minami-ke vs. otome wa boku, dr jack style

Kinda scares me that I might be one of the more qualified people in the world to write this post. No… terrifies me.

(Wanted to get this post up a few hours before the voting starts for this match. Meanwhile, Mushishi vs. Higurashi is coming down to the wire. Ginko fans, do you think that pulp horror is really superior to your well-developed fables? Killer loli fans, do you want sappy morals or more stabbings? Vote! YES WE CAN!)

Tip-off

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Edge: Even

Meme Generation

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Mako-cakes! Banchou! Haruka is amazing! Broken by Kana!

Yet… not enough. I’m desperately trying to frame the comparison between the two series as a Haruka vs. Mizuho slugfest, but I know exactly what it’s going to degrade into once I use the line I originally used in otome wa boku ni koishiteru 1. So humor me for a few paragraphs before we get there.

Edge: Otome wa Boku

Playing Style

Minami-ke has a hyper-energetic comedic style that focuses on going for pops of laughter. Whether it’s Kana breaking Fujioka, Kana breaking Uchida, or Kana breaking Mako-cakes, there’s always something interesting going on. Otome wa Boku is at the opposite side of the spectrum that doesn’t try to necessarily go for the greatest comedic material but instead tries for gentler slice-of-life type of atmosphere. Both very different in this regard, but with so many slice-of-life series in the anime world, having a series as energetic and bouncy as Minami-ke is a treat. Even when Minami-ke slows down (like when Chiaki was kicking around a rock), it was still very enjoyable. Minami-ke is like the Spurs who can play fast and slow while Otome is more like Houston who can only play slow.

Edge: Minami-ke.

Starters

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Haruka, Kana, and Chiaki are a pretty strong trio. You’ve got a bit of everything. Haruka has the melonpan to play in the post like a Tim Duncan-type. Chiaki can hang around the perimeter and rain open threes much like Kyle Korver. Kana definitely initiates the offense from her 2001 Jason Kidd role, not to be confused with 2008 Jason Kidd.

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Mizuho and Mariya don’t have the same firepower as the Minami sisters, but Mizuho just bowls you over, much like Orlando Magic Shaq. Mariya is an above average tease, and does remind me of an aging Horace Grant playing alongside Shaq in Orlando.

Edge: Minami-ke.

Bench Contributions

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Otome wa Boku had Takako (an above average, but not top tier, tsundere), Shion (who was a below average sickly character), that ghost (the Steve Blake of anime characters), and the two DFCs (generic).

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Minami-ke has Hosaka, which is like having Manu Ginobili, Ben Gordan, and David Lee in one. I think I would have given the edge to Hosaka alone, but toss in Mako-cakes, Hayami, Uchida, Touma, Hoshino, and Fujioka… the closest NBA team I can think of with this level of talent on the bench is if the bench had Malone, Robinson, Laettner, Mullin, Pippen, Drexler, and Stockton. Uchida would most definitely be in the Laettner role.

(Mmmm… using the 1992 Dream Team analogies, and please tell me that a majority of my readers were alive back in 1992… I’d say Haruka would be Barkley, Chiaki / Bird, Kana / Magic with the bench described as above. Hosaka might be Pippen, but there’s no one who stands out as a Jordan except maybe Banchou Haruka. This is fun. For Gurren Lagann, Yoko would definitely take on the Barkley role, Simon / Jordan, Nia / Magic, Kamina / Pippen, Kittan / Clyde, Rossiu / Isiah, and Viral / Laettner. I know you guys are dying for a 2,000 word feature on this topic.)

Edge: Minami-ke

Coaching

I was impressed enough with Doumu to make them a top five studio whereas Feel is barely a step up from IMAGIN. It’s like seeing Popovich across from Isiah.

(Asread, of course, would be more of a Flip Saunders. Statistically and XO-wise not worse than Pops, but just doesn’t have the same demeanor or command or rings.)

