Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

Series Information

ANN Encyclopedia | AniDB | AnimeNfo
Genres: Comedy, Seinen, Slice-of-Life
Animation Production:
OP: 「経験値上昇中☆」 (Keikenchi Joushouchuu) by Satou Rina, Inoue Marina, Chihara Minori
ED: 「カラフルDAYS」 (Colorful DAYS) by Satou Rina, Inoue Marina, Chihara Minori
StarChild:みなみけ

[ Episode 1: 南さんちの三姉妹 (Three Sisters of Minami ]

M - I - N - A - M - I - KE, LET’S GO!

We first get a treat by seeing the OP theme to this splendid new series. Entitled “Keikenchi Joushouchuu ☆” the song is performed by the Minami sisters themselves. That is of course, well-known seiyuu Satou Rina, Inoue Marina, and Chihara Minori. The cast selection was chosen excellently and giving these three the opportunity to sing the tune to the anime is definitely a good treat. I know Minorin is a singer herself so I was glad to hear she’d be singing it, but I was even more glad to know that the other two aren’t that far behind. They made the whole song lovable and it matched with the OP sequence well. I love how even in the OP, Kana and Chiaki still go at it like normal sisters. Not only are the girls shown here, but we even get to see instances of each of the girl’s friends at school. Since each of the Minami sisters attend a different school (elementary, junior, and high) there’s certainly a nice variety of characters that we can look forward to.

I’ll be honest, I read the manga a few months before it started to see what it was like. It’s not every season we get a slice-of-life comedy, but hell, without my precious Lucky☆Star every Sunday I just felt empty inside. Thankfully, waiting for this series was worth it. Now even though I did read it, I never really continued because I didn’t want to know what I’d be watching a few episodes ahead. Although, it was a long while since I did read it so I actually forgot everything. I think it was because of that that I was able to laugh a little more after seeing the premiere.

It’s a great Sunday morning and Kana, the middle sister decides to spend her day by taking a second nap. After all, nothing like spending a free day by wasting it on a nap right? I wish I had that. Anyhoo, so I’m guessing it’s the next day as we see Chiaki coming home from school. Kana is seen at home so did she even bother going to school, or did Chiaki just happen to have some kind of schooling on Sunday? So Kana is bored stiff and begs Chiaka-sama to help her. There’s some hilarious conversation between the two but ultimately they agree to make dinner as Haruka, the eldest and the “mother” of the sisters, would coming home late. Unfortunately it seems Kana isn’t much of a cook and ends up making cream stew instead of hotcakes. Does that look edible to you?

So now the Minami sisters are watching TV, where they witness a horribly cheesy movie where this student and teacher are lovey-dovey for each other, but Haruka switches the channel before the couple begins to um… interact more… I suppose you could say it like that. Nevertheless, Chiaki is confused at the scene and questions about the two kissing. I know Chiaki’s in elementary but she must know at least a general sense about kissing. But anyways, Haruka dodges her question as she doesn’t want her to know about “kissing.” Kana decides to just teach Chiaki what it is. Now the funny bit is that not even Kana has ever kissed before. In response, Kana proposes to Chiaki if they’d like to try it. Cue hilarious situations.

As Kana attempts to kiss Chiaki on the lips she makes a run for it and the chase begins. Now this is one of my favorite scenes in the entire episode. Not only did the background music fit perfectly but the whole animation here was top-notched. Especially when the camera angle changes to Kana’s view and then to bird’s eye view as Kana chases Chiaki around the living room table in never-ending cycle. That is, until Kana catches up and gets her down. Too bad for her that Haruka puts a stop to it before Kana could do anything… physical? Oh but that’s not where it ends. Kana stops but she then asks if Chiaki wouldn’t mind doing it if it was Haruka she would kiss. It shouldn’t be any real pressure to Haruka since she must have some experience with it right? Chiaki respects Haruka a lot, even so much as to addressing her as “Haruka-neesama” so she closes her eyes and waits for her sister but she hesitates. Kana notices this and pulls a fast one as she takes advantage of the situation and gives Chiaki a kiss.

CHIAKI PUNCH!!!!

In the second half of the episode, Kana receives a love letter in her shoe locker. Before she opens it, however, she runs back home to deliver the terrible news to her sisters. Now this is another great scene. As Kana runs in she flies over to the table where Chiaki and Haruka are preparing tea. I thought that the camera shifting in this scene made it looked real cool. Kana explains her dilemma and Chiaki decides to read the love note anyway. Apparently, this Fujioka kid has a crush on her and wants to express her feelings to her in the classroom when nobody is around. This is where the confusion starts. Chiaki wonders why a popular guy like him would be sending her a note if he can just tell her directly. She deduces that the love letter is actually a message about Kana being an eyesore and standing out too much in class and he would like to do battle with her in the classroom. This “decoding” of the message from Chiaki is just too hysterical, but that’s the way she sees it and so Kana believes it to be the same. Chiaki then goes on to support Kana by telling her what she should do.

Having known the “truth” she arrives at the classroom where Fujioka awaits. Kana takes slow but strong steps (with smoke and noise) toward the nice boy and kicks him in the leg. Now he’s useless without his pivot leg. Bwahahaha! Of course, he doesn’t know what in the hell she’s talking about but I guess she handled it, as she goes back home with a smile on her face giving Chiaki the OK that the plan worked out.

I’m totally in love with the ED theme. It has a nice beat to it, great lyrics, and the seiyuu do a tremendous job with the singing, as to be expected. Really can’t wait to hear the full version of this. On a daily basis I’m currently listening to rips of both the OP and ED songs over and over.

Right before this aired, I had a gut feeling this would be fun, and it is. It follows chapters from the manga faithfully but the anime portrayed it much better in this form, so I’m particular glad it turned out this way. Firstly, the animation and art quality is beyond excellent. Good on the eyes and very very fun to watch. Whichever people at Doumu that worked on those camera angle shifting shots are a group of geniuses.

Characters display a tremendous amount of personality, each girl with different, unique traits, especially the middle sister, Kana. She pretty much made the entire premiere awesome, what with her kissing attempts on Chiaki and then her love letter situation. Out of all the new shows this season, this clearly impressed me the most and so it’s my personal favorite. Pure gold, and I’m standing by for more.

Score: 9.5/10