みなみけ ただいま

Minami-ke Tadaima Episode 04 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Maki and Atsuko are about to have their bento for lunch as Haruka is about to take off to the cafeteria to buy some bread product. Hosaka notes this and prepares to give Haruka the bento he made for her, but Hayami stops him, taking the bento and getting Hosaka to remember his initial reason for wanting Haruka. He fantasizes about Haruka wiping the sweat from him after volleyball practice, so he goes in to make his invitation to Haruka while Hayami scarfs the bento. However, Haruka has already left. Maki hides as Atsuko tells Hosaka that Haruka has gone to buy bread. He finds this appalling, deciding that he needs to make her a bento, unbuttoning his shirt as he does so.

Hosaka stops Natsuki from going home to inquire why he’s skipping volleyball practice. Natsuki says it is because he has to make dinner for his family. The following day, Hosaka tells Natsuki that if he makes food for his family, Natsuki can come to practice. As such, he has a large bento for Natsuki, but Natsuki refuses because folks might misunderstand. Further, Natsuki wants his family to eat a hot meal. Hosaka offers to assist, if needed. Natsuki returns to class, wishing he did have help in the cooking. He fantasizes about Haruka cooking. Hitomi sees this and correctly guesses that Natsuki wants someone adult-like to cook for him.

Hitomi decides to consult with Haruka on the matter at the Minami residence. Kana says she knows how to cook in an adult-like fashion — wear the “naked apron”.  Hitomi is not amused and pinches Kana’s cheeks. Haruka suggests Hitomi ask the person in question what kind of food they like. At school, Hitomi decides to ask Natsuki just as Natsuki comes to a decision. Hitomi interprets the look in his eyes to be that he’s going to just cook for himself. Thus she’s flustered and ends up not asking him anything, just stating he likes sweets.

Chiaki, Touma, Uchida, and Yoshino are walking home in the rain when Touma decides to have some fun and splash Uchida. In attempting to get Touma back, Yoshino and Chiaki get soaked. Thus, all four head the Chiaki’s apartment, where Haruka sends them all to the bath. Since the rainy weather has kept their clothes from drying, Haruka asks Kana to lend some clothing out, which Kana is loathe to do. Meanwhile, Chiaki realizes that all of their bath towels were just washed and aren’t dry, so Touma decides they should just have more fun in the bath. They end up using washcloths and hand towels to dry themselves and wear nun’s habits that Touma had made. Kana has “Chiaki-sama” strung up in teruterubouzu gear, praying to her. The others start praying as well, including Haruka, despite Chiaki’s request that they don’t.

At school on a now sunny day, Hitomi sits with Haruka and Hayami discussing fried egg preparation. Hayami makes an inference to fried eggs and tanning. In class, Hosaka is contemplating sunny-side up or turned over fried eggs. He to compares this to tanning, unbuttoning his shirt to expose himself to the sun in the window. Hayami drops in to let him know that she’s heard that Haruka likes hers nicely brown, but whether this is her eggs or a tanned body, Hayami won’t say. Meanwhile, Hitomi decides to ask Natsuki how he liked his fried eggs. Since he doesn’t like them overcooked, she thinks that he prefers her as she is. When he suddenly starts craving eggs, she gets embarrassed by his eyes that want to eat her.  Elsewhere, Hosaka decides to get a tan.

Hosaka makes a white plate from which to serve one of his meal creations for Haruka.  Hayami is impressed that he made one, but she points out that its color and shape can be described despite Hosaka’s claim to the contrary. Hosaka takes the plate and leaves the classroom, where he ambushes Atsuko and Maki. He shows the plate to them, and as he turns to tell how he made the plate, Maki accidentally breaks it in half. Maki races off and returns with a tea kettle, attempting to give it to Atsuko who wants no part of this. Eventually she takes it and gives it to Hosaka, suggesting he boil water in it. Hayami wants to know what Hosaka is doing with a tea kettle and wonders what happened to his plate. Later at the Minami residence, the girls have instant ramen, courtesy of water boiled in a tea kettle.

Thoughts/Review:

Man, Minami-ke Tadaima is one of those series that I find I can’t just write quick summaries of.  Oh well, it is good stuff. ^_^

Hosaka was his usual awesomely stupid self. I liked the clever way that this episode reintroduces the character by reminding the audience on why he got so hung up on Haruka in the first place. In addition, it was a perfect way to introduce Hayami and her mischievous nature.

Hosaka’s actions are always funny as his obsession with Haruka leads him to be easily distracted. While the episode had me laughing quite a bit, the funniest moment came from Maki accidentally snapping his plate in two, then getting the ultra reluctant Atsuko to take a tea kettle as a replacement to give back to him.

The series has been pretty good about making sure certain catch phrases show up, such as Chiaki’s “bakayarou” insults. Here, they made sure to have Maki use her “kimochi warui” phrase a couple of times when discussing Hosaka. Another very funny moment came from the omake segment where the super deformed versions of Hosaka, Atsuko, and Maki are together as Hosaka offers them some bento he’s made to try. Since Atsuko lost the rock-paper-scissors fight with Maki, she gets to sample the food, which Maki assumes is nasty (kimochi warui), but which is better than anything Atsuko has ever made.

There was one segment that didn’t involve Hosaka, but the writers made good use of the rainy weather to easily bridge in the story of Chiaki and friends getting soaked and there not being enough dry clothing or towels for them. Although it is an old joke, I still enjoyed seeing Chiaki strung up as a teruterubouzu to stop the rain. That was previously done in episode 5 of the first Minami-ke anime.  I’m always amused when Kana starts calling Chiaki “Chaiki-sama,” but it was even funnier having the girls in habits praying to Chiaki as well.

Since we were given so much Hosaka “cheesecake,” the production team countered that with some lolicon fanservice, courtesy of Chiaki and company bathing. ^_^;

Four episodes in, I’m totally loving Minami-ke Tadaima. Holding the Hosaka fun until now turns out to have been a good move. I’m hoping the rest of the series keeps the goodness coming.