PLOT
Hanasaku Iroha centers around Ohana Matsumae, a 16-year-old teenager living in Tokyo, who is left in the care of her estranged grandmother, following her mother's elopement with her boyfriend. Ohana arrives at her grandmother's country estate to realize she is the owner of a Taishō period hot spring inn called Kissuisō. She begins working at Kissuisō, at her grandmother's request, but finds herself at odds with many employees and customers at the inn. Initially feeling discouraged, she decides to use her circumstances as an opportunity to change herself for the better and to make amends with her deteriorating relationship with the Kissuisō's staff for a more prominent future.
CHARACTERS
松前 緒花
Ohana Matsumae is the main protagonist of the series.
Family : Sui Shijima (Grandmother)
: Satsuki Matsumae (Mother)
: Enishi Shijima (Uncle)
Eye Color : Brown
Hair color : Blonde/Yellow
Height : 160 cm (5'2.5")
Weight : 48 kg
Ohana Matsumae is an energetic, and mostly optimistic, 16 year-old, high school girl. She was sent to live at her grandmother's inn, Kissuisō, in the country-side when her mother suddenly eloped with her boyfriend to avoid debt. At her grandmother's request, she works at the inn as compensation for her residency there. Before moving, she is confessed to by her only best friend, Kōichi Tanemura. Before she could answer to his confession, Kōichi ran off, never meeting each other thereafter. Ohana now feels awkward whenever she thinks about him. She met up with him in the city some time after, but after she realized her feelings, she was given the reply "see ya", which could mean that she may not meet Kōichi anymore, to her disappointment.
She has many ideals, and also a strong sense of justice to support them, which often clash with the ideals of the people working at the inn, especially her own grandmother. She has a great desire to help others, but most of her efforts are not appreciated as she does acts on her own. Later on though, others are able to see how true her heart is. As a result of her mother's poor parenting, she made herself became independent at a young age and grew up with the mentality of relying on herself only. She can do housework by herself and also cook well because of this. Since she started working at Kissuisō, she has realized that she must now rely on others also to get through life's difficulties. She, together with her friends Minko, Nako and Yuina, are in the same high school. Minko and Yuina are in the same class as her, but Nako is in a seperate class.
鶴来 民子
Minko Tsurugi is one of the secondary-main characters of the series.
Minko is a 17-year-old apprentice chef and resident at Kissuisō. She has very cold aura about her, telling Ohana, ever since they met, to "die" every time she is bothered or annoyed by her. Being still an apprentice in cooking, she is scolded from time to time by her superiors, but she ignores it all. Aware of Ohana's growing popularity in the inn, Minko continues to display a cold attitude to her. Minko is good friends with Nako. She goes to the same school as Ohana, Nako and Yuina. She is in the same class as Ohana and Yuina, but Nako is in a different one.
As of episode 4, it is known that Minko has a crush on Tōru. This is because he supported her on becoming a staff at Kissuisō while her parents were against it.
押水 菜子
Nako Oshimizu is one of the secondary-main characters of the series.
Nako is a 17-year old cleaning maid and waitress who works part-time at Kissuisō. She is very shy and timid, which is shown by her actions of avoiding unnecessary social interactions. But she is truly kind, able to see the good in everyone around her. At home she is usually a very reliable older sister, but she shuts this personality when outside her home.
She is an amazing swimmer, having swam ever since she was two. She was even called a Kappa when she was younger because of how well she swam. Although she lacks confidence in most things, she does believe in her swimming abilities.
Later on in the series, Nako finds the courage to be a little more honest with herself and be more social with the staff of Kissuisō. She especially is on good terms with Minko. She, together with Ohana, Minko and Yuina are in the same high school, but in a different classroom.
和倉 結名
Yuina Wakura is one of the secondary-main characters of the series.
Yuina is a 16-year-old teenager who is, similiar to Ohana, the grand-daughter of the Fukuya Inn owners, who are rivals with Kissuisō Inn's. This also means that she is the successor to the Fukuya Inn, again just like Ohana, but has no motivation at all to do any inn work. When Ohana first meets her, Yuina speaks with a Kansai dialect. Even though she actually speaks with the regular dialect, she does this to spice up her life, for she enjoys the excitement and adventure. She goes to the same school, and is in the same class, as Ohana and Minko. Nako is in a different class than the others.
