January 21st, 2013 
AstroNerdBoy みなみけ ただいま
Minami-ke Tadaima Episode 03 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Touma is at the female Minami residence, having taken a short bath and revealing that her brother, Natsuki is the one who takes very long baths. Since Touma’s clothing is in the wash, Kana produces Haruka’s and her own middle school uniforms. However, Haruka’s was too big in the chest and Kana’s was too small in the waste (but perfect in the chest), so Touma wants a track suit.
Kana recounts a story at “Danny’s” (Denny’s), where Miyuki spilled water in her lap by not setting her glass down to look at her watch. Since Touma and Chiaki don’t believe such an airhead exists, Kana decides to prove it by having Uchida come over. Giving her a glass of water, then asking her the time, Uchida also spills water in her lap. Chiaki says that Uchida is a special case and doesn’t count. As Uchida’s clothes dry, she wears a maid uniform that Touma sewed, and acts as the girls’ maid, addressing Kana as “goshujin-sama” (master). They decide to try the experiment on Haruka, who wears her watch with the face on her inner wrist. When Uchida gives Haruka the glass and Haruka is asked the time, she simply switches hands the glass is in to see her watch.
At the high school, Maki, Atsuko, and Hitomi go home with Haruka because she’s making a cake. After they have their cake, Maki and Hitomi get into an argument over who has the daintiest hands, which Haruka proposes solving with Hitomi’s ring. Haruka also suggests Maki wear one of the maid uniforms Touma made, but she won’t do it unless she gets paid. Hitomi thinks she’s lost her ring, so as the girls look, Hitomi realizes its in her hand. Embarrassed at her airhead moment, she purposefully loses the ring, which roles into Atsuko’s bag. Atsuko discovers it and reveals she has it, but apologizes to Hitomi for what looks like possible theft. Hitomi apologizes back, though Maki and Haruka are confused as to why.
Back at school, Haruka and Atsuko discuss Touma’s sewing when Natsuki walks by. He’s embarrassed when Haruka mentions his long baths, so he denies it. Hitomi notices this and asks Maki and Haruka about it. Haruka realizes she’s the cause of Natsuki’s discomfort, so she seeks him out to make amends and let him know she thinks taking a long bath is cool for a whole host of reasons. Meanwhile, Maki tells Hitomi that Natsuki opening up to her is tantamount to a confession. This causes Hitomi to go back to Natsuki to tell him she also likes long baths. She’s embarrassed by saying this, but not happy that she doesn’t get the response she wanted from Natsuki, who tells her that long baths are good and nothing to be embarrassed about.
At the female Minami residence, Chiaki, Touma, and Kana enjoy donuts. However, there’s one left, so they rock-paper-scissor it and Kana wins. However, she makes the mistake of leaving to get more tea, and returns to find no donut. Chiaki and Touma almost convince her that the extra donut was never there, but she licks her plate and discovers powdered sugar. After threatening to lick their mouths, Kana is surprised that Chiaki and Touma confess. However, when Haruka arrives, panic sets in as all the girls realize that donut was for her. Haruka is depressed when she discovers the truth and leaves for a bath, so Chiaki and Touma don maid uniforms and start cleaning. Haruka enters and thanks them for their hard work, but when she looks for Kana, she finds her sister struggling to get her maid uniform on.
Thoughts/Review:
The whole maid uniform theme made me laugh, starting with how quickly Uchida went from being offended to acting like an obedient maid servant once she donned the outfit. Later, having Chiaki and Touma wear the uniforms just to clean as an apology to Haruka made me laugh at the absurdity of it all.
I’d completely forgotten about Hitomi and her crush on Natsuki. Initially, I assumed she was a new character, like Miyuki, but then there was something about the way she was acting around Natsuki that triggered my memory. Leave it to Maki to stir that pot some.
Between Haruka making cake for her friends, which we only saw the aftermath of, and Chiaki, Touma, and Kana eating donuts, I tell you that I’m now craving either cake with buttercreme frosting, or one of the following donuts: Krispy Kreme glazed donuts, Dunkin’ Donuts Chocolate Kreme Filled donuts, or a King Soopers Chocolate Creme Filled Long John. ^_^;;;
Speaking of which, after Kana stole Uchida’s donut in the first episode, I couldn’t help but laugh when Kana took the last donut in this episode, then left it unguarded to get a beverage. *lol* It was blatantly obvious what was going to happen, though Kana’s decision to lick Chiaki’s and Touma’s mouths to see who’d eaten her donut was unexpected, and thus funny.
