Kurogane's Anime Blog

An episode of Hanasaku… without drama?!

Enishi, in another of his harebrained schemes to revive Kissuisou, invites a producer to make a film at Yunosagi, with the inn as the movie’s main backdrop of course. For once, his schemes aren’t met with resistance by Sui and everything seems to be actually getting in order. By the end of the episode, there’s a full-fledged movie crew at the inn, along with the actresses and director as well. Meanwhile the girls are relegated to being wallflowers in the movie and cleaning up a really old, unused pool that is supposedly the setting of the movie’s climax. Oh, and apparently Enishi was once a director in his university days too.

I’m… not quite sure what Hanasaku is trying to achieve with this episode. Do drama without any drama? I was kinda expecting Sui to say no and then have stuff happen while he tries his darnedest to not back down, with reverse weaboo Takako egging him on about how this would the thing that would save the inn and the entire Yunosagi. Instead, we get the opposite lol. Even Takako was more helpful than annoying. So, you see.. after coming in to this show, expecting a nice helping of angst-filled drama about trying to “shine”, it’s really weird that everything is happening well and we get an episode of happy faces all around.

Then again, maybe they are reserving it all for next week. For some reason, Yuina’s freefalling while Ohana gets shot at. At least that would sound much more happening than this episode. Hell, the only highlight for me apart from Nako (whose character seems to be getting brutally mutilated by the week) was Ren blushing like mad when he replaced the ever-late main actor in his role.

Seriously hoping for more next week.

“Yep, this is how school trips should be like; working at the inn I’m staying with!”

So in the end, they avoided a direct confrontation between Ohana and Yuina, instead choosing to shame Yuina in to realizing her mistakes with Ohana’s hard work.

Mmm, made for less drama than I hoped for, but it was a lot better resolved in this way I guess. Yuina isn’t totally wrong about wanting to find something to do by herself, it’s just that her half-heartedness and narrow-minded view of what it means to be in the service industry made her rather… spoiled about the whole idea of working properly. That and her upbringing probably needs to be stricter. I found it utterly hillarious that she didn’t even know how to properly rinse the floor after scrubbing it when she tried to help clean the baths lol. She’d definitely not be a great wife candidate until she knows at least how to do the bare minimum of housework…

“What do you mean Ohana would make a better wife than I would?!”

Well, that said, the Yuina arc didn’t really bring on much big developments as I hoped it would be. It was pretty much introducing more of Yuina’s character properly, showcasing her negative side and resolving that for the better. Still we did get our fanservice, what with the swimsuits last week and the naked ofuro wrestling in this one (albeit tree censored)… so it wasn’t all that bad too. I was just expecting it to be a bit more… dramatic? Ahaha~

Next week looks like another Jiroumaru episode. God, I can’t believe he’s getting another one. The preview looks creepy though, so it might be more serious than I expect!

Oh wow, Yuina-hime. She’s hiding some serious issues beneath that facade of hers….

So anyways the new cour of Hanasaku kicks off with pretty decent new OP by nano.RIPE, not sure if I can say the same about the ED though…I already miss Hazy T_T.

Yuina also finally gets her proper screen time and really… she’s quite a high-tension character even if it doesn’t seem like that outwardly. The general outline of her story should probably involve the pressure put on her as the heiress for her family’s inn and how she probably doesn’t have the interest in doing it. The unfortunate victim of that seems to be her fiance though, that scene at the end where she said that she didn’t have any interest in running an inn sure hurt pretty bad…

The humorous highlight of this episode had to be Minchi’s scenes. First she gets publicly stripped and thrown in to the water by Yuina, then publicly confessed by another guy. Is it just me or has she become the comic relief character? Ohana still had her moments though, like when she tried to explain “hobiron” to the poor guy who get rejected by Minchi. Valiant effort, Ohana-chan.

Fanservice-wise though, this has gotta to be the most laden one so far. Yuina? Check. Minchi? Check. Nakocchi? Check. Ohana? Double check! Definitely a good episode for fapping eyecandy.

Well, next week should probably see Ohana and Yuina clashing over their differences in opinions about running an inn. Yep, more drama inbound.

Heh, Satsuki might not be so bad after all. Her charming of Nako was really funny though, even if nonsensical. Or maybe Nako is secretly really ドＭ.

So, Satsuki’s return throws the inn in to quite a mess, but not as badly as I expected though. I’d have thought she would be doing stuff like demanding really crazy food for her meals or causing trouble with the employees… oh wait she DID do that, but at least it was all done in a “want-to-help-make-it-better” critical manner instead of being vindictive for the sake of it. Deep in her heart, I guess she really does love the inn. I guess this really salvaged her character from the initial bad impressions she’s made.