Edge: Minami-ke

Facial Gimmicks

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Otome wa Boku had a lot of emo facial distortin’ chibis as its gimmick.

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Minami-ke pulled out the Bible Black faces and then pushed it to another level with Bible Black faces with blaxploitation music in the background. Andohbytheway, this character is supposed to be nine years old.

Edge: Minami-ke

Narrative

Otome wa Boku‘s concept really confused me. Why would any “guy” dress up as a woman just to fulfill “his” grandmother’s wishes? It made no sense to me. Unless “he” wanted to score all the girls, wanted to see what being a woman is like for a possible transgender operation, or has been broken by Kana, I don’t see it. Minami-ke, meanwhile, is just the ordinary story about three sisters. Three sisters whom if you get involved in, you can never ever get out. They’re like a cross between demons and the mafia. There’s not a lot to Minami-ke besides breaking every character that the sisters meet, but then again, there’s not a lot to Otome wa Boku unless if you consider that Mizuho may or may not have a penis. Then all hell breaks loose.

Edge: Even

Bullying

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Edge: Kotomi-chan

Symmetrical Docking

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Edge: Otome wa Boku

Music

Big fan of Beautiful Day, if only because it’s completely inexplicable (until I watched the bonus OVA that is). But Minami-ke‘s blaxploitation music is a real treat. More anime should use it more… definitely Clannad whenever Tomoya is alone with a haremette.

Edge: Minami-ke

Melonpan

Edge: Otome wa Boku

Fast Breakage

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I don’t care anymore. Just shoot me. No way there’s a penis on this or that. None. I won’t accept it. Not like you accept it either.

Edge: Broken Readers of Derailed by Darry.

Mizuho-oneesama vs. Mako-cakes

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I think there was no other expectation besides a Mizuho-oneesama x Mako-cakes beatdown at the very end. It’s like waiting for Chris Paul and Deron Williams to just start giving each other buckets in the fourth. Mizuho hasn’t lost any hawtness while Mako-cakes is turning creepier and creepier and creepier. Mako-cakes went from comedic oddity to possible moe mode to needs mental help immediately. I hope to Kyrios that his future career plans involve working for Sunrise.

(If I’m still watching anime ten years from now… which I’m not sure is a good thing… I would probably have a mild heart palpitation if I saw “Gundam Sigma! Director: Haruhi Suzumiya. Script: Mako-cakes. Mecha design: Kemeko DX. Music: Kotomi-chan.” That would be my Sunrise dream team.)

(Meanwhile, Mizuho-neesama would be a huge haremette upgrade for Tokimeki Memorial, H2O, and a boat load, no pun intended, of other harem series.)

Huge Edge: Otome wa Boku.

Intangibles

Intangibles are the great unknown, so if I know them, I would be all-powerful, won’t I? Huh. I think Minami-ke has a superior resume to Otome wa Boku when it comes down to it, mainly because one series is very enjoyable to watch while the other is a bit waaaaaay too slow and insipid at times. But Mizuho is really the character that slowly started breaking space, time, and this blog. Looking back at my old posts for Otome wa Boku, it seems like the same people who comment heavily for Otome wa Boku are the same who comment for Minami-ke posts, especially for posts that have a good dose of Mako-cakes. They’re also the same people who stay away from posts regarding delicious thighs, Yoko’s melonpan, and Sunrise train wrecks.

So I think in terms of the great unknown, Otome wa Boku either created a lot of broken readers or they just started surfacing and stopped lurking when Mizuho were running amok. Now, presently, with Mako-cakes, they have fully coalesced around him and are providing significant resistance to the entrenched melonpan party. One could surmise that Mako-cakes popularity is only possible because Mizuho paved the stage. Vote for Mako-cakes! Vote for Mizuho! Rejoice in brokenness! YES WE CAN!

