Hanasaku Iroha Ep 24: Final Boss

Thanks to Satsuki’s review getting the front page of a magazine and giving it a high rating, Enshi and the others find themselves overflowed with reservations for and after the Bonbori Festival, however Madame Manager declares that despite the newfound hope, she will be closing the inn down.
Frustrated with her choice, he ignores her orders and continues to file in reservations and organize the employees to rebel in order to try and persuade her to allow them to keep the place running. In the mean time, Ohana finds herself learning a bit more about her grandmother’s guilt as a mother and reasons why she wants to close Kissuio for good.

Impression:
This episode was both filled with joy and laughter- and then there was the tensions.
I think the biggest part of all is that Sui and Ohana really got some bonding time, and for the first time, Sui dismissed her title and acted like a grandmother towards Ohana, but sharing how it was selfish of her to entrust her wishes onto her children and forcing everyone to tag along. Moreover, the best part was that Ohana made Sui laugh even though it wasn’t intentional.
To see Enshi step it up is a real plus. His character has developed so much that I’m impressed to see him finally standing up for what he really wants to believe in. While Sui has the mindset of wanting to free her employees, Enshi loves Kissuio and has the passion to want to keep it running, which is why he is defying her orders of declining the reservations for after the Bonbori festival.
The same thing goes to Nako as she displayed a new side of her to her friends: Her angry side. It was so much fun to see her so pumped up and then the minute Sui walked in she was like, “OH SHIT!” before trying again.
Even more so, it turned out that Tarou had written a manga that both Tohru and Minko are huge fans of and considered their inspiration. I also liked having seen Tohru’s and Minko’s bonding moment as well since they managed to find something they have in common besides the passion for cooking.
Ohana is really trying to understand her grandmother, but little did she realize that the gang is rebelling against Sui’s orders and following Enshi’s. I’m not sure what this means for Ohana to have volunteered to go and help out in the Bonbori festival and not stick with the group. It looks to me as the episode has ended that she will be treated as a ‘traitor’ or an ‘outsider’ because she is not within their group of dedication to keep the place running.
I do hope to see more discussion between Ohana and Sui for the sake of Kissuio. Ohana, despite having agreed with her grandmother that she will fest it up until the festival is over, there is still room for the discussion of what she would do afterwards.
Overall this was such a great episode. It really makes all the character development that has been done and continues to be in process shine more than ever. It’s that moment when you can sit back and be proud of these fictional characters. I’m looking forward to more development with Sui and the group coming around to persuade her to not shut Kissuio down. 🙂