Hanasaku Iroha - Episode 11 Discussion / Poll

[Guardian Enzo]

I think there are two main moments in the episode that point towards Ohana (still) being in love with Kou.

Obviously, at the very end, when she shouts "Help me Kou!" It's always Kou she thinks of when she's in trouble or in pain - not her mother, or Minchi, or Grandma, or Tohru. Always Kou. That says a lot, but we've seen it already - this was just confirmation.

Even more interesting was when Ohana said, "I don't ever want to see (Kou's) back again." Now I suppose that can be interpreted a couple of different ways, but my read is simply that she doesn't want to say Goodbye to him anymore. She wants him in her life, not on the way out of it.

Like I said - you can read what the tea leaves in the episode tell you, or what the PV tells you - because I think they point in different directions. This show trolls in previews all the time, but who knows? And especially because this isn't a pure romance show, it could turn out that Ohana and Kou really are in love - and they don't end up together anyway. Ohana is going to have to face some hard choices no matter what happens.

[hanashi]

Originally Posted by Tsuyoshi

Actually, she was there, at the last scene in ep 9 where Ohana was talking to the old lady with the girl on the computer. She was saying how her daughter needed to be there because it's part of her job and couldn't really talked about it, and the girl told her off about it. That was the mystery guest.

Right, but I assumed that the mystery guest they were waiting for was someone from Satsuki's magazine since Yuina mentioned that they were reviewing all the inns in their area and that was the magazine everyone checked . Unless that girl was the guest and Satsuki threw out her review and wrote her biased one. (Is that what happened? I snuck in the episode while I was at work and I know I missed some things. )

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Maybe my longest blog review ever, but this ep warranted it:

This show makes me crazy. Just another reminder of how fantastic it can be when it focuses on what's important - and of how often in 11 episodes it hasn't done that. But damn - this was really good.

I think the development with Satsuki was superbly done - and then we were hit by the real main event in the second half of the ep. This was a case where the events of the episode portended one thing, and the PV something else. Which one do you believe?

From your blog:

But what did it actually mean? I saw one blogger comment that Kou had "turned down" Ohana, but that wasn't how I saw it at all. What I saw in that situation is that Kou is still the most important person to Ohana, and she to him. While in real terms she has no right to expect him to wait, I think it's clear that he did turn the shop girl down - and Ohana of course realized that when she was scolding Kou for not answering clearly she was really scolding herself. Their scene in the fast food restaurant was fantastic - their mutual awkward shyness but obvious affection. The way she fiddled with the straw wrapper, and the way he gently mocked her coke-tea mixing. It didn't end well for them, but it clearly displayed for the audience that they're still totally hung up on each other.

It looked to me like he was in the process of distancing himself from her. But he certainly isn't done yet.

[Kagayaki]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Obviously, at the very end, when she shouts "Help me Kou!" It's always Kou she thinks of when she's in trouble or in pain - not her mother, or Minchi, or Grandma, or Tohru. Always Kou. That says a lot, but we've seen it already - this was just confirmation.

They can either use this as justification for an Ohana Ko ending, or as a way to show how Ohana's character changes at some point, when she starts thinking of someone else (maybe Minchi) first. So it's sort of ambiguous now, especially since it's perfectly reasonable to think first of your best friend when you're in trouble. (I can't see Ohana relying emotionally on her mother or grandmother either.)

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Even more interesting was when Ohana said, "I don't ever want to see (Kou's) back again." Now I suppose that can be interpreted a couple of different ways, but my read is simply that she doesn't want to say Goodbye to him anymore. She wants him in her life, not on the way out of it.

Yeah, that's how I interpreted it at first, but then I started thinking about it, and I have no idea what it means anymore. I don't think Ohana actually has any idea what she wants here, so we might want to take whatever she says with a grain of salt. Again, you could feel this way about your best friend too.

