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This time we look at the 4th season of Minami-ke!

Minami-ke is an interesting series in that it's 4 seasons have been produced by different studios: Daume (first), asread (2, 3) and feel. (4). This kind of results in seasons having very different looks, the most radical being the jump between 1 and 2, where values dropped like a hot potato. In terms of seasons in ranking, not counting the current as it's still on going, it'd go 1st, 3rd and 2nd. Anywho, like the Maoyu review, this one will be using the same system.

Story in Minami-ke has always been the everyday life of the sisters, and I can't accurately remember if Chiaki's blurb before the opening sequence was used in the previous seasons as well, but that more or less accurately sums up what the series is. Light hearted and almost always funny, it's a series that's always been a blast to watch. The comedy isn't dumb slapstick comedy, and some of the jokes don't grow old. 

Art & Animation: 8/10

There's not much to say about this catergory. feel.'s character designs feel a lot closer to the ones Daume used in their season (more on that in overall), and it's animated well. It's hard to talk about the art and animation in this one because it hasn't really differed too much between seasons. Season 2 really dropped, but the 3rd was a step or two up from that (still not 1st level) and I feel that this 4th is right back to the level where the series started.

Characters: 7.5/10

The charcters haven't changed. They've stayed fairly consistent throughout the three previous seasons and haven't changed so far. We've learned a few new things about characters, mainly about Touma (I think she's the only one to really get anything new). Mako-chan is back in full force, and so is Hosaka, who's been toned down a little bit from his grand delusions of the first season. 

There is a new character, Miyuki, who joins Kana's merry band of friends at school, bringing the girl's middle school group to 4. She is,however, a minor character and hasn't had a lot of screentime since her debut, and I'm hoping she doesn't get forgotten.

7.5 is what this one gets. It's a fun series to watch on downtime as it's light and doesn't make you cringe at hit or miss humour. Characters return from previous season virtually unchanged, along with the art and feel of the first season making the 'ただいま' part of it's title rather fitting.

Now, let's talk about how this first season showing up in the series. Right from the opening theme, the series calls back to it's origin, using parts of the 1st season's opening theme in the song. The character designs are closer to those of the 1st season, and I remember the first season being noticeably 'cleaner' than the second and third. Call it rose-tinted lenses for the first season, but there's not denying that the first season was superior to both the second and third.