33 Responses to “minami-ke vs. otome wa boku, dr jack style”

  1. If Okawari ends with another broken episode…. THE YEAR WILL NOT BE FORGIVEN WITHOUT A THIRD SEASON OF MINAMI-KE.

  2. I think I just realized that I’m broken – I just thought to myself “wouldn’t it be funny if Hosaka would have been on Otome Wa Boku and chased after Mizuho instead of Haruka”.

  3. I still cannot forgive Otome wa Boku for the last episode, I hate when they do that.

  4. Actually, Chiaki’s TEN… but same difference. So’s Yoshino, Uchida, Mako-chan, and all the rest of them… which makes the Bible Black faces far, far more scary on them for the reasons you hinted at.

    OtoBoku has more melonpan, thanks to the school uniforms… but Haruka and Hayami-senpai make up for it in quality. And unlike Mizuho’s, hers are the REAL deal… as Hayami-senpai can probably attest to, given how often she’s shoved her face in them (and I assume, other people’s).

    As for Mizuho versus Mako-cakes? I’d have pitted her/him against Hosaka; female GAR (see the fainting rescue, the attacked-by-gansters rescue, the oneesama handling of Kana) versus male GAR (Hosaka in almost every appearance where he’s thinking about Haruka). No edge there; they’re both even, and they both make straight men gay for them… in different ways. Horribly, horribly broken readers. Mako-chan, in five years, may match Mizuho-oneesama however… if only because by that stage, I suspect he’ll have found out what shop Mizuho went to for ‘her’ fake breasts and gotten a pair.

    As for the Hosaka shot… you fail for not posting the WHOLE thing. See the difference the whole shot makes, sorta like Clannad in HD versus the 4:3 version.

    http://img122.imageshack.us/im.....kapfe1.png

    See, there’s a difference here versus just showing the last bit. Sorta like if you’d cut off half of this shot you posted:

    http://derailedbydarry.com/ima...../05_01.jpg

  5. Kotomi-chan thinks you are bullying her again. Please stop.

    Not.

  6. Sheba: Dozo! Have a Starfish! One dressed in drag!

  7. I think OtoBoku’s OVA gives it a slight edge over Minami-ke.

    Tsunderella FTW.

  8. bluethree: That’s like saying that Episode 13 of Kashimashi gives it an edge over OtoBoku… not. Tsunderella was funny, and got Shion naked, but… that was it, really. Okawari has a few more eps to pull ahead of OtoBoku, and the pool ep helped a GREAT deal (especially with its REAL Hosaka delusion, mingled with shots of the real Haruka lying around and showing melonpan). And the hime-mode attacks Chiaki made on her classmates and Kana.

    Let’s see how broke Mako-chan is tomorrow. If we get some Hosaka time, we’ll be well ahead in the game. As it is, he’s gone from ‘moe mode’ to ‘maybe… maybe I’m not doing this for Haruka-san any longer. Maybe I’m.. going to become Mizuho-oneesama’.

  9. I’ve come to realize that I am an entirely broken viewer, and Mizuho totally paved the way.

    I started out with Love Hina, graduated to Negima-take one, and BOOM. Otome wa broke me and i’ve never looked back.
    I don’t need mecha-G***am shows.
    (except for Kemeko DX which blurs lines everywhere)
    I don’t need Bleach.
    I don’t need DBZ’s endless filler.
    I might need to get bamboo blade into my life.

    Gimme traps, melonpan, mikuru-beams, delicious thigh meat, Choco-coronets, moe-modes, fresh and lively 17 year old meido, symmetrical docking, honeyed pears, DFC’s, bounties, kappu-chus, , harems comprised of succubi, and butlers; even those who are forced to crossdress or are siscons. To get the crowd on my side after this diatribe, I also need drills that pierce the heavens. YES WE CAN!!
    (Can what!? I don’t know.)
    My time is up, thank you Mr. Moderator, the floor is once again yours.

