"Hanasaku Iroha:" City Girl Gets MUCH More than She Bargained For

This screencap hurts. Trust me.

If you went into this anime with no knowledge about this anime, and what the main thrust of the plot was, you would think it was about a plucky teenage girl with a nice personality living her life in the city. That's only a part of the deal. This is a "city gal comes to the country" story, but this story is not just a silly comedy.

Matsumae is a girl with an eccentric Mom. One day her Mom just decides to skip out on her house and leave with her boyfriend. Oh, and she also doesn't want to take Matsumae with her; great parenting. Even though they have a severely estranged relationship with one another, Matsumae's Mom sends her to live with her Mom, the grandmother Matsumae has never met. It gets worse from there.

Matsumae's arrival at her Grandmother's inn doesn't go well. At one point, she's told to "die." What a welcome! Then, at the climax of the first episode, we get the screencap you've already seen. This is a slice of life anime, but what I like about it is that this is not a happy, dull tale. Hanasaku Iroha looks to be more engaging than other anime of its ilk. I don't mind seeing the struggle of a fish out of water. One can only hope that it does not become predictable.