What They Say
“Hachiken Meets Pork Bowl”
Hachiken is assigned to raise a litter of piglets for a practicum. He sees himself in a tiny piglet that has come last in the litter’s race for survival of the fittest. Despite learning that the piglet’s destined to become pork, he ends up giving the piglet a name.
Content: (please note that the content portion of a review may contain spoilers)
This episode starts off adorably as Hachiken and the others get a start on their practicum with pigs before Golden Week break begins. Not just the girls, but even all the boys squeal over how adorable the piglets are. Hachiken gets particularly attached to the runt in the litter, who not only got the worst feeding spot on mom, but won’t move on to a better spot when the chance comes up. Hachiken empathizes, having lost out on his own chance to go to a good high school, and sticking with his own losing lot.
Aki starts to cheer him up when she invites him out, supposedly for a date, but not only is it to a draft horse race, but Ichiro, her childhood friend and Hachiken’s group member, was invited, too. While initially bored with the idea of such a slow race, Hachiken becomes suddenly excited, and it’s almost funny how intense and serious the show makes this race out to be. There’s a bit of a downer after, when Ichiro explains that losing horses are generally turned into meat, just like any farm animal that can’t perform it’s task anymore, and Hachiken becomes angry that effort is not rewarded — again, referring to his own failed effort. Ichiro and Hachiken almost get into a fist fight then, since Hachiken’s still annoyed at how easy of a path the kids with farming families seem to have and Ichiro looks down on him for only coming to the school because he lost.
Things calm down when Aki’s uncle invites them to see the horses and take a tour of a veterinary clinic. There are a few slapstick moments, like when Hachiken thinks the clinic looks more like a torture chamber with all the vet’s tools, but it mostly takes on a serious tone. Again, Hachiken gets the hint that things are harder for his classmates than he’s believed up to now, learning indirectly that Ichiro’s mother is ill and the family isn’t doing well financially, and also discovering that softhearted Aikawa may have obstacles in his dream of becoming a vet, since vets are expected to have the stomach to kill animals as well as save them. He also begins to see that, even if effort isn’t rewarded, in many farming families the animals are treated with deep respect. The episode ends on another goofy note, as the girls chastise Hachiken for even entertaining the thought of naming the runt piglet (a nice slapstick moment that also makes it clear that Hachiken still has a lot to figure out) but it doesn’t take away from the little bit of growth that we see.
In Summary
Like previous episodes, this one had Hachiken learning about the rural life he’s gotten himself into, but now we also see him really start to empathize with it, relating himself to the piglet, who lost the first competition but is willing staying where he is, and even with the draft horses, who can try as hard as they might and still wind up horse meat. As Hachiken grows and starts to see some meaning in his new existence, we’re also getting a deeper look at the other characters and seeing that for all that their goals are clear cut, they have just as many problems getting by as Hachiken. Our understanding of Hachiken’s reasons for coming to Oezo still has a few wholes in it — a text message from what seems to be a parent goes unanswered, and the teacher who suggested the school to Hachiken still has an interest in his welfare, implying that he sent Hachiken to this specific school on purpose. I’m anxious to get the full story on Hachiken’s background, but it’s nice to know that there are still some things left to unravel that may impact the story from outside the school.
Grade: A-
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 13″ Apple Macbook set to 720p
