It’s a cultural festival episode, which might sound rather cliché, but it does at least split the girls up into three distinct groups. Usually, the “Hanasaku Iroha” girls are always together and their interactions are… how should I put this… unreal?

Ever since the third episode of the anime, which was months and months ago, the “Hanasaku Iroha” girls never butt heads. Even then, it was just Ohana being befuddled by Minko’s brusque treatment of her. Friends argue and friends fight, but for whatever reason, the girls of this anime almost never fight with each other. As a result, it’s a godsend to split the girls up for once. They’ll actually have to deal with other people now — real people who might actually disagree with them.

The good
This is the group that Ohana and Yuina belong to. When I say their group is “the good,” I don’t mean this in a moral sense. I’m not even trying to say that their contribution to the story was interesting; in fact, they probably had the most eye-rollingly boring scenes in the episode.

Ohana and Yuina are popular girls so they get the popular group. They get to sit around and model clothes at one another, marveling at their own beauty. I guess when you’re like these girls, you get to make the hard-hitting decisions like “I want us all to wear cute uniforms.” There’s no pathos here whatsoever, which, I suppose, fits Yuina perfectly since she has been nothing but a spoiled girl all series long.

The bad
On the other hand, you have Nako and her artist friend. They’re not turning their classroom into yet another tired cafe. Nako actually has the interesting idea of exhibiting her classmate’s artwork. Whoa, wait — there’s actually a class taking pride in its students’ abilities? There’s actually a class using the cultural festival to promote its students’ accomplishments? Well, no. There’s no one there to help either Nako or her artist friend.

“Sorry, Mizuno. I hadn’t realized it’d be like this. The entire class was supposed to have agreed.”

Don’t get me wrong — I’m not trying to make fun of either Nako (for once) or the anime. In fact, I find her and her friend’s contribution to the episode rather poignant. These girls aren’t as outgoing as Ohana and Yuina’s group. They might not even be as pretty (who can really tell though? — all anime girls are drawn the same way: thin and cute). They’re not going to be parading around in cute uniforms and serving food to gleeful male students. They’re going to be showing off art… at a culture festival. This makes so much sense that of course Nako and her artist friend are working completely alone. It’s just kind of sad how communities can push the less popular — the ones who don’t blend into the normative — to the fringe.

The ugly
The focus of this episode, however, is Minko and her trip of self-realization. For once, people don’t just quietly accept Minko’s rotten personality. When she decides not to serve omurice against her classmates’ wishes, people actually oppose her. She tells a classmate off for “[operating] on an emotional level” when it’s blatantly obvious that Minko intends to impress Tohru on the day of the festival. Unfortunately for her, this particular story arc is going to take more than an episode to resolve so we don’t get to see her redemption just yet.

Still, this episode illustrates the crux of Minko’s problem as a character. She doesn’t have anyone to oppose her until the nineteenth episode. Usually, I say that I dislike tsundere characters because, in practice, these girls are just mean and everyone else acts like a doormat around them. “Hanasaku Iroha” demonstrates everything that is flawed about most tsundere portrayals. By deferring Minko’s opposition to such a late stage in the anime, Minko receives no character development until then. From the beginning of the anime til now, Minko is just a one-note girl with a sourpuss face who blushes every now and then.

The point of having a character like Minko is to add conflict to a story. A story is just absolutely boring if everyone simply agreed with one another. When you have a prickly-but-still-good-at-the-core character like Minko, why would you not take advantage of it? Does anyone recall “Much Ado About Nothing?” Did Shakespeare include Beatrice just to have her glower at the cast? Of course not; Benedick and Beatrice bantered and argued over and over, even after they fell in love. They were the best part about that silly play. The problem with tsundere characters is that no one dares to talk back to them so the tsunderekkos are wasted.

This is why it’s such a godsend to actually see Minko deal with people outside of her tight circle of friends. Ohana and the rest are too friendly. There hasn’t been any push and pull in the group since the third episode; without adversity, there’s no growth. As such, Minko has been a completely flat character for 75% of the season. And for what? All so we can have episodes about a group of LARPers and Ohana “revitalizing” the inn with old costumes (which, coincidentally, they never bring up again until this episode)? So finally, after nineteen freaking episodes, Minko might actually have to learn a thing or two.