みなみけ ただいま

Minami-ke Tadaima Episode 06 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Kana uses her dart board pie chart to determine her day, annoying Chiaki since it isn’t a proper schedule and Kana doesn’t have a section for doing homework. The two fight over making a large section for studying, but when Haruka comes in and hands Kana a marker to write studying in permanently, Chiaki does it for her. Kana has Keiko and Riko over, where they discuss horoscopes and the fact that it is Riko’s unlucky day. Despite Chiaki’s disdainful comments on horoscopes, the girls decide it is true and with Miyuki, head to the pool. However, since no one has on a blue swimsuit, Kana forbids Riko from entering the pool. When Fujioka arrives in blue swim trunks, Kana orders him to hold Riko’s hand to keep her from drowning. He does so, causing Riko to think that this is in fact her lucky day.

Uchida and Yoshino drop by the Minami residence where Kana mentions that Atsuko and Maki are working part-time jobs. During the discussion, Chiaki decides to put Kana through an interview process for self-promotion, starting with how she would describe herself. She says she’s thought of as a “bishoujo” person, but Chiaki wants to know specifically what makes her a beautiful girl. Kana leaves and returns in a cute, white dress with her hair down and speaks formally.  Chiaki gives her a pass, so Kana continues as a bishoujo character and attempts to interview Uchida. When Fujioka arrives, Kana acts sweet and innocent, causing him to ask Chiaki what’s going on. After learning about self-promotion, Fujioka submits to an interview by Kana, stating that he loves the normal Kana best. Kana takes that as her cue to finally return to her usual self.

Haruka, Kana, Chiaki, Uchida, Yoshino, and “Mako-chan” are all at the beach. Makoto is not thrilled that Kana hadn’t properly warned him about this, especially since he suspects that Yoshino knows he’s actually Mako-chan. After initially bailing on entering the ocean with the others, he joins Haruka under the beach umbrella, where she offers to put suntan oil on “her.” The act has “Mako-chan” all flustered, causing him to wreck Uchida’s and Yoshino’s sand castle. Chiaki wants to learn how to swim, so Mako-chan is teaching her when Kana shows up unexpectedly. Mako-chan keeps Chiaki from drowning and severely scolds Kana in the process. Chiaki is grateful for Mako-chan’s actions that she says she wants to be best friends forever, thrilling Makoto, who later thanks Kana.

Maki and Atsuko get off from their part-time job at the beach to join the others for lunch. Although they are enjoying their yakisoba, ramen, etc., the girls description makes Chiaki thinks the food is actually bad. When she verbalizes this, she ends up depressing the group, which depresses Chiaki.  Chiaki stays alone under the beach umbrella and Kana forbids Haruka from spoiling Chiaki. Chiaki decides to split open the watermelon to offer to the others, but Haruka stops her so that the group can come and enjoy doing this together. Chiaki is blindfolded for the usual watermelon bashing game, and she spits it open, allowing everyone to feast. She remarks on how nice the sandy bit is, but Kana tells her that sand on the watermelon is not a good thing.

After their beach outing, Makoto is at the Minami residence as Mako-chan, and he’s not happy that he has a female swimsuit tan line, meaning he can’t go swimming with the guys or be seen without a shirt. Uchida finds this funny. She notes a band-aid on his hand and inquires about it. Makoto says it was from Chiaki at school, and he vowed never to remove it. He’s reminded that should Chiaki see it, she’ll know that Mako-chan is Makoto. On cue, Chiaki enters and asks if Mako-chan wants to play Othello. Since he has to hide his hand, Makoto says no, palms out. Chiaki offers “her” a cookie, and again, Makoto refuses. Because his hand signals are indicative of rejection, Chiaki is depressed. Uchida tries to coach Makoto on how to properly do his hand if he’s not going to remove the band-aid. Chiaki asks if they are friends, and “Mako-chan” confirms, but again, Makoto uses the hand signs for rejection, causing Chiaki to cry and Uchida to call him “bakayarou” for Chiaki.

Thoughts/Review:

So, now we have the pool and beach summertime episodes out of the way.

I had remarked on how little Riko had been used, and as if on cue, we get the first story after the intro centering around Riko and her supposed bad luck. It was cute, but in the end, not much to it.  I did get a kick out of Fujioka’s brief indecisive moment at Kana ordering him to hold Riko’s hand since he didn’t know what to make of it.

The best part of the episode for me was where Kana went from her usual self, not using honorifics and such, to being all polite and using honorifics. Plus, she actually looked pretty cute with her hair down. I got a laugh out of that, and out of Fujioka’s reaction to seeing Kana this way.

Mako-chan stuff can be pretty good, so Makoto showing up to the beach and having to wear a girl’s swimsuit was amusing. Before his suit was revealed, I wondered how “Mako-chan” was going to conceal his rod and reel package below. ^_^; I did get a kick out of Makoto being in a daze over having suntan lotion placed on him by Haruka, but this episode marked the first time that I recall Makoto apparently having some romantic feelings for Chiaki. In the past, I remember his motivation for visiting Chiaki was to see Haruka, which is why the whole Mako-chan thing came about.

Chiaki getting depressed ensured for me that the next short wasn’t my cup of tea. Chiaki is at her best when she’s disdainful and not suffering fools. She’s also fine when she’s been nice, but a depressed Chiaki just made me want to spin on.

With the final short, the laughs are back thanks to Makoto’s female tan lines. Again, we are shown that Makoto seemingly has some sort of feelings for Chiaki because otherwise, why would he cherish that band-aid she gave him at school?  Unfortunately, we get a depressed Chiaki again thanks to Makoto trying to hide the fact that Mako-chan has the same band-aid Chiaki put on him, thus revealing his secret.

As the episodes go so far, I’d have to say that this one was the weakest one yet, but I was still entertained. No more depressed Chiaki!