Minami-ke Natsuyasumi

A cute summer episode of standard Minami-ke fare. Chiaki is working on her summer goal of trying to do a backwards flip on the playground beam, the girls go to the beach, a flying beetle plays with Kana and Touma's hearts, and Haruka's friends go to a restaurant, where Atsuko has trouble deciding on what to order. Normally i'd give the animation (6/10) a better score in the Minami-ke series, but this cgi beetle that Kana and Touma adopt as a pet at different times during the episode looks really bad and sticks out like a sore thumb. Overall, the episode felt more cheaply produced than normal. Theamount of material in the special is decent. The beach segment felt very generic, but Chiaki's cute story made up for it. Touma names a pet beetle Natsuki, which confuses her older brother and makes for a humorous bit. However, the funniest part of the episode in my opinion is actually after the credits - the restaurant segment with Hitomi and Atsuko, topped off with a very short bit of Hosaka ordering a drink at a fast food place. So make sure you stick around after the credits. Other than that, there's not much else to say. Here's hoping for another season!