Minami-ke Okaeri 10
みなみけ おかえり Episode 10

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Touma gets caught in the rain as she heads to the female Minami residence. After taking a warm bath to warm herself up, she’s waiting for her clothing to dry and asks for Chiaki to give her some clothing. Chiaki doesn’t like her attitude, which changes when Fujioka shows up. When Fujioka starts to chastise Touma for fighting with Chiaki, Touma then gives “Chiaki-sama” proper respect and to the astonishment of Fujioka, is going to wear Chiaki’s clothing. Kana and Haruka see Fujioka is soaked, so Kana tries to strip him as they had Touma earlier.

Uchida is enjoying her hard candy when Chiaki lets out a bit of trivia about extracting coloring from bugs. This grosses Uchida out and when Chiaki tries to tell another bit of ant trivia, Uchida doesn’t want to hear. So Chiaki lays down and Kana tells Uchida that Chiaki hates it when people don’t listen to her. When Fujioka comes by, Chiaki gets up and grabs him. Seeing some contrails outside, the two walk to the sliding glass door where Chiaki explains what contrails really are. Uchida gets frustrated that Chiaki’s trivia for Fujioka is normal but for Uchida, its gross.

Touma and Uchida are doing homework at the Minami residence while Kana reads and Chiaki sits between Fujioka’s legs and chats with him. Uchida remarks on this which leads Touma to recall how when she first met Fujioka, she too sat between his legs and talked about soccer. Chiaki got jealous since that’s where she always sat but her hints to Touma aren’t getting through. When Touma and Chiaki almost get into a fight, Fujioka chastises Touma since boys aren’t supposed to attack girls. Further, Fujioka notices Touma has some fat on “his” chest and thinks some conditioning is in order. So back in the present, Touma mentions that despite being invited, Chiaki never came to conditioning with Touma, which Kana attributes to Chiaki not being good at sports.

At the other Minami residence, the oldest brother and Akira (the youngest) give Natsuki some advice as he’s going to ask a favor of Haruka — smile and choice of words are most important. Touma comes in and says that Natsuki should also ignore Kana and pay attention to Chiaki. So Natsuki buys some expensive manjuu as a present and after coming the the female Minami residence, presents it to Haruka. He smiles which shocks them all, chooses his words carefully, ignores Kana (irritating her and causing Haruka to repeat all of Kana’s questions), and when Chiaki acts like a small guard dog because of the attention Natsuki is giving Haruka, Natsuki returns the favor by acting like the alpha male, causing Chiaki to back down. Natsuki’s request — to have Touma come home earlier. So Haruka asks Touma, who’s reading a manga nearby, to do just that. Back at home, the two brothers feel their advice to Natsuki was key while Touma is exasperated.

Thoughts/Review:

Not really too funny of an episode until the end. I did get a kick out of Chiaki being annoyed with Touma’s attitude and then Touma deciding to address Chiaki as “Chiaki-sama” to beg for a change of clothes. I liked seeing how Chiaki was jealous of Touma sitting between Fujioka’s legs. This story, more than any other, shows just what a crush Chiaki has on Touma.

However, the funny story was the last one with Natsuki. It was strange and funny all wrapped in one. From his strange smile to his ignoring Kana to his “dog fight” with Chiaki, it all cracked me up. Natsuki has somehow managed to rise up near Hosaka’s level when it comes to funny material. I don’t remember him being quite so funny before.

So while not as funny as some episodes have been, I still enjoyed the antics and stories for what they were. I would obviously prefer ultra funny stuff all the time like we saw in Minami-ke, but alas, that’s not to be.

Oh yeah — this is another anime where Pringles has been featured. Best potato chips EVAH!