Hanasaku Iroha

Overall I enjoy this show most for its depiction if Kissui Inn's ongoings. The romance and the drama that rises from it can be hit or miss (miss for me), but Kissui Inn's own drama is fascinating, from my layman's perspective.

"Story", what the show is about: 8/10
Solid depiction of characters growing and finding their footing in Kissui Inn. Genre is a mishmash of slice-of-life, drama, romance (bad at it tho) and comedy. It touches points like parent-child relations and how weird and distant they can be, fulfillment by working, inn management troubles, etc. Some story beats might annoy/disturb (dull romance, writer-freeloader's sexual harassment).

Characters: 7/10
Ohana is ... a bright-eyed outsider who faces frustrating beginnings yet steps up to the task. Meddlesome, like most protags do, endearing in her earnestness. The rest are down-to-earth yet exaggerated (dichotomy? Lmao) personalities, with plenty of flaws, ESPECIALLY THE TEENS UGH, united by their devotion to Kissui Inn. You're certainly not here for moe fuwafuwa, but if you can face some exaggerated realness (is that a thing?) they have charming moments. My fav is Okami-san.

OST: 9/10
OPs are upbeat, EDs are comfy, the rest clicks. Typical PA Works vibes, solid AF. Standout for me would be OP 1, Hana no Iro.

Visuals/Direction: 10/10
Perhaps my bias for such settings is showing, but I can't muster aught of noteworthy grievances against the visuals. Earthy colors, competent background art, downright gorgeous in important moments. Character movement is good, no stiffness, I can't recall a single boring dialogue scene from a directing perspective, which carried some scenes hard for me since the romance ain't bussing fr.

I watched Hanasaku Iroha, including the Home Sweet Home movie. Here are my thoughts:

I really wanted to like this anime; at first glance, it seemed like something I would really enjoy. Unfortunately however, my viewing experience was mixed at best and certainly didn't meet my optimistic expectations.

During approximately the first third of the show, my optimism persisted but began to wane, and in retrospect the earlier episodes were the best part of the series. As the story and characters continued to develop, my opinion of it soured, and by the time I was halfway through the TV series I knew I was watching something mediocre.

At ... its core, Hanasaku Iroha is a character-driven drama much moreso than a typical slice-of-life show. Generally speaking, I like character-driven dramas. Unfortunately, this one has a very weak set of characters as well as quite generic and cliche writing. All the conflicts were things I've seen before in fiction. All the characters were tropes I'd seen before. All the character arcs were, at best, tropey and cliche. The writing felt like a generic character-driven drama that happened to be set in a ryokan. The mediocrity of the writing is a major flaw, especially considering this is a 26-episode(+movie) character-driven drama. The writing of the latter half of the show in particular was very weak and had plenty of forced artificial-feeling drama. The movie-making arc, for example, was absolutely dreadful.

I really want to emphasize my lack of enthusiasm for the characters themselves. Literally the entire core cast is unlikable and/or annoying. It's actually impressive that they managed to create such a consistently off-putting set of characters. By the time I completed this show, I can confidently say that I disliked every single significant character (and there are a lot of them). It really is astonishing how such a character-driven show has such a lackluster cast of characters. Despite it being a drama, I never connected emotionally with any of the characters. Some of the most important cast members felt like exaggerated caricatures – particularly the older characters; the younger staff felt more realistic, although still irritating in their own unique special ways. I think maybe I would have empathized more with the characters if they actually evolved as people and overcame their problems/flaws, but there is barely any character evolution during the 26-episode runtime! Saying that there are character arcs in this show is a misnomer – nobody overcomes anything, nobody achieves any goal, and certainly nobody improves their personality or grows as a person.

The comedy was also consistently unfunny. The consultant woman character was annoying as hell; she was clearly supposed to be used primarily for comedic relief, but she was incredibly annoying and groan-inducing. I dreaded her appearing on-screen.

