The story essentially revolves around Ohana, a young teenage girl, and her experiences as she works as a waitress in an inn. As the show progresses, you are able to see the blooming relationships that develop as she begins to understand herself and the people around her. The show focuses on the challenges of being a teenage girl and Ohana's inner resolve to 'fest' it up no matter the situation. While there is romance, it is extremely slow paced. It will pop in from time to time to apply a dose of necessary drama to keep the audience interested in what will happen next and how it will affect each character. For a 26 episode series, I was skeptical at first of how they could achieve a balance between the amount of entertaining material and filling such a large amount of time. Much to my delight PA works really did manage to balance these two quite well.
The Art/Animation was good. The first opening had some choppy parts in the animation, but the animation throughout the series flowed smoothly and there's nothing to complain about here. I also found the openings and endings to be quite nice; fitting, if you will, for the show. One aspect that I felt was unnecessary here was the fan service. While it's not over the top ecchi, there are scenes that just felt out of place considering this is a slice of life drama. I'm kind of split between whether or not to criticize or praise this because on one hand the risque factor was toned down quite a lot, but on the other hand it didn't help further the show's enjoyment and wasn't necessary.
Now going back to the bit about Hanasaku Iroha being 26 episodes. The 26 episodes really did justice to each of the characters. Each character's strengths, weaknesses, and quirks felt really defined. The pacing of the show, besides the romance, was solid and had a laid back flow. Ohana is very strong-willed and has a natural helping, outgoing personality. Minko is a tsundere that gets overly jealous and is quick to jump to conclusions. Nako is the quiet girl who's pretty much perfect yet is somehow very timid and lacks charisma. As the series progresses, each character becomes more and more likeable; you really get to see that they are all good people with good intentions.
Overall, a solid, relaxing watch. If you have the time, and enjoy the Slice of Life genre, perhaps you might consider booking a reservation at Kissuiso to see what it has to offer.
