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It's rare to see such unanimity in reviews, but as I feel exactly the same, I can only concur.
Basically, I agree with about every single word from the first review by Archon Wing. He really sums up near-exactly my thoughts.
As such, I'll just point at the few parts where I feel I have something to add or to differ - for everything else, you can just look up his post and consider I agree down to the last letter.
Hanasaku Iroha was an enjoyable and charming serie, but lacking in direction and most importantly in seriousness - it was too light for its own good, hence making the drama part feels disjointed with the light-hearted one.
Especially, there was some weird dissonances between what you would expect as serious issues, and what the show did (in particular, how Satsuki is allowed to be such an horrible person without it looking like any kind of big deal, and her being in fact mostly celebrated ; also, the constant worship of being a workaholic even to the expense of your personnal life, health and the like often made me feel uncomfortable).
As such, drama was hampered by the badly-timed humour, characters were too often ridiculed when there was no need, and it was sometimes hard to follow the mood as it didn't conformed to the path you would expect.
In the end, I had some fun, but the bad pacing, weird mood whiplash, and lack of direction and seriousness prevented this anime from reaching its potential.
So it was nice, but not great, and I give it a lower 7.
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