Onsen Yousei Hakone-chan Episode 2: Hakone and the Secret Box

Another day, another short. Y’know I said I wouldn’t mind covering a short but this is pretty hard to talk about as only so much can happen in three minutes. This episode had an interesting title, but Hakone didn’t even pull out her secret box until the very end.

So the story this week was the three of them going over to Haruna’s house, which is one of many hot spring hotels in the area. Because again this place is full of hot springs. I wonder how competitive each hot spring hotel is against each other as there are so many. Which one does a tourist pick when there are so many to choose from? What’s the difference? The water? It’s all the same water. The ammenities I assume. The food? Probably. But both Tohya and Haruna’s places make the same steamed buns so maybe that isn’t it. I don’t know, I’m thinking too much about a small detail.

Anyway, we meet Haruna’s little sister, Aki. She’s a middle schooler, 14 years old, uh huh. So then the girls decide that they’re going to take a bath because why not. So they do, and just like any anime ever where the girls take baths together, they talk about their boobs. Okay, I just want to say something. WHO THE FUCK CARES? I’ve seen this type of scene in anime all the time and honestly I just put my hands on my face and ask myself why this is a thing. This wasn’t a fanservice scene, they weren’t groping each other or anything (thank you), but this boob size thing…do women in Japan really talk about this nonchalantly naked? I know public bathing is a thing in Japan, something which I think is totally weird but one country’s weird is another country’s normal so do as you will. But I just want to know if this is all they talk about. They compare their boob sizes all the time? That’s it? “Haha my titties are bigger!” “Haha you’re flat, haha.” Like…mind your own damn business? Are boob size really the pinnacle of everything? I mean I guess with how the media plays it I guess it is, but…ah, nevermind. I don’t want to make a self-esteem post with this show.

I’m sorry I’m not even talking about the episode anymore, but this is something I really wanted to say. I guess if it were me and someone were pointing at my boobs in the bath I’d fight them. Hands to yourself….hands to yourself. BUT THAT’S JUST ME.

Anyway during the bath, Hakone vomits up some special rejuvenating water but since she barely has any power she gets drained easily. Then Haruna has this thing where you’re supposed to bath yourself a certain way and almost kills Hakone in the process. They leave the bath and Tohya fans Hakone while Haruna brings the steamed buns she wanted. Haruna mentions to Tohya about the water she made and that’s when Toyha really believed she was the hot spring goddess. Hurt by this, she proves him again by taking out a box from her sleeve. She opens it and a mist comes out which makes Haruna get all over Tohya and say she loves him. The power of the mist brings people together apparently, but since Hakone’s power has seriously weakened the effects don’t last very long, which leaves an embarrassed Haruna.

Tohya asks Hakone how she’s going to get her powers back……………and she has no clue. Perfect.

This is a hot spring town so of course we were going to be treated to a hot spring bath, and I’m sure we’re going to be seeing more. Obviously I ran out of things to talk about and instead went on tangents and I’m so sorry for that, but I don’t like leaving these posts too short. I like to talk about things I think about. So…this episode was okay. Nothing major happened, just a hot spring bath. We met Aki who doesn’t have much of a personality right now but we’ll probably see more of her later. Hopefully by next episode Hakone will figure something out to get her powers back.