Last time on Hanasaku Iroha, we learned that Kissui Inn was being shut down. I mentioned this possibility at the beginning of my post for episode 18, but I anticipated it as a result of Enishi wasting all the inn’s money on that movie scam. It seems more like the landlady is just sick of running an inn. In that case, you would think she could give it to one of the stakeholders, or at least sell it to one of the stakeholders, or at least sell it to some random outside investor, it’s not like it’s actively unprofitable, right? You have Ohana there as cheap slave labor, and that erotic fiction writer too, and you could probably cut Nako’s pay and she would be too cowardly to complain about it. I guess she just doesn’t want to entrust this thing that she put so much of her heart into over decades of her life to anyone else. I can understand that, even if I don’t agree with it. Let’s hope one of the stakeholders can convince her not to let the inn go to waste in episode 23 of Hanasaku Iroha.
…thirty minutes pass…
I guess her job has left her with not enough time to spend on her English homework.
Oh boy, we get to see Ohana’s mom again! She’s really fun to watch; she has a way with words, as one might expect from a professional writer. Her trolling of Kou-chan was a thing of beauty. On the other hand, that means that, oh no, Kou-chan is back, and we’re gonna have to sit through his boring moping again. He stopped drinking coffee because he was drinking coffee right before Ohana broke up with him and he wanted that flavor to remain pure as a memory of a time when he was still with her. That is just amazingly pathetic, the writers really must have worked hard to find a way to make him the least appealing romantic male lead possible. I wish they had written him out, or just left him as Ohana’s one-sided love. I like the dynamic that an ex-boyfriend back in Tokyo adds, but I just can’t stand having the camera actually focus on Kou-chan. You could see that Ohana’s mom felt the same way – throughout their interaction she seemed to be saying to herself “my daughter got all weepy about this?”
I liked the extra characterization they gave to Takako. She’s bonboruing in her own way, and it’s nice to see that she can on occasion accomplish things, even if they are only things on the level of “impress Ohana” or “beat up a hapless movie producer”. Probably she will recover the money only to find out that the landlady’s decision was not about money, but at least these small victories act to humanize her.
suntzuanime 