Upcoming fourth season of expansive slice of life comedy series, Minami-ke, has been confirmed for debut within winter of 2012 – the director being the same responsible for Mayo Chiki, Kawaguchi Keiichiro.
Honestly, this news isn’t particularly something to be excited for – Minami-ke’s first season was fantastic, yet it went on to face a horrific sequel not once, but twice, and now a third continuation is coming which may be insult to injury. Minami-ke was as the series itself narrated before the opening sequence would roll – a simple story about the Minami family in which one shouldn’t expect too much, yet it seems that whoever is choking the threads of life for this series is expecting a ton, and then some.
Having been revealed that the director is one whose most popular works are only notable for their lack of achievement – this of course isn’t reassuring as to whether Minami-ke’s fourth season will succeed. Yet the director does have a few more respectable animations under his name – such as an incredibly short yet splendid OVA, Kowarekake no Orgel, or the ever-lovable Hayate no Gotoku.
Even then however, there’s few series which have faced such terrible staff butchering as Minami-ke – the studio has been shuffled around several times, and that means the staff responsible for various details, like key animation, have as well. The result is a dreadful absence of consistency across all three seasons of Minami-ke – and with yet another crew with nothing to do with the original first season, one can’t help but feel this series is set to be sullied even greater than it has been.
Unfortunately, in the case of Minami-ke, another season simply doesn’t sound too promising.
Jun 15, 2012 @ 6:02 CDT
Hope that the animation will improve a lot in season 4 and will end up as splendid as season one and not ending up as a disaster for seasons 2 and 3.
Jun 15, 2012 @ 6:39 CDT
I don’t remember which season it was, although there was one which showed you the first 1/3 of the episode, then the OP rolled, then a second, totally unrelated, 1/3 would play – and once the ED would come up after that, there would finally be a last irrelevant 1/3 before the episode ended.
I realized that was the worst animation I ever watched.
…and then Guilty Crown was released.
Jun 15, 2012 @ 7:48 CDT
That makes me think of Mitsudomoe, where each episode was split up into 4 different parts that usually had little to do with each other. It was an incredibly hilarious anime, though. The OPs and EDs were in the right places, too.
Jun 15, 2012 @ 7:51 CDT
Reminds me of a few other animes as well, like Ika Musume – Minami-Ke however had a subtle story in season one, the second completely thrashed it, and that format was not native to the series.
Jun 15, 2012 @ 14:20 CDT
I’ve been planning to watch this series for a while. Maybe I’ll stop after the first season, then decades later come back and watch the rest.
By then I’d have probably forgotten the good parts of S.1, making S.2 look better. Slightly.
Jun 15, 2012 @ 18:21 CDT
It might still be worth watching all of it though – at least you can experience the awful like the rest of us.
Oct 23, 2012 @ 7:48 CDT
Was I the only one who liked Minami-Ke? Not just the first season but all three seasons no less.
Oct 24, 2012 @ 22:30 CDT
I liked all three seasons, although this doesn’t mean the second and third weren’t terrible. Your personal level of enjoyment is not a quality factor.
Jun 15, 2012 @ 6:11 CDT
Is it not Winter 2013^^
Jun 15, 2012 @ 6:42 CDT
Winter 2012-2013.
I reference winter in the sense of the actual season of winter – not the anime season. Though I’ll make a clarification adjustment.
Jun 15, 2012 @ 6:42 CDT
I liked season 3 but the second one was awful both in terms of new character designs and the wishy-washy plot. Mayo-chiki is by no means a series that brings quality to mind so I have my doubts about the success of this fourth season…
Jun 15, 2012 @ 6:44 CDT
I also thought the third season was fair – yet similarly, Mayo Chiki doesn’t give me the idea of anything good upcoming.
Jun 16, 2012 @ 4:41 CDT
Since there’s a fourth season, I just hope they have more camera time for Haruka’s brunette friend (forgot her name), and Chiaki’s equivalent.
Jun 17, 2012 @ 13:40 CDT
I have watched only the first season yet but I’ll watch the rest someday. You’re not expecting too much from an anime like this anyway.
Jun 17, 2012 @ 17:18 CDT
The anime itself also tells you not too expect too much – the first season.