The trials and tribulations for Kissuiso have only begun, as they have to deal with all of the guests who have suddenly appeared need to be catered to. How will the staff cope during crunch time?
What They Say:
The Longest Day at Kissuiso
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One of the advantages that a longer-running show has is that it can spend more time to tell a particular story. Sometimes, as in many action shows, this can reach ridiculous proportions, as fights can be spread out over several episodes. For Hanasaku Iroha, this can be an advantage in that the writers can spend some extra time to show a segment of Ohana’s strange life in greater depth.
That doesn’t mean that all that time is used particularly well. The beginning of this episode mainly focuses on Ohana making a fool of herself during her search for Tohru at the wedding hall in the city nearby. All of the pratfalls and flailing around don’t really do much to either expand or explore Ohana’s personality further. At least the payoff we get at the end of her search is somewhat nice, as Tohru appreciates Ohana’s belief in his ability to fix things at the inn with his return.
All this time, Ko, Ohana’s old friend who would like to be more, is also trying his best to reach her, though it seems that the stars are lined up against him. While he is coming into Yunosagi by train, Ohana is off in the city looking for Tohru. When Ko comes to Yunosagi, he finds out that Ohana will only be at Kissuiso, and there is literally no room at the inn for him. So, Ko heads back home to Tokyo while Ohana comes back to Kissuiso to work. But they exchange a couple telephone calls, and it falls to Ko to provide the all-important words of encouragement to Ohana, which allows her to be successful in her search for Tohru. So long as her intentions are good, it will all work out in the end. While this makes Ohana very thankful to Ko, it probably doesn’t do to much to increase his chances of gaining her affection. More and more, he’s being shelved very strongly into the Friend section. At least the writers appear to provide an alternate path for him at the end of the episode.
Fortunately for Ohana, things do work out in the end, as Tohru’s return to the inn does serve to right the badly listing ship. Since the kitchen is all-important, the primary need is for Mr. Ren to be brought back to normal, and Tohru is just the person who knows how to do that. With Mr. Ren back to normal and Tohru helping out, the kitchen is back to normal, and even Minko gets to use her cooking skills. With Ohana back to help out as well with waiting on customers, the inn manages to get through its longest day. The return to the workplace and the interactions of the staff help to pick up things from the farcical and slapstick opening minutes, which felt more like time-wasting than character building.
As for the subplot starting in the first episode, the identity of the “mystery” customer who is actually a magazine writer undercover, the identity, of course, is revealed by the end of the episode, and, as if anyone could not have guessed it, Ohana’s dedication to providing top quality service to all of the customers will pay off in the end. Naturally, now that all of the hard work is finished, the Manager returns from her brief hospital stay.
In Summary:
After wasting a little time on pratfalls and floundering, the episode returns to where Hanasaku Iroha is strongest: in showing the relationships between the characters and how it takes teamwork and dedication to provide the best possible service to the inn’s customers, without any need to follow the consulting advice of Takako. And perhaps for Ohana there is the smallest glimmer of growth as she takes to heart the words of her old friend Ko. Things do not go as well for Ko, however, as his expedition to see Ohana ends in failure.
Grade: A-
Simulcast by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 4GB RAM, Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard
