If you’ve been watching Minamike and/or Minamike Okawari, you know Hosaka: the buff, sweaty bishounen who has yet to actually succeed at interacting with any of the Minami girls…except in his imagination.

His sheer goofiness has led him to be something of an Internet meme, so it’s perhaps no surprise that he is now going to be the mascot of an award created by Koibito Anime, a husband-and-wife anime blog.

Officially called “The Weekly - Funniest Scene Not Involving Hosaka - Award,” they are seeking nominees. So get to it!

Edit: Don’t believe me that Hosaka is big? Check out AkibaBlog’s coverage of the “Hosaka Festival” :D

• 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.

So we’re up to ~episode six in most series, which is the halfway point for the Fall season (though not necessarily the halfway point for each show). I figured I’d check in and talk about where I am with each show these days.

• Bamboo Blade: Miya-Miya owns the ass of every female character this season, hands down. Then again, it’s not like she’s up against a lot of competition. Status: Watching regularly.
• Blue Drop: The pacing is sooo slow, it took until episode three or four for anything to actually happen. But the promise of lesbians keeps me going. Status: Watching regularly.
• Clannad: I maintain that this show would be so much better if they would just ditch Nagisa entirely. Beyond that, I’m liking it better than I expected to. I do still wish that anyone looked somewhat close to how old they actually are / sound…but eh. Status: Watching regularly.
• Dragonaut: The Resonance: I can’t explain why I keep watching this show. I’m not really fond of the art style, the plot is pretty mediocre…and yet, I keep watching. I blame the boobies. Status: Watching regularly.
• Genshiken 2: Ogiue’s Sasahara x Madarama FTW. That is all. Status: Watching regularly.
• Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun: GOOO REIKA! GO GO GO! Mayu’s cute, but boring. Status: Watching regularly.
• Jyuushin Enbu: Story-wise it’s gotten better, but the art and animation are still incredibly mediocre compared to FMA, and the characters aren’t as cool either. Status: Watching every so-often.
• Kaiji: I’m interested in seeing where this goes, but running out of space on my anime plate for watching it. Status: Dropped for watching later.
• Kidou Senshi Gundam 00: Major improvements in terms of developing characters, but I think I still like the ending theme better than anything else about the show. Status: Watching regularly.
• KimiKiss: I like this show, and I think it’s because it’s a dating sim but not one that focuses on one guy and a dozen girls, but rather a group of friends (male and female) and their love lives. Status: Watching regularly.
• Kodomo no Jikan: Epic yet uncomfortable win. But I’ve ranted about this show being undervalued as mere pedo fodder enough, so suffice to say Status: Watching regularly.
• Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro: I would totally be watching this show IF ANYONE WOULD FREAKIN’ SUB IT. I’ve actually already seen people cosplay from the manga, and yet no one will sub the anime? Am I missing something? Status: Watching…if it ever comes out.
• Minamike: I like the show a lot, but almost all the comedy comes from either crazy middle sister Kana, or crazy Kana-like characters (Chiaki and Haruka each have a classmate with a similar dynamic). And Kana is never given the opportunity to have any redeeming features. Hmph. Status: Watching regularly.
• Moyashimon: This one’s a little behind, but I like it…though the agriculture 101 bits can be a little dull, the rest of the batshit insane stuff makes up for it. Status: Watching regularly.
• Night Wizard: I’m getting a little tired of Eris being the sweet, cheerful, flock-of-birds attracting Mary Sue, and annoyed at Renji being the show’s whipping boy with, like Minamike’s Kana, no real opportunity to redeem himself. Status: Considering dropping.
• Prism Ark: …One episode was really enough. Status: Dropped.
• Rental Magika: It got so boring in episode three I just couldn’t continue. Status: Dropped.
• Shinrei Kari / Ghost Hound: I still have some issues with the art style, but the pacing has picked itself up nicely and I’m curious to see where it’s going. Status: Watching regularly.
• Shion no Oh: Mmm, delicious trap, must eat. Status: Watching regularly.
• Shugo Chara! Mmm, delicious magical girl, must eat. This is probably one of the more solid shows of the season, IMO, though it’s obvious not for everyone. Status: Watching regularly.
• Suteki Tantei Labyrinth: Looks cute, but pretty dull– I’m more interested in the dolls than in anything to do with the main character. Status: Dropped.

