Hanasaku Iroha – Episode 11

Time for a new episode of Hanasaku Iroha!  I think the question on everyone’s mind after the last episode (and here I am using “everyone” as a shorthand for “me”) is, are we finally going to see the Tohru/Ohana/Minchi love triangle move forward?  They’ve been teasing us (me) with it for five episodes now, and while we (I) have enjoyed the episodes that we got instead, at some point I (everyone) would like to see them actually explore it. Or maybe next up will be a Kou-chan focused episode, all about life in the big city for a boy with big ideas but no backbone. Either way, everyone (everyone) has high hopes for episode 11 of Hanasaku Iroha.

…thirty minutes pass…

Japanese verb backformation is awesome. I thought it usually happened with loan words, though, isn't "bonbori" a native japanese word?

Wow, looks like the hotel review industry has about as much integrity as the videogames review industry, huh?  Must suck to know your mom literally works as a propagandist for the capitalist oppressors.  The episode started out light and fun as Ohana went on a crusade against the evil mainstream media, and she certainly was adorable glaring bullets at magazine editors.  But then she went to Tokyo, and man, she must have ended up in Tokyo’s Drama District, because shit got heavy.  Not that I minded much!  It’s not much of a coming of age story if Ohana never fights through the trials needed to come of age.

I think it’s interesting to look at how her resolve changed throughout this episode.  She started off determined – she was going to “bonboru”, which if I understand her coinage correctly means to take your wish, such as you would make at a bonbori festival, and make it come true with your own two hands.  It’s an admirable ideal.  There isn’t much that’s more heroic, in my book, than making a desperate effort in defense of truth and fair dealing.  But you have to choose your battles.  Sometimes, you just can’t win, and then, if you make a desperate effort, if you bonboru, all you will do is waste all your resources, waste resources you didn’t even know you had, and end up trying to batter a brick wall down with the bloody stumps that used to be your hands.  That’s what makes bonboruing so heroic – it’s a risk.

Of course, Ohana wasn’t living up to that ideal anyway, she wandered off in the middle of her “desperate effort” to go bug Kou-chan.  Not the romance plotline I (everyone) was hoping they’d visit, but I guess they felt like they needed to get Kou-chan out of the way before they could set her up with Tohru.  She called out to Kou-chan to rescue her in her hour of need and it was Tohru who showed up, so I would say that’s pretty conclusive.  Love triangle next episode or bust.