minami-ke, various faces
Categories: anime, episodic review, minami-ke
Tagged: minami-ke
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Mob Boss Haruka-neesama is amazing.
Another great episode. I love this new development that Haruka was the old mob boss (“banchou”) of Kana’s middle school. It fits Haruka nicely… I think all the “nice” girls in anime are much more interesting with a slightly sinister side, and Haruka just seems to have that ability to lead through power. Maybe it’s something she honed while raising Kana. I also enjoyed the cinematography of the episode that made it seem like a water-downed yakuza drama. When Haruka returned with the food for Mako-cakes, didn’t it feel like a yakuza meeting? Or at least Thanksgiving at the Sonozaki household?
Funniest Moments
I still remember Banchou-kun from Jubei-chan and the Lovely Eyepatch. He had a carefree attitude and a shirt that magically morphed its logo depending on the situation. He’s nowhere as amazing as Haruka-neesama.
When they first brought up the fact that the original mob boss graduated, I was thinking, “It has to be Haruka. Has to be.” It’s just a perfect setup and extremely nice symmetry with Shizuru. Yes, when I saw this scene, I was hoping for the “Banchou tried to molest other girls” scenario.
When they pulled back the curtain to reveal Haruka, I was already awash in a sea of giggles, much like Kana afterwards. The dichotomy between Haruka and Mob Boss Haruka seems fairly wide, but Haruka does have that “I’m saying this nicely, and you better do as I say” smile that reminds me a lot of pre-2000 Belldandy. Kana, though, sees both sides of Haruka, and she knows how wonderfully the title fits Haruka.
(One funny part that I almost overlooked due to the giddiness over Mob Boss Haruka was that Kana was chastising Fujioka about being the library and how she reads books sometimes… only she’s there to find a book for Chiaki. There’s nothing like riding one’s high horse… into the ground.)
Haruka-neesama is amazing.
Chiaki reminds me more and more of Lumiere. Though looking at middle school Haruka and high school Haruka, does it mean Kana will end developing like that? If so, Fujioka is a genius for trying to buy early, if only Kana would let him.
Death No-to!
Though I think Kana is the real mob boss. The way she “trains” Chiaki’s friends… well… it might as well be Bonta-kun instructing his yakuza comrades on how to rescue Chidori and Ren. Why am I making so many references to Full Metal Panic today… ?
“Don’t show us funny things.”
Brings back memories of Umisho! Good times, good times. Anytime a trap can remind me of Umisho instead of Otome wa Boku, it’s a small but significant victory.
(Pink dress? $15. Mascara, blush, eyeliner? $20. The odds that dressing up as Mako-cakes will scar Makoto for life thus requiring massive therapy? Priceless.)
Kana-sensei!
I’m not sure who I’d want more for a homeroom teacher… Kana-sensei, Sumeragi-sensei, Sanae-sensei, Shana-sensei, or Yomako-sensei. Mmm… each would be awesome in a completely and utterly different way. Some studio needs to remake Happy Lesson only with the four sensei that I presented earlier.
Enjoyed the Sensei to Ninomiya-kun bit this episode that made fun of series that recycles plot, since they’ve been recycling Sensei to Ninomiya-kun in Minami-ke. Though I still feel like it’s a dig on Sunrise and Gundam.
I think 29% of this blog’s audience wouldn’t mind being restrained like this.
(Takeru reminds me a lot of Keitaro. Probably not a good thing.)
From last time…
Haesslich: Haruka’s closer to Belldandy than Maria though – she lacks the latter’s tendency towards violence, something that got seriously toned down in the anime. She possesses the same quality of gentleness, one who’s a little oblivious to some situations even as she handles the overadoring/possessive little sister well. She’s warm, she’s kind, she’s perfect, and sweet. Mmm… Haruka-neesama.
O-ho-ho-ho. I think Maria is much closer to Haruka now, especially a Maria that has been peeped on.
zoupzuop2: Well, as great as Mako-chan looks, he’s just not up in the ranks against the likes of Mizuho-neesama. See, Mako-chan PASSES as a girl, but he does not EXCEL as one.
Excellent point. Only in anime can we come up with a plot where a guy pretends to be a girl and ends up winning the most girly pageant possible at an all girl’s school and have it more believable than warmachines that weigh significant tonnage can dodge laser beams.
(How many drinks would it take to get Mako-cakes from looking “passes” to “excel”? Or should I just not ask because I don’t want to know?)
Tim: I hate your spam protection, I’ve re-written this 3 times. Now I’m feeling uninspired. I’ll sum up my previous two posts. Why has nobody mentioned the 24 references?