Of course, the women of the Shijima household also finally had a nice “heart-to-heart” bonding session together, helped on by a nice serving of alcohol and juice, lol. Drunk Ohana sure was a sight to see, and that’s just on some “juice” or so they claim.

Also, looks like Ohana’s giving up on Kou-chan for now… the shippers aren’t gonna be very happy about that, but I wouldn’t really count on that as totally resolved yet. It’s more of Ohana finally making the choice to concentrate on Kissuisou in the present rather than outright denying her feelings for Kou though, so there might be hope for that angle later on. Frankly, I’m more interested in this show as a family drama instead of a romantic one, so it’s not a big loss for me.

Next week’s finally going to focus on Yuina, from the previews. And Tomatsu (Yuina’s seiyuu) herself has said that the next two episodes will feature some major developments, so… お楽しみ！

“I’m kidnapping my own mother back to her hometown!”

LOL. Only Ohana can publicly announce a plan to kidnap her own mother without stuttering or realizing the absurdity of it. Although, I’m even more impressed by the way Tooru handled it by getting her to get Kou-chan along as well if she wants his cooperation in it. Sugoi yo, Tooru!

On that end, Ohana’s forced to confront her worst enemy, herself, as her attempts to actually get Kou to come along and admonishment from her love rival lead her to believe she would be the evil bitch in the often-watched TV dramas she likes. That made me go d’aaaaawwwww. Ohana-chan, if you can realize it yourself, you’re not that bad yet!

In the end, the ridiculous plan to kidnap Satsuki became useless since she suddenly has leave and decides to go back home with the rest of them. Saved up on the travel money too! Funny how Tooru’s bravery got sapped away after seeing her though, after all that talk of helping Ohana admonish her as well.

That said, what I talked about Satsuki and Ohana being similar despite their clashes came to a full round this week as we get to see Satsuki’s younger self standing up to her mother for always putting her job first. Funny how deep family ties can run eh? Next week sure is going to be fun to see Satsuki and Sui facing off each other. Unlike Ohana… both these girls are adults already, so things are probably going to go quite a bit… vindictive.

Although, the one I pitied the most this week has to be Minko-hime. Her dream of a date got turned in to a eating hell. Well, at least she got a “cute” memento of her Tokyo trip with Tooru! One that would probably make me want to sink my teeth in it variety of cute though.

Pretty dramatic episode as Ohana reunites with her MOTHER-OF-THE-YEAR over the case of the magazine article (where Kissuisou received a dismal 5/10). Cue much mother-vs-daughter drama. Those two, despite the extremely dysfunctional relationship with each other, are pretty similar in the weirdest ways. Although I would say Ohana gets a bit more points for her sheer stubbornness. And calling her mother “baba” outright. Satsuki does deserve it a little bit…

That eventually made a weird shift to Ohana bumping in to Kou-chan and finding out that she’s gotten competition in the few months she’s left him. Which, coupled with the jealousy and probably a good dose of juvenile hormones led Ohana in to sharp downward spiral of negativity that got her another nosebleed, courtesy of running straight in to a pole (I laughed inappropriately at that unfortunately), although salvation came in the form of Tooru and Minchi coming to Tokyo to find her. Oh boy. That’s not exactly the best or right combo isn’t it?

Included this due to the sheer ugly-cute-ness of it

Next week, more of Ohana’s adventures in Tokyo, joined in by Minchi and Tooru. Should prove to be fun.

And when is Yuina actually going to be a proper main character?

Ohana gets sick and the show starts getting rather surreal with delusions and weird time jumps here and there. I’m still not quite sure what happened and what didn’t happen in this episode that is for real.

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Man, this episode made me feel like spending a relaxing weekend at an hot spring inn for some reason. Preferably at Kissuisou.

For some reason, this is one of those episodes that are enjoyable to watch but not really that much I want to write about.

*Ahem*, so Ohana manages, after much difficulty to finally find Tooru and get him back to the inn. As expected, everything went smoothly after that, except maybe Yamakan traumatizing that one guy with his belly dancing antics. Seriously, what the fuck was he thinking back there?

In the end though, poor Kou-chan had to go back empty-handed without meeting Ohana. Really felt for the poor guy, after all that trouble he went to. Guess it just wasn’t his day either.

On the other hand, the contest for Tooru’s heart looks like it’s going to heat up already. All that hints that he kept throwing for one. And then there was Ohana collapsing in his arms too. Lucky Minko-hime wasn’t around to see it.

Of course that ties in to next week’s episode, where apparently our beloved heroine falls sick and gets some TLC from Tooru.

But we all know the previews are pretty misleading at first anyways!

Ohana’s delusion grandma is so hilarious. The world would end before Sui actually acts like that.

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Tomoe-neesan!!!!!!!!!!

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