Hanasaku Iroha - Episode 26 (END) Discussion / Poll
 

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HSI The Final - Rewind. Press Play. Branch Out.

Very nice finale for the series as a whole. In some ways, it's back to square one for everyone, but because of the net sum of their experiences over the course of the series, all of them have changed for the better. That's the best sort of ending anyone could ask for. And it's not the only series this season to end with something everyone cares about not making it, but there's a silver lining to everything.

I got into this series mostly because of the hot spring setting. And there was no shortage of swimsuit scenes or bath scenes over the course of the series, but the characters, the concepts about work and family and ambition and all of that, and the comedy helped keep me there. The series as a whole turned out to be a lot less serious than I thought it was going to be, which helped to keep me tethered for it, with the exception of one or two weeks.

To elaborate on the characters a bit, my favorites were probably Nako and Jiromaru. Nako for being level headed but with her own quirks that make her as fun as the rest of the cast, and Jiromaru because, due to a complex and layered series of circumstances, seeing an artist trying to reach their dreams in spite of failure inspires not scorn in me, but sympathy. I admire his gumption, and in some ways, he has quite a bit in common with Taketo Akutagawa.

This is one of those series that falls outside my comfort zone (the drama part) while also falling into it (the slice of life comedy part), but either way, it broadened my horizons just as it did the characters'. I'm glad I could stick with it.

That was a beautiful ending. I'm so glad I got trolled again by the preview for this episode. At least everyone now moves on, enriched by their experience in Kissuiso.

The loveless side of me had hoped to see a little more Ohana x Kou, but that's really not the focus of this series. Guessed I'll take what I'm given.

Maybe I'll marathon the entire series when I have the time, and hopefully, improve myself a little as well. :)

pretty good episode. Kinda knew it was going to end this way, as we see in the Opening that Ohana is sitting on the train while we see the girls run inside (as a memory I guess)

Not exactly what I'd call a memorable ending (or series for that matter), but it was thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless.

Didn't expect an explosive final, considering the theme of the show, and it was fine.
Was it me or did Kou design became more feminine in the last few episodes, compared to the beginning of the show?

Without getting into the specifics, I thought the ending did a good job of wrapping up a series that I've been enjoying for the past 26 weeks. Although I was kind of hoping that there would be...



I'll miss this series! >.<

Delusional. At beginning it was good, was hoping for a decent drama serie for all the characters, but it turn out to be a linear and weak comedy. All characters still the same, no progression at all, no climax, no future events. Finale was poor and bland.

The only thing i will remember about this serie will be the beautyful characters design and landscapes, no more.
4/10 my final verdict and personal opinion.

The beginning kinda reminded me of Ookami Kakushi :heh:

Nako with her hair down and in pajamas once again was a real treat to watch :love: Loved it when she shut off Minko's mouth for comparing Tohru with Ko.
She truly was the best character of the series :nod:
The ending was very nice. The only thing missing were some yuri moments :p

Ohana looked really cute this particular episode. Also those were some nice shots of Ohana's legs towards the end of the episode :heh:

http://i.imgur.com/evThd.gif http://i.imgur.com/MOCZJ.gif

Very good end for me, nor definitive not disappointing.

Damn, I really want to see a time-skip to them all meeting up again at the Kissuiso at some point in the future. But that's not going to happen.... sigh.

Yeah I think this series sort of lost its footing a lit bit halfway in terms of what it wanted to do or who it wanted to do it with but for the most part it was a pretty enjoyable series. I was hoping for a time skip end as well, I think that would have been very fitting.

At last it's over. It was empty except feminism, unfortunately.
I didn't know about OKADA Mari but it's the only benefit from this series.

I'm gonna avoid her from now.:p

It's not very smart to close down the inn temporarily right when it was starting to get some good publicity, but it was probably for the better considering how incompetent Enishi is. It's good that he acknowledged it and decided to polish his skills (what did he do those past 20 years though...?).

They chose the easy way out of the romance triangle by avoiding a situation where Ohana would have to choose between the inn and Ko (yes, that was the true romance triangle of this serie). Aww, I wanted the inn to win :(
Ohana's wish sort of made up for that. Ohana and Sui's relationship was one of my favorite aspect of the series, so I found it very sweet and heartwarming.

I agree it was disappointing we didn't get a glimpse at the future of the characters. We can only hope they'll eventually be reunited again, and that Nako will get it on with Mizuno.

Ohana & Ko reunited at Bonbori festival. She actually confessed to Ko!
Guess Ookami-san finally accepted Ohana..
So they decided to shut down Kissuiso after all...
Nice final episode ^^

Having no glimpse of the future perhaps provides opportunity for a sequel? :p

---

Anyways, great ending episode. About as good as it could have been. However this anime is much too flawed and the best I can give it is a 7/10. It was infuriating all the way to the end. This show definitely had an IDENTITY CRISIS, whether people believed me or not. Still I managed to find some semblance of enjoyment even in the bad times, so it wasn't all bad.

Never before have I given 1/10 ratings and 10/10 ratings to a series in the span of just a few episodes :heh:.

Like other PA works animes, this show had a lot more going for it then it capitalized on.

I think the show had all the faults people have pointed out, but I still enjoyed it a lot -- including this final episode. Lots of great characters and ideas, but assembled into a fairly halting and unsatisfactory plot. Ohana, Sui, Minchi, Ohana's mom -- all enjoyable characters.

I loved it that Ohana and Kou could get together, but they sure didn't develop Kou's character much. And "if the places we find turn out to be the same...." leaves things open for a future separation, since it surely appears that if it came down to Kou vs. Kissuisou, the Inn would win.

In any case, this was one of the two or three shows I looked forward to most this season.

I liked how the family theme came out near the end; the family of the Shijimas and the family of everyone at the inn. They probably could have optimized some characters backgrounds and stories to actually fit in with the main story and not take up their own side episodes.

There were two major plot threads going into the finale.

1. The future of the Kissuiso, specifically if Sui would close it down or not. Here, the anime managed to be genuinely surprising (at least to me), and as someone who likes well-executed plot twists, I have to give the finale full marks here. Kanon raises a good point, though, about how closing down the Kissuiso right after it's getting some massive good publicity seems like such a real shame. But then, the Kissuiso probably lacked the sort of necessary competent long-term managerial leadership that it needed to make full use of that publicity.

2. How the Ohana/Ko quasi-romance narrative would resolve itself. Here, I think that the finale was a bit too understated, so much so that it almost seemed a bit coy to me. Given that this is the finale, I found that a bit disappointing, and it detracted a little bit from my enjoyment of this finale.


On the whole, the finale was a syrupy blend of saccharine sweetness with melancholic moving on, the sort of feeling you get when you graduate from and leave behind a school or post-secondary institution that you really like, or leave a place of work that you had been attached to. It's a feeling that probably captures the full sense of "bittersweet" as well as anything does. It's probably a good note for the anime to end off on, accentuated as it was by truly breathtaking artwork and animation, deftly displaying how PA Works has possibly become the premier anime studio when it comes to visual quality alone (at least for TV series anime).

On the whole, I give this final episode a 9/10, and I'll probably be giving the full anime a 8/10.

Hanasaku Iroha did have its hiccups along the way, as well as some stretches where not a lot seemed to be happening, but its highs were also extremely high, and they were plentiful enough that I will remember this anime rather fondly on the whole, I think. I think that it will age well for me.