What They Say:
“Over and Over Again”
Content: (please note that the content portion of a review may contain spoilers)
As Hachiken heads home to get his brother’s old study guides, he runs into some old classmates. At first uncomfortable in saying hello to him since he was such a downer in middle school, they wind up impressed with his stocky build, his raising of a pig and the fact that the classmate he’s tutoring is a girl. While Hachiken leaves happy that he had a normal conversation, his old friends are struck by the fact that he’s very different from what he used to be.
Arriving at his house, he almost gets out — when his dad comes home at the last possible second. He gets stuck for lunch, and inevitably the topic of his tutoring Aki comes up. Dismissing the good Hachiken is doing, his father points out that he’s only helping her to make himself feel better about his own failure to study and get into the right school. Instead of just taking his father’s abuse like the last time, Hachiken finally blows up at him, saying his father treats his sons no better than livestock, who get sent to the slaughterhouse once they can’t be useful. This is both an insight into how callous his father can be, and also why Hachiken always took it so personally when his friends spoke of slaughtering animals this way. But, the farmers he’s met also care for the animals, and try to save them when they can — which means, his father actually treats him worse than an old cow.
Back at school, he begins to worry with his classmates that he really is helping Aki out to make himself feel better, and Tamako gives him some good advice, to not make his failure Aki’s problem. This brings Hachiken back to his problem jumping at the beginning of the season, when he couldn’t get over his own issues and made it worse for the horse. Like his conversation with his father, this proves how working with these animals has changed his perspective and helped him to better relate to the world.
Hachiken gets a big surprise at the end, when his mom shows up at school. After his outburst, and the fact that he complimented her cooking and cleaned up after himself before storming out, made her realize, like his classmates, that Hachiken has changed, and that she doesn’t understand anything about the school his chose. As she eats the food, raving over it like Hachiken did when he first showed up, and sees him interact with classmates who really care, she begins to understand how important and good this place is for him, even if her husband still refuses to see it.
In Summary
In this final episode of the season, some points that were brought up throughout — dreams, failure, and growth — really hit big. Hachiken’s friends, and his mother, see the changes that have been displayed to us in increments as one big shift forward in his personality and outlook, proving that although things have been hard physically, mentally, and emotionally, that it’s all contributed towards Hachiken growing as a person. Dreams and failure are intertwined as Hachiken once again confronts his failure, and Komaba’s failure, to achieve the things they had wanted. But, even though it’s crushing, and you may lose out on a dream, or a person’s faith, that doesn’t mean you’re out forever, and you can always go for something else.
The entire season was rather bittersweet, mixing things like the loss of Komaba’s dream with Aki’s first, bold steps finally working towards her own wishes. Just like season Hachiken still doesn’t have a goal. He doesn’t know what to do with himself, or where he wants to be. But, he knows that right now, he’s happy with his friends and what he does, and even though it’s not as lofty as what his friends have — or what his father expects of him — at the moment, it’s enough.
Grade: A
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 13″ Apple Macbook set to 720p
Just finished watching Season 2, and for no particular reason started checking for reviews when I came across yours. First of all, thank you for not using the term “Slice of Life” anywhere in your review. That term is lazy, derogatory, and often inaccurate, just like”quirky”. Anytime when things fall short of our comfort/familiar zone, especially when it’s outside western conceit, we’re obliged to shove it into some cultural square peg (such as “quirky”) until it becomes non-threatening. That’s why every scifi must be compared to Star Wars, anime to porn, and anything less than a single linear story, Hollywood style, necessitates invocation of Seinfeld.
As to Silver Spoon, both seasons, I really appreciate the methodical way Arakawa went about her characters’ gradual development. Nothing feels hurried, but nor because of such, is boring (unless one is looking for “American” idea of action). I hate to use our country as a pejorative adjective, but had Hollywood or Disney (even Pixar, given their less than stellar record lately) adapted the story, I shudder at the wise-cracking change imposed on Hachiken’s character, and the genius scheme he’d cooked up miraculously at the end to save the farm. Here in the US we don’t (or rarely) care for bittersweet melancholy ending, especially in children or teen fiction (blood and death, yes). The theme of this show is almost antithetical to the American ethos: we don’t accept failures… or losers, at least not in our movies.