Hanayamata

Episode 11

To date Hana is the only one of the five girls in the Yosakoi Club who has never had her own individual crisis, as her role as the founder and core of the group obviated any storytelling need for her to go through one to get involved. As episode 11 reveals, though, the creators were not actually giving her a pass; they were just saving her story for the inevitable penultimate crisis.

That the series might finally make Hana the one with the crisis was strongly suggested by episode 10, as details like Hana's parents being divorced (but both still alive!) rarely get innocently tossed out in slice-of-life series like this one. Given that her mother lived overseas and was shown appearing at the airport at the end of episode 10, and given common narrative trends in similar anime over the years, the story could only be going in one reasonable direction: Hana would be leaving the girls unexpectedly, and probably on short notice, to return to America. Complicating matters further is that Hana reveals that this is not a situation where she is being forced to go along with the wishes of her parents; not only are they getting back together but Hana's mother is also going to be around more than she was when Hana was a little kid, the combination of which is something that Hana is implied to want every bit as badly as performing yosakoi. It's an impossible situation for her, as getting the family situation she wants requires her to give up on what she has been most passionate about for the past few months. Faced with such a painful dilemma, she does what any anime character would do in a like situation: she chickens out, does not tell her very supportive group of friends about it except for Naru, and leaves only a letter behind as a good-bye as she goes to the airport. Naturally this obligates the friends to go chase her down at the airport, but in a surprising move that don't try to stop her, instead only using it as a proper good-bye, and then have to face up to continuing without her, while Hana is left to wonder on the plane if she is really doing the right thing.

The actions of the girls make sense, as most of them have clear-cut reasons to deeply respect and appreciate the importance of family in one's life, but otherwise the situation feels more than a little forced. It is aggravated because Hana's bold personality uncharacteristically fails her here; one has to think that if she just made a plea to her parents to remain in Japan long enough to at least complete the Yosakoi Festival performance, her parents would be quite understanding. Since all of the other little dramas had been settled, though, the storytelling had few other reasonable options left to create a final conflict, so it had to push matters. It's an inelegant way to handle things from a production that has otherwise generally been quite elegant. The other aspects of the episode are quite good, as we get to see the final products of their costumes and the preparations of the umbrellas for what will undoubtedly be a lavish display in the final episode, the warmth and sentiment that the group radiates is plain to see, and Naru even gets some touching role reversal with Hana. We even get a little humor, too, as we once again are reminded that Sally basically has the bald yosakoi guy wrapped around her little finger.

So yeah, the gimmick is trite, but at this point the core cast is adorable enough that the triteness doesn't matter much. All that's left is for Hana to somehow return just in time for the festival and an emotional reunion to properly round out the story, but we will have to wait for next episode on that.

Rating: B+

Hanayamata is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.