The power of being an ambassador.
What They Say:
Hakone is about the hot spring spirit Hakone who descended to a spa resort on Earth. Due to her long slumber however, she now looks like a little girl. High school boy Toya stumbles across her at a hot spring and ends up helping Hakone retrieving her original powers.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Hakone-chan found a decent use for our resident god the last time around by making her an ambassador for the area. It’s smart thinking for those that accept she is who she is so they can just run with it in a fun way. And Hakone’s cute with it because she invests in it fully, accepting it as something befitting her and really taking pride in it so she can lord it over others. Her abilities make for some cute moments to dazzle visitors even if it does come across as kind of simple magic tricks. But since she’s nowhere near her full potential, likely at the very bottom rung of it, it takes a lot out of her. And that provides the sweet moments as the gang takes care of her. It’s reminiscent of a puppy who played too hard for too long and is just being comforted.
In Summary:
Hakone-chan doesn’t have much going for it this time around as we get her doing her job like a grade school student who is the hall monitor. She’s got power and she uses it to ensure her status with the familiar characters while also using it to dazzle visitors with how good she is serving the hot springs. It’s cute and simple but it feels a little more devoid of good humor or interesting bits to work with this time around compared to the first few episodes.
Grade: C-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
