Minami-ke Okawari

Minami-ke Okawari (みなみけ～おかわり～) is the 13 episode follow up to the original Minami-ke slice of live comedy series.  It is based on the manga, Minami-ke, by Sakuraba Koharu.  The series originally aired over the Winter of 2009. 

     Okawari (seconds) continues the daily lives of the three Minami sisters, Chiaki, Haruka and Kana, as they go about their lives as lovable orphans. Their friends continue to visit at every available opportunity and Chiaki and Kana continue to scheme against each other.

    Okawari is really just a continuation of the original series, but due to the change in production companies, the way the episodes are arranged also changed, which was a bit unfortunate. With the original series each episode was more like a string of related vignettes, which followed the spirit of the manga. With Okawari, the episodes are complete stories in themselves, mostly focusing on one central theme or topic. While this is common in most anime, the vignette style of story telling made the original series' pace more natural. Some of the episodes in Okawari dragged on. One episode in particular was quite annoying in that it was a story that has been rehashed in TV for decades. The episode was all about Kana feigning sickness to get out of work at school and then work at home. The suspicious Chiaki keeps a close eye on her for the entire day to catch her when she slips up. The next day they plan to go out shopping together and get a nice dinner. Unfortunately for Kana she is sick for real and has to hide it from her sisters. She tells them to go shopping without her so she can do her homework and then be free of concern for their dinner together. She uses the opportunity to fight her cold in the short window of time available but is unable to by the time her sisters return, catching her red handed in her lies.

     Don’t get me wrong though, this is still an entertaining series, just not as fast paced as the original. The sisters continue to abuse and manipulate their friends in highly entertaining ways, such as making Makoto continue to cross dress and act as Mako-chan. We get to see more of the side characters that were briefly shown in the original. In the end though the series is a straightforward slice of life light comedy about the sisters. If you liked the original you can enjoy this one, as it is more mundane adventures with beloved characters. With the end of this series there is also a blessing in disguise as well. A third series, unfortunately done by the same production company, will be airing in the beginning of 2009, once again bringing us more oddball antics between the sisters.

UPDATE: As of October 2013 none of the Minami-ke titles have been licensed of released in North America.

UPDATE: As of September 2023 the Minami-ke franchise is still not commercially available in North America...very strange indeed.  I need to rewatch the series as it was quite enjoyable overall, even if it had some problems over its course.