Ohana Matsumae lives together with her single mum. Just when she was getting tired of the crowded city life, she learns her mother's latest boyfriend had given their address to a debt collector so they must leave town immediately. Only Ohana will be moving to the countryside to live with her estranged grandmother at an inn.

Her new life doesn't turn out quite as dreamy as she thought it would be. Not only does she get off the wrong foot with one of the resident staff (and get cursed to "die"), her good intentions turn into blunders as she is required to earn her keep at the inn. Her outspoken, tactless nature leads her into trouble more often than not. It seems there was a lot of tough times ahead but the thick-skinned her wasn't one to give in so easily. Determined to get along with everyone and settle down somehow, Ohana's new life begins at Kissui Inn.

Decided to watch this because I came across it while watching Nano Ripe's music videos on YT and saw a comment about it.

An original show by PA Works and first entry in their "working life series". It gets off to a cute start with an equally silly reason why Ohana has to move out. It feels like the kind of setup you'd get from one of PA Works' coming-of-age shows centred mainly around a group of girls. The cheery, easy-going Ohana who is used to speaking her mind (mostly with good intentions) soon learns there are times when she has to be able to read the mood.

The comedy's a lot heavier than their newer working series entry, Aquatope. The odd cast of characters always creates some kind of strange clash including a guest erotica novelist, survival paintball game nerds and Ohana's all business (mostly) co-worker Minko who is constantly bristling with anger. Not quite your trope set of characters although they do remind me of Shirobako's characters in a way but with a more traditional side to the show.

It's got its share of serious moments such as reflecting on own goals as with the other shows and some relatable moments. Everyone struggling, banding together to overcome hardship as with the familiar "you're not alone" theme in Japanese stories, each character growing through their hardships. A few wholesome episodes despite mostly comedy such as episode 9 where it gets a bit serious for a moment with some melodrama. I think it reaches a good half way point with its story.

It's an inn which means naturally there will be hot spring scenes but not in the usual fan service teasing sort of way or strange camera angles. There are plenty of fun expressions. Interestingly enough, Kishida Mel did the character designs who is best known for the Atelier series of games and maybe the newer Blue Reflection game series too.

Scenes lighting by Studio Easter makes them pretty to look at despite the lack of detail. Nano Ripe gets a whole bunch of their songs used in this show (the vocalist Kimiko even got a role in one of the episode 22).

There's a movie set some somewhere in-between the show that gives you a glimpse into Ohana mother's younger days

Apparently this show was so popular, the town of Yuwaku decided to make the fictional Bonbori Festival an official one. It's a fun happy show overall. Welp, don't be a hobiron. Bonboru instead.

Movie, Home Sweet Home (2013)

There's an hour long movie "Home Sweet Home" which takes place probably close to the end of the show between episode 22 and 23 as Takako is helping run the inn too at this point. There's a scene in the movie which briefly shows a log entry being written for September and episode 25 of the show had October on the inn's office calendar.

Anyway...

Yuina is getting trained as an innkeeper for the weekend at Kissui Inn but ends up creating chaos. While cleaning up her mess in the storage room, Ohana uncovers Beanman's log book with some entries about her mother, Satsuki and her younger days as a high school girl when she met Ohana's dad a photographer.

Was going to skip this because from the outlines I read it was all about Satsuki but there's actually just a few scenes of her. It's still mostly features the staff of Kissui Inn. The inn is hit with yet another problem as they're left without power and, we see a bit more of Nako's life along with Ren too.

Fun watch.