Dhruv Sharma
‘Hanasaku Iroha- Blossoms for Tomorrow’ is an original anime by P.A Works that seems to be a straight forward teenage melodrama. But it actually follows a deeper story that revolves around the role of family and also one’s personal growth towards achieving freedom through self-dependence. It’s these deeper stories that are actually more interesting than the main story and these underlying messages make the anime what it is. With so many slice-of-life anime coming out these days, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd of terrible shows that lack depth. But ‘Hanasaku Iroha’ is unlike any of these subpar shows and brings in something that is not too complicated for an ordinary viewer to understand and at the same time, is also extremely heartwarming and enjoyable.
Like all shows, ‘Hanasaku Iroha’ has its own imperfections and flaws but one thing that truly makes up for all of these is its impressive animation. The character designs are just perfect and do not appear to be distorted even for a second throughout its runtime. The backgrounds also have a lot of detailing and the visuals look quite realistic.
Another notable aspect of the anime is its background scores, or rather, the lack of it. The show maintains its sense of realism in this department as well and focuses more on real-life sound effects instead of adding fancy background scores. Overall, ‘Hanasaku Iroha’ could’ve easily been one of the best slice-of-life anime ever made if it wasn’t for its evident defects. But even then, it is a great show and can be enjoyed by anyone who wants to watch something that hits you right in the “feels”. And especially if, like me, you’re too cautious about watching slice-of-life shows because of all the crap that is coming out these days, this one might just be a game changer for you.
Hanasaku Iroha Season 2 Release Date: When will it premiere?
‘Hanasaku Iroha’ Season 1 premiered on April 3, 2011 and ran till September 25, 2011. During this span, it released a total of 26 episodes. After this, on May 9, 2013, a side-story movie adaptation of it was released. The anime was widely appreciated by many viewers for its art and unique coming of age concepts and every once in a while, there would also be rumors regarding its renewal on various forums. But no official confirmations regarding this were ever made.
Even though it has been quite some time since the release of its season 1, the anime was quite popular back in the day and even now, a season 2 could be a possibility. Also, ‘Hanasaku Iroha’ is an anime original and its continuation does not depend on a manga. Though originals usually receive sequels soon after a particular season is over, we can still be hopeful about this one. If things fall in place ‘Hanasaku Iroha’ season 2 release date could be sometime in 2021. For now, we can just keep our fingers crossed and hope that it will happen. If it does not, then you can always refer to our list of slice-of-life shows that includes anime that may even be better than this one.
Hanasaku Iroha English Dub:
You can watch ‘Hanasaku Iroha’ Season 1 on Crunchyroll with its original Japanese audio and English subtitles. You can also stream it in English on Amazon Prime.
Hanasaku Iroha Plot:
Ohana Matsumae is an energetic teenage girl who lives a carefree life in Tokyo with her laid-back single mother. One day, her mother suddenly decides to run away with her new boyfriend, leaving behind Ohana to live all by herself. Her mother would always preach about being self-dependent and relying on herself. But her sudden departure leaves Ohana all shocked. In the beginning, she gets all confused about what she should do next; but later she decides to move to the countryside where her cold grandmother runs an Inn. She starts working here as a maid and soon begins to adapt to her new rural environment. Along with this, she also struggles to make new friends at her school and must learn to keep moving forward despite all the odds being against her.
Hanasaku Iroha Characters:
Ohana Matsumae
Ohana Matsumae is the main protagonist of the show, who is an energetic optimistic teenage girl. After her mother runs away with her boyfriend, Ohana is forced to work as a maid at the Kissuiso Inn that is owned by her Grandmother. As suggested by her Grandmother, she works at the Inn as a compensation for a residency there. Her best friend Kouichi confesses his feelings for her but before she gets the time to reply to this, she moves out of the city to the rural countryside. She later feels really awkward when she thinks about him and the last moments that she got to spend with him.
Ohana has a strong set of morals that she has lived by all her life. But these morals often clash with others who work at her grandmother’s Inn. She loves helping others out but these acts often go unnoticed because she never tends to acknowledge them. Because of her ignored upbringing, she has always learnt to be independent and does not rely on anyone else. She does all of her housework by herself and even cooks her own meals. Along with this, she also balances out her social life with her friends and manages to do fairly well at school as well.
Nako Oshimizu
Like Ohana, Nako is also a maid and cleaning lady at the Kissuiso Inn. She is a 17-year-old shy timid girl who avoids having any kind of social interactions. But despite her introversion, she is really kind to everyone around her and overlooks the bad side of most people around her. When she’s at home, she plays the role of a very responsible elder sister but this role is only confined to the boundaries of her house when she is with her sister. She is also known to be a great swimmer ever since she was a child and though she isn’t too confident about herself, she truly believes in her swimming abilities. After working at the Kissuiso Inn for a long time, Nako starts to believe in herself and becomes more confident about how she is. She even makes a few good friends and becomes more sociable.
Minko Tsurugi
Minko Tsurugi is another secondary-main character of the anime who is a 16-year-old apprentice chef and resident at the Kissuiso Inn. She has a very cold personality and every time Ohana bothers her, she asks her to die. When it comes to cooking, she is often schooled by the elders who work at the Inn but she has too big of an ego to take constructive criticism and often ignores it. She gets jealous of Ohana’s growing popularity at the Inn and maintains a cold attitude towards her throughout.
At school, she is considered to be a really attractive girl and often gets confessions from many boys who want to date her. But she turns down all of them. Despite being so cold towards pretty much everything, there are these rare moments when she is actually pretty considerate towards others. She works really hard at the Inn but becomes passive when someone tries to scold her for her mistakes.
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