This is a slice of life, but interestingly one that doesn't focus primarily on boy-girl relationships or comical situations on school. This series focuses more on developing relationships with co-workers and learning (the hard way) that reality is sometimes quite harsh. The series does a good job of controlling the viewers emotions and balancing drama with plot progression. As some recommendations have noted, this is not a series for those that need slapstick comedy, action, or suspense. I will add that it is not for those with short attention spans as certain scenes drone on for quite a while; and important points often take multiple episodes to explicate.
Animation:
The overall animation has a bit of a washed out look, not as sharp as some other series out there. The majority of the series takes place in the rural countryside so you get an abundance of greenery with satisfactory detail. Character-wise, the styling is fair. No one is overly moe and all the characters are readily distinguishable. I just wish Ohana had a larger wardrobe as she wears probably at most four different sets of clothes throughout the entire series. I also noticed that "nudity" was a tag for this series. I do not recall seeing any nudity, just girls in hot springs.
Sound:
I'm not a big fan of the lead singer for nano.ripe so I didn't really enjoy any of the OPs. As for the non-nano.ripe EDs, the song Hazy is my pick as the best fit for the series in both tonality and pacing. The BGM is very minimalistic and is composed of mostly calming guitar and piano pieces. Calming enough for me to not recommend watching this late at night (unless you want to fall asleep watching).
Kanae Itou leads here as Ohana, and is supported by some other veterans as well as some not-so well knowns. Most notable for me would be Haruka Tomatsu, who easily gives Yuina the cutest personality of the group.
Story:
After learning that her mother is going to kick her out, Ohana moves to live with her grandmother (who disowned Ohana's mother). To Ohana's surprise, she is forced to work at her grandmother's Inn in order to pay for her room and board. The story is definitely a slow moving one as Ohana slowly warms to the entire workforce at the Inn as well as her off-putting grandmother. However, as Ohana learns her new role as a waitress and grows to like it, she becomes ever more attached to the Inn itself.
There is decent drama in the series involving love triangles as well as Inn troubles, but all of it serves the central purpose of realizing Ohana's growth. While the story is fair, it's really the character development that shines. And in the end, the conclusion makes you feel that a lot of things are back again at square one.
Character:
This is where you realize why the series is 24 episodes long. Each of the workers at the Inn are unique both in their behavior and colored pasts. A large portion of the series is dedicated to Ohana learning about her new co-workers/friends and growing together to face the challenges of her grandmother and the Inn.
You get a decent dosage of tsundere, uber-shy, uber-kawaii, and uber-straightforward/determinedness just from the four main girls. Their interactions are for the most part genuine though some of Minchi's actions do seem a bit forced. Overall, watching the girls bond and grow is definitely the standout quality in this series, as in Ano Hana; it's just that in this case it takes a lot longer to explicate.
Value:
For those who love girl-bonding and/or growing up to face the challenges of reality, this is a sweet, refreshing series that does a lot right. For those who would like a plot-centric story, a thriller, or an ecchi slapstick-comedy this series is a sleeping pill. My personal take is that it did what it needed to do well though it could have done so without 5 or 6 of the episodes.