Later on the series, compared to how much she did not want to work in the Hot-Spring Inn industry, she finds the determination to study about it so she can succeed the current madam mistress.
種村 孝一
Kōichi Tanemura is one of the male characters of the series.
He made his debut in the first episode, appearing in episodes thereafter from time to time. A 16 year-old boy who is best friends with Ohana Matsumae, the two went to the same middle school together. He is kind and roundabout with his decisions, as stated by Ohana herself. Because of this, Ohana sees that he is very patient. But when the time came when Ohana had to leave, Kōichi saw that she was still unaware of his own feelings for her. Few days before leaving, Ohana meets with him, where he confesses his feelings for her. Before she could give an answer, he runs off.
After a few months, he once tried to visit Ohana. But because the day he went out was the same day everything was chaotic at the inn, he decided to go home without meeting her. They meet up though when Ohana visits Tokyo, to attempt to bring her mom back with her. Here it is found out that a co-worker of Koichi holds feelings for him, though he rejects her saying that he had someone else in mind. Ohana and Koichi later have dinner together and they go back to their old selves for a while at least. Ohana runs out shortly afterwards.
He still seems to hold feelings for her, despite their distance. However, he seemingly rejects her over the phone by simply saying "See ya", which means there might not be a next time, when Ohana finally realizes her feelings for him. In episode 23, it is confirmed that he had not fully rejected Ohana and still holds feelings for her. His feelings are reinforced when he sees a video with Ohana working hard in it.
四十万 縁
Family : Sui Shijima (Mother)
: Satsuki Matsumae (Sister)
: Ohana Matsumae (Niece)
: Takako Kawajiri (Wife)
Enishi Shijima is one of the male characters of the series.
He is Ohana's 32-year-old uncle. He works at Kissuisō, being the second-in-command because he's the son of Sui, the current Madam Mistress. He attended the same university as Takako and seems to be infatuated by her, shown by his dedication for her. His dedication to the inn is just about the same, as he wants to show that he is not the crybaby he used to be, even though at times he falters. Later, after some events, Enishi and Takako decides to marry.
During his childhood, being a crybaby, he was bullied a lot by Satsuki.
松前 皐月
Satsuki Matsumae is one of the female characters of the series.
Family : Sui Shijima (Mother)
: Enishi Shijima (Brother)
: Ohana Matsumae (Daughter)
Eye Color : Brown
Hair color : Blonde/Yellow
Ohana's 38-year-old mother, Satsuki is a struggling novelist and journalist who soon enough elopes with her boyfriend to evade his debt. She leaves Ohana in the care of her mother, who claims to have disowned her daughter. She neglected Ohana as a child and raised her with the mentality of "relying only on yourself".
After some time though, Satsuki returns to Tokyo, after sperating from her boyfriend. She also takes some responsiblity of Kissuiso by offering unnamed help through the magazine articles and by directly assisting the staff there.
四十万 スイ
Sui Shijima is one of the female characters of the series.
Family : Satsuki Matsumae (Daughter)
: Enishi Shijima (Son)
: Ohana Matsumae (Granddaughter)
Ohana's 68-year-old grandmother, mother of Satsuki and Enishi and the owner of Kissuisō. She has a fierce and strict composure towards her employees and holds no hesitations in physically disciplining them. She also doesn't wish for any radical changes to the inn, such as those suggested by Takako Kawajiri, the inn's business consultant advisor. Her abusiveness leads Ohana to believe she is going senile. But, revealed in episode three, Sui actually had some confidence that Ohana would change the staff of Kissuisō while she is praying at her dead husband's shrine, mentioning with joy that she's just like "her". It is also shown that she does not want to put too much of a burden upon the staff members, showing that she is very responsible at heart.
輪島 巴
Tomoe Wajima is one of the female characters of the series.