Alright, up until here I know I have been ripping into this show, but I do want to give credit where credit is due: the ryokan setting of this anime feels very authentic and I appreciated that a lot. In fact I specifically sought out this anime because it was about ryokan employees. The ryokan feels very real and there is lots of attention to detail paid to the setting. This is further enhanced by the surprisingly great production quality. For a 26-episode SoL-ish TV anime in a real-world setting, without any action or anything to justify a large visual budget, that aired in 2011, the visuals of Hanasaku Iroha are rock solid and very well done. Although there isn't much artistic flair, there is not a single blemish to be found. It easily could have passed as a modestly budgeted movie. The setting often looks quite nice; lots of detail is used in backgrounds and the like. The visual style was simplistic but natural and organic-looking and felt remarkably similar to a live-action show. Despite the mundane events of the anime, the character animation is well done. The attention to detail and high production value really enhanced the ryokan setting and made it immersive. I appreciated this aspect of the show.

As for audio, I must say that the voice acting has a ton of variety and nearly every core character has unique distinctive voicework. I liked the voicework for Minko and Nako. Ohana does some good work during some of the more-dramatic scenes. The OST is okay, although a little more variety would have been nice for such a long runtime. The OP/ED songs are good, in my opinion (to those of you wondering: yes, I do like nano.RIPE's vocals but I can understand the perspective of those who don't).


My overall rating: 5/10
I wanted a ryokan-employee simulator and I got a ryokan-employee simulator. However, it unfortunately came with some undesirable features. Although the ryokan setting is very authentic and immersive, and executed with flawless visual production quality, its inhabitants are annoying and unlikable. Furthermore, the writing is as cliche and lackluster as the characters themselves.

Sakura Quest had its flaws too but I enjoyed it more than this; it certainly had way better characters. I haven't seen Shirobako yet but hope to watch it soon.


Here are my comments on the Home Sweet Home movie:
- I should mention that I watched this immediately after finishing the TV anime, and was already feeling pretty burnt out on the series after 26 episodes. It's possible I might have enjoyed it more if I let the TV anime digest in me for longer, although honestly I doubt it.
- Visually, the show was the same but with slightly better production quality. The TV anime already had solid visuals, so there wasn't much room for improvement here anyway.
- I liked the focus on teenage Satsuki. I actually think they did a good job depicting her and her youthful struggles, especially with the limited runtime. I think I would have much preferred her as the MC in the TV series.
- There was not much of an overarching plot and the movie basically just consists of an assortment of mostly SoL-style scenes. I was fine with this; it would have been a mistake to try to cram a serious plot into this short runtime.
- Aside from the scenes that depicted teenage Satsuki, this movie felt just like another TV episode (including the usual flaws).
- My rating for the movie: 5/10


Hanasaku Iroha has kind of a 'live action' feel to it, in the sense that I could easily imagine it being played out with real-life actors. People who typically prefer live-action TV dramas might like this anime.

I started watching Hanasaku Iroha immediately after finishing (and loving) Shirobako. I wasn't expecting to love this show on the same level, but I wanted another slice of life type anime. What started off promising turned into such a drag to get through. The first half of the show I enjoyed - I didn't mind the premise and I liked the characters enough to get on board, but around the halfway point the quality of the story plummeted.

[Slight spoilers in this review] I think the problem I had with it was the cast of young characters, who I think I am just too old ... to appreciate because of their ridiculous high school problems that I don't relate to/care about in any way. The omurice episode had my rolling my eyes so far into my skull for example. I felt like their characters had potential in the beginning but their development slowed to a snails pace and didn't recover by the end. The adult characters were the ones I liked the most, but they weren't featured in favor of teen drama/slight fan service (we get it...shy girl has huge boobs).

I think the show tried to focus too heavily on making a job in hospitality more romantic and whimsical than it actually is. There is a genuine comradeship that comes with service jobs sure, I've experienced it, but not to the point where it becomes your entire life. All in all, and this is a rushed review, it wasn't for me.