This is all I really wanted from this series. I don’t mind slice-of-life. I just want that slice-of-life to go somewhere. For instance, what are we fighting for? The life of the inn. Why couldn’t we have excised the fat and gotten straight to this crucial storyline? Two-cours shouldn’t be carte blanche to waste time. Anyway, while I still don’t particularly care for Ohana or her girlfriends, I actually do like the inn and the rest of the cast. I do enjoy listening to Sui whenever she has something to say. Enishi deserves more screentime too as it feels like he’s the only character with something to prove.
Ohana and Ko
I thought this conversation started off really well. Ohana makes an innocent callback all the way to the first episode regarding one of Ko’s quirks. Essentially, she’s asking him whether or not he’s changed. He tells her flat out, “I just leave the corn I can’t get in there.” In other words? “I just leave [what] I can’t get….” Wow, is a character besides Minko actually being blunt? Pathos? Unfortunately, the rest of the scene unravels from here.
Soon after the corn in a can conversation, Ko is spilling his heart out to Ohana. He’s felt all sorts of conflicting emotions ever since she left and he just can’t wait to reveal them to her. After all, feeling betrayed is no small matter. Even so, his world is boring now just because it no longer has Ohana! This is semi-compelling stuff! So how does Ohana react? All of a sudden, she starts talking to herself. I mean, c’mon, really? It’s like that time Ohana’s mother was talking to her about her dad, and the girl just flat out hung up the phone.
Then Hanasaku Iroha diffuses its own drama the way it always does. Ohana squeals in a cornball way and stops Ko from actually conveying his emotions. In such a light-hearted anime, wouldn’t it have been nice to have some contrast? Shouldn’t we actually get serious for once? Anyway, I’d give Ohana a pass if she had actually returned Ko’s feelings with a heartfelt confession of her own, but then she, like the anime, chickens out too: “I want you to come to the Bonbori Festival!” That’s it?
I don’t care if I have the wrong expectations of the anime or anything — the way that conversation ended was weak. After twenty plus episodes of will they or won’t they, I want a cathartic moment. Unfortunately, this scene is anything but satisfying.
Ohana and her mother
Even worse, Ohana doesn’t even bother to see her mother. Her grandmother asked her to decide her future with Satsuki’s input, but I guess Sui’s words never mattered. I just don’t know how people can see Ohana as an endearing character. She just seems so… selfish and self-absorbed to me. Oh well, the rest of the episode isn’t as aggravating. Hell, I’d say the rest is pretty good and more than makes up for the flaccid start.
Enishi’s second chance
A second chance is how I saw the sudden influx of reservations. Satsuki essentially gave her brother a lifeline. Here, you’re gonna have a ton of business, so what are you going to do about it? Enishi should take charge and wrest control of the inn from his mother. After all, he has the employees’ mandate. Everyone but Sui wants to keep the inn open.
What is with Takako’s face here?
Yeah, yeah, inns aren’t usually handed down from mothers to sons, but is this surprising when you’ve got someone as weak-willed as Enishi? Luckily, while Enishi still wasn’t brave enough to stand up to his mother at first, he’s continuing to take on the reservations as they flow in, setting up a pretty decent staring contest at the end of the episode. I just wish the man wasn’t so passive aggressive most of time.
Ohana and Sui
I gotta hand it to the anime on the aesthetics front though. The scene where these two visited Sui’s husband’s gravestone was absolutely gorgeous. Dantalian no Shoka could take some notes on how to render foliage without looking cheap and dirty.
As for Ohana’s inspired mini-speech to Sui, I can’t help but think back to when her mother visited the inn midway through the series. At that point, I linked Sui to the inn, saying that rejection of Kissuiso is essentially a rejection of Sui. If we are to continue this line of thought, I wonder if Sui is so insistent on shutting down the inn because she realizes that her final days are near. As a result, she doesn’t want her employees to see her (and thus Kissuiso) in such a vulnerable light — to see her wasting away on her deathbed.
Reminds me a bit of Summer Wars, actually.
I mean, yeah, she says that Enishi isn’t capable of running the inn and she doesn’t want others to suffer as a result, but that’s just it, isn’t it? In Sui’s mind, having Enishi succeed Kissuiso is like some strange Psycho scenario. Of course, she hasn’t realized that the inn doesn’t just belong to her anymore and who knows — maybe Enishi will step up to the plate this time!