  10. I definitely have to throw my vote to Minami-ke. Prima facie, the concept and execution of Minami-ke far outstrips most anime running recently or concurrently. I must admit to never having seen Otome wa boku, but that’s because I never really bought the plot. And, I will admit, I don’t just drink the Minami-ke Kool Aid, I drained the jug and ordered Okawari. (Sorry, had to be done)

    But the story line is less creepy, the characters are more endearing and memorable, the art brighter, the humor more versatile. The shows had different purposes, different targets, true. But there’s only so much oh-no-it’s-a-guy-playing-a-girl awkward humor, where as Minami-ke has three great characters that can individually go in many directions and can be combined for many more. I think the series has been too Kana-focused recently, I certainly agree. But the potential that was developed in the first season is still there, waiting to be unleashed in Minami-ke Itadakimasu! Watching the OP again sparked that incredible sense of excitement I felt every time I fired up the freshest episode. It’s not often that an anime makes me grin just because I get to spend another half and hour with them as they live life and hijinks ensue. That’s what makes Minami-ke so special.

    Sorry to have taken up so much of everyone’s time and space. I will now return to lurking.

  11. Any post that links to Yoko is a good post.

  12. I have to disagree with you on the melonpan section. I will not accept Mizuho fanservice because it takes me until the scene ends to think, “Holy crap, that was a dude and those are fake…WHERE THE HELL IS THE MIND SOAP?!?!?”

    Forget the mind soap. Too broken for that.

    Speaking of being broken…DOZO! REITO IN DRAG!!

    http://img437.imageshack.us/my.....0571np.jpg

  13. Hmmm, this one is going to be a very tough choice.

    Minami-ke is consistently broken and Otome wa Boku did tend to drag in places, however when Otome wa Boku did get it right (or should that be, very, very wrong) it did get an 11 / 10 on the “OMG! NO WAI! … sound of breakage … ACTUALLY, THATS NICE” scale.

  14. I clicked “Read More” and the first thing I saw was Haruka in a yellow bikini. Minami-ke automatically won at that point.

  15. lol_matt: Reito in drag with Yayoi clutching at him isn’t mind-bleach worthy, as Mizuho with the knockers… and the other equipment is, but it’s a start.

    K.K. – they should’ve used shots from the pool episode, as well as the Hayami-senpai in swimsuits. Mmmm.

  16. Resistance eh? Is that how your melonpan party describes it in your propaganda. We all know that the good Duke of Derailed was besieged by Mako-cakes’ supporters who forced the greatest capitulation since that of France.

    The Mako-cakes revolution will not be stopped! Soon the melonpan fat cats will be cast to the four winds only to be utterly broken by Kana and be forced to don meidofuku and kneel before hime Chiaki. Any counter-revolution by the melonpan party will be met with the awesome bancho powers of Haruka nee-sama and be subject to being the physical object that Hosaka uses during his next Hosaka Fantasy. There will be no quarter given for Haruka is AMAZING.

    Really now how can Haruka’s all naturals lose out to Mizuho’s fakes? We saw them fall out, to say that Mizuho has real ones is just revisionist propaganda perpetuated by the sickly melonpan party. Mizuho never inspired the sort of daring displayed by rob and Hasselich when they blasted open your e-mail and left you dazed, confused, and in fear. ;)

  17. Crusader: I think it’s probably the Danbooru pics of Mako-chan which have Jason reeling in fear, horror, and confusion. I’ve seen those, and… well… it’s like everything posted of Jun and Mizuho, except with more meido. It’s like a trap version of Kodomo no Jikan…

    And Haruka has real melonpan, and good melonpan. And even Kana got an upgrade in Okawari… but I’ll come out and say her muscular shoulders are better here than the skinny ones from the first series during the beach scenes – sorta like a proto-Revy, but less psycho.

    Maybe we need them cosplaying Black Lagoon and Bible Black to tip the votes fully over to the Minami-ke contingent; Kana as Revy, Haruka as Balalaika, and Chiaki as Eda-with-an-ahoge. And Mako-chan as both Hansel AND Gretel.

