(26 episodes)
What’s it about ?
Slice of life in a country hot springs inn. Don’t expect any fanservice, though.
Characters
Ohana, our main character. A high school girl who gets dumped by her mother and goes to live with her grandmother… with the provision that she has to work and earn her keep. Ohana is of course completely clueless about this new environment, which leads her to make tons of blunders. Her personality doesn’t help : she tends to run her mouth and be a bit too earnest while meddling with others’ life.
Satsuki, her mother. She barely gets four minutes of screentime, and she’s already a leading competitor for the Gendo Ikari Parent Of The Year award. Not only is she a slob who had Ohana do everything around the house, but when faced with debt she runs away with her boyfriend, abandoning her own daughter (despite the fact that Iroha’s the kind of girl who’d have run away with them in a heartbeat). No wonder then that she’s the black sheep of the family, and it explain why Ohana gets no breaks whatsoever.
The grandmother herself is a complete hardass, running the inn with an iron fist in an iron glove. The kind who slaps employees backstage for having inconvenienced customers.
Minko, Ohana’s new roommate. Hardworking, a girl of few words… and she absolutely hates Ohana’s guts, as the newcomer is unwittingly making her life hell through her careless meddling, on at least three separate instances. (Also, I’m curious on how Minko gets to live there too. Hmmm…)
There’s quite a lot of other staff to keep the inn running ; the maids also include Tomoe, the sempai who thrives on gossip, and Nako, who’s so shy she can barely string two words along. (There’s a fifth one who’s nondescript so far.) Plus the cooks, etc.
Back in Tokyo, Ohana had a Nice Guy called Kou around ; he doesn’t take her departure very well. (But then, Ohana has trouble understanding stuff when you’re not as direct as her ; she never noticed he liked her…)
Production Values
Very nice realistic style (no out-of-place fanservice here !). Lots of detail and subtle body language.
Overall Impression
A very strong first episode, neatly introducing the plot and most of the main characters. This will obviously be a story of Ohana growing up through the power of Hard Work ™, and I’m not entirely sure there’s 26 episodes of material in this, but so far it’s caught my attention. Ohana is an interesting protagonist despite her brattiness, and all those characters feel like real people.
Definitely a show I’ll be watching.
