Oct 5 2011 12:51 AM Hanasaku Iroha is P.A. Work's original work and their 10th anniversary project. For a 10th anniversary project, this is likely the best project they've done to date.
Ohana Matsumae is a high school girl who is suddenly abandoned by her mother while in Tokyo and thus forced to live with her grandmother out in the countryside in Yunosagi's Kissui Inn. There, Ohana meets new friends whom she grows attached to and learns to work to make a living while attending school.
The story is a relatively true slice-of-life show, almost as true as you can get in an anime setting. The story is kept simple where we observe the daily lives of those working at Kissui Inn and occasionally their lives outside of the job. With that said, it did a pretty solid job at keeping the heartwarming pace with bits of comedy here and there. While there were a few flat episodes every now and then, I was overall impressed with the premise of the show. While the concept is not entirely original, the presentation made it feel like something we haven't seen before, if not in ages.
The ending was a bit unexpected yet expected if you ask me. There were constant thoughts about Ohana being selected as the new "landlady" for Kissui Inn, but I think the screenwriters made the logical choice of closing down Kissui Inn simply because of the obvious fact: Ohana is a mere 16 year old....and that Enishi is incompetent. You can't possibly expect these people to run the inn now and I felt that when the staff drew this conclusion, it was very intelligent and away from some of the more "traditional routes", thus bringing out a greater realism feel for this series.
Animation is incredibly solid from P.A. Works. While some may argue that Angel Beats! was more impressive, keep in mind that Jun Maeda (and likely Key Visual) was supporting Angel Beats! behind the scenes. Here, it's simply P.A. Works all the way, and they've clearly shown through the stunning visuals that they're capable of producing a solid piece of art.
Music? The OP themes were catchy but not great. nano.RIPE has been around for quite some time and a lot of people don't like her for that pitch of her's. While I don't entirely mind, there are definitely some songs she can't sing and that came out in the various ending themes she was involved in for this show. On the other hand, I was disappointed to only hear sphere's "Hazy" ED theme for a few episodes, especially when about a quarter of those were replaced with other ED themes. Clammbon's song (ED2) was also okay at best. Instrumental was good though. Seiyuu wise was pretty solid. Needs more Haruka Tomatsu (Yuina) though; I really loved the dialect switches.
Character? Nako, Minko and Ohana were all pretty solid, but we essentially did not get what we were "promised" where Yuina and Tomoe were meant to be a part of the main line up. In the end, both became mere supporting characters, which I was disappointed in. See my comment above regarding Yuina.
Enjoyment? This show had its high and low points. A number of episodes were solid, but there were also quite the number that felt pointless, but I guess that's "real" slice of life for you. Regardless, great work by P.A. Works.
Overall, and as said many times before now, Hanasaku Iroha is a solid show. It's no ground-breaking show like some of the other titles we've seen this year like Steins;Gate, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Tiger & Bunny, and Ano Hana, but it certainly sits rather high on the list in terms of "original" works. I still recall that at the beginning of the series, I literally ranked this show as one of the best shows last spring. A strong opening episode filled with decent drama and emotions was huge, especially with Ano Hana in the same boat. Of course, as the season went on, Hanasaku Iroha became a distant second to Ano Hana. Nevertheless, the latter half of the show gradually improved and ultimately finished off strongly with a solid 4-5 episodes. 26 episodes was much needed in this show to bring out the "true" slice of life elements in this how and I'm glad they made that choice.
Hopefully we see more works like these (or at least original ones) by P.A. Works in the near future. They've proven that they can do this without big names like Jun Maeda backing them. Did I also forget to mention that this was the CANAAN staff behind this show? Yeah I remember how mediocre CANAAN became but look at this gem now!
Preliminary Score: 8/10
Final Score: 8/10 
