Preview

Mikami-ke brings us the daily life of the three Minami sisters Haruka (the older, high-schooler), Kana (the super-active middle sister) and Chiaki (the younger, yet somewhat more mature). Between their daily life confusions, the title also presents us several friends, who eventually visit them almost on a daily basis. Aside the daily/school life theme, do not expect further development, as "warned" by the initial message on each episode.

Pacing

Closely following the three sister lives (though focusing mostly on Kana and Chiaki), Minami-ke is a pleasant comedy with subtle nuances of romance and a lot of kawai MFG (Make you feel good) factor. Although there is no main plot, the episodes are best seen in order to follow with each side character introduction and how they come into the sister's lives. If earlier we have only the three sisters, eventually we also have another four siblings (the youngest a girl) also surnamed Minamiwho live close by, and friends of each girl who come often to dinner or play at their house.

The romance aspect is quite interestingly oriented to the secondary characters, even when they deal with the sisters: There is the volley fanatic who is deeply in love with Haruka despite the fact he never spoke with her (though he often fantasizes about their future 'family' life); the popular soccer player on Kana's school who tries hard to confess his feelings to her, utterly failing; and the young Chiaki's schoolmate that, despite being "hated" by Chiaki, constantly tries to get into her house just to see her older sister Haruka. In all these small romances, that we can only call secondary developments, the sisters are totally oblivious to the other feelings (not in a bad way, thus not really leaving you longing for further development), which make these passages quite cute and funny without the usual melodramatic baggage of a teenager romance comedy.

Conclusion

Aside from the obvious lack of sequence and a central plot, and the small focus on the characters (although pleasant and fun, there is little character development), a good warning is that there is also no closure to anything presented (such as the small romances), but the series already left it's second season as a direct sequence clear as of the last episode, "Mikami-ke Okawari", which aired early on 2008.

With a good tone on daily slice-of-life passages with always a good deal of humor, Minami-ke succeeds into not falling into the tedious lack of interesting passages or characters like some series as Hidamari-Sketch, nor in the overblown slapstick comedy such as Ichigo Machimaro (Kana is fun, but not annoying as Miu in Ichigo), and premieres a top entertainment series for all fans of the genre, like in Aria, Azumanga Daioh or Sketchbook.