Wait, How was Ohana ever Interesting in the First Place?!
I don’t think I ever said she was. She had the potential to be interesting if the story had really played up the generational differences between her and Sui more, but Sui sadly became a background character.
I was talking to Ko. XD
Ah, okay. Point still stands though.
I’m going to rewatch the first episode of this show when it’s finished, just to see if the beginning really was as good as I remember it.
At first, Ohana seemed like a typical “city-person” that was going to encounter the countryside. She was smart, but still a little clumsy/airheaded. She had strong morals (the faceslap in ep 1) and was motivated. And in the end of ep 1, she had to face reality and leave her old life behind, just “fest it up” (hah). It was going to be a lovely city-girl meets countryside. But nope.
Ohana was simply a work-a-holic and airheaded in the end. Geez P.A. Works.
So she is technically what happens when Yui from K-on ends up a businessman.
When the last episode airs, I will probably take a look back at the first episode as well and take stock on how the series has evolved or, rather, not evolved since then.
>> He tells her flat out, “I just leave the corn I can’t get in there.” In other words? “I just leave [what] I can’t get….”
Rather than interpreting this as that he gave up on her, I took this as a sign that he is still thinking of Ohana even now – if you remember back to the first episode, she used to leave the corn in the can, whereas he would use water and chopsticks to retrieve the remaining corn. So basically he’s changed his behaviour because he’s still thinking of her; just like with him not drinking coffee before seeing the video of Kissuiso in order to remember her.
I didn’t say he had given up on her. I said he sounded as if he was about to say something blunt only to go on and on about how much he still cares about Ohana.
Ohana doesn’t want to be confessed to. She wants to be the one to make the confession this time. So Ko confessing to her anew flustered her a bit, and knocked her off-balance. So she’s decided to put it off until the Bonbori Festival. I’d say you have a 75% chance of getting your cathartic moment then (25% chance that Mari Okada trolls us all and Ohana drops the ball).
Let’s not forget that Ohana is a teenage girl. And a lot of teenage girls are pretty impulsive, self-absorbed, and/or want everything done a particular way and in a particular style. In this case, I can even understand Ohana wanting to take more of a leading role in her relationship with Ko.
I’m actually kind of surprised that you’re not calling this a victory for feminism, in fact. Here’s a young woman who refuses to be confessed to and just follow the guy’s lead – She wants to play a leading role in the romance, she wants to be the one to make the confession, she wants to upend those awful gender roles that says that the guy is the one who should confess and that it’s the girl’s job to just go along with it or reject him. ;)
I more or less agree with you on the rest of the episode. As for Takako, I think she’s genuinely stunned by Enishi showing some real spine for a change. Especially to his mother.
My point isn’t that her teenage traits aren’t realistic. My point is that this is boring to watch. Her stories are flat and one-dimensional.
Yeeeeeah, I know you’re being facetious here but this is not the least feminist in any way. Being the first to confess or confessing to someone is not an equality that’s worth a damn. Plus, like I’ve said, Ohana has the tendency to do everything her way regardless of sexual politics. She did the same thing with her mother: when that phone call about her dad got heavy, Ohana hung up. That scene has always stuck with me. Ohana does not listen to people if she doesn’t feel like it. Whether it’s Satsuki or Ko, Ohana thinks of herself primarily.
It was just a rhetorical question. I wanted to point out that she had a funny face.
Don’t go granny. Dont leave me with Ohana. Who will entertain me now? Who will continue the the lineage of corporal punishment? Alas, I am sad. it will be a tearful funeral, but at least I won’t be seeing anymore annoying Ohana… after two more episodes… yay…
I like Ohana as a character well enough, but as a person she’s difficult to warm up to. Still, I enjoyed this episode for all the many points of resolution it brought back center-stage, and I got a kick out of Sui’s bath cleaning skills.
Ohana as a character would be good for drama, but the anime never plays off of it. For the most part, it’s too light-hearted of an anime, really.
Sometimes I can’t help but think of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. Hanairo gives vibes that “guys, something about to happen” only to… do something stupid. And now, I simply don’t care.
The only strong point of Ohana, consequently getting people to like her, is the positive attitude she has. Hey, she’s just insanely positive for some reason. Other than that… I don’t know anymore. I want to see Nako again.
I’ll pass on Nako too. I’ll pass on all of the young people. If I could remake the show, I’d redo the whole thing completely from the adults’ perspective.