{"id":10642,"date":"2011-04-06T21:41:29","date_gmt":"2011-04-07T02:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/?p=10642"},"modified":"2011-04-08T10:06:32","modified_gmt":"2011-04-08T15:06:32","slug":"first-impressions-hanasaku-iroha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/?p=10642","title":{"rendered":"First Impressions: Hanasaku Iroha"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ve always\u00a0said that Charles Dickens was a brilliant author\u00a0and an atrocious writer. He’s responsible for\u00a0some of the most iconic characters in the history of English literature, but his tendency to go into excruciating detail about unimportant things makes\u00a0his\u00a0stories nearly unreadable. If he hadn’t been paid in a way that encouraged<\/a> this, he would be one of my favorite authors. Hanasaku Iroha<\/em> is not padding its pockets by producing excessive material, but it is reminiscent of Dickens in all the right ways. It feels a lot like a piece of Victorian literature, which is\u00a0not what I expected from the\u00a0studio<\/a> responsible for things like Angel Beats!<\/em> and Canaan<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Just before\u00a0spring break, Ohana is\u00a0shipped off to her grandmother’s inn\u00a0so her mother can run away from debt collectors with her boyfriend. Rather than taking her in as family, her grandmother puts her to work and makes it very clear that she will not be doing her any favors.\u00a0Being accustomed to living with\u00a0someone who is\u00a0so impressively irresponsible,\u00a0she has a bit of trouble adjusting to the\u00a0strict and\u00a0somewhat oppressive culture her grandmother enforces.<\/p>\n

Please,\u00a0sir, I want\u00a0some more after the break.<\/p>\n


\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What I Liked<\/h2>\n

The Art:<\/strong> The inn Ohana is dumped in dates back to the early 20th century, and it\u00a0shows. There are tiny nicks and\u00a0signs of wear all over the woodwork, giving it the atmosphere of a place that is very old but also well maintained.\u00a0The front of the inn<\/a> in particular is just gorgeous with the reflections in the glass. There’s also a\u00a0stark difference between the public areas and the employee areas. Outside<\/a>, you can almost make out the individual leaves on the foliage, which is quite a feat considering this takes place in the country. The equipment at the playground<\/a> where Ohana gives the news\u00a0to Kou even has chipped paint and\u00a0spots of rust. All this attention to detail really pulls you into the\u00a0scenes.<\/p>\n

The Writing:<\/strong> After the painfully\u00a0stupid\u00a0dialogue in\u00a0Fractale<\/em> and the unintentionally hilarious writing in GOSICK<\/em>, I was honestly beginning to wonder why people let Okada Mari<\/a> anywhere near a\u00a0script. After the opening\u00a0scene of Hanasaku Iroha<\/em>, I’m now wondering how much of the first two examples\u00a0she actually wrote. In just under a minute and a half, we’re brought up to\u00a0speed on Ohana’s quirky flair for drama and her wistful longing to be doing anything besides what\u00a0she’s doing right now, her mother’s reckless irresponsibility and the way\u00a0she tries\u00a0to get her boyfriend to take care of her, and the odd\u00a0semi-equal relationship between mother and daughter. In just the first\u00a0scene, we learn more about two characters than we\u00a0often do in an entire\u00a0episode. The rest is just as good, with us being introduced to the other characters primarily in very\u00a0short\u00a0scenes that highlight their personalities and\u00a0situations. But as fast as the\u00a0story moves along, it never forgets to be entertaining. The dialogue is very clever and manages to\u00a0squeeze chuckles out of you simply\u00a0by being witty rather than relying on jokes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

<\/p><\/div>\n

Ohana:<\/strong> It’s easy for me to relate to the sinking feeling of your\u00a0inherent romanticism\u00a0succumbing\u00a0to your developing pragmatism. Ohana is a lot like I was at her age; especially the way\u00a0she\u00a0obliviously makes things worse when\u00a0she’s just trying to do\u00a0something nice for\u00a0someone. Still, the mistakes\u00a0she makes are understandable and it doesn’t feel like\u00a0she’s being\u00a0stupid just for the sake of\u00a0drama. She actually behaves like a\u00a0sixteen-year-old girl. She’s mature in\u00a0some ways and\u00a0still childish in others;\u00a0trying to find the balance between her personal values and\u00a0society’s. \u00a0And\u00a0her character design is just\u00a0adorable.
\n <\/strong>
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What I Hated<\/h2>\n

The Title:<\/strong> ‘Hanasaku Iroha<\/em>‘ more or less translates into ‘The ABC’s of Blooming Flowers.’ The main character’s name is ‘Ohana.’ She has flowers in her hair. The first episode’s title is ’16 Years Old – Spring – Not Yet Budding.’ I think they’re trying to use a flower as a metaphor for a coming-of-age\u00a0story. Pretty\u00a0subtle, huh?<\/p>\n

<\/strong>
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

Overall Impressions<\/h2>\n

I was blown away by the\u00a0smart writing, great character designs and relentlessly gorgeous\u00a0backgrounds.\u00a0A modern reimagining of typical Victorian themes isn’t\u00a0something we\u00a0see often in anime. It’s also nice to\u00a0see a\u00a0show that proves cute characters can fit naturally into\u00a0serious writing. Other than being beaten over the head with obvious metaphors, I have no complaints about this\u00a0show.\u00a0Hanasaku Iroha<\/em> is\u00a0cute,\u00a0smart and, most importantly, entertaining. A really good character-driven\u00a0story of adolescence doesn’t come along often. If it maintains this level of quality for the rest of the\u00a0series, it’ll easily rise to the top of its genre.
\n <\/strong>
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

Rating<\/h2>\n
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<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve always\u00a0said that Charles Dickens was a brilliant author\u00a0and an atrocious writer. He’s responsible for\u00a0some of the most iconic characters in the history of English literature, but his tendency to go into excruciating detail about unimportant things makes\u00a0his\u00a0stories nearly unreadable. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066,31,3,1661],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2011-spring-season","category-anime","category-reviews","category-showreview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10642\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}