Okay, maybe not that hard.
A negative review of Kissuiso (still a 5/10) sets Ohana off; not only does she love Kissuiso, she’s worked too hard to let someone just slam her new home. While some customers do call Kissuiso to cancel their reservations after the publication of the review, it could have been a coincidence. Nevertheless, no one at Kissuiso is sleeping easy. Although her grandmother told her to just drop it, Ohana decides to run away from Kissuiso on some misguided quest to right this supposed injustice. Ohana returns to Tokyo for a confrontation but ends up with more than she bargained for: her mother and Ko. So instead of happy reunions, we get melancholy girls in the snow rain.
It turns out Satsuki literally wrote the review. I suppose, then, that everyone will think that she is the bad guy. She does end up leaving Ohana out in the rain in the same episode, but what can you honestly do with an obstinate teenager? Here’s my take: the review isn’t Satsuki’s fault. Everyone might think I’m bagging on Ohana since it’s no secret that I don’t think very fondly of Hanasaku Iroha as a whole, but two things: (1) this was actually one of the series’ better episodes and (2) why should I give a damn either way about Satsuki? I don’t; she’s a minor character and abandoning her child at the start of the series was pretty low.
Nevertheless, the negative Kissuiso review didn’t have an author attached to it. Otherwise, why would Ohana have to go to the publisher and demand to know who wrote it? So when she finally confronts her mother, Satsuki tells Ohana that the higher-ups wanted Satsuki to write an unfavorable review. Essentially, Satsuki is just doing her job: putting to paper someone else’s negative opinions. If Ohana has a beef, she should be taking it up with the publisher. Instead, she demands that her mother return to Kissuiso where there’s presumably a history of bad blood. Of course, there’s always the chance that Satsuki’s lying about the whole thing but what indications of that do we have?
Seeing as how Ohana is in Tokyo anyway, she decides to look up her friend Ko. When she arrives at his new place of employment, she sees another girl clinging to his sleeves like they do in every cheesy romance anime (doki doki). Ohana runs away at the sight of this, but Ko still chases after her. They have a talk and Ko reveals to Ohana that his co-worker does like him, but he can’t return her feelings. Ohana begins to chastise Ko, but realizes that she, too, failed to give Ko a straight answer when he confessed to her. Again, she runs away from him into the rain.
Y’know, I really hope Ko gets with the girl at the bookstore. I bet she’s nice. More improtantly, she also had the guts to confess her feelings. Ohana stares right at her own hypocrisy and still doesn’t give Ko a straight answer about her feelings. Blah blah blah, love at sixteen is complicated and confusing — goddamn, how long has it been since Ko confessed? How many text messages has he sent her? Just earlier in the same episode, Ohana tells Satsuki that Satsuki never considered anyone else’s feelings… and here we are now:
One of the things this episode did really well was parallel Ohana and her mother and perhaps even grandmother. All three love their jobs and distance themselves from others. I’m angry at Ohana for being so wishy-washy with Ko, but I have to admit I teared up when things kept getting worse and worse for her. One painful part about growing up is realizing we can’t change everything. I sympathized with Ohana’s feelings of helplessness. Sure life’s beautiful, but it is also filled with pain and frustration. I thought this episode did a great job depicting this.
Does Ohana distance herself from others through her job? I don’t get that impression. She avoids Ko but seemingly from an awkwardness that stems from young love. To everyone else, Ohana seems very open and friendly, which is unlike her mother and grandmother.
I don’t think she distances herself from her “nakama” at work, but it’s hard not to notice that last week Ko went to visit her because he missed her. The only reason Ohana returned to Tokyo was because her inn’s reputation was in jeopardy. I don’t think Ohana is a cold character, but she seems to worry a lot more about the Kissuiso than Ko’s feelings. I agree that part of this might be because she is young and awkward, but to me, it seems like the show’s writers are setting up a dichotomy between Ko and Ohana and also a parallel between Ohana and the women in her family.
Also to add, Ohana complains that her mom never considers her feelings. Notice that Ko says the same thing about Ohana in episode 1 and Ohana realizes that this is true at the restaurant. Once again, I don’t think she’s a heartless character, but she seems to have a “blind spot” like her mother.
I never said she was heartless. I just think she’s a terrible friend to Ko and often gets a pass for it because she’s a young girl.
LOL. No, I don’t think you think she’s heartless at all. I guess the point I’m trying to make is that the way she is insensitive to Ko is like the way her mother is insensitive to her. Also, that Ohana loves her work as much as her mother and grandmother love theirs.
This is neither sarcastic nor rhetorical: do you think Ohana’s mother ever sits around and wonder if she should call her daughter the way Ohana sometimes agonizes over Ko?
The show hasn’t given us any reason to think that. She does do kind things like give Ohana the food in the rain and respects Ohana enough to not stop her protest. But I doubt Ohana would be so over-the-top negligent with her own daughter.
Yeah, Ohana was being flakey and I don’t think anyone shoud have their feelings messed with like that. But in any case, it doesn’t look like Ko’s interested in the bookstore girl. He probably has some lingering feelings for Ohana. Now all she has to do (what an ironic situation) is give Ko the answer he was looking for. Or just any answer for that matter since it’s clearly eating at him.
Well, Ko’s not entirely blameless. He’s the one giving her plenty of rope to maneuver around giving him a straight answer.
Do you notice that Ko didn’t tell the girl that he doesn’t like her, it’s just that he’s waiting for Ohana’s response? When the show started I was a total Ko/Ohana fangirl, but now I’m not so sure. Even though she’s not trying to be mean, Ohana is expecting an awful lot from Ko without giving him anything in return. Of course she’s young and has a lot on her plate. Like you, I’m hoping that she’ll give Ko a firm response soon. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ko gets tired of waiting. Like you said, the entire situation is clearly eating away at him, poor guy.
STATUS KO
Ohana really brought all this on herself, I found. If she weren’t so wishy washy with Ko and so quick to jump to conclusions over a few reservation cancellations, she could’ve avoided a lot of her headache.
With that aside, at least it was a rather entertaining episode, if only for Ohana’s pout… if you could call it that. And her mother, always the charmer, at least had her irritation somewhat justified. Decent episode overall, but I can’t get over how ridiculous that face and the whole egregious use of fest as a verb thing.
Almost every drama relies on a lack of clear communication as a way to produce drama. If you’re not uttering “Just tell him/her!” at least once during an episode of anything, pigs are flying.
This much is true. Still, there’s only so much you can do so before disbelief is no longer suspended. But hey, it’s anime. Hilarious misunderstandings are par for the course.
Hey, I’m not defending it. I hate it. When all you have to do is talk to someone, that makes limp drama to me. Shows are refreshing when the drama is anything but people staring at each other with lots to say but no will to say it. This is probably why I enjoy Men of a Certain Age…