Anime review: "Minami-ke Tadaima"

Last weekend I finished watching "Minami-ke Tadaima". That is one of my favorite (well, favorite in its category) shows and I've been waiting fourth season from 2009. There has been one or two OVA's in the meantime, but this is a full 13-episodes season.

"Minami-ke" belongs to "cute girls do cute things" category, which means that you are either into this kind of anime or you probably hate it. It is not an extreme case like "Ichigo Mashimaro", but more toward "Azumanga Daioh" or "Lucky Star". This kinds of shows commonly have dominantly female cast, usually have light or slapstick humor, there is lots of talking and not much actions, and are definitely not to be confused with ecchi anime. "Minami-ke" is a typical example, depicting life of three Minami sister: Chiaki (in elementary school), Kana (in middle school) and Haruka (in high school), interacting between themselves and their numerous friends (mostly female). As is also common, they live alone, and there is not one single adult is this series. Haruka is motherly type, taking care of her younger sisters, an excelent cook, but with some secret flaws. Kana is usually the primary source of all troubles in the show; not that she is mean, but she is too curious, too impulsive and too outspoken for anybody's good. Chiaki is the youngest: phlegmatic and solemn, always at war with Kana and in awe of Haruka. It would be too much to describe the rest of the cast, which has grown quite large. Thankfully, there were no new additions in this season or it would become hard to follow who is who.

Since there is no plot here, "Minami-ke Tadaima" is just another round of the same - which doesn't mean that it is dull. Those who don't know anything about this series should try watching the first season, which is the best of the lot. Other seasons, including this one, are quite good, but as is usual, not as good as the original. On the other hand, I think that every fan of previous seasons will be very satisfied with this one.

As was in first season, each episode consists of four loosely connected stories, dealing with various subjects: vegetables, beach, Japanese folklore... And as usual, even though the show's main characters are girls, rare male characters bring the most fun: Hosaka, Fujioka, Makoto. Addition from last season, the other Minami family also has a good one, Natsuki. But Hosaka (and his unknown arch-enemy Hayami) is the king. I think that I laughed every time at him, sometimes even out loud. But Fujioka and Makoto come close, also.

The largest difference from previous seasons (at least as I remember them, which can be wrong) is that there are some fanservice scenes. It is nothing over the top (some cleavage or provocative clothes), but in show that had zero fanservice, few scenes are noticeable.

There is one thing that bothered me: this is the fourth season and everybody is still in the same class. Even though aging would mean the end of this series, I would nevertheless appreciate some time-continuity. In other case, show risks to become repetitive and tepid.

As usual, the show has very good design of characters and every detail is taken care of. Voice-acting is at the top, and of course, Hosaka's song is great.

But as it is, "Minami-ke Tadaima" is a worthy representative of franchise and I had a lot of fun with it. And I believe that this will be the case for most fans. If you like this kind of anime, then "Minami-ke" is your first choice.

Manga review: "School Rumble"

After some two weeks of reading, I have finished with "School Rumble" manga. I have watched the anime adaptation several years ago - it was one of the first anime I watched, and I still consider it as one of my favorite anime. This actually applies for the first two seasons - third one was composed of two episodes and left a bad aftertaste. So I had some great expectations from this manga, but at the same time I was dreading it would leave prove my memories false and diminish my experience of "School Rumble".

I can't say that "School Rumble" has any real plot. It is a love-polygon slapstick comedy following member of one class during their second high-school year. Two main characters are Tsukamoto Tenma and Harima Kenji: Tenma is a childish, clueless and not so good looking girl, while Harima is notorious and one of the toughest delinquents around - and he is hopelessly in love in Tenma. But Tenma herself is in love with Karasuma, a strange and expressionless boy from their class. He lead us to the second level of main-characters, which include him, Suou (one of three Tenma's best friend, beautiful and popular), Sawachika (another of Tenma's best friends, half-Japanese, blonde and also beautiful), Takano (yet another of Tenma's best friends, capable and elegant), Hanai (class leader, all proper and strict, but altogether a good guy) and Yakumo (Tenma's younger sister, one of the most popular girls in school, shy and capable). I won't list more characters because I would need several pages to mention all few dozen of recurring characters...

