The Hana-Saku Iroha series was a personal favorite back in 2011, so any anime expansion of its franchise is a welcome one. This 86 minute movie, subtitled Home Sweet Home, is neither a summative movie nor a stand-alone production; while newcomers to the franchise can probably at least basically follow the story and characterizations, much of the depth and finer points of the character interactions will be lost. Neither is this the continuation that some have been hoping for. It is, instead, a side story aimed entirely at established fans, one which falls at some point after Yuina decides to get more serious about pursuing a career in inn operation (i.e., episode 15) but before Enishi and Takako declare their engagement (i.e., episode 21); sometime between episodes 20 and 21 seems most likely.

Just because it is a side story, though, does not mean that it is frivolous. To be sure, a fair amount of the content it depicts just more everyday scenes of inn operation procedures or various characters letting their personalities show in sometime-comical, sometimes-touching ways. (Tomoe's behavior is particularly amusing.) Just as normal for the TV series, little crises regularly come up, such as Nako's near-implosion when some trouble with one of her siblings causes the stress to get to her, when the power fails to come back on as planned, or when Minko agonizes over how to interpret the messages Tohru is sending by his disapproval of her cooking. (Though he can be as irritatingly blunt as ever, his responses are still loaded with meaning if interpreted right, something that the franchise has always done an excellent job of depicting.) All of these are done just as well as they were in the series, and the cast members involved are just as charming and richly-portrayed; Ohana in particular continues to be a delight, once again showing how a character can step far beyond base moe trappings in her appeal. In other words, anyone enchanted with the TV series will probably find little to be disappointed about in this content.

The real draw of the movie, though, is in its flashbacks focusing on Satsuki, which take up perhaps a quarter of the running time. The series did a good job of laying out who Satsuki was, what her relationship was with mother Sui, and why, but the flashbacks here flesh her out considerably more and complete the picture that was merely framed in the series. It shows, in abundant clarity, how Satsuki's personality and temperament were just too much of a misfit for an institution like Kissuiso, and how ironic it was that her daughter ended up taking the completely opposite path to discovering who she was, what she wanted, and how to “sparkle.” Especially telling is a late scene where Satsuki returns to Kissuiso while Ohana is still an infant and meets Bean, but she only looks in on her mother and comes to a new level of determination after seeing her in action. It and the way Ohana reflects on it and comes to a new level of understanding about her mother are the moments which round out what had, until that point, merely been a pretty good story, and it also provides for one of the movie's best scenes: the final one, which juxtaposes Satsuki running for vastly different reasons at three very different ages and then transposes Ohana into the mix, too.

As with the series, P.A. Works again provides the animation production while Studio Easter provides the background art, creating a movie that is every bit up to the high standards set by the TV series but not significantly beyond it. Background visuals are outstanding in detail, while character designs make all of the casts distinctive and interesting-looking. Every once in a while the character rendering falters just a little, it is never a consistent problem, and the animation allows for an effective display of character emotions and mostly smooth movements. Like the series, it does innocuously slip in some mild fan service in some bath scenes, but it never has the lurid feel typical of fan service-focused shows. The musical score is also stylistically in line with the series – typically understated, more there to gently support than to dramatically lead – with a mix of themes recycled from the series and some new ones.

As a release of NIS America, it naturally comes without an English dub. On-disk Extras are limited to Japanese trailers for the movie, but like all deluxe NISA releases, it comes in a long art box with a long, hard-backed booklet. In this case it provides a running scene-by-scene commentary by director Masahiro Ando as it features various concept art, background art, and side comments from other production personnel and voice actors. Ando's comments are very insightful and point out several hidden details and references that even astute fans of the franchise may miss; you will want to go back and rewatch the movie to try to catch everything after having read it. The book closes out with a two-page spread featuring the entire cast. Blu-Ray quality is merely fair on both the visual and audio front; in the latter case only an LPCM Stereo 48k mix is used, which does not make for an especially rich sound.

At 66 minutes the running time of the movie feels about exactly right for the story that it wants to tell. Despite the production values remaining at television standards, this is not just an expendable extended episode, as so many series-connected side-story movies are. It is a fully-realized whole designed to serve as a complement to the original work, and it does that job very well.