Minami-ke Okaeri 08
みなみけ おかえり Episode 08

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Yoshino and Uchida come by the Minami residence where Kana is contemplating the rules for getting a boy. One such rule is to try to open a can of soda, fail, then get the boy to open it for you. Uchida tries to pretend to open the fan and accidentally does so anyway. Yoshino gives a go, causing Kana and Uchida to be amazed because they want to help her. Haruka arrives with Maki and Atsuko, so Maki is put to the test. She remembers trying it in middle school and the boy she tried to get to help her refused, saying that if she couldn’t open the can, he wouldn’t be able to either.

So Atsuko is put up and she proves to be the best at this helpless technique. Maki and Kana are not happy with this performance since it looks so real and they refuse to believe that Atsuko really is that helpless and call her a liar and a witch. Touma and Chiaki come in and discovers her case of sodas on the table. She’s not happy and opening a can, she gets sprayed in the face. She demands to know who did this. Kana proclaims that the witch did it.

The lessons on men and women continue with Kana proclaiming that Maki-sensei is the expert. Maki agrees to teach Kana, Uchida, and Yoshino, declaring that there’s a night and day element to learn. An unamused Haruka emerges to remove Maki from the room to help prepare dinner to prevent Maki from teaching about the night elements. With that, Kana has Atsuko-sensei take over the teaching. Atsuko is embarrassed and at Kana’s prompting, Yoshino asks about the night stuff that Maki was about to tell them.

Atsuko is very embarrassed, so Touma, who’d been sleeping under the table, tells Kana to lay off. Kana gets annoyed and tells Touma to go play soccer with Fujioka. Touma gets irritated and calls Kana an idiot (baka). Kana tells Touma to get out, but Touma refuses. The two struggle physically with Kana knocking Touma into Atsuko’s chest. Touma is out and Atsuko tries to remember if Touma is a boy or a girl.

Kana tells Uchida and Yoshino that Atsuko-sensei is teaching them to hug boys they are fighting with. Atsuko gets really embarrassed at having a boy sleep on her breasts. The following day at school, Touma is talking with Uchida and Yoshino, saying she doesn’t remember much of what happened the evening before. Makoto comes rushing out to use the bathroom and knocks Touma over. Touma gets up and punches Makoto before storming off. Uchida and Yoshino decide that punching boys is a good way to calm them down.

At school, Kana asks Keiko how to get a boyfriend. Seeing Fujioka, Keiko tells Kana that she’ll have a boyfriend soon enough. Kana doesn’t like that answer since she’s not looking for a boyfriend and wanted an interesting answer. Keiko is not happy with Kana’s statement and ends up slapping her. Rika wants to consult with Keiko about a matter unrelated to herself of course. Rika says that “A-san” was suddenly hugged by the boy she likes (“B-kun”). She happily wonders what this could mean.

Keiko, imagining A-san is Rika and B-kun if Fujioka, decides to tell Rika that this was an accidental hug when B-kun and C-san (Kana) began fighting. Rika doesn’t like that answer. Keiko decides to present Rika’s situation to Kana, who is flustered by this and wants to add a “C-san” character to the A-san/B-kun scenario. Kana’s attempts to bail out of giving a response to Keiko’s situation leads Keiko to slap Kana again.

At the high school, the volleyball club are practicing and Atsuko makes an excellent serve. Hosaka comes over during the break and asks Atsuko where Hayami is. Atsuko doesn’t know and reflects on how cool Hosaka is when he’s not speaking. Hosaka gives Atsuko a compliment on her serve and moves on. Maki rushes over to make sure Atsuko is OK after having spoken with Hosaka. Meanwhile, Natsuki comes in late for practice, so Hosaka makes him pick up the volleyballs all over the gym.

As Natsuki does this, Atsuko asks Maki if she hates Hosaka. Maki says she just finds him disgusting and asks if Atsuko likes Hosaka. Hayami comes over, wondering what they are talking about and after Natsuki leaves, Hosaka comes over as well. Hearing Hayami telling the two of them that they need to get Haruka to come to practice, Hosaka fantasizes about a helpless Haruka at practice that ends with her wiping his sweat. The three girls see Hosaka spacing out again, so Hayami goes over to slap his head into reality. Atsuko sees the two of them talk and again thinks of how cool Hosaka is when he’s quiet.

Thoughts/Review:

I loved the theme of this episode — a girl’s guide to boys (or something like that). lol Atsuko received a lot of screen time this episode and that was a good thing too. She’s pretty cute though why she’d find Hosaka even remotely attractive or cool is beyond me. However, the Hosaka story is the funniest of the lot. Heck, somehow even Natsuki’s cameo was amusing to me. I’m not sure why, but there ya go.

I did like how Keiko turned tables on Kana. I was surprised by her slapping Kana though. Has she done that before?

Not much Chiaki this episode, but I did laugh at her reaction to seeing her precious “colas” on the table and then the one spewing in her face.

In the end, while I enjoyed the episode, I’m finding a hard time really saying much about it. ^_^; So I’ll stop trying and move on.