The best character in the entire show.
I seriously thought the credits would roll at several points throughout the finale. For instance, Ohana’s confession to Ko would have been a decent way to end the series. Likewise, Sui wandering the empty Kissuiso premises and seeing her husband one more time would have been a good finish. Hell, you could have just ended the whole series last week, but Hanasaku Iroha‘s last episode is the anime equivalent to The Lord of the Rings‘ ending: it just keeps going. Hanasaku Iroha‘s final episode tries to maintain the happy feeling it achieved last week, but this is hard to do without drama. And drama, I must say, is really the crux of the series’ problems.
Why is it hard to maintain a happy feeling without drama? Happiness, for a lot of us, will dissipate when it begins to feel unearned. Last week, the anime earned its happy ending by resolving a major conflict between Sui and the rest of the Kissuiso staff. Putting their differences behind them, everyone runs the inn to perfection. Satsuki returning home was just the cherry to top off the sundae. The finale, on the other hand, lacks conflict. I wouldn’t consider Ohana’s confession to Ko much of a conflict when the results are pretty much fait accompli. So, at some point, the happy feeling gradually ebbs. Essentially, the finale feels more like an elaborate treat for Hanasaku Iroha fans; they wouldn’t mind an overdone, overwrought epilogue. As for me, however, the finale overstays its welcome.
Fear of intimacy
The anime could’ve really helped itself by just having punctuated moments of catharsis, but what really bothers me is the lack of intimacy between any of the characters. The cast will say that they love or care for one another, but actions speak louder than words. For example, Ohana and Ko, separated at first by a festival procession, finally get to be together so they… stand at least ten feet from each other? They don’t need to passionately kiss in public, but c’mon, they don’t even hug each other? In another example, Sui sees Ohana off for the final time, and the young girl is in tears… gosh, this sounds like a good time for the two different generations of women to embrace each other and signify the strong bond they’ve developed over the past year! — but no, Sui lightly caresses Ohana’s cheek.
Not enough drama
This is what I wrote about Hanasaku Iroha when it first aired oh so many months ago:
“Hanasaku Iroha is off to such a solid start, I really hope it doesn’t ruin everything by being too far over-the-top.
…
Entertainment will always be manipulative to some degree, but you can go too far and ruin a good thing. Watchable, but I have my misgivings. Like I said above, Hanasaku Iroha has a good start: an interesting premise, well-animated and acted, etc. It’d be a pity for melodrama to ruin everything.”
This was in reaction to Sui slapping Ohana so hard in the first episode that the girl’s nose bled. I have seen my fair share of depressing Asian dramas (especially Korean dramas where someone is almost always afflicted with a terminal disease) and I initially had my misgivings that Hanasaku Iroha could have gone down the same road. Oh how wrong I was… if anything, the anime lacks drama. There has just been too little conflict and too little direction. To this very day, the episode with the “survival gamers” sticks out like a sore thumb, the epitome of the show’s penchant for pointlessness. Of course, a throwaway episode is not all that plagues the anime. The Ohana-Minko-Tohru love triangle never deserved the amount of screentime it got. Ultimately, it’s a shame that Hanasaku Iroha got so bogged down by fluff because any of the arcs regarding Kissuiso’s fate was genuinely good storytelling.
This doesn’t mean, however, that I would have necessarily edited down the story to nothing but the handful of episodes dealing with Sui and Kissuiso. While I think this would have strengthened the series overall, reducing the anime from 2-cours to 1-cour isn’t necessary. Instead, the anime could have expanded on the adults’ problems and backstories. But even then, teenagers can have interesting problems and conflicts of their own to resolve. Hanasaku Iroha is just too formulaic to pull this off.
Here’s the umpteenth passion-less, sex-less love triangle between high school students. Since we are so afraid of intimacy, however, the dominant emotion expressed here is anger, i.e. Minko’s anger. As a result, the conflict is one-note and tired from the very first stroke. Likewise, here’s the latest iteration of a shy girl struggling to be more outgoing. Well, Production I.G. devoted an entire anime to a shy girl, but it wasn’t interesting then and it isn’t interesting now. Ohana’s desire to become her grandma does add a little spark to her story, but for the most part, she’s just the female equivalent of the hard-working, slightly-dense shounen hero.
In the end, Hanasaku Iroha has some decent highs — the relationship dynamics between the adults can be thought-provoking and the animation is top-notch — but the show’s held back by its conservatism. It’s as if there’s a checklist of overplayed, overused tropes that every anime must contain, and what should we find at the top of the list? Hot anime babes having fun. How stale.
