It was around the time that I started writing this blog when I developed an appreciation for slice of life anime series. I only had three anime titles in my viewing list at the time that featured the genre.
The first was Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai or AnoHana, which really wasn't a pure slice of life anime series, but had the feel and the lessons of one.
The second was SKET Dance, a still-ongoing series that incorporates gag or parody elements in its storyline.
The third was Hanasaku Iroha.
Unfortunately, much like Tiger & Bunny, I never got around to making a timely post about Hanasaku Iroha even if it was a part of my long ago (feels that way, at least) 2011 spring anime picks.
Matsumae Ohana finds her world turned upside down and suddenly leaving her life in Tokyo. Her mother Matsumae Satsuki elopes with her boyfriend to escape his debts and Ohana is instructed to live with her estranged grandmother Shijima Sui, who owns a Taisho period hot spring inn in a different town. Ohana immediately finds herself at odds with the other employees of the inn, including shy waitress Oshimizu Nako and surly apprentice chef Tsurugi Minko. As compensation for her stay at Kissuiso, Ohana starts working as a waitress at the inn as well, working with her grandmother, Nako, Minko, her uncle Shijima Enishi, head waitress Wajima Tomoe, head chef Togashi Renji, junior chef Miyagishi Toru and janitor Sukegawa Denroku, also known as Beanman. Ohana resolves to get along with the others at Kissuiso, as well as becoming a better person and employee. She also tries to deal with how she feels about her best friend Tanemura Koichi, who confessed to her before she left Tokyo.
Ohana's relationships with the new group of people in her life is explored, especially her eventual friendship with Nako and Minko, establishing a connection with her grandmother, butting heads with her equally stubborn mother, and dealing with the new relationship dynamic with Koichi.
While most of the storyline of Hanasaku Iroha focuses on Ohana,
the anime series is actually more of an ensemble piece, with each member
of Kissuiso getting the opportunity to tell their individual stories in
varying degrees. Each of them focuses on achieving their individual goals or dreams, whether it's to help out the family, to become a chef, to find a husband, to become a successful successor to the family business, to continue a dream shared with someone else, and to become a better person. Everyone works towards making Kissuiso a great inn, with each one playing to their individual strengths and learning important lessons through their weaknesses.
Time and again, the narrative will return to Ohana, and you get to have a sense of appreciation for this strong willed, stubborn, clumsy and optimistic girl. She allows herself to feel the pain once she acknowledges its significance and, while not completely shrugging it off, picks herself up once she has shed her tears and negative emotions.
Part story about growing up, part story about not giving up, part story about realizing one's dreams and part story about realizing what one really wants in life, Hanasaku Iroha is a pure slice of life piece of fiction set against a backdrop of beautiful animation.
There are no literal enemies in the form of monsters and evil robots to fight. No level up in terms of physical powers.
But you still end up with stronger characters with stronger relationships at the end of the story.
Happy viewing!!Labels: Anime, Comedy, Drama, Hanasaku Iroha, Must-Watch, Slice of Life, TV
