Hanasaku Iroha – Episode 22 – Catfights over “Crushes” and the Uncertain Future

With Takako’s and Enishi’s wedding approaching, Minko has yet to resolve her differences with Ohana until now.

From the last episode, Minko has become a very unlikable character because her inability to show her feelings for Tooru and taking it out on someone else. After the short catfight with Ohana in the shower, she got barred from helping out with the food preparation for the wedding, which made things worse. The problem I’m seeing with her is that she forcing Tooru on Ohana even though she likes Ko instead. Even so, she finally realizes something and attempts to resolve her differences with Minko after her mother’s phone call.

After several episodes, Satsuki finally makes a brief return and calls about the wedding, which she can’t attend. Then she mentions something really important when Ohana asked how it feels to go out with someone. When Satsuki talks about her deceased husband, Ohana realizes that all this time, she has a crush on Ko. It was very surprising how long it take her to recognize this since she was very oblivious to his confession. If only she told Igarashi this, things wouldn’t have been so dramatic. With this, she tries to sort things out with Minko, but not without any conflict.

Like last episode, Minko doesn’t want to back down with the catfights and choose to have another one. The only difference from last time is that Ohana reveals that she has a crush on Ko, which made things worse as Minko starts to insult him and tries to get her to go out with Tooru instead. Although not as cheesy as the fight between Noe and Hiromi from True Tears, their fight shared more similarities with this one than the last one with Nako trying to stop them.  Come to think of it, every aspect of the fight is the same, but with different words and Tooru noticing Minko running away after it was broke up. I was glad that Tooru finally cleared everything up with her by saying that he liked Ohana for the ideas she brought, but at the same time cares a lot for Minko. Even if he has little interest for her now, she shouldn’t give up as he might develop affection for her later and fight on.

In the end, everything is finally resolved and Minko once again becomes friendly with Nako and Ohana. The wedding was pretty normal, except there were a few things that bothered me. It seems that Okada has a fetish for crossdressing that she had to erode Beanman’s happiness and force him to dress in drag as Takako after showing Ko wearing a kimono. To make things even worse, Jiroumaru dressed as Enishi makes out with him, which takes every last drop of dignity from him. No wonder he is going to retire from the inn!

Talking about the inn, Sui’s announcement to close the inn after forty years came at no surprise since she couldn’t find a suitable heir. Considering that the business at the inn have been slipping for the past several years and it might worsen once the resort opens, her decision was inevitable. This signals a sad goodbye and a transition back to life in Tokyo for Ohana as a changed person. Hopefully from her experiences at the inn, she will have the strength to confess her feelings for Ko and recognize it. Then again, Satsuki might change her mind at the last minute and decide to carry on Sui’s legacy. Only time can tell…