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Hanasaku Iroha
Anime Review
Hanasaku Iroha, a 24-episode coming of age story dealing with the staff and owners of the fictional inn Kissuiso, is a good show with a great show stuck in there somewhere. We enjoyed the exploits of Ohana, the teenaged protagonist, and her friends, but the show really shines when it deals with the elders of the Shijima family: Ohana's mother, Satsuki, and her tough-as-nails grandmother, Sui.
Ohana's journey starts when her devil-may-care mother Satsuki decides to run off with her boyfriend, shipping off Ohana to the traditional hotel run by her family, Kissuiso. Ohana's Grandma Sui, who insists on being called "Madam Manager" even by her family members, seems to have disowned Satsuki and Ohana alike, and insists that Ohana earn her keep as a waitress at Kissuiso. From the beginning, the series seems to be set up as an almost Dickensian drama: the story of the poor, abandoned girl forced to work for a heartless spinster to earn her daily bread.
 Yet, Ohana adjusts to life in Kissuiso very quickly, and the whole Dickensian vibe quickly disappears: Madam Manager isn't nearly as cruel as the early episodes suggest, and Ohana's job is something she enjoys, rather than servitude. Her co-workers, colorful characters in their own right,, quickly become her friends. This change makes the series a lot lighter in tone than we were anticipating, but it does feel somewhat like a bait-and-switch after the first few episodes (and the fanservice-filled third episode is a notorious low point; we just tried to forget that it ever happened.)
One thing that remains consistent about the show is the stellar visuals: the fictional area of Yunosagi, with it's abundance of traditional inns and mountainous countryside, looks as inviting as can be. The animation is also unusually fluid and detailed- we couldn't find anything to criticize, and we were looking! Well, alright- maybe the character designs are a little uninspired, although Ohana is adorable.
 The weakness of HanaIro is that its attempts to manufacture conflict often fall a little flat. Many of the problems the staff at Kissuiso face spring from misunderstandings and faulty assumptions, meaning everything could be solved very easily if they all just sat down and had a proper conversation from time to time. While there is some genuine drama in the show, a lot of it feels painfully forced. It's not until the end of the series that the problems the Kissuiso crew is dealing with seem to be even somewhat proportionate with the amount of angst they cause. We couldn't shake the feeling that, barring very few characters, we were dealing with an incredibly immature group of people who wouldn't know what to do if they had a real problem.
In fact, Ohana's immaturity in particular is perhaps the biggest barrier to enjoying Hanasaku Iroha. While her erratic behavior might be perfectly realistic for a 16 year old grappling with situations that push her far beyond her comfort zone, it can still get irritating when the character who gets by far the most screen time appears to be so foolish. Frequently, the conclusions she jumps to don't even seem to make sense, making us wonder if we were supposed to think that Ohana is truly illogical, or the writers just missed a piece of the puzzle that would have explained where she's coming from. Though she's too well-meaning and earnest to ever become truly unlikable, those with little patience for ditzy protagonists should probably give Ohana Matsumae a wide berth. We actually felt kind of sorry for Ko, the boy trying to win her affections.
 And yet, for all its faults, HanaIro provides some genuinely satisfying moments that made us want to forgive its excesses. Rare as they are, any exchange between Sui and Satsuki had us riveted, and despite being the oldest, Sui seems to go through the most character development of anyone on the show. Interesting questions about parental expectations run throughout the entire series: Is Satsuki wrong for disappointing her mother by completely abandoning the family business, or is the fault Sui's for putting that expectation on her daughter to begin with? Has Satsuki learned from her mother's mistakes by letting Ohana go her own way, or is her lack of expectations for her daughter actually more harmful than Sui's uncompromising ideals?
Satsuki herself is a fascinating character; while she at first appears to be practically criminally irresponsible in her treatment of her daughter, later on it appears that she's made a conscious decision to be a "bad" parent so that Ohana would never feel constrained in her mother's shadow. Our enjoyment of HanaIro was often overshadowed by the fact that we'd much rather be watching a show about Satsuki, and to a lesser extent Sui, than an awkward teen. Maybe an anime that focuses on a morally questionable, vivacious, thirty-something single woman and her mother is unlikely to see production, but this show gave us a taste of what could be.
 All in all, HanaIro is a mixed bag, with consistently gorgeous animation and a few great, though sorely underused supporting characters elevating it from average slice-of-life fare to something a little more nuanced and interesting. Though we occasionally felt like the staff at the inn needed an ounce (or a bucket) of common sense knocked into them, the fact is that we did enjoy our time at Kissuiso, and even Ohana being Ohana didn't stop us. Currently, all 26 episodes of Hanasaku Iroha are available streaming on Crunchyroll.
Reviewed by Karen Gellender, November 2011
Below: Scenes from Hanasaku Iroha.
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