Hanasaku Iroha - Episode 15

*facepalm*

Episode Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (4/5)

Back to watching some Hanasaku Iroha for me. I liked how this episode gave Yuina quite a been of screentime as well as character development. It's good to see that, even though she is depicted as an ojou-sama-type character, her personality is not annoying like many of the spoiled, rich girls in other anime. Aside from the story, the fanservice included was really unexpected, but most likely put in there to please the viewers who were looking for it. As the "field trip arc" (or whatever you want to call it) ends, it's back to the adventures in Yunosagi for Ohana and co. Hope to see more or less of the same amount of drama in the coming episodes.

With the part-time employees now gone, Fukuyou Inn is in a difficult situation. But Ohana, being the hardworking person that she is, offers to help. However, the staff politely decline her offer, wanting her to enjoy her field trip. As for the day's schedule, it consisted of free time shopping until four. Ironically, the Ohana, Nako, Minko and Yuina end up bumping into the four ex-employees of Fukuyou. The ladies then start trash talking the inn, causing Ohana to take action and start yelling at them. Surprised, the one doing the most trash talking drops her ice cream on the brand new shoes of the other, creating enough of a distraction for Minko to pull Ohana out of a potentially dangerous situation. Once they are safe in the washroom, Ohana makes up her mind to go help out Fukuyou for the remainder of the day, resulting in Minko treating the viewers with a lovely facepalm. When Ohana finally makes her way back to Fukuyou, she offers her help again and, this time, her help is accepted. While Ohana tries her best to help out with the inn, Yuina is enjoying her free time, with some of it going into rejecting the two guys that try to ask her out. Back at Fukuyou, Ohana starts to have trouble working all by herself when, suddenly, Nako and Minchi come at the right time to help her out, right before she was about to drop a stack of food trays. With three extra volunteers, along with the original staff, now helping out, everything will go well, right? Nope. At the wrong time, the machine that transfers the serving carts between floor breaks down, making it impossible to set up all the tables in time. Luckily, Ohana has an idea and suggests having the guests go to the baths before dinner, leaving one hour of extra time to set up the tables.

When the students finally begin to file into the hotel at the end of day, the pressure starts piling on for Ohana and co. While the others prepare for the bath, Yuina goes to visit Yousuke, who is currently cleaning the bath. The conversation starts off awkward and then gets worse as Yousuke starts praising Ohana for her hard work, making Yuina quite jealous. And to prove that she, too, can work hard if she tries, Yuina takes the nearby brush, sprays some soap on the floor and starts scrubbing like mad. When it five minutes to six, Ohana came by to check up on the bath and report the status of the table setting. It turns out that some classmates also decided to help. And when these classmates saw the clean bath and Yuina with the brush, they praised her for her work; the first time that Yuina has ever experienced this. When all was said and done, everything fell into place and dinner was able to be served. But what happened after dinner was what shocked me...

For the past 14 episodes, the amount of fanservice was minimal. But all of a sudden, approximately two full minutes of onsen fanservice took me by surprise. On top of that, there were no censors whatsoever, making Hanasaku Iroha seem like a pure ecchi show to those who happen to see this while walking by someone watching it. As for the story, the girls just talk, with Ohana and Minko wrestling each other the highlight of the fanservice. Before leaving, Yuina gives Yousuke some hope by hinting that she may consider working as a landlady in the future. As Yuina gives a short monologue, Kissui Inn's three student workers return with their souvenirs. The episode ends with Yuina looking up at the roof of Fukuya where the gray heron that showed up many times before, takes flight into the horizon. For the next episode preview, I honestly have no idea what it's going to be about.