for their own good. It is effectively your everyday family, but the simpleness is joyous to watch anyway. Maybe you can relate, maybe you can't, but I would imagine most people watching this understands why each character interacts with others as they do. Side characters are very enjoyable here as well, every side character who has had the spotlight isn't in the least bit forgettable. Hosaka, Makoto, Touma and the Minami brothers, to some extent Fujioka as well. Each of these individuals has their own quirk to make them stand out from the rest of the cast. Not all side characters are like the individuals I have pointed out, most of the time they are just there as background noise, but they don't contribute to a lot anyways. In any case, the characters are utilized well for a s.o.l of its kind.
Audiovisuals:
At first, with episode 1, the visuals really get you hooked, I remember it being wacky when needed to just make the atmosphere as silly as possible, camera movements helped enforce that. It works well, but it doesn't hold out for long. It is a little treat the team may have spent too much money on. I am not sure why such fluid and zany animation was used in the first 1 or 2 episodes and never again, but it just was. In the majority of things, however, the animation is livable to sit through, feel like your average mid-2000s, with the character design being in the same quality band. Though, for the funny scenes, character faces would improve in detail on a zoom up. Not a bad effect, reminded me like it was something out of Jojo. Maybe the character design was where all the money went.
Audio-wise and I have to say were rather creative. For some odd reason, it felt like, if 50s Disney and your favourite childhood comedy cartoon had their teams come together for a collab on the OST. Makes it more memorable to take along with, and even if you come out not remembering any sound, an imitation of what I had just described would probably be easy to do. In other words, this will stick. The OP and the ED are really catchy too, I just really want to point out however the ever so faltered end if the OP that gets me every time, just a few seconds longer to end it would have been well. But aside from that minuscule complaint, it is a decent listen. The seiyuus were good with conveying their characters, too bad there was no real moment to go all out. However, there were two odd scenes when a character started screeching. That was very well done and a highlight of the voice acting the show has to offer.
Enjoyment:
As always, comedy is a hit or miss. You may like it, you may not. Minami-ke isn't something that oversteps the boundaries, it prefers to stay in its mainstream techniques of a shell instead. That is not to say that the anime is so mediocre you would get bored of it. Most anime like Minami-ke are usually quite enjoyable to sit through regardless of how they try to make the audience laugh. In saying this, however, a few of the jokes in the anime are executed too slowly sometimes. It is like a bomb reaching zero and then actually exploding three seconds after. I am not sure if it is because the anime is old, maybe that was where the fault lied, but it takes a little perseverance to enjoy what should have been a well-timed joke. I did laugh here and there a lot though during this. The same may be true for yourself if you decide to watch this. All in all, the funny moments here and there are usually unspecial things you constantly get, but that doesn't stop this anime from having its own few original moments to share.
Overall - 6.4 (6)
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TLDR Review:
Story - 6: General funny situations of a "nichijou" type anime
Audio - 6: Like 50s Disney and your fav childhood comedy came together. Plus some good voice acting.
Visuals - 6: Standard 2000s animation and design, a few good animated parts to it
Character - 7: Great chemistry with the sisters. Like a real family from this world. Side characters are also memorable.
Enjoyment - 7: The laughs you can expect from your general s.o.l comedy
Overall - 6.4 (6)
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Well, I just picked this up one day for no special reason, was just looking for a change with all the seasonals about. This series seems like it won't be anything great with its sequels considering scores and structure. Though it is a series I would recommend anyway, general anime like Minami-ke are sometimes very underrated and just going over one like so for no special reason is something that may either push you to watch randomly more or simply enjoy simple things from the past, as the glory days were.
Now if you will excuse me, I have to go watch "Sensei and Ninomiya-kun" series finale.
