This story is a simple depiction of the ordinary lives of the three Minami sisters. Please do not expect too much.
That’s the disclaimer in every episode of Minami-ke Tadaima, and the show is exactly what it says on the tin. Haruka, Kana and Chiaki wake up, eat, go to school, come home, eat, sleep and on and on through the episodes. It’s a great series for anyone who likes slice-of-life with relatively normal characters, but after four seasons maybe enough is enough?
Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed the show thoroughly, but the nature of most slice-of-life shows is that things will (almost) always reset to the status quo, so there’s rarely any development of note. Normally this isn’t a problem because such shows usually last only 13 to 26 episodes and end before you can get fed up, but Minami-ke is at double that number and counting. That means after 4 seasons things that were funny or interesting in the beginning now prompt a “That’s enough already!” reaction out of me. In particular:
– Hosaka is still fantasizing about Haruka yet still hasn’t managed to even talk to her properly yet.
– Fujioka is still failing to confess his love to Kana.
– Riko is still failing to confess her love to Fujioka.
– That annoying girl who is in love with Natsuki is still in love with him but can’t confess. Though we have learned that Natsuki has a bit of a crush on Haruka.
– Fujioka still doesn’t know that Touma is a girl.
– Makoto is still cross-dressing as Mako-chan… though I suppose Chiaki is slightly more friendly to boy Makoto now.
– Uncle Takeru is still coming over to mope… though he’s less of a mooch now.
So there have been slight developments, but for the most part everything is still the same as ever. That means fans of the series will get exactly what they were hoping for when they picked it up but it also means people like me who were getting just a bit tired of the formula last time will be a little disappointed. And even more so when they tease developments then take them away, like when they made it seem Haruka was into Natsuki, or that Fujioka and annoying-girl-who-likes-Natsuki would get together.
At least the show only added one new member to the cast (Miyuki. Or was she there all along?) but the cast is already plenty large, so I had to slog through a lot of skits that dealt with people I either don’t care for (the annoying girl that likes Natsuki, Atsuko and Maki), used to like but am now tired of (Hosaka, Makoto) or people I actively dislike (Natsuki, Hayami-sempai). I felt a little sad when the past three seasons ended but with Minami-ke Tadaima it’s just like, huh. Okay.
Of course I will still watch season 5 if and when it comes out, but the series is really stagnating now. If nothing changes after this then the next season will be my last.