Hanasaku Iroha has to be the most disappointing anime of the Summer season. I’m not comparing it to the numerous crappy shows that I avoided entirely or sampled and quickly dropped. I mean that of the shows that I thought were good enough to watch and stuck with to the bitter end, this one most failed to live up to its early promise.

The thing that struck me initially was that the show started with a conventional premise and added a certain goofy offbeat sensibility. Unfortunately as the season progressed the offbeat sensibility faded away, leaving only a bland slice-of-life comedy. For this sort of thing to work you need some really captivating characters and these didn’t make the grade.

Visually this was a very attractive show. It’s too bad the writing wasn’t up to snuff.