You can try reloading the page before writing the comment. I used to get 100,000 pieces of spam a month, and with just the math protection, I’m down to like 100. The number of valid comments is finally above the number of spam comments. And you can only imagine the bandwidth all that spam sucks out… I hate comment spam, but I think most bloggers do.
(My bad on the 24 references. I was too focused on Mako-cakes… I’m probably too focused on Mob Boss Haruka this post… oh well… )
Xeifa: I’ve always thought that if Minami-ke were to solely feature the sisters, without Kana the show would pretty much end up the same as the Aria eps featuring only Akari and Alice: boring as hell.
That’s kinda like saying “if only Full Metal Panic only focused on the mecha and cut out Chidori, it would be like just any other mecha series.” I’m not sure if that’s a fair litmus test since most anime fall apart if you cut out 33% of the main core. I think you need to use the VORM (Value Over Replacement Moe) principle, instead of cutting out Kana, what if we replaced her with an equivalent crazy? How would Ichigo and her feast improve or degrade the show? How would Rena? How about Miki Onimaru? How would Shinn Asuka? It’s hard to imagine any replacement crazy doing a better job. It’s not like if you swapped Patricia Martin with Konata, I don’t think Lucky Star would become much worse whereas Minami-ke would get worse with a Kana/Rena swap. Kana’s role is actually a hard one to fill, balancing between lovable sister/stupid sister/irrational sister/punching bag sister.
(I think Potemayo would do a tremendously better job than Haru as Lockon’s support mecha. I think I’ve mentioned this many times already, just not in a Minami-ke post yet.)
Syaoran Li: Episode seven is made of win! “Mako-chan is so cute….†somebody has to said it right?
Yep… these are my readers.
22 Responses to “minami-ke, various faces”
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Did Haruka-neesama with the bat remind everyone else of Nekoseed Rena from Higurashi ?…if this show had more killer lolis, it would be my ALL-TIME favorite
The way its going, Uchida will soon be ruined for marriage. And if you think about it, she can only blame Haruka.
FYI, there IS a trap in Umisho… they just never got that far in the show.
It’s one of Amuro’s brothers. (http://i63.photobucket.com/alb.....05_116.jpg)
When I watched the ep I got the impression that Haruka wasn’t really mob-boss-ish, but that her natural authoritativeness from raising two siblings showed through in her class rep duties and rumors spiraled out of control from there. Guess I’ll just have to re-watch it (not like that’s a bad thing).
I for one thank you for all the FMP references–they remind me that I still have TSR sitting on my shelf untouched. I’m mad at myself for choosing to watch Gilgamesh over that… although that one was *almost* worth it for the chance to watch it MST3K style and shout things like “Way to kill your sister with your penis!” at the screen.
>> O-ho-ho-ho. I think Maria is much closer to Haruka now, especially a Maria that has been peeped on.
Ah, but wasn’t the rub here that most of this stuff was what the one girl thought but the reality was completely different? Where she was basically more Hinagiku than Kuzuha Kirika? In that case, she’s less Maria (whose school history has been superior, and whose self-consciousness is far, FAR higher than Haruka’s has been – I don’t see Maria casually stripping in front of just Nagi, and the only time we saw her even thinking about this sort of thing in the anime was during that whole dream sequence about what a arranged date was like… if said date was set up by someone with a meido fetish).
Now, the Death Glare she gave Kana when her culinary talents were questioned… THAT is more Maria, especially if you’ve read up to Volume 7 in the manga (where she goes Iron Chef). Belldandy would just smile and nod, then prepare something to crush the competition… all without any ill will – it would just happen. You know, sorta like it was the will of a Goddess. That, and Belldandy wouldn’t have let four schoolgirls pin a guy while stretched across his legs and arms – she’d have found some other way to keep him clear while verifying data. That, and Maria would have the SP’s do it. ;)
Although I love the plot for Sensei and Ninomiya-kun… it’s almost like they had a writer’s strike there too, minus the picket lines.
>> Did Haruka-neesama with the bat remind everyone else of Nekoseed Rena from Higurashi ?…if this show had more killer lolis, it would be my ALL-TIME favorite
No, she reminded me more of a demon than a killer loli. I personally liked the current Banchou more than the Demon Haruka from the dramatic flashback. She’s horribly cute and a little crazy, without veering into Kana-needs-some-Ritalin territory.
“I think 29% of this blog’s audience wouldn’t mind being restrained like this.”
You got your numbers wrong, it should be 96.666% (repeating of course). The rest are just hardo-gay.