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Like I said - you can read what the tea leaves in the episode tell you, or what the PV tells you - because I think they point in different directions. This show trolls in previews all the time, but who knows? And especially because this isn't a pure romance show, it could turn out that Ohana and Kou really are in love - and they don't end up together anyway. Ohana is going to have to face some hard choices no matter what happens.

Agreed.

I think you could make a case for Ohana being romantically interested in Ko based on how Ohana seemed troubled by Ko's new female admirer, but I don't know if any of the other scenes in the episode gave any sort of meaningful evidence.

[Triple_R]

I really don't see Ko pushing Ohana away in this episode.

If anything, I think he's trying to force the issue with her.

I think Ko is implicitly trying to send Ohana this message:

There's this new cute girl that likes me and has confessed to me, but I've left her hanging on that. I've left her hanging on that because I like you more, Ohana. However, I don't want to leave her hanging forever... which means you have to stop leaving me hanging. It's time to make a choice, Ohana.


Now, Ko is much too polite and shy to lay it out explicitly like that, but my sense is that this is the general idea that he's trying to convey to Ohana through his words and actions in this episode. It's also why he panics a bit when Ohana runs off.



Ohana, for her part, just can't bring herself to hurt the feelings of a girl in love, even for her own sake. She sees this girl that really likes Ko, and she probably doesn't want to make things bad for that girl by taking Ko away from her.

That, combined with Ohana's own uncertainty over her exact feelings for Ko, caused her to run off like that, I think.

I agree with Guardian Enzo, though, that Ohana calling out for Ko to save her is quite telling.


All of the above being said, I'm just as confused as Kagayaki is over what the "I don't ever want to see (Kou's) back again" line means. It's a pretty strong line though, whatever it means.

[ahelo]

Episode 11

THAT WAS AN AWESOME EPISODE.

Everything this episode was hauntingly good, from her mom, to Kou-chan, it's like "Ohana against the world" or something!

[risingstar3110]

If this episode gonna hint anything at the ending, it will be yuri Michinko x Ohana....

In time of trouble when the heroine screaming for help, the first who comes to save the girl will get her. There should be a trope like that around somewhere

[EroKing]

Originally Posted by HandofFate

Ko will just have to be a man.

Even a girl like Ohana will get the hint once Ko is in her mouth. XD

lol dude, you have quite the ero mind

Regarding the preview, I don't think its a troll and needs to be over-analyzed, Ohana seems to be have finally decided to say goodbye to Ko (temporarily i hope till later part of the series).
Time for some real Ohana x Tooru?

[taofd]

I think this is actually the beginning of the end of the relationship with Kou. Hana has begun processing her feelings, and Kou has already shown signs of moving on. If anything this is an opportunity for Hana to start to sort out her feelings for Kou.

Kou isn't a good fit for Ohana, TBH. More than anything, I think Ohana's feelings about Kou are more "fascination" than anything else. She's growing up, sorting through her own feelings, and trying to figure out the whole "falling in love" / having feelings of attraction. If you look at it objectively, really all Kou has going for him is that he 1) confessed first (so far), and 2) has previous history with Ohana.

Also, why exactly does Kou like Ohana? I'm kind of getting the feeling that Kou just likes Ohana in that she's 1) freely available and a friend and 2) her straightforward personality. Especially in this last episode, I think there are a few signs that Ohana really is looking for family / someone that can love and protect her (possibly due to her mother issues). With Kou's self-description as "the kind of guy who would flood a can to get the corn at the bottom" -- I really don't think he's a good fit. Rather, Tohru would be a much better candidate in this regard. He's self-sufficient, self-confident, knows what he wants, and seems captured by Ohana's self-determination and "I'm going to do what I think is right" mentality. I think Ohana would be better off with someone that appreciates her spunk, rather than someone who is interested in her, but can't even effectively voice it / communicate on the same wavelength.

@Triple_R

I agree with Guardian Enzo, though, that Ohana calling out for Ko to save her is quite telling.