• Title: Minami-ke
• Studio: Doumu
• Genre: Slice-of-Life Comedy

Ratings (out of 5):

• Story: ♥♥♥

• Animation: ♥♥♥
• Characters: ♥♥♥♥
• OP/ED Themes: ♥♥♥
• Overall: ♥♥♥♥ (Rawr!)
  

Thoughts:
Minami-ke is a slice-of-life comedy about three sisters– middle schooler Chiaki, junior high schooler Kana, and senior high student Haruka –by “Coharu” (his romanization, not mine) Sakuraba, the creator of Kyou no Go no Ni (”Today In Class 5-2″). For those of you not familiar with 5-2: it’s a goofy slice-of-life comedy featuring middle schoolers in all their combined innocence and perversion (especially the perversion).

Unlike the OVA of 5-2, though, Minami-ke is a normal TV series and is, at least so far, a bit on the toned down side in terms of how much it pushes sexual themes. Even Kana chasing Chiaki around in order to kiss her is more over-the-top silly than sexual. I really enjoyed 5-2 and so far I think I’m gonna like Minami-ke.

…That said, I think it’s a little unbalanced. Like all slice-of-life series, the show is character-driven, not plot-driven, which is fine. But as an introduction to the characters, the first episode is a little heavy on Kana and a little light on her sisters. It’s obvious why: Kana is a super-energetic, super-untalanted kind of character– think Tomo-chan in Azumanga Daioh. On the other hand, Chiaki is young, smart, mature, and even a little on the dour side– she doesn’t have a lot of patience with Kana’s energy. And Haruka is barely even there in the episode– all you really get of her is that she, being the oldest sister in a parent-less house, is pretty much a stereotypical mother figure: sweet, but firm.

Now, I like Kana and her wacky antics…but the previews and OP seem to show that the series is about all three. So I’m hoping that in the next few episodes we’ll see more of Chiaki and Haruka, and hopefully Kana will actually be seen having something vaguely resembling redeeming traits. I mean, so far she’s sort of like an anime version of Lucille Ball, but dumber.

Sorry I was a little quiet yesterday, but I’m working on a seekrit projekt. ♥ Here’s what’s up as of this morning:

The big news today is of an adaptation of Petit Eva, those cute little SD Evangelion figures that spawned some 4koma strips as ads recently. ANN beat me to the details, such as the fact that all the characters (including the angels!) are being developed into high school characters. Oddly, though, they say that it’s being “made into video,” not that it’s being made into an anime - the whole thing is still a little unclear.

While I’m on ANN, they have an interview with Arina Tanemura up. I love how the guy’s like, “I hear you’re a big fan of Morning Musume!” And she’s all “Yes, I’m a big fan!” and he’s all “ORLY!? ME 2?!” (…to paraphrase).

The Minamike anime adaptation (based on the manga by Kyou no Go no Ni’s Koharu Sakuraba) is set to start in October. Guess I’ll have to get cracking on a Fall Preview, eh?

For you dubaholics, a Red Garden trailer from ADV.

International Manga Award winner Madeleine Rosca has part three of her Japan travelogue up.

ComiPress has word on a new Ishino Arashi manga, and a new US manga-style advertising company.

Last but not least: this has got to be the coolest punishment for a cop ever.

Current Mood:  Thoughtful

A bunch of new anime has been announced recently, mostly presumably for the Fall season. I’m always so excited about new shows. I think it’s a combination of being able to announce them to fans, and also just the potential that’s there. Any of the shows could be the Next Big Thing, you know?

Anyway, some of the recent announcements…
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