Minami-Ke’s OVA is bundled with the 10th manga volume, and it comes in form of assorted snippets contributing to an overall episode – essentially taking after the first season as it keeps a consistency in tact.
Starting off the OVA, Makoto heads over to the Minami house in his typical crossdressed manner, looking like quite a cute loli for a shota in disguise – and his arrival is greeted by the mischievous mastermind and middle daughter of the house, Kana. Kana is dressed in a freightening mess of an ensemble – and bewildered by the out of character attire, the crossdresser questions the reasoning as to why anyone would shame themselves by adorning such grotesque rags for wardrobe.
Almost as if slapped in the face, Kana, mortified with disbelief, asks if her crossdressing friend has ever heard of the celebration known as “Halloween” – to which he deems he is unfamiliar. She immediately drags him to the common room – and immediately, this enviable bastard is met with the sight of cute girls all aggregated in adorable costumes.
Dressed up, it’s not merely the Minami-ke, but of course, the various friends of the family as well – all outfitted in a variety of different delightful fashion items, ranging from unimaginative yet all so enticing bunny suits, to full body animal costumes and classic horror villain archetypes like mummies and vampires. Still confused, the crossdressing shota kid asks the reasoning for the dressing up – however his question falls on deaf ears as Kana instantly disregards his query and forces him to dress up as well.
Seeing as the kid was already fancying some unusual attire for his gender and age, it seemingly only gets even more so abnormal from here forward – in an attempt at fanfare for those of special interests, this boy is dressed up akin to a majou shoujo, complete with short pink dress, wand in hand, and a witch’s hat.
Forceful as usual, the most loli of three Minami girls, Chiaki, pulls the crossdressing shota kid back to the commons area – then proceeds to instruct him on how to participate in the ritual recognized by the sacred name of “Trick or Treat”.
The “oji-san” character of the Minami family with girlfriend problems makes his fated return – serving a commendable life’s purpose of test subject this time around as the shota kid hesitantly approaches him, recites the ancient phrase of “trick or treat”, and then subsequently complies with this ceremonial tradition of mankind, handing the shota kid a sack of so-called “treats”. The shota kid rests his gaze upon the treats and admires them alongside the crude imouto of the Minami-ke – both seemingly satisfied with the end-result of their celebratory protocol.
Twintails then continues to explain what happens when reciting the phrase does not lead to treat – Kana starts tickling the cousin in an act of vengeance, and this eventually leads to the other girls following suit, ultimately becoming a display designed for the masochistic lolicon in mind.
Silliness subsiding for the time being, the scene transitions to the group all relaxing over some tea. Wondering if the festivities are over, the crossdressing shota kid then asks what the next objective is – to which the girls explain that there isn’t much more. Leaving the scene rather eerily, the twintailed vampire Kana goes to brush her teeth – and we’re then met with an amusing emphasis upon her vampiric teeth, accompanied with an evil cackle to capitalize on her foolish acting.
The story then jumps to New Years, the seasons are certainly flying forward relentlessly – and the group is once again gathered. Despite all holidays having come to pass, they decide to replicate the earlier year of drunken stupidity, seen in one of the earlier three seasons, with some more of the same. The various Minami friends are offered some supposedly non-alcoholic beverage and in a manner of recurring tragedy – everyone progressively falls to the mentality of the drunk.
The third clip is based around the word “whim” – something seen with essentially every development made in any given episode of this series. It focuses on the characters acting out on impulses, which honestly isn’t much different than what they normally do. In any case, we find the Minami sisters making lunch for each other, bringing home random goodies, and changing their hairstyles and choice of clothing, much to the confusion of their classmates. And then to make this a true installment of Minami-ke, the series intercedes with a scene of Hosaka performing a musical number.
The fourth snippet details a rather hot day for the Minami crew. Twintails has just finished her second shower of the day – and the imouto explains that her twintailed kin wouldn’t require a constant change of clothes if she merely embraced the mizugi, something to which these often at odds siblings actually agree upon
Chiaki and Kana’s loli companions show up as well – and the situation is quick to devolve most favorably as everyone falls to the persuasive power of twintails and adorns their sukumizus before then powering down under the fatigue of summer. Haruka arrives home to find a group of young girls clad in sukumizu – a sight which many would surely trade all of humanity for.
Enthusiasts of bishoujo are not forgettable as following the credits, we receive a round of antics from Haruka’s rather attractive circle of friends – minus the strange and disconcerting Hosaka of course, assuming he’s in the “friend” category.
This OVA delivered all of what one could have hoped – it attempted to smash all characters of the TV series within it, and whilst a ridiculous to even dare attempt such a feat, it is such daring initiative in regards to silliness which makes Minami-ke the much-admired slice of life which it is. If the upcoming fourth season will be of this caliber – this is success set and done, humor is to be treasured when presented to this level of low-expectation, yet heavy-hitting caliber, topped with moe.
Oct 22, 2012 @ 12:25 CDT
i really do enjoy this ova…hope that the coming season is not a let down :X
Oct 22, 2012 @ 17:22 CDT
I similarly enjoyed it – the OVA met all standards for good Minami-ke episode.
Oct 23, 2012 @ 5:08 CDT
I thought you said it had to much service?
Oct 23, 2012 @ 21:24 CDT
The OVA was good. I laughed a few times, but not as much as the previeous seasons. Hope the next one will be better.