I think Kou just happens to be a pillar of stability that Ohana has relied on in the past. Think about it, her mom is hardly reliable and Ohana has been self-reliant from a young age. What is telling though, is that Kou was not the one to come rescue. Her friends at Kissuiso (specifically, Tohru and Minko) were the ones to find her in her time of need.

[0utf0xZer0]

While I'm only responding to this now, I actually got up a bit early today to fit this in before a Toradora screening I helped my anime club host today. Actually, I think I've seen every episode of this show these far within a few hours of release, I'm that hooked.

Anyway, fantastic episode. Ohana going to "fest it up" with the magazine felt a bit too much like a repeat of earlier "Ohana runs off to deal with problem" arcs, but once her mom and Kou got involved it was gold. Awesome blend of emotions and conflicting priorities at play in this one.

That said, there does appear to be a big question:

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Which kinda makes me wonder why she hasn't done so much earlier.

The other side of this question is whether she wants Ohana back now - after all, she doesn't seem to be "on the run" now.

Having just watched Toradora, I can't help but wonder if Satsuki is like Ryuuji's mom: she raised her kids because she wanted to be responsible for once. Difference, of course, is that Satsuki's flaws seem deeply engrained in her nature, so she kind of half-asses it.

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

This show makes me crazy. Just another reminder of how fantastic it can be when it focuses on what's important - and of how often in 11 episodes it hasn't done that. But damn - this was really good.

Thing is, if by "what's important" you mean Ohana's relationship with her mother and Kou (as your review suggests), they were never going to deal with those issues right off the bat - they had to let Ohana settle in first.

On the flip side I also knew they were going to deal with those issues eventually. I actually predicted that this series was going to start reintroducing major plot elements after episode 7 right after seeing said episode (and not just because of the PV). In retrospect, episode 7 is kind of a breather episode before some more drama oriented episodes - and you probably won't like hearing this, but I'm also going to call that we'll have another such "breather" episode once this once this first cour climax is over.

I'm not going to try and predict how the next episode will shake things up for the second cour. However, I suspect that Satsuki's backstory and the family's expectations/hopes of Ohana will be major arcs of the second cour. At this point we actually know more about Tomoe's family's hopes than Ohana's, so there's a fair bit of material to explore there.

[Fenrir_valindri]

Amazing episode all around. The drama with Ohana's mother and Kou (as well as Ohana's love-rival) were all done incredibly well.

As for the topic of Satsuki and the Magazine she works for:

They are outright guilty of slander, if Ohana could tape record what her mother said about not even visiting the inns and doing it because a big hotel company wanted to build there, that magazine and that hotel company would suffer HUGE backlash. The magazine in particular would suffer from both their readership and legally as well due to slander laws.

That said, I expect a lot of the Loyal customers of the Inns in that area to object to the questionable review. Especially with the whole "only the customer can decide our quality" thing that Ohana's grandmother was mentioning.

Not only that, there was an ACTUAL reviewer that Ohana met at the end of the last mini-arc, which means somewhere out there an honest review could pop up, completely discrediting the false review by Ohana's mother.

[~Yami~]

yeah.. quite agree that this is one of the best episode....
This episodes involved a lot of emotions and so sad....
I think that Ohana's reasoning to go to Tokyo is too childish but it turned out that a lot has happened
I never predict that we will meet Satsuki this early and I think that she isn't a bad mother... She is a single parent so she need to concentrate more to her work (except when she put Ohana in Kissuiso so she can just live for herself)
yeah! the scene between Ohana and Satsuki really have a lot of meaning

But I think the climax is the scene between Ohana and Ko
All of us know that Ko~chan is Ohana's best supporter.... especially when she really need his help, Ko has forced another problem about that 'glasses-moe-mysterious' girl stuff to Ohana
Then, it looks like that Ko is starting to give up while Ohana still doesn't have any courage to tell her feeling....

