Hanasaku Iroha (generic discussion thread)

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by felix

He’s not really anti-social. For some people that kind of attitude is the norm (ie. you speak your mind if you thing shit is fucked up). Depends from what social circles you come from, or frequent. Note, he’s not pushing people away, just being a hardass (ie. “do what it takes”). Anyway, all I hope for is that he better not have some dere side, or get some personality change.

Heck, in most social circles I've navigated, it's normal to say the meanest thing you can think of. It's not meant to be taken seriously. I don't think he's that bad, but I'm not enamored with him either. His arrogance bothers me more than his sharp tongue per se.

By the way, how old is he, to go out with a middle school girl?

Originally Posted by FireChick

Wow! This episode was amazing! I loved every minute of it.

Spoiler:

My favorite parts were when Nako and Ohana were together. I can seriously see that Nako's finally warming up to Ohana and becoming friendlier toward her. We got a little bit into her back story so that helped too. I thought the grey heron was awesome...and surprisingly well animated.

Not only that, FINALLY Ohana gets treated well for once! And at school no less! Who knew she'd suddenly become Mrs. Popular. Usually they make main characters of anime unpopular outcasts. Hooray for cliche avoiding. And I'm growing to like that Yuina girl, since even though she's the daughter of the manager of the rival inn she's nice to Ohana. I'm kind of interested in knowing about her relationship with Tohru and her rivalry with Minko.

And speaking of Minko...she LIKES Tohru!? Jeez! Forgive me if I'm being weird, but if they ever get in a relationship, I suspect it might be an abusive one, with the way Tohru treats her and all (yeah I know he helped her with those shish-ka-bob things, but you never know). Plus...MY GOD SHE IS STILL AN UNGRATEFUL BRAT!!! WHEN THE FREAK is she going to NOT treat Ohana like she's some kind of childhood enemy plotting her death!? Sure Ohana made a careless mistake to mention Tohru in a maligned manner and all, but how the heck was she supposed to know about their relationship!? It's not like she can see into the future or can read minds or anything! And Minko actually helped her a second ago, then she suddenly tried to STRANGLE Ohana right when she apologized to her about the Tohru thing!! Yes, STRANGLE!!! I mean, seriously! Can't she see that Ohana's not a bad person already!? And I thought I was misunderstood!

Agreed. Minko really needs to get over herself.

[AmyElizzabeth]

I don't think I'll ever really like Minko with the way she's acting...she's kind of a jerk.

[doomknight]

Nice episode with the introduction of Yuina, i thought that she would be the "rich" girl or something like that who hates "commoners", yet she was a really very nice girl helping Ohana and also got the easy going personality and adding she is cute, Minko likes Tohru.. and saw Yuina go with him somewhere hope they just friends or relatives not for Minko's sake but because he looks like 20+.. i mean kind of old.

[0utf0xZer0]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

By the way, how old is he, to go out with a middle school girl?

If wikipedia is accurate, Tohru is 23 and Minko is 17.

[octoberasian]

Ep 4 was definitely better than the last one in terms of pacing and story.
A couple things I hope by the end of the series...

Spoiler:

- Kou reunites with Ohana *crosses fingers*
- Minko stops being a bitch and becomes good friends with Ohana and treats her better. *crosses another set of fingers*
- Minko and Tohru hook up though as how nigh impossible that seems at the moment. *crosses more fingers*

It seems that Tohru and Yuina are going to have the equivalent of a Romeo-Juliet relationship sans tragic ending. Two competing inns and two lovers, with a third leg-- Minko-- and probably not going to end well for at least one person. But, hopefully it favors Minko in the end. Then again, Tohru is quite a bit older.

However, I would really like to see Kou and Ohana together. I like their relationship. Started off as friends and became something more, hopefully... Otherwise, it'd end up like the movie "5 cm per second" and the the love becomes unfulfilled. I hope that doesn't happen. Long distance relationships can be hard unless they are continuously communicating, and work through it together. But, then again... Ohana hasn't answered Kou at all. Ohana answer him, dangit!

[Anh_Minh]

Minko's a middle school student. She's 14 or so.

[octoberasian]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Minko's a middle school student. She's 14 or so.

Yeah, she and Ohana are classmates, so they're roughly the same age, especially Yuina. For sure, Nako is in a higher grade.

[msg]

No..look at their official website.What outfoxzero said is true..Ohana is 16 and minko is 17

[Anh_Minh]

Really?

Ok, then. Less creepy. (Though Ohana really doesn't look the part.)

[broken270]

Spoiler:

The arc where suddenly things start to get more interesting appeared.

So, it is off to a new semester to her new school with Minko and Nako. Apparently, there is another hot spring/spa that is not too far away from their place. Competition is in order. Ignoring this, Ohana is seen to be enjoying the scenery of this place. Nice flashback of her and Ko. They really should get together soon. She should at least respond to him. So, Ohana enters her homeroom class, and she is paired up with Minko. Of course, Minko pretends that she does not know her. As soon as she said she was from Tokyo, her popularity rate skyrockets. These guys mistook things that are normal in her eyes as extraordinary. By the time class is over, the majority of the class rush to her class and bashes her some questions. Luckily, Yuina, the grand-daughter of the other resort, saved her. Although her grandmother is harsh to her, she seems to take it much more easily than Ohana. She's quite a carefree one. Nako and Minko eat lunch on the roof, and we spot someone trying to confess to Minko. She is probably going, "Not another one." With those specific descriptions, she just said out loud who is it that she loves.