The lack of intimacy between Ohana and Ko was so…typical. I mean really, she had to confess her love to him in from of a noodle stand? They’re in a room alone together and they don’t even so much as touch eachother? Goodness, japan is sexually repressed.
Goodness, japan is sexually repressed.
In fairness, I find that their movies and dramas are a bit more open about sexuality than their anime. I haven’t been watching Hanasaku Iroha but my guess is that because this show is likely to have a couple of hardcore otakus who are uncomfortable with the thought of their waifus kissing a male, maybe the show didn’t want to go and erm, ‘offend’ this part of the audience. Kind of the same way they reassure the audience that Anaru’s a virgin and stuff like that. MEH.
* by they I mean A1-Pictures.
Ick, yeah, you’re right about that. I doubt they want creepy otaku beating down their doors.
Never gonna get anywhere catering to manchildren.
Funnily enough I saw some provocative body pillows of the female cast. I don’t know if it’s legit but comeee onnnnn.
People are ronery, okay?
Remember that news that K-Ontakus ruined their Azunyan Paraphernalia because the VA had a boyfriend? XD I think it’s the fear that if the characters (and/or those related to them) ever got intimate (aside from the accidental kiss or boobgrab thing in Episode 1), the Otakus will call it quits because the character will be taken by the power of canon.
Since Ko and Ohana’s “relationship” seems loose at best, people will give implications that the relationship won’t last or will stay loose, thus Ohana will be taken away by the otakus and waifu world will be safe again.
Oh man, I did see that on that one god forsaken site, Sankaku Complex.
Not like otaku fap over this show as much as K-on or the likes, but it’s understandable that they would take that direction.
I heard Otakus are fap-happy over mostly Nako (Shy girls with big boobs are a plus), Minko (It’s not like she is tsundere or anything) and Ohana (she will possibly do ANYTHING to please people.) are a close second.
I dunno about the entire country being sexually repressed… just all this hand-wringing for 25 episodes and they don’t even hug. How lame.
And one thing to add: I. Fucking. Love. Sui.
And this is why I wanted a cheezy Showa-period family drama to be the show instead of a bunch of blobs. Too into the formula, and never taking a risk.
Why take risks when people are going to lap up the DVDs/blu-ray anyway? They should’ve been smart like Code Geass and saved the nude bathing as extras.
I did a beautiful chart. But this was made now, so It’s not 100% true. But the thing is, I stopped caring after a while.
It looks like your line took acid around episode three.
I passionately agree with you on how Ko/Ohana needed a lot more passion in the finale.
The finale is actually too subtle, and too understated. There really wasn’t enough drama, particularly on the romance side, were everything is just so coy and staid. That isn’t how romance works.
Passionately needed passion!
The finale wasn’t bad, but where’s the love? Forget Ko/Ohana — I just wanted Sui and Satsuki to hug each other once. Or Sui and Ohana. Or Ohana and Satsuki. Wasn’t this the whole point? The strong Kissuiso women coming together and bonding?
I just rewatched the first episode as I said I would.
You know what?
It’s a different show.
All the characters are different, even Enishi and Ko seem to have guts! The mood is different, it’s more serious, new vs old. And much more.
You could argue that the characters’ personalities is different because of development and growth, but really, they all changed in an instant around episode 3.
P.A. Works.
I am disappoint.
I had pretty much the same feeling. I watched the first episode when it aired and was immediately impressed by its sense of pacing, perspective, and remarkably good writing that could easily have gone into a novel I would want to read (funny that this is such a super-rare compliment when so many anime are adapted from light novels). There were dozens of little things in that episode alone that stood out as good themes to develop: Ohana’s relationship with her mother, the obvious romance angle with Ko, and my favourite – her persistent whimsy and optimism coming up hard against reality with results both hilarious and potentially dramatic.
Somewhere along the way an episode or two later, all of that just sort of evaporated into mediocrity. Not the bland, show-sinking absolute mediocrity of something like Yakumo or Yumekui Merry, but the mediocrity that caps off a series’ potential where it should be the most potent and relegates it to being that one show you watch once a week and forget about just because it’s merely decent and has positive entertainment value.
Both Hanasaku Iroha and Ano Hana were written by the same person. Both stories started off well only to deflate. I’m beginning to think Mari Okada has good ideas but she just can’t finish the job.
I really do blame the episode where the perverted writer tried to commit suicide. It was just the first signs of things to come.
It ain’t like they’ve had a long history of success. Look how True Tears ended up. Canaan was just dumb from the start.