About the next episode, I really hope that Ohana will still stay up in the same relation with Ko~chan... I don't really like the idea about Tohru became her supporter (Ko X Ohana is still better in my eye.... XD)
Thanks for not let this Tokyo's arc ended in just one episode.... I'm looking for Minko X Tohru date.... and also a development in Ko X Ohana's relation.....

lol lol..... (sorry for bad english)

[MeoTwister5]

The Movement

he meat of the episode, for me, is the first real meeting between Ko and Ohana, the final kicker that pushed her into her emotional breakdown. Their relationship had been strained from the moment he admitted her feelings, and none moreso now. There was a bit of everyday familiarity in their email and telephone conversations, but that was due to the impersonal nature of the communication. When it was time to meet, to see the face of the other, things change. The familiarity is lost. The embarassment of direct contact is there and I will personally attest to it. The spectre of Ko’s confession looms over, but more striking is how it looms like a dark cloud over Ohana’s head more than over Ko’s. She dwells on it more than he does. It’s almost like she is affected more than he is. As the awkward conversation moves on, the tension becomes so thick you need a chainsaw to cut through. Ohana tried to learn about his situation and how he should have given her a clear answer, but stops.

The bitter pill of irony is swallowed. As the series moved on from the first two and we are only given small snippets of conversation between the two of them, we are left to wonder if she has really put him in the friendzone. In the absence that has made the heart fonder, she has slowly realized that she had relied on him more than she is able to admit. I had covered that before, but only now does some degree of resentment. Not resentment at Ko or even the girl, but at herself. She had now realized that having a vague answer is even worse than an outright “no”. In the same way Ko had left glasses girl in limbo, Ohana too had left him in limbo because she could not answer. Now she knows that she hurt him in more ways than one, and simply because she could not answer. She knew that she had to give one. That status can no longer remain quo.

But she doesn’t. She runs away instead. Out into the rain, confused and alone. Does she not have an answer, or maybe she does but simply has not found it? Sometimes the answer is closer than any one of us think. Sometimes we already have one, a foregone one, but haven’t figured it out. Which of the above applies to Ohana is still up in the air, but with her final primal scream as the rainy city torments her, I think I already knows. All we need now is for her to also figure it out.

I should also add that the scene in the fast food place between Ko and Ohana occurred to me also 3 months ago. It's almost creepy how it mirrors me. So... uh... fight the powah Ko!

[BladeEntity]

An wonderfully brilliant episode, it was an epic win definitely the best episode of the series, a wonderful combination of drama, humour and romance. My favourite combination when watching anime, or reading manga.

The anime highlighted abit about the past issues of Satsuki's method of raising Ohana, the troubles between mother and daughter, which was left untouched since she disappeared. Really added to the drama.

Other than the biggest coincidence of Minchi and Tohru at the end everything was sort of nicely done. Subtly Ohana wanting to meet Ko, the hole akward yet affectionate scene between them at the cafe, everything came together delivering the same level of emotions as the first 2 episodes in a huge burst which was a good change of pace from the more happy, and cheerful episodes.

I'm still rooting for the underdog here, and everything that has happened between them has many double meanings and are more or less impossible to interpret. So in this case expecting the unexpected would be the best way to go. Although I like to see it as Ohana, subconsiously expressing her feelings for Ko, with all if the things that happen between episode 1 -10 she has never had really much time to slow down and think of how to respond, untill she is confronted with that choice when she Ohana brings up the megane girl herself meaning even she is feeling threathened.

The best estimation that can be given is refering to Guardian Enzo blog post, if Ko sticks around for the second cour, then its probably going for a Ko end, if he disappears for the second half than a likely Tohru development given the number of episodes remaining, or hopefully and no one end

[Guardian Enzo]

@Blade - yep, that's definitely how I see it. This series is at a crossroads - appropriate for the halfway point. Perhaps the Kou thing is a creature of the first cour. Maybe we see the Kou situation resolved in a negative way. They both decide it's just impossible, or she decides he's "just a friend", whatever - and he's basically written out very soon - maybe next week. The PV certainly offers that possibility. In this event, it's either a Tohru end or a "none of the above" end.