Oh, speaking of costume raping, Ninomiya-kun 8 has some good stuff going on.
@ PS
I should not be taking this bait, but whatever…
Hardo-gay? I think that being restrained by jail bait would make me feel much more nervous than it would otherwise. Add roughly ten years to their age on the other hand…And I believe Jason was referencing the people that liked Chiaki the best as the 29%. And is the 96.666(bar notation)% the amount of straight people in the world? Or lolicons? Wherever is that statistic from? Wikipedia?
Jason, you’re being unfair with Mako-chan; she has the right to be adored for all those DFC lovers over here. Damn it, where did I put those ribbons again… oh well…
Why do I get Maya Natsume vibes from the first Haruka screencap?
@Nobuharu
=_= it’s obviously a randomly made up number, and I’m sorry for my careless comment, seems like I’ll need to do research and include a 12 page long bibliography before posting lol. But I’m still pretty sure more than the 28% who voted for chiaki wouldn’t mind being restrained lolis.
When I watched the ep I got the impression that Haruka wasn’t really mob-boss-ish, but that her natural authoritativeness from raising two siblings showed through in her class rep duties and rumors spiraled out of control from there.
Yeah, that’s the impression I got too. Haruka definitely has Power and Authority, but her exercising that power doesn’t come off as sinister to me at all. As shown by the flower vase incident at the end of the episode, it’s likely that all the rumors of her breaking windows and beating up students were all misinterpreted circumstances blown out of proportion. I would say that Fujioka inheriting Haruka’s title of Mob Boss is appropriate because like Haruka, Fujioka is a nice, sweet person who got stuck with the label because of a misunderstanding.
Come to think of it, Fujioka has many traits of a younger, male (and of course less awesome) version of Haruka. He has the same hair color, sweet personality, athleticism, cuteness (especially when blushing), and “parent-ness” (something which Haruka herself noted) as Haruka. And Chiaki adores him too. Kana should totally hit that, just not with a kick.
Oh, and I agree that the real boss is Kana. She even has the shirt.
@ PS
Touche. I think you have a point, and I shall bow out before I dig myself a deeper grave.
Just to settle this, the 29% does refer to the 29% that voted for Chiaki. You can check the previous poll results under Archives -> Old Polls.
“Tim: I hate your spam protection, I’ve re-written this 3 times. Now I’m feeling uninspired. I’ll sum up my previous two posts. Why has nobody mentioned the 24 references?”
Select all, copy, submit. If you get the death page, go back, paste, type in the new sum, and resubmit. Problem solved.
Haruka-banchousama was amazing, of course, but I think my favorite part was watching Kana hold off her Harukagasm long enough to bully Keiko-chan out of her notebook. Good times, good times…
And the more I watch this series, the more I think that if you replaced Kana with Onimaru Miki, it’d take a few episodes for people to notice.
Mascara, blush and eyeliner totally costs more than $20. I give you props for trying, though.
Hey! I contributed something worth mentioning to DbD! What a thought. :3
AND! Regarding drinks: Compared to the number needed for Mizuho (0), you’d need a VERY fast, very-many-digit-hosting calculator. And more straight-up whisky than you’d EVER thought imaginable.
The issue was me forgetting to fill it in, so why would I remember to copy what I wrote if I couldn’t remember to fill it in?
Also, I’m disturbed by the lack of Chiaki in the last two episodes. We need more teru-teru-bozu, we need more killer techniques, we need more ruined for marriage Uchida, and more Mako-chan mental scarring.
But I’m still pretty sure more than the 28% who voted for chiaki wouldn’t mind being restrained lolis.
I voted Haruka. Even tho I visit 4chan, for as long as a Russian who lived in a nuclear submarine waste, it didn’t turn me into a closet lolicon.
So I kinda understand why some people resent your statement.
I seriously approve of Mako-chan(cakes) and I approve of Banchou Haruka.
“The issue was me forgetting to fill it in, so why would I remember to copy what I wrote if I couldn’t remember to fill it in?”
Ah, I’ve gotten to the point where so often I forget to feed whatever the spam filter is for whatever site I’m on, or (especially) take too long posting and it times out, or whatever, that I’ve taken to doing that copy/paste thing on whatever site I’m posting to, and it’s become second nature. Just get in the habit of doing it, and eventually you’ll have worked your brain enough that you’ve stopped forgetting whatever it was that kept you from posting.
At which point, if you’re anything like me, you’ll stop with the copy/paste thing (since you don’t need it anymore), and promptly drop back into whatever forgetful habit it was that was keeping you from posting, and will have to start all over again. It’s a vicious cycle…