I normally don’t like to do “episode 1 posts” of any series, but I felt that I needed to respond immediately to Minami-ke Okaeri while my reaction and feelings towards it and its visuals are still fresh in my mind.
The show is done by the same company that did Okawari (asread) as opposed to the first season (Doumu), which is generally considered the “worse” Minami-ke show, but I read that asread was bringing some of the original staff along to work on this new season. Whether that’s true or not, it’s clear that Minami-ke Okawari is trying to be more like Season 1.
The visuals end up being a mix of the two seasons, with what feels like an overall lower budget. That sounds like an insult, but it really isn’t. I have no proof, but seeing as almost everything is suffering these days I’m almost certain anime is getting less funding too. The show tries to adhere more to the visual style of Season 1 with its sparse shading, but the highly saturated colors resemble Okawari a lot more, especially in the backgrounds. More than the differences in style and animation, the color scheme was what I think really set apart the first two seasons.
Some of the animation does seem stiff and not up to the level of the stuff in Season 1, but I think that’s also because I’d gotten acclimated to Season 1’s style. Watching Season 1 after watching Okawari, it took time for my eyes to readjust, and now watching Okaeri after not having watched any Minami-ke for a while, it might be simply a case of my eyes needing to adjust once more.
Even if their attempt to mix the look of Season 1 and Okawari doesn’t succeed in the end, I’ll at least know that they tried.
If they give more Minami Touma scenes, then that’d also be just dandy.
And joy.
OGIUE MANIAX 
sweeping statements like ‘anime is getting lower budgets’ kind of bother me. Because, compared to lets say x number of years ago, there are far more anime on TV, and the number with lower budgets seems to be proportional to the increase. Madhouse ran 4 anime last season, all with incredible animation, none of which suffered from the other’s gain, and one of which is still running. Saying that anime has lower budgets makes it sound like there’s equal distribution of wealth, which there isn’t. Plus I’d hardly say a lower budget is an excuse to fuck up your artwork. Less frames, fine, ugly-ass ones, someone’s just a hack.
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But Madhouse is Madhouse, running strong since the 70s. I’d say they’re an exception rather than a rule, and that’s why I love Madhouse in the first place.
Yeah the show could definitely look better, but I’m going to give it some time before I put final judgment on the show looks-wise. As of now, this is just an initial impression.
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okay, how about Kyoto Animation? They are like a baby studio and still have insanely good animation. Or Bones?
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Replace Touma with Makoto (or even better, both at the same time), and that’s me. :P
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