Main topic of the first several volumes are Harima's efforts while he try to express his love to Tenmna, while Tenma tries the same to Karasuma. Later focus changes more to the Tenma's misunderstanding (and she is full of those) where she belives Harima in love with Suou, Sawachika, Yakumo, Itoko (their teacher but at the same time Harima's cousin), Tae (a girl Harima meet during one of his frequent giving ups of life). All, all this is crisscrossed with love-problems of other girls (which may or may not include Harima) and other characters, and with short gags. Structure of the manga is such that every now and then there is a longer arc which describe a typical event like trip to beach (where Sawachika will see Harima naked), school sport festival (where Sawachika and Harima will save the reputation of their class), school culture festival (where Harima will be found in bed with Yakumo) and so on....

As for characters, there is really bunch of them. Since this is a shounen slapstick comedy, one cannot expect any real depth and complexity of them, but you can expect much hilarity. They usually have few distinctive characteristics that are used to draw laughter: Imadori like breast and Dojibiron (something like Power Rangers); Hanai is proper but can be challenged to extreme actions; Tougo is all extreme, Sawachika is a typical rich Princess, but has a surprising gentle side, and so on.

Appeal of "School Rumble" is coming from play between rooting that a guy finally gets a girl and rooting against him because you know that it's funny and if he ever catches it, then everything is over. The trick is in doing this but keep the originality and not irritating the reader - and it can't be said that "School Rumble" always succeeds in this. There are irritating parts (for me, most of the Tenma-Karasuma thing was irritating), but I liked most of it. I didn't like "trip to England" arc and found it really not funny. Also, I kept hoping for a different ending - I would be more satisfied if mange ended one or few chapters earlier. There are lots of slapstick jokes, misunderstandings, puns - I would usually snort at least once during the better chapters. And Harima can always cause an outright laugh ("Miko-chan...").

The art in manga is not really impressive, and the color covers were especially poor. But for such manga where its strength is in gags and dialog this is not so important. Dialog is often nonsensical and plot inconsistent, but they are hilarious. I had few occasions that I really couldn't follow the plot, like there were pages missing, but they are not often. Also, I noticed few differences from anime: like missing the explanation why Harima is in love with Tenma, although there is one in anime.

I really liked "School Rumble" mange and had a very good time with it. But all in all, I wouldn't recommend it - I would recommend the anime adaptation, and only first two seasons ("School Rumble" and "School Rumble: Nii Gakki"). Anime perfectly filters only the best parts of mange (the most it), it has a better art and it gives characters voices. But if you have watched anime and now are wondering what mange is like - it is good.

Anime review: K-On!!

Heh, I knew it was wrong to be smug about reading and watching only the good stuff. First "Elfen Lied" got visited by the Suck Fairy (got this term from Jo Valton at Tor.com) and now "K-On!!".

I usually don't stop watching anime in the middle of the show (I did it twice, I think).But I already knew I will not like this show after watching the first episode. But I decided to give it one more chance, to be sure. So I quit after second episode. It's not that this show is bad, but it failed to entertain me in any level. I decided that I don't watch 22 more episode of the show that failed to bring any kind of reaction from me in two episodes (it made me smile once, but that is not enough).

I just realized that I made one mistake: this is actually the second season, so maybe my experience would have been better if I watched the first season. Milk is spilled now, though.

Anyway, from what I gathered in these two episodes, "K-On!!" is one of those moe-girls anime with no plot. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against this kind of anime. "Minami-Ke" is one of my favorite anime, as is "Ichigo Mashimaro". I also liked "Lucky Star" and "Azumanga Daioh". This anime has a fairly good rating on AniDB, also. But for some reason, I just don't like this show. Animation was nice, but I didn't like the character design. Girls are in senior year of high school, but they are drawn as they are in middle school (stubby legs and flat chest). Jokes were not especially bad, but I just didn't laugh. Also, I didn't like one character: a blond rich foreigner; she was an exact copy of the kid in "Ichigo Mashimaro" (well, except older).

So, for my final judgment, I don't have it. If you like moe anime, try first season and if you like it, continue with it. But you don't need me for that. In the mean time, I will be waiting for next season of "Minami-Ke".