This was definitely not what I was expecting. I was hoping that Hanasaku Iroha would maintain its good pace of drama from the past two episodes with Ohana, Minko and Nako continuing to fight, but instead we get a fanservice episode with Ohana tied up in ropes, all three girls making out in the novelist’s book, and Nako going swimming with her clothes on. I don’t really think that this is what this show needed…

It kind of felt that everyone was acting out of character too, especially Ohana. I feel like she should be a bit more… concerned… when someone kidnaps her and ties her up. And perhaps the rest of the inn should take it a bit more seriously. It’s kind of hard to believe that the grandmother planned all that out. Also, I wished that they would have waited a while longer to reveal that the grandmother doesn’t actually hate her granddaughter. It kind of removes a lot of the tension.

We also appear to have the novelist becoming a permanent character. Can’t really say I’m looking forward to seeing him every week. Overall, this episode just didn’t seem to fit in well with what the creators had been building up to so far.