Making Yuina a weak character...is weak. So she was just a spoiled and conceited brat this whole time, huh. There goes any interest I actually I had in her.
Anyway, lol at some of this 'courtship' talk popping up. But I'm down with hatin' on Kou, actually. Frankly, Yousuke does also come off pretty bad in this as well. There is one idea that is floating around in the show and in this thread which is pretty damned correct, and that is 'thinking about the other party'. Yeah, Yousuke, your dull ass completely screwed that up with the waitresses, but his approach to romance is honestly equally terrible too. It's actually the exact same issue. "I only want a girl who will become my inn's Okami/head waitress"--or should I say, "I only want employees who will actually work hard and take the job seriously". Well that's great, doofus, but why don't you try to figure out whether or why somebody would want to actually do that for you?
As for Kou, let me also throw my two cents in. The criticisms are correct, at least insofar as he is never actually thinking of her. Is Kou being 'considerate' of Ohana by thinking he shouldn't pressure her? No, 'cause hell if he were being
actually considerate, he wouldn't have confessed in the first place. The hell is up with building up a 'friendship' while harbouring private delusions only to suddenly spring them out in a confession she can't possibly respond to? But really, even after that, the genuine thing to do would have been to apologize, tell her that she doesn't need to worry about his feelings and to take a break for a while, and then let her sort her shit out before trying again to get her answer. "I'm still waiting without actually saying anything"? That's real passive-aggressive shit if I've ever seen it.
Well, and just for completeness' sake, lol, Tohru's not much better. Seriously, don't fall in love with a girl if you haven't got anything to offer her. A relationship's a two-way street. I think it's in poor taste to make sweeping generalizations like 'women want emotional security' (because as humans, we are all different and individuals) but the idea is there--think about the other party. It is not simply anyone's 'right' to just fall in love and have feelings for someone for your own self-satisfaction--if you've got any decency, there should be a real commitment in turn towards making yourself something worth loving also. Tohru's stupid crush, just like Yousuke's, is based on no actual consideration for the other party.
:P In essence, if I haven't made it clear, I'm not a fan of the 'romance' in Hanasaku Iroha. All of these self-absorbed dorks are insufferable as all hell, actually. lol, I would've jumped on the Ohana x Yuina yuri bandwagon a week back, but with this week's new Yuina 'character depth'
she's lost all potency as an actual foil or strong counterpart to Ohana's character. :P Well, frankly, this show isn't really much more than junk entertainment for me anyways, so I did manage to wring some enjoyment out of this episode. On a pure fluff entertainment scale, I could probably call this episode an 8 (ohai there Nako, and
hello onsen scene
). Hanasaku Iroha's rating has just about sunk back to zero though in terms of, for me, actually interesting characters and relationships.