So, while this series may not have quite the laughs of the first anime installment of the franchise, it has been good stuff so far, making me smile a lot, sometimes laugh, and just feel good when I’m done watching. Three for three is a pretty good start to this latest Minami-ke series. ^_^
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The word from Japan is that the latest GXP volume reveals there is another, Mirror Seto, who is apparently very much into Seina. Apparently she’s not a clone, but some kind of a complete copy with all the memories, created relatively recently by the main or Naja=Seto, as the fans there call her. Relatively recently meaning it likely wasn’t thousands of years ago. The reason for her creation is also not yet clear.
The reason this is all so sketchy is because apparently not everything is fully revealed in the novel yet, fans are being tight-lipped for now to avoid spoiling too much for those still reading, and it’s not the easiest thing to tell what comes directly from the novel and what’s added fan speculation.
Say what you will, Mr. K still knows how to throw a curveball 🙂
The bad thing about comments that have to get pulled from the fjords is that unless I write down where they were posted to, I still have to go find them. ^_^; Fortunately, I didn’t have to dig too deep this time.
Well, the Naja=Seto theory has been around for a while. If you hear something, do let me know. If worse comes to worse, hit me up on Twitter or on my Facebook page.
Of course, if I get the new FAQ site up in a couple of weeks (assuming all goes well), you could hit me there too. ^_^
Translation for your FAQ news:
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— Front side of GXP novel vol. 9 insert
On southern island, girls await.
“Paradise War”
Created by: Kajishima Masaki
Written by: Mizuki Hiro
Illustrator: Enami Katsumi
New series by “Tenchi Muyo!” creator Kajishima Masaki on sale Spring 2013 from Kodansha Ranobe Bunko [Light Novel Paperbacks]
Synopsis
High-school student Kakegoma Shou unexpectedly has to migrate to a southern island. Reluctanty putting his life on hold, he’s off to the southern island of Banjou-shima. With its deep blue sky without a single cloud, lush green forests and translucent emerald blue sea, it is truly a southern paradise.
There, he meets earlier immigrants, four beautiful girls exuding an exotic aura. Getting to rub shoulders with the girls, the southern island is looking not half bad… but just as he has that thought, an error is found in immigration proceedings, forcing Shou to cope on Banjou-shima on his own.
And at this peaceful paradise, contact with an alien civilization!?
— That’s it for the front of the insert, on the back side is (probably) the opening of the story.
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The MC’s name can be interpreted as “Shogi piece”, but also as “general on galloping horse”. The island is “board-top island”, or “disc-top” or even “saucer-top” if you like. These readings of the names of the MC and the island are no more than educated guesses. The MC’s first name has more than a dozen possibilities, in this context I picked the most Shogi-themed one. One of the possible readings is Masa, fitting the customary Masaki theme. The “alien” civilization is literally “unknown”, there’s no direct allusion to space.
The 2ch guy doesn’t include the opening, he just hints that we can enjoy this without worrying about jailbait, because these beauties look young physically but were born hundreds of years ago. No way to tell from his phrasing if this applies to all of them. Frankly it would seem a little strange to blurt a plot point like this out in the first few paragraphs. In any case this is not a direct quote from the ad.
Mizuki Hiro lives at https://twitter.com/Hiro_mizuki
Enami Katsumi lives at http://enamikatsumi.blog92.fc2.com/
Sidenote not for publication
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I have to say, that うるるんロギー blog sure is getting a lot of credit just for posting a bunch of 2ch copypasta. Actually you could have been the one to break this news in the first place if not for the crapola Blogger pulled with my comments. I’d saved off the 2ch thread soon after this was posted there, didn’t feel like reading through over 80 new posts right then. Then I went to check on the comment situation and had to start writing inquiries about that and of course forgot to come back to this stuff until after the news was already out. Oh well.
If you see this but haven’t seen the Paradise War translation, look for it in the spam folder. Fingers crossed.
– The island is “board-top island”, or “disc-top” or even “saucer-top” if you like.
+ The island is “board-top” or more meaningfully “board game island” or, if you prefer, “disc-top” or even “saucer-top”.
Not for publication
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Come to think of it, is this Kajishima version of Battleship? ^_^
Note to self: translating when tired makes for really dumb phrasal parsing mistakes. -_- Fortunately, there’s that nagging little voice in the back of the head.
– There, he meets earlier immigrants, four beautiful girls exuding an exotic aura.
+ Landing in the foreign land ahead of his family, he meets four beautiful girls exuding local exotic aura.
You rule sir. ^_^ I thank you much.
nice…
I’m just a beginner..
if you like, just follow..
http://anihou.blogspot.com/
thanx..
I love how Haruka and Natsuki being together!
Now, i’am cheering up this couple!
*lol* But then poor Hitomi would be left in the cold. ^_~
Ahoy, comment checkers! I think ANB would be interested in the GXP novel info I posted last night.
Found, finally. ^_^;