Back in the in, Tomoe is jealous of the fact that while Minko is experiencing school love already, she is here working with no love. Ohana has her sets of love problems as well. Nako actually works really hard trying to come up with nicknames. Nice to know the origin of Minko's nickname. Ohana is now in a bath with Minko, and they are in quite an awkward position. Ohana complains about Tohru's rudeness, but Minko says that he does it because he cares. It is only until then that Ohana actually realizes that the person she mentioned before was Tohru. Ohana tries many attempts to get a nice air between them, but it fails each time. Soon, Minko could not take it anymore and actually tries to strangle her? As this scene occurred, Tohru is actually seen with Yuina, probably bringing her to tthe school by motorcycle. And that grey heron...

[karuroso]

I know that there still twenty eps left but it feels like will be necessary a lot of work to make me like Minchi by the end, i mean so far she is the most unlikeable girl( the manager is in another level =X),she looks horrible with that hat( even though i like her ponytail), she likes the most unlikeable guy so far and to make things worse she's voiced by the only VA that still amazes me get some roles

[Proto]

Originally Posted by Malkuth

Not exactly Tooru* and Kou/Kō are 1-1, while Tohru/Koh and Toru/Ko are attempts at phonetic equivalents, ignoring the whole incontestably problem. Also being native a language that is butchered in transliteration, I am somewhat sensitive with this subject.

* I think I did explain some pages back that Touru/Tōru is different from Tooru

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaniz...se#Long_vowels

Toh/Koh are non standard accepted romanizations. Not my favorite though, I can agree that much.

(Except for not marking the double vowel in any form like in Toru/Ko. That is just a mistake as you point out)

[Archon_Wing]

Is it ok if my reaction to Minko at the end to be bursting out in laughter? I just find her kinda obnoxious, and it seems like she fails about being cool, kinda like Shiina from Angel Beats. Her love affair is just like "cool story bro" to me, and the episode which relies on it ends up as such.

Also, do we really need more obnoxious male characters in the series? Besides, Kou, who's ok, the male characters combined have like 10 tons of fail between them. And that idiot is still there. Is it just me or do female heavy casts just cause guys to become retarded? Well, can't blame them THAT much, but still.

Fortunately, Ohana lights up the show, and that heron is funny. I was asking if the bird was gonna attack her, and ... poor dumb Ohana. Nako is also pretty sensible, and the bath scene was funny too... Heh, hotter than episode 3 imo.

Best part is introducing herself as a transfer student and everyone jumps on her. "Yay, we can become part of the plot" Also, lol @ Minko walking out and nobody giving a shit.

Rating: 6/10. Watchable, though it's missing the magic of the first two episodes.

[weaponX]

well at least noone tried to rape her this episode

[DragoonKain3]

All in all an awesome episode. Finally the focus is back towards the actual inn people; I really didn't care at all for the novelist. They can make an episode about the old man living in the shed for all I care... anything but the novelist again please. XD

Such a shame there's still a bit of fanservice there though. Not that I am complaining, but other people will take it the wrong way...

And Yuina... wow, that was Tomatsu Haruka? Totally fooled me (like I was with Tomoe being Mamiko Noto), then again, for once she is put on a different character archetype than what we typically see her on. Certainly different from Mashu/Anaru of this season, which is what we usually hear her as, like in Kannagi, Basquash, and Cross Game.


Shipping-wise... was so afraid that Ohana will be the rival towards Minko/Tooru. The big plot revelation at the end; it's actually Yuina that's the rival (or are we led to believe, Minko is the one trying to steal lol). Still have to see more if I'd side with Minko or Yuina; especially Yuina, don't know much about her.

Also really happy about Kou/Ohana. Ohana still is intent on making a reply, Ohana keeps on denying Ko out of nowhere when other people ask if she has a boyfriend, and we get a flashback! So many juicy scenes that I enjoyed. I mean, sure, Minko/Tooru might look better together, but Kou/Ohana still is my OTP in this show.

[Reckoner]

Normally an episode like this wouldn't really earn that many complaints form me, but the problem is that this show has set up themes and tones quite different from what we're experiencing in not only just last week's fail of an episode, but also this weeks. It also has quite a high standard of storytelling to live up to after what has been seen in the first two episode.

Episode 2 ended on a nice dramatic note before finally the show drove the train off the fucknig railroad in episode 3 with an extremely abrupt change in pace and tone. Episode 4 while not quite as drastic of a change as episode 3, has more or less been affected by some of the lingering affects of that last episode.

