First Date: Minamike ~Okawari~
Commentary, Winter '08 Series January 22nd, 2008Tags: first-dates, Minamike, winter-2007-8
- Title: Minamike ~Okawari~ (”Minamike ~Another Serving~”)
- Studio: Aslead
- Genre: Comedy
Ratings (out of 5):
- Story: ♥♥♥½
- Animation: ♥♥½
- Characters: ♥♥♥♥
- OP/ED Themes: ♥♥½
- Overall: ♥♥♥ (Is this show auditioning for the Ministry of Silly walks?)
Thoughts:
Is it a remake? A sequel? WHAT IS IT?!
Minamike ~Okawari~ is the winter ‘08 anime adaptation of the manga Minamike, but produced by a different studio than the fall ‘07 adaptation (fall’s was by Dome, this one is Aslead). It features the same seiyuu and also picks up where the last show left off– not that there’s a lot of continuity in this slice-of-life, but there are some aspects, largely Chiaki’s male classmate Makoto pretending to be a female in order to get close to Chiaki’s eldest sister Haruka, a fact that isn’t well-explained to someone who hasn’t watched the first season.
The setup of Minamike, if you missed it the first time, is three orphan sisters who live together: sarcastic, cynical elementary school Chiaki; hyper, over-the-top middle schooler Kana; and sweet and kind high schooler Haruka. These three have their own wacky sets of friends (like Makoto/Mako-chan, Kana’s somewhat dim classmate Fujioka who has a crush on her, Haruka’s would-be bishounen boyfriend who never gets around to actually talking to her, etc) and the series really focuses on the goofy interactions amongst them all.
Okawari continues this tradition, but the art style isn’t quite as solid (and is, I think, less representative of mangaka Coharu Sakuraba’s original work). Both the visuals and the timing pack a bit less of a punch than the first season, but it’s still pretty wacky fun. There’s plenty of “bakayarou!” in there for you, and this first ep is an onsen ep, so plenty of fanservice too.
And hey, how can a show with not one but TWO delicious traps ever fail? All in all, enjoyable if you liked the first season– but the first season was better, at least based on the first ep of the second season, so try and catch it first.
That reference to “silly walks” is about Kana, who walks very oddly at the beginning of the OP and then the entire ED video is her doing a super “hip” walk. It’s weird.
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January 22nd, 2008 at 1:57 pm
[...] First Date: Minamike ~Okawari~ The setup of Minamike, if you missed it the first time, is three orphan sisters who live together: sarcastic, cynical elementary school Chiaki; [...]
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I thought it was okay. Get’s the stamp of approval from me.
Aside from the funky face Makoto makes that one time, I was happy with the animation. I do like the pastel-ish colors of the original, but the voice actors in the same and the music is similar.