Hana-Saku Iroha – 18



An interesting, albeit very annoying episode.

So, I asked for a Nako episode, and I got one. This episode dealt with her shyness, and unfortunately in order to do that it had to have her act like a bit of an idiot The entire episode was about her trying to change herself, with the result that she did a ton of things that she wouldn’t do. It definitely wasn’t bad… but she did get rather on my nerves. The only real criticism I have right now is the random guys who popped up in this episode (they were really annoying in the bad ways…) and that Nako probably is the first who begged her employer not to give her a raise…

This definitely was an episode for the long term of this series: what the next episodes need to do is show how she changed. She really didn’t appear much during the past months, so the shyness also suddenly returned from having been gone for like, what? 10 episodes?

Interestingly though, this episode also secretly fleshed out the rest of the cast when the four girls went shopping and we got to see some unexpected sides of them that we had not seen before. Ohana’s grandmother’s part in this episode was also very strong: the main theme of this series is working, and the end of this episode really delivered on that again.

This probably won’t happen, but what I’d like to see the most out of this series at this point, is a significant time-skip: show these characters as they’ve grown up. What has become of them? How did their character development during the past few episodes change them?
Rating: * (Good)

8 thoughts on “Hana-Saku Iroha – 18

  1. “This probably won’t happen, but what I’d like to see the most out of this series at this point, is a significant time-skip”

    god no, and you’re right, that won’t happen, because it’s a horrible idea

  2. I don’t know why but I found this episode particularly annoying. It was like watching an episode of K-ON!, which is not necessarily bad (I like K-ON btw) but it isn’t this show.

  3. Admittedly, this one was a bit boring. I hope the final part of this show will be a story arc and not loose episodes.

  4. I was watching this with my older sister who is currently in full time school plus working part time. By the end of the episode, she was weeping, while having a big smile on her face,

    I’ve never EVER seen her shed tears like that before.

    Gotta re-watch this to ‘get it’.

  5. This was much of a growing up episode and of Nako coming to understand herself better. I think it was one of the better episodes, and it was far away from the shallowness of K-ON, since it actually developed Nako as a person.

    This episode also makes clear that Nako has a very different character when she’s at home. She’s very direct and honest and very open with what she thinks. When she is with her friends or work at the inn, she usually takes the back seat and let ohana and the other take charge.

    What Nako learned was that while she is shy at work, she still has the same warm heart and she still cares for her work colleagues and guests, even if she does it in a more indirect way, if you compare how she acts at home with her family.

    @JimesJimex

    If I dare take a guess I would say that she got touched by how Nako tought that she didn’t deserve a salary raise, and how ohana’s grandmother talked some sense into her and told her just how much the guests value her work at the inn.

    She may also feel a personal attachemnt to this because many people, me including, have a very different personality at work and at home. For me who work in sales I was really touched by this episode, because it touches a real issue and I can too often think about how i act around work when I face my customers and how my personality at work is different from how I act in private.

    I just need to say it again. I think this was a great episode that combined comedy and drama in a very good way, and I really dont agree that it was just a “good” episode.

  6. Loved it. I’ve not liked Nako-san much till now, except to feel sorry for her when the abysmal episode 3 paraded her for cheap fanservice. Now that we’ve seen her home personality, which was a total breath of fresh air, she’s more like an actual character than a generic shy-moe girl.

    You didn’t like the barbershop-harmony nanpa quartet? Was great!

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