Review

Kono Minikuku is basically Mahoromatic Season III. It features the same voice actors in substantially similar roles, the same character designer creating substantially similar character designs, the same animation style and the same 12-odd episode format.

Kono Minikuku is a slight, if not great, evolution in the Mahoromatic formula and team. Its strengths are an original storyline, occasional flashes of inspired whimsy, and a satisfying, appropriate ending (a rarity in Gainax anime). Its weaknesses are repetitive ecchi, shallow characters, and uneven pacing—it spends 7-8 episodes introducing the characters, then crams the rest of the story into the last few episodes.

You could do worse than watching Kono Minikuku once through—there are definitely moments of the old Gainax magic, but on the whole, it fails the Gainax test. There is just not enough depth to the characters. Takeru is earnest and resolute. That is the entirety of his character. Takeru’s friend Ryo is more interesting, but once again, the show features essentially lobotomized females. Hikari is confused, but lives to please Takeru, while Akari doesn’t say much at all-- she just looks cute and laughs occasionally. This grossly unrealistic portrayal of females is typical of anime today, but it’s lamentable that Gainax, once committed to portraying complicated, realistic characters, has come to this.

Gainax's failed attempt at anti-moe

Director Shouji Saeki talks a big game about Kono Minikuku, claiming that he wanted to deconstruct the typical moe anime, presumably in the way that most Gainax works deconstruct various anime genres (i.e. giant robots in Evangelion, shoujo in Kare Kano, etc): "in many [typical moe] shows, the main character has incredible luck; girls just automatically like him. We wondered if we could start where everyone else does and go somewhere that no one else had." (Newtype USA 8/06). On moe, Saeki said, "[moe love] is one-sided. I wanted to turn that on its head," by which he means that Hikari has a dark side. Saeki regards the two male characters as embodiments of two different aspects of himself: "Takeru [is always] struggling to succeed... Ryou, on the other hand, likes things the way they are just fine, so he figures he might as well relax." Saeki is at least conscious of the problems of moe-- "What caught my attention about moe is that it makes the sex so vague-- moe is used to hide our embarrassment about sex." He claims that he "wouldn't want to do only moe," and says that he likes it when "the everyday actions of the opposite sex take a character's breath away."

The problem is that Kono Minikuku as a finished work doesn't do enough to criticize or deconstruct moe. It basically is moe throughout most of the show.

Images

Manga

The manga adaptation, which is now up to two volumes, is being scanlated by A-T Translations.

Links

Official site

Animesuki: Kono Minikuku - this series was never licensed in the US, and probably never will be, so download away Licensed by ADV!

Nowhere anime blog - SPOILER-heavy episode synopses

Matthew's Anime Blog - ditto

Yoko Ishida concert - the singer of Kono's OP in concert at Anime Boston 2005