Tomoe is the 28-year-old head waitress who works at Kissuisō. She loves to talk about gossip a lot, especially those that are related to the staff. But whenever one of the other staff is in a good and comfortable romantic relationship with another person, Tomoe becomes really enraged and/or uninterested out of jealousy. The reason for this may be because she's the only single out of her circle of friends her age. She is so eager to marry, that she once tried to get herself in trouble to get fired. But all this ends when she finds that Kissuiso is her "home".
助川 電六
Denroku Sukegawa is one of the male chracters of the series.
Denroku is the 73-year-old janitor and maintanence manager who's working at Kissuisō. He has been working at Kissuisō ever since its establishment. He is a very caring man who thinks for the best of the other staff, shown by his extensive kindness towards them. Even when some of the younger staff does something that the Madam Mistress does not like, if the young are trying to do it with good intentions, he will help them out in secret from the Mistress whenever he can. It doesn't mean that he is against the Madam, but that he wishes for the best of Kissuisō and everyone in it.
He's given the nickname "Mame-jii", or "Old-man Beans", by the staff because his name is similiar to that of a famous bean company.
富樫 蓮二
Renji Togashi is one of the male characters in the series.
Renji is the 42 year-old head chef of Kissuisō. He watches over the work of Minko and Tōru, while he takes care of most of the important cooking. Even though he looks more like the type of person who was once part of or was a high member of a gang, represented by the small scar on his left brow and his very manly appearance, he is actually very weak under pressure and other related events. This has been seen throughout the series, especially when he was under the pressure of cooking for more people than the usual.
川尻 崇子
Takako Kawajiri is one of the female characters of the series.
Family : Enishi Shijima (husband)
: Ohana Matsumae (niece-in-law)
: Satsuki Matsumae (sister-in-law)
: Sui Shijima (mother-in-law)
Takako is a 30-year-old business consultant advisor for Kissuisō. She attended the same university as Enishi. Trying to revitalize the inn, she works hard in order to have the staff have the correct manners. Because she only vists once a month, and thinks that the inn is still old-fashioned, her changes to and plans for the inn are sometimes a bit too radical. She also speaks English a lot, as seen in the anime, as she has used many English phrases to express her ideas, such as "time is money" or "nothing venture, nothing win".
After the marriage between Enishi and her, Takako refuses to allow Ohana to call her Oba-san (Auntie), probably because the title can also be translated to "older woman". She finally concedes to the calling of Onee-chan (Big Sister), which may be because it suggests that Takako is young.
次郎丸 太朗
Tarō Jirōmaru is one of the male characters of the series.
A 31 year-old novelist, Tarō frequently lodges at Kissuisō to write his stories, usually in the Wave Room. Though he proclaims that his works are all going to change the world, they are truly erotic stories. And within those stories, Tarō usually uses the Kissuisō's staff as character references. At first, Tarō thought only Ohana knew about this secret, but it is shown later in Episode 3 that Sui Shijima already knew this, yet she let him stay at the inn. In order to pay his debt now, Tarō is working hard to make his novels successful, but in the meantime, he is also working at the inn part-time.
As seen, Tarō has the habit of telling either a lie or an exageration to make his life more interesting, even though when they are found out, he's lesser respected and also punished by some of the staff members. But before he ever started to work at the inn, he was actually a manga artist, where one of his works is unnoticably praised by Minko. Even so, it seemed his skills were not good enough to keep himself successfully serializing, as it had been commented that only few volumes were published.
宮岸 徹
Tōru Miyagishi is a male character in the series.
Tōru is a 23-year-old junior chef who works at Kissuisō, under the superivision of the head chef, Renji Togashi. Though he may have a good-looking face, he is very outspoken and easily frustrated. Even with these qualities though, Tōru is considered to be so talented in the area of cooking that the Fukuya inn had him substitute in for one of their sick chefs, showing how much they trust his abilities. He strictly mentors and supervises Minko's training. It is also known that Minko likes him. On the other hand, it seems he has his eyes on someone else. At first, Ohana was intimidated by him, then disliked him because of his attitude towards her. But their relation comes closer to terms of worker-to-worker. there has been evidence that he is interested in Ohana, but he himself states that it is not to the end of romance.
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