Satsuki, Ohana’s mother, descends upon Kissuiso, training her expert eye upon the place and not being shy about pointing out the ways in which she feels the inn is letting down its customers. Sui is adamant that her daughter’s comments should not change anything the staff does. Has Ohana gotten more than she bargained for?
What They Say:
“Shijima’s Girl (Broken Heart MIX)”
The Kissuiso is dealing with their most difficult guest yet, Ohana’s mom. But when her snide remarks make sense, people start to think she might not be the monster they once thought.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
So, picking up from where we left off, Satsuki, Ohana’s mother, has agreed to pay a visit to Kissuiso. This puts most of the staff in a panic, as they wonder how they should treat Satsuki. The Manager, Sui, however, does not want Satsuki to receive any special consideration beyond what a regular customer would receive.
The visit, however, turns out to be very different from what anyone was expecting. Satsuki is a demanding customer, but she couches her demands as pieces of advice about how to provide better service, meeting with the expectations of the modern customer. Her greatest argument with her mother, it would seem, is that Sui desires to hold fast to an older way of doing things, without any room for change, while Satsuki brings with her very practical up-to-the-present-day advice about what most people who visit hot springs inns want to experience. While much of what she is saying is probably on the mark and helpful, it’s clear that Sui sees it as part of their mother-daughter spat that has been going on for decades.
Sui, however, is not about to give up on her own method. After all, the greatest weapon Kissuiso has in its arsenal is its attention to a customer’s personal preferences. And while it takes time to learn a first-time customer’s likes and dislikes, there are two people at Kissuiso who know Satsuki very well: Sui and Ohana, of course. So, the two discuss what would make Satsuki’s stay better in terms of food, bedding and all-around customer service. While Satsuki still makes comments about the outdated nature of what Kissuiso has to offer, even she cannot help but be impressed by how the inn tries to anticipate her needs before she can even express them.
Perhaps the highlight to the episode is the family reunion that Satsuki forces upon her mother and daughter, inviting them to drink with her in her room (Ohana, of course, is not old enough to have alcohol, but apparently can get drunk even from soda, merely by suggestion). Satsuki and Sui have a frank discussion, and some interesting family traits are revealed, even if in the end the talk does nothing to end the feud between the two. What is clear is that Satsuki and Sui do not have a simple disagreement. They have completely different world-views, ones that are likely irreconcilable. What is interesting is that Ohana seems to share more in Sui’s vision of how the world should work than Satsuki’s. It would also appear that Ohana’s having lost Ko is not necessarily a done deal, as Shijima women apparently do not give up easily after being dumped by a guy (except for Satsuki, who appears to have no trouble attracting men, but then is the one who does the dumping).
This was an interesting episode, coming at what is the half-way mark for the series. While it might have been easy to provide simple resolutions to long-standing matters, such as putting an end to the feud between Sui and Satsuki, the writers do not take the easy way out, instead giving both some room to speak their mind, but without either truly convincing the other. The ending of the episode, with Satsuki’s personal review of the inn given to Ohana as she is leaving, provides a further look into the basic disjunction between both pairs of mothers and daughters, as Satsuki provides praise for the inn, though if one reads carefully, one realizes that her comment from last episode, where she defends the harsh critique she wrote for the magazine by saying that it’s all true, is not contradicted by what she has written now. She still does not like how Kissuiso is stuck in the past and unwilling to change itself in order to be more accommodating to the modern customer. But here, when pressed, she is willing to note what Kissuiso does best: catering to a customer in a very personal way.
In Summary:
Satsuki comes to Kissuiso, taking Ohana up on her demand to visit the inn and write a fair appraisal. The Manager responds to the challenge by ordering the staff to treat her daughter like any other customer. Of course, by Kissuiso standards, that means that the inn will do its utmost to cater to her personal desires and needs. The Shijima women also have a chance to talk out their disagreements, even if there is no simple resolution to the causes of their dissension. As an episode that provides something of an ending point for the first half of the series, it does that well by providing some closure to one of the early threads of Ohana’s life, her relationship with her mother, while also laying the groundwork for the next half. For fans of slice-of-life shows that explore the family dynamics of characters who are more than cardboard cutouts, this show continues to be a good bet for enjoyable viewing. If you’re not interested in such fare, you probably already stopped watching, and will likely not have any reason to tune in for the second half of the series.
Grade: A-
Simulcast by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 4GB RAM, Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard