Like the outrage that happened with Ore no Imouto Episode 4, it seems that the aniblogosphere has started the outrage machine again over brief fanservice scenes, the perverseness of Jiroumaru and sudden lighthearted mood of Hanasaku Iroha Episode 3. I believe that this outrage is misguided considering that a slice of life story in my opinion is never meant to be completely consistent.
From the last episode, it seems that Jiroumaru has been driven to revenge towards Ohana. He carries out his revenge by performing bondage on her. After seeing her tied up and gagged, it makes me wonder… Why would you want to do this to a 16-year-old girl even if she read your drafts? To me, it felt like he is sexually harassing the girls, especially the way he grabs Nako and threatens to tie her up after Ohana tells him off. After I saw what happened, the girls should have contacted the police and have him arrested. Sadly, it doesn’t happen because of her Grandmother’s philosophy that “customers are always right.” After she saw all the problems he caused with the sexual harassment of the girls, complaining about the food and stealing one of the inn’s vehicles, she must be eating crow right now.
Behind the lighthearted comedy in the first half, the second part where Jiroumaru attempts to commit suicide is rather melodramatic. He always put himself down underneath the lies of being a famous author. This causes him to believe that he has nothing to live for. Even after he jumps off the cliff and got saved by Nako, Ohana still believe in him by saying that he helped her to shine. To me, Ohana is a very kindhearted and open-minded person that gains my respect. While writing about perverted stuff with Ohana, Minako and Nako might not be right, Ohana helping Jiroumaru to get motivated with his writing is an act of kindness.
As for the small instances of fanservice in the first half, it seemed that most of the people are crying foul and saying that this episode is horrible and that they are going to drop it. They believe that the fanservice and lighthearted comedy has hijacked the overall premise of the story. Like the comments I said about the outrage of Ore no Imouto Episode 4, I don’t see anything objectionable about the brief fanservice shown with the shower scene and Nako’s wet clothing. Sure the bondage was very iffy and felt wrong, but that’s about it. While these scenes feel out of place with the overall premise of the story, slice of life stories are never meant to be consistent since the events in real life are unpredictable. There is always going to be ups and downs when we go through life as shown with Ohana adjusting to her new home at the inn. Hence, it’s a very bad idea to expect Hanasaku Iroha to be entirely serious.
Despite the outrage from some of the disgruntled viewers, I enjoyed episode three since Nako was the shining heroine of the episode. She looked so pretty with her hair down and saved Jiroumaru even though he is a big pervert. Also, Ohana’s grandmother has definitely gained some more respect towards her as she resolved all the tensions between the girls (Minako and Nako) and Jiroumaru. Things can only get better once school starts and they work together at the inn afterwards.
So in short, Hanasaku Iroha is still a great show.
Most people have hated this episode, however I actually liked it! The whole bondage scene could have been far far worse! However Ohana was in no real danger with that guy he seemed kind of strange hahaha.
Grandma actually cares omg! I was like Awwwwww!
Of course can’t forget that epic save by Nako jumping into the water like that XD
I still like this show not sure why maybe I am pulled in by the amazing animation? And don’t really mind the random fanservice moments. But I can see why people will drop this xD
I kind of facepalm with the rage… three episodes in and people want to drop it? To me, they aren’t being fair considering that it’s just one episode. If they did it with the other 23 there would be a problem, but I believe they won’t. This is why I compared it to the outrage of Ore no Imouto Episode 4. One fanservice shot in the whole episode caused people to hate the show… The blame is kind of misdirected and irrational, but then again… haters gonna hate.
It’s not really the fanservice that bothers me, as much as the whole story I felt was done in poor taste (especially with mr.creep getting off with a slap on the wrist and little more) and the episode itself was just not as good as the other 2. The guy was also unsympathetic and I didn’t really care about him. People were behaving erratically And the fanservice wasn’t even that hot anyways. 😛
For example, the BGM in the episode was either nonexistent or irrelevant — there was like no atmosphere, tension or even humor.
There is just so much suspension of disbelief you can have. The main thing is that the fear of the show heading down a slippery slope. In any case, I think you can’t be too hard on people that were offended. It is ok to be critical of things you don’t approve of. Consider that much anime out there has so much gratuitous fanservice, I think it’s only fair that we have some anime that don’t have it.
There’s quite a few shows that are able to integrate fanservice and the story for fun and make it work. One of them is Haruhi– but a fine line has to be walked. I don’t think Hana Saku Iroha succeded here.
I still think this is a good show, but I still don’t like this episode. And if there are more, it could discourage me.
Yeah, having a whole episode of Jiroumaru is kind of creepy. If he was writing on normal stuff and not erotic, perhaps he wouldn’t be put in this situation… As I have said, Episode 3 was enjoyable, but definitely not on the scale of quality that the first two episodes, which is kind of disappointing.
As for the slippery slope argument that Hanasaku will throw more fanservice is pretty flawed. Slippery Slope fallacies tend to be really iffy as you go down to the slope to the worst possible outcome since the proof to back up the claim is either vague and hard to prove. This is why one can’t assume that episode 4 will be the same as episode 3 unless there is any evidence that it will follow the same pattern. For what I see in the next episode preview, this is very unlikely… and hopefully we won’t see anymore of this in the next 23 episodes.