Hanasaku Iroha 14 – We’re not done yet

So seeing that wordpress didn’t want me to post episode 13 last week, I’ll just recap on what I would have babbled on about last week. Episode 13 was kind of an important milestone in the series in that Ohana finally comes full circle and realises who she is and where she belongs. To a lesser extent, last week she also made up with her mother & grandmother as well as dealing with her getting dumped by Ko.

Basically if HanaIro were to have ended last week, I would have been totally happy with it and its ending. They completed Ohana’s coming of age story arc as well as tie up most loose ends. So now that they have reached the halfway point in he story I expect that they will move forward some more in-depth charcter development or kill somebody off/introduce a new villain.

Looking at last weeks previews for this episode however I half expeced this to be a filler-esque beach episode and for the most part it was, but near the end we get some new insight as to what type of character Yuina is.

Going back to what I said earlier about Ohana changing, it’s quite evident in this episode as the gang (Ohana, Minchi, Nakochi) go on a school field trip to another Inn near the seaside. But instead of relaxing enjoying herself, Ohana is determined to take notes and learn things from the Inn. At times we even see Ohana & Nakochi giving into habit and doing some minor chors around the inn as well as Ohana waking up at the crack of dawn. She really has changed her ways.

However the main focus of the episode the backstory/future-story of Yuina where it is revealed that she is in fact engaged to the head clerk of the Inn the are staying at. This comes as a surprise to everyone, particularly the boys in the class (I know how they feel, felt the same when I found out Jessica Alba went and got married behind my back).

Quite funny, there is a scene in the episode where Yuina has her own Ohana moment where she leaves her fiance hanging after he asks her an important life question, I suspect they may re-use this trope again in the series. Come the end of the episode Ohana’s observations of the inn prove that the staff clearly are not enjoying their work and culminates with all of them just upping and quitting… this ain’t no Kissuiso! In fact that’s pretty much the morale of the episode, working at an inn is difficult and with the support and friendship such as that at Kissuiso, it will most likely suck and everyone will quit. Once again happiness, caring and friendships wins!

Oh, and new OP & ED! \o/ Love the music from this show.