    And Hosaka as a suddenly-stripping Mr. Chen. Or maybe we could make him Dutch, since I can’t see him as Rock, somehow. That’s more Fujioka’s role; helpless up to a point, and totally out of his depth. This leaves the role of Shenhua to Hayami-senpai (both of them tend to keep their eyes closed, are somewhat sociopathic), Maki as another sister at the Church of Violence, and Takeru as Bao of the Yellow Flag Bar.

    Yes, that’s what we need. I’ll let someone else suggest Bible Black roles for all three girls…

  18. basketball references ftw! Now if we could only have a minami-ke episode featuring a basketball match with Haruka-nee sama playing at the point and doing extensive dribbling…

  19. @Haesslich

    Are you trying to argue my opinion? O_o

  20. @bluethree: I’m just saying that the 13th ep doesn’t necessarily give it an advantage. Let’s wait for Okawari to finish, then decide once we’ve got finished series on both sides. Heck, look at what happened to Kashimashi once Ep 13 showed up.

    Can you say ‘disaster zone’? Sure you can. ;)

  21. Why am I not surprised that Haess is responsible for 6 of the 19 comments posted thus far…

  22. The very idea that Mikuho even deserves to face Haruka-sama in any capacity is anathema to me. Haruka is AMAZING, and doesn’t need to use any “performance enhancers” (or deluded 2ch fanart) just to qualify in the melonpan department. As played as the OtoBoku meme is, the sad truth is that there is a penis on that. And we know there isn’t one on Haruka.
    Edge and WIN: Haruka and Minami-ke

    >>“Minami-ke is like the Spurs who can play fast and slow while Otome is more like Houston who can only play slow.”

    Scoreboard. Go Rockets.

  23. First image rocks XD

    Well, Minami-ke (first season anyway) is unquestionably the better series…
    But a vote for Mizuho is a vote for not accepting it…

    ..
    .
    I won’t accept it! None! Not at all! The last few episodes were Takako’s delusion!

  24. To: lol_matt

    re: Mind Soap.

    Sir, you’ve miscalculated. At this stage I believe you require a pistol. That and a dash of emo facial contortion syndrome plus delirious denial of the existences of a penis on certain individuals. Either way though, you’re still broken. Join the club.

  25. To: Taltos

    re: Pistol

    For some reason it doesn’t disturb me that I’ve joined the broken club…I guess that says something but I’m not sure what it is.

  26. >> Why am I not surprised that Haess is responsible for 6 of the 19 comments posted thus far…

    That is because, a) brokenness demands it be shared (although degree of broken-ness is debatable at the moment), and b) you miss posting shots like this in the appropriate places. This blows Sleepy Nayuki out of the water.

  27. PS: Just finished downloading the RAW for ep 10 of Okawari. Expect more broken ramblings in a few.

  28. Just finished Okawari 10. The episode… needs less of some characters and more of… you’ll see what I mean.

    Looks like the events of episode 13 DID happen after all…. and Haruka knows what ‘juice’ is.

  29. I wouldn’t say so much Otome broke your readers, especially since I was working on editing that series as it came out, at least for me, but I feel good in saying this simple statement: “What penis? I don’t see anything out of the ordinary.”

  30. Galen: Did you say that after the pads were revealed as such during the Yakuza kidnapping ep? I dare you to say you did. ;)

  31. There’s massive crossover potential here where Mako-cakes transfers to the school in OtoBoku – after all, a precedent has been established.
    Maybe Jun Waterase could transfer there too, and Hibiki Amawa get the P.E. teacher job.
    I’d watch that.

  32. None of you will believe me when I say this, but…

    …I have “official” images of Mizuho before Mariya does him up all smexy.

  33. …and will only post them if you’re interested, or would like the surprise or damage that would befall you to see it.

    …(from the same source, I also have Bunnygirl Mizuho.)

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