…with all that fest? All that fest up in here? I’m gonna make you HNNGH, get you HNNGH, off moe… my drunken, snot-filled moe.

Alright, I’ll give credit where credit’s due. I like this episode. Is it because Minko’s barely in it? Well, that always helps. Actually, Hanasaku Iroha executed the subtleties in the Sui-Satsuki relationship brilliantly. The episode captured the love between the estranged mother and daughter without either lady spelling it out — y’know, show and not tell?

When news of Satsuki’s imminent arrival reached Kissuiso, Sui already had a stubborn mindset. She wanted to treat her daughter just like any other customer. Likewise, Satsuki wasn’t going to give an inch. When she arrived, she remarked that the inn hadn’t changed. In reality, she was really referring to her mother. After all, Sui poured all her heart and soul into the inn for decades and decades. The inn is thus nothing but the extension of her own identity. The fact that the inn hadn’t changed in all these years meant that her mother hadn’t changed, and of course, that initially disappointed Satsuki.

You can see the divergent personalities of the mother-daughter pair play out over the course of the episode. Despite the fact that Satsuki hadn’t been home to Kissuiso in a long while, she has her finger directly on the pulse of the business. She has great ideas on how to improve Kissuiso. But again, the inn is an extension of Sui; it won’t change only because Sui doesn’t want to change. It’s interesting to contrast how Sui and Ohana treats Satsuki to how the rest of the staff receives Satsuki. Even though they know she penned the negative review, they can see that Satsuki has good ideas. On the other hand, working with family is always difficult; everything becomes personal.

The moment everything flipped was when Enishi announced that he had invited Takako to handle his sister. This immediately angered Sui who regarded the “problem” as not just a Kissuiso issue, but a Shijima issue. You can see her face pause for a second as if she had undergone a sudden realization: this was the first time she honestly regarded Satsuki as her daughter since her daughter’s arrival. The gulf between them stems from merely that; Sui too often treats her family members as yet another cog in the Kissuiso machine. This plays out in a flashback: a young Satsuki asked Beanman to leave the bath so that she could bathe, but Sui immediately stepped into the picture and told Beanman to finish cleaning the bath. Furious that her mother would put the customer’s needs over her own daughter, Satsuki stripped the towel away as a sign of defiance against her mother even with Beanman still in the room.

Although Satsuki was the one who ran away from Kissuiso in the past, it’s interesting to see that, again, she’s the one to extend the olive branch. Just as she conceded to Ohana by (eventually) returning to Kissuiso, she forces Sui and Ohana to come drink with her as away to cross that awkward “just another customer” barrier. Essentially, she’s telling her mother to drop the pretenses and just share a moment with her as family members. The trio then bond over Ohana’s relationship troubles. If not significant, this at least represents progress in their strained relationships.

When both Sui and Ohana doze off, Sui mutters in her sleep about a dream she had. She dreamt that Satsuki would one day succeed her in managing Kissuiso with Ohana. This both demonstrates Sui’s love for her daughter and her own insecurities. The whole relationship is kind of bittersweet because the emotional distance Sui imposes on her daughter is being repeated between Satsuki and Ohana. Sui does love her daughter, but she just has a strange way of communicating it. Maybe she even finds it difficult to express her love conventionally. Either way, I’ve repeatedly asserted that Kissuiso is an extension of Sui. When she scolded younger Satsuki or Ohana for their poor work ethic or whatever, she really just want them to love the inn and thus love her. Her dream is just a hope that her daughter one day accepts her for who she is: Kissuiso.

So in the end, just before Satsuki leaves Kissuiso yet again, she hands her mother and the rest of the staff a letter. In the letter, Satsuki penned her honest feelings for the inn and, essentially, her honest feelings for her mother as the relationship stands now. She simultaneously laments and desires Kissuiso’s lack of change, but her love outweighs everything else now that she’s older and not a rebellious teenager. Satsuki, nevertheless, still leaves. I’d suggest that she and Ohana are quite similar in this respect. Ohana realizes at the end of the episode that she doesn’t want to return to Tokyo because Kissuiso is her home. Likewise, I think Satsuki can’t stay for the same reason; although she came from Kissuiso just as Ohana came from Tokyo, Kissuiso is not Satsuki’s home just like Tokyo isn’t Ohana’s home. By the way, I love how Sui turned toward the group as Ohana read the letter, then looked away at the end.

Great episode, but I don’t exactly have faith in Hanasaku Iroha just yet. One good week doesn’t change the fact that most of the series thus far has really stunk it up. It’s unfortunate that we won’t likely revisit the Sui-Satsuki dynamic for a while. I haven’t been too impressed with the characterizations of the kids on the show whatsoever, but from the previews, it appears we are headed back in that direction. But who knows? This episode was kind of like a mini-finale in a way. Maybe the slate will be wiped clean and Hanasaku Iroha will improve from here on out.

Stray observations:

• The heron thing still isn’t funny.

• Even in such a great episode, they can’t help including a lurid shot of Satsuki in the bath. Oh, I’m sure people love the nipple-less fanservice, but pardon me for not sharing the same sentiments.

• Good call on Enishi’s sister complex.

• I wonder if the ending means we’ve seen the last of Ko. Personally, I hope so.