After the rather disappointing production of Angel Beats, things can only get better for PA Works. When I have watched the first episode of Hanasaku Iroha, the show has already exceeded my expectations.
Matsumae Ohana is a 16-year-old, kindhearted and adorable girl who hasn’t experience life outside in the city. One day, she finds herself in a situation of having to move in with her grandmother that she never seen. Before. When she moves to a rural town, she realized that some of her values don’t fit as shown with her unwanted gardening and the falling futon. This is expected since lifestyles in the city and rural towns are drastically different.
In addition, she finds that her grandmother’s values are completely different compared to her mother’s. Most grandparents tend to hold onto their traditions and values even though some might not agree with them or out of date with society. In real life, I have a grandmother that is still alive and she doesn’t believe in taking modern medicine. She thinks that everything can be treated with traditional medicine. With Ohana’s grandmother, she is very strict and traditional. This is shown through her ethics and the use of violence as punishment. Although slapping is not an acceptable punishment in society, she believes that it’s effective so people won’t make the same mistake. This happens when Ohana takes responsibility for the problems she caused and she asks her for a slap. By accepting that she is wrong and learning from these mistakes, she might gain her grandmother’s respect as time goes on.
The animation simply looks gorgeous with the eye-catching sceneries. It feels like something that came from a Kyoto Animation production. In addition, the opening theme shown at the end sounds rather catchy, but it was nothing too special.
With the first episode, I hope the show maintains the good feeling in the second episode. Probably we will get to see Ohana adjusting to her new school and home while making some new friends in the next episode.
One of my new favorite anime for spring! Even thou her mom sucks dropping her off at bitchy grandma’s to work! How lame would that be?! Anyway it makes for good dramaaaaa and for that I will watch! Besides I love the main girls voice actress! <3 Saten from Railgun! So good.
Spring is starting out strong! Better than winter season, I remember that had some crappy starting shows.
Winter season was a bit meh if it wasn’t for Madoka Magica, Wandering Son and Level E (which I did not watch).
Her mother sucks, but her grandmother is a different story. Like I mentioned, she tends to hold her old traditions even though they are outdated. Maybe Ohana will probably challenge her values and possibly persuade her to change. As they say, change is good.