“Haruka-neesama IS amazing.”

Actually, wait, that’s not a quote, nor is that Haruka. Have your pick of catch-phrases for the obligatory quote to kick off the post, then:
“NINOMIYA-KUN!!”
“Bakayarou!” (spelling brutalized)
“SENSEI!!”
“Rare expression!”
“*Hosaka’s extremely strange laugh*”

And I’m sure I’m missing very many. It’s a slice-of-life show that, like many, is simply filled with personality.

One of the shows that many have named as one of the better school life comedies in recent times, what Minami-ke does best is both embracing and breaking the bounds of slice-of-life shows.

Like many, the focus of the show revolves around a bunch of female characters in one place, and their adventures both at school and at home.

Unlike many, there actually are guys in this show, and even if they do get abused all the time like the uncommon male in a slice-of-life, their presence is very real and very central to the show.

Like many, the show relies quite a bit on repeated gags, both of the ‘in rapid succession’ and ‘in every episode’ types; some of which work well, others which do not.

Unlike many, Minami-ke doesn’t shy away from the romance side of things, frequently left unexplored in slice-of-lives. Rather, it makes great fun of it.

Probably the best aspect of this show is the breadth of it. It has a bit of physical comedy, a bit of verbal comedy, a bit of disturbing comedy, and even a few Lucky-Star style sympathetic moments. Characters are introduced nearly on an episode-by-episode basis, and they nearly always come bearing new gags. Minami-ke does a great job of feeling like a contained snapshot of a limitless universe, where the characters were not the only ones in the world.

(And thus, neither did that make them the gods of that world. That review is coming later, I swear, officer!)

It’s tough to gauge whether Minami-ke is truly the best comedy of recent memory, especially because the genre itself seems to be spreading out – there’s dark humor (Zetsubou), the connective shows (Lucky Star), the relaxing shows (ARIA), and so on. Minami-ke feels the closest to what one might call the original school-life comedy roots, with the likes of Azumanga Daioh, and in that slot it functions quite well as a show.

Maybe it’s a bit of a put-down to call it ‘yet another good show from the fall season’, but that’s what it is; not forgettable, by any rates, but not legendary, either. The kind of show that lives on in catchphrases more than moments. And that’s fine.

Oh dear, I’ve concluded the post already, what to do after the jump?

(Oh, and SPOILERS ARE BOSS, even though it’s tough to spoil a show like this.)
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