First Impression: Hanasaku Iroha

I have heard a lot of good thing about Hanasaku Iroha through blog-walking and twitter spoilers. I wrote in my preview that this could turn out as a shoujo. Based on my past experience with shoujo, I can either end up loving this or disliking it.


Things are looking good though because I don’t have that instant feeling of the usual hate I felt for female protagonist in a shoujo. Ohana is okay in my book and her best friend, Ko, who I assumed is her love interest in this show, is alright too. LOL look at me making assumption again. For all I know this can turn out to be a horror and Ohana is the psycho killer.

Yeah, as I wrote that, I was only 2 minutes in and I have already paused the episode twice. Once to write some of the stuff above, the second time to check out the poster and from what I can tell, there is no male featured in it, only a bunch of girls. So... a harem? lol me.

But I wasn't completely wrong though. Ko does have feelings for Ohana and confessed to her. But it kinda complicated you see because Ko is extremely shy when it comes to that and the fact that Ohana was taken by surprise. It was real. Besides, it will be difficult for these two since Ohana is moving in with her Grandma at Yunosagi because her mom is eloping with her boyfriend.


Ohana is someone who wants drama in her life so this is actually a wish comes true for her. She will live her life at the inn where she met her grandmother who treats her as an employee and made her work on her first day there. There's a reason why she's so cold towards Ohana, its because she has disowned her mom. Ohana also met her uncle for the first time and three other girls with interesting personality to match hers.

There is Minko who acts like a gangster but looks like an angel, Tomoe who is the most talkative of them all and Nako the shy and quiet one. Everyone at the inn (except for Tomoe) doesn't seem to like Ohana much. Or maybe everyone was just so because of her grandma's attitude. That woman is scary O_o

There are certainly other interesting characters that is yet to be introduced properly like the chefs and the pervert with megane. But honestly I am more interested with Minko's story and what her deal is. Her character is definitely attention grabbing.

This show is solid. The feelings that it was trying to convey to the audience was real. At the end of the episode, where Ohana shed tears while moping the floor... I kinda get goosebumps. This is definitely one of the show to watch out for this season. I am more than happy that at least this season, the shows weren't as disappointing like last winter.

arts & animation 9/10
story 9/10
characters 9/10
sound 7/10
enjoyment 9/10
overall 9/10

Posted in: first impression, hanasaku iroha, haruka tomatsu, P.A Works