If that doesn't happen, it's hard for me to see her not ending up with Kou given how much the development of that relationship has been at the karmic center of events for the first cour. If he's still around a month of episodes from now, I think we're headed for a Kou end. It doesn't make sense to go to such pains to show how devoted they are to each other, string it out for 20 episodes, then pull the rug out from under them at the close.

I confess it - I hope not. Ganbare Kou, I say! I think they're a great match and adorable together, but if doesn't happen I'll deal with it - the show has done a good enough job establishing the alternative possibility that it would be quite believable if that's how it ended up. As long as we get more episodes as good as this one, I'll be OK with whatever happens.

[Haak]

Oh I forgot to mention something: Ohana does not appreciate bad reviews. Make a note of it, people. XD

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Haak

Oh I forgot to mention something: Ohana does not appreciate bad reviews. Make a note of it, people. XD

What, if I write a bad review, I can expect a visit?

[hanashi]

Woah, there. Full disclosure: I'm a fan of Tooru/Ohana. I still don't think Kou/Ohana have no chance if they decide to stay as friends. And I don't think that Kou has to be written out if they decide to be friends. Why does it have to be that black and white? Honestly, their scenes together felt like they've already decided to move on and they're trying to feel out what that means for them. Then again, I might feel like that because I've had conversations like that with ex-boyfriends who're still friends.


I think Kou/Ohana would work better in a few years. They're cute but I don't think they're healthy the way they are and if we're going to have a Kou/Ohana pairing, I want it to work. It seemed like neither of them had any other friends. We know Ohana's issues about trust and abandonment but it disturbs me that Kou didn't seem to have any other friends. Ohana is gone for 6 months (Three really, since that's when Ko started at the bookstore) and he's made some other friends at work and he has another girl who's interested in him. He's growing too and figuring out who he is as Kou, not 'Kou and and Ohana'.

Before Ohana started at Kissuiso, she'd never had any form of emotional support other than Kou. And even then, she was never entirely open with him. I still remember his surprised expression when they were talking and she actually said "No, I'm not okay." Now, she's learning how to open up, to reach out, and I think she needs to finish that process. Emotionally, she depends on him more than he depends on her, and I don't think that's fair. To either of them, but especially not to Kou, who would be doing the heavy lifting.

I dunno. It's all very dramatic, because they're young and Ohana's been confronted with a lot of emotional changes in a very short period of time (This episode did not feel like it took place all in one day), but nothing is irrevocable. Even though I like Tooru and Ohana together, I would be so sad if this was some all or nothing situation and she and Kou couldn't stay friends.

[Midnight Bliss]

Wow, this was a pretty dramatic episode. I felt like tearing up at times, it all went by so fast because a lot of things happened at once. I really admire Ohana, she's so strong and I wish I could be like her when I see her deal with things in the most mature way anyone can with her mom. She's very strong, I love and admire that. I can see she has feelings for Ko, but hopefully she'll change that and have feelings for Tooru. Ko seems like he's thinking more lately of the glasses girl he works with than Ohana anyways. I like how it showed and you can compare from the beginning of the series where their friendship was smooth and great and they'd joke around everyday, and now it's just completely awkward and it's hard to say a few words without any tension.
Next episode according to the preview seems great and exciting especially with some Ohana x Tooru moments implied, but then again the previews always troll.

[Spectacular_Insanity]

Goddamn, I really hate Hana's mother. Worst. Parent. EVER.

Hana had a really emotionally straining day. Not surprised that she broke down in tears at the end of it all. I probably would have, too.

I love this show to death. 10/10.