School festival!
Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Hiromu Arakawa
Translation: Amanda Haley
Lettering: Abigail Blackman
What They Say:
Amid the whirlwind of festival preparations, the newest members of the Equestrian Club face their first riding competition. Having always been laser focused on his studies, Hachiken has never been tested in a sporting event before. The dedication that marked his academic career has helped Hachiken survive the trails of agricultural school, but the pressure to come out on top nearly crushed him once already. Can Hachiken claim victory on the racecourse—and over himself?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Volume six is really split into two functional halves, if not perfect halves in terms of page count. The first half is a horse riding competition, and the second half is the preparation and beginning of Ezo Ag’s school festival.
Hachiken is participating in the gymkhana portion of the horse racing competition, an apparent beginner’s course with relatively easy turns and jumps for the horse to make. There’s also the premier of a new character, Mikage’s old friend from childhood, Ayame Minamikujou, who has just gotten into horse riding to be a rival to Mikage. She’s an ojou-san character in demeanor with more traces of heart than the stereotype suggests, and she’s someone who Mikage seemed to used to get along with, but now Minamikujou harbors some resentment toward her (and Hachiken) for getting into Ezo Ag when she did not.
There’s also some development of the burgeoning romantic relationship between Hachiken and Mikage, with Hachiken finally asking her out on a date. Unfortunately, Mikage doesn’t quite pick up on the signals until her friends point it out to her. She’s quite the dense individual, but not for lack of trying really. She’s someone who has a whole bunch of ultimately inconsequential things go through her head as she measures up potential suitors. She sees Hachiken as someone who wouldn’t want to be dealing with her, who’s only future is going to be on her parents’ farm or with horses. But her friends rightly point out that isn’t what relationship is about when you’re young! Mikage is thinking too far in her own future, rather than just grasping at any feelings she has, which she definitely does. It’s good to see them move past a will they-won’t they period, but it’s still very cute how they’re interacting, as well as her weird thought process to eliminate Hachiken from competition, for lack of a better phrase.
Hachiken is also helping seemingly plan every aspect of the school’s festival, constantly bemoaning the lack of sleep he’s getting as a result. He manages to plan out pretty much everything, but ends up collapsing the day of the festival as he’s walking Vice President. It’s just from fatigue, but it’s still quite frightening. Awakawa’s paneling of the fainting is amazing as well. She begins with showing the sky, ground, and fence at an awkward angle, enough that you can’t immediately tell what it is at a glance. Then Vice President starts to walk away, but is unable, Hachiken still holding the leash. It’s only when Vice President looks back, the leash still in Hachiken’s hand, that everything that is assumed is confirmed. I love this sequencing.
This is about where the volume leaves off, and we’re getting far enough into anime material that my memory is getting worse and worse of the particulars of what happened. But I’m glad to be able to revisit this in manga form.
In Summary:
I love Silver Spoon. Arakawa has always done character well, and of course Silver Spoon is no exception. The secondary and tertiary characters sometimes get spotlight, but this one is pretty much fully focused on Hachiken, Mikage, or something affecting their lives. It’s a nice delve into their lives, how they feel about each other, and their immediate circumstance that isn’t necessarily as fully fleshed out volume by volume. It really reminds me why I’m reading and loving this manga so much. It isn’t Tokiwa or Tamako, as much as I love those characters. It’s Hachiken and Mikage.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: December 11, 2018
MSRP: $15.00