I say this because the show has set up all these points of drama, whether it be Ohana and her grandmother, Ohana and Kou, Ohana and Minko, Ohana vs workplace, Ohana vs growing up. Meanwhile we're suddenly thrown from light hearted situation to light hearted situation, while glossing over these dramatic points... The tonal shift serves to basically make us completely dismissive of whatever drama they're presenting. Really, I just wasn't able to care about the fail writer or the little unrequited love of our ice princess Minko.

If you can't really care about the characters in these situations because the atmosphere of the drama disconnects you from it, the impact and magic of it is all gone. Episodes 1 and 2 were quite amazing, but the show's persistence in trying to lighten the mood so much is going to have dire consequences on the road.

Again, normally this episode would probably earn a 7/10 for me, but because of the context and failure to move the story in a good direction, I'll have to rate it a 5/10. It was not good, and I really don't appreciate the direction this story is taking.

[ThereminVox]

That heron is going to be one of my favorite characters by the second half. I just know it.

LOL at Ohana being the last sentient being on the planet to figure out Minko likes Tooru. Given Minko's rotten temperament, and Ohana's utter tactlessness, I guess a throttling -- while unforgivable -- was inevitable. I honestly thought she'd get socked for that "Good Morning!"

Speaking of Ohana being about as dense as a dying star, the Kou flashbacks show that he was probably dropping hints to her for a while. However, it was interesting to see that now that she does know, she's really hung up over how he'll feel about her text responses. So it's not that she doesn't care about people's feelings, she just legitimately stinks at reading the mood, which isn't really a surprise. She demonstrates it quite nicely with Minko later on.

Nako is still awesome. No further developments there.

Also, this was the week I started really recognizing the voice actors. Minko's voice crack in the ep. 5 preview in particular gave her away.

I've probably said this before, but the animation in this show is so pretty I could freaking cry.

[Xacual]

Yuina struck me as fronting a deliberately wrong persona. She even said she only added the accent for fun. She's probably nothing like how she appears at school. Also I think she does have a crush on Tooru because she mentioned there being a cool guy at their inn, but why did Ohana connect "cool guy" with the pervent author?!?

Seeing Nako interact with Ohana so well now was probably my high point of the episode, they are becoming quite good friends. Honestly I kind of expected a stand off situation with Nako, Minko and Ohana together during the school day for lunch but it never happened. I wonder if Minko interacts with anyone at school.

Edit: That's probably why the boys have all these false images of her, though you'd think if they knew where she worked they'd go check it out.

[liquidmetal]

Would like to see more of Yuina over Minko, even if she is putting up a front. Minko has just been going over the same characteristics that makes it a little dull for me when she is on screen.

Hope to see more of the heron later

[Forsaken_Infinity]

Originally Posted by octoberasian

Ep 4 was definitely better than the last one in terms of pacing and story.
A couple things I hope by the end of the series...

Spoiler:

- Kou reunites with Ohana *crosses fingers*
- Minko stops being a bitch and becomes good friends with Ohana and treats her better. *crosses another set of fingers*
- Minko and Tohru hook up though as how nigh impossible that seems at the moment. *crosses more fingers*

It seems that Tohru and Yuina are going to have the equivalent of a Romeo-Juliet relationship sans tragic ending. Two competing inns and two lovers, with a third leg-- Minko-- and probably not going to end well for at least one person. But, hopefully it favors Minko in the end. Then again, Tohru is quite a bit older.

However, I would really like to see Kou and Ohana together. I like their relationship. Started off as friends and became something more, hopefully... Otherwise, it'd end up like the movie "5 cm per second" and the the love becomes unfulfilled. I hope that doesn't happen. Long distance relationships can be hard unless they are continuously communicating, and work through it together. But, then again... Ohana hasn't answered Kou at all. Ohana answer him, dangit!

Spoiler for Here's what I hope:

1. Kou and Ohana reconcile, but remain good friends only. I would especially like it if Kou takes the initiative and tells Ohana to not force herself into giving a decision right away. They are pretty young and have all the time in the world to go about it one step at a time.

2. Minko "will" become a better friend ... but I hope she retains some of her characteristics at least. I expect things to be really rough on Minko so if she can just retain her sanity and be a bit more expressive, that's more than enough.

3. Tohru and Minko getting together is a no go for me. For one, Tohru hasn't shown the slightest bit of interest in Minko thus far and from where I stand, Minko's crush is only a troubled teen girl trying to sugarcoat things to help her get by. Tohru isn't a villain and is probably kind deep within, I agree with Minko on as much. But that he needs to pursue a relationship with her, I do not. I hope he will sincerely tell her that she is more like a little sister to him. And help her get over himself by not rubbing it in etc.

4. Can't quite say I want the relationship between Yuina and Tohru to swing either way. We haven't been shown much as of right now anyway. But if it's a classic love between a poor upstart from a poorer inn with a much-younger successor to a more successful inn with what seemed to me like a harsher-than-Ohana's-granny for the owner, I am excited. Even if it's not, I am still excited. Because that gives us a better look at Tohru from outside his workplace.

Episode 4 was pretty nice. Really cheesy stuff, a lot of it, and really predictable too, but it was still pretty nice.