Since Satsuki finally decides to grant Ohana’s wish to visit the Kissuisou Inn, it looks like things are about to get crazy… or maybe not as she wants to make up with her mother.
During Satsuki’s visit to the inn, it reveals something important about her relationship with her younger brother, Enishi. Stereotypically, the first-born child is supposed to be the role model, which the parents usually give more attention while the last child is the attention seeker. Ironically, Satsuki uses that fact to bully Enishi for her advantage. For instance, she makes him do all her homework and takes his new year’s money. While I haven’t experience any type of sibling bullying, it’s something that is real and it can be caused through many reasons such as birth order, sibling rivalry and/or other reasons. I can also see why Sui did not intervene since she knows that her daughter will just give another outburst. This may explain why he has a liking for Takako like Tomoe suggested, since her personality is so similar to his older sister.
Towards the end of the episode, there is poof that Ohana’s and Sui’s relationship with Satsuki has ultimately improved throughout her stay. When they come over to the room that she is staying in, they had some family bonding over a couple of drinks with a drunken Ohana from a couple of sodas! During that time, they were getting along with each other despite the generation gap and their different philosophies. In the end though, Satsuki’s feelings are ultimately shown through the letter giving praise for the inn. Most importantly, Ohana’s love for her mom has grown, even if she finds her annoying at times.
In a way, Ohana have matured significantly ever since she moved to her grandmother’s inn. While there is a big generation gap between her grandmother and herself, she learned her philosophies to become a better person while maintaining her cheerful personality. With the long discussions she had with her grandmother, it is evident that they have developed a strong relationship that allowed her to make up with Satsuki. Perhaps, this strong relationship with her grandmother ultimately influenced Ohana’s life towards a different direction.
Ohana’s life at the Kissuisou Inn is essentially an influential part of her life that she wants to fulfill even if she had to make some sacrifices. This meant that she had to put her relationship with Ko on hold. While some people believe that this is the end of their relationship, it is not. It’s very evident that she still has romantic feelings for him that she doesn’t realize when he confessed to her. She just feels that fulfilling the promise of the inn and making it more successful is more important than love at this stage of her life. I feel that she will eventually come back to Ko once the time comes to do so. Like her grandmother said, a Shijima girl should never give up after the first rejection.
Besides from the family bonding, Satsuki’s stay was relatively normal besides some complaints, majority of them coming from Enishi. Then again, watching Sui slapping the crap out of him was just hilarious. Aside from that, it looks like Yuina is finally getting her time to shine in the spotlight with some karaoke and fun at the beach.
Satsuki isn’t quite as bad a mother as Ohana thinks she is. Sure she’s irresponsible, but there’s worse anime parents out there. Just look at Shinji’s dad. Man, that kid would be in an asylum by now.