Silver Spoon S2 - Episode 11 [END]
Hachiken has a meal with his parents. Hachiken's mom has a meal at his school. The season passes, and life keeps moving.
While we're in the middle of a moving stream, trying our hardest to keep up, stay in place, or move ahead little by little, we may not notice the gradual changes to ourselves. But with the removal of time, and some outside observations, they can be quite obvious. And so it is with Hachiken. Running into some old junior high buddies, they notice that Hachiken is bigger, calmer, and maybe even a bit friendlier. Farm chores will do that to a body, and being away from a domineering parent will allow the change in personality. Still, boys are boys, and they can't be too happy for Hachiken's exclusive friendship with a girl. Instant death by first text!
But family dynamics never really change. Hachiken thought he had a chance to take the easy way out by sneaking in and out to grab his brother's notes, but no. Was his dad really going to smack an intruder with a toilet plunger? Mr. Hachiken hasn't changed, and is as harsh as ever. And the poor mom, surprised by a small compliment on her cooking that has become second nature to Hachiken living with farm children.
When the subject of why Hachiken came home to take the exam prep material to help another friend with entrance exams, Mr. Hachiken jams his scalpel right in his son's still open wound. He asks, "Someone who failed his own exams can help another with theirs?" Hachiken's emotional response is to compare failures to livestock. Culling or pruning for deformities or just being too small is the standard practice in farming, but people who fail once can't be given second chances? That makes them livestock, actually worse than livestock. Even a jumping horse gets a second chance at a barrier even if they're disqualified, otherwise their confidence fails.
I noticed that Hachiken's father never said another word. It's like he just wanted to see what Hachiken would say about the big problem hanging in the air. The older brother was an ace student, but dropped out of college. And Hachiken is also an ace student, but one bad day (I presume) led to him running away to an agricultural trade school. Mr. Hachiken seems to be worried about two things for his younger son: if he's over his failure, and if he's unfairly using the students at his school to his advantage. Unfortunately, he chooses the least amount of words to express these worries, and the questions sound accusatory. At least, they still sound accusatory to Hachiken. In Japan, machismo takes on the form of men not having to say much to each other to understand each other. Perhaps the elder Hachiken is nudging his son to talk with him the same way. I get the feeling Mr. Hachiken would get along swimmingly with Komaba.
Hachiken storms out, or almost does, because he dutifully clears his dishes first. The music at this point was masterful, conveying an almost marching tension. Maybe Hachiken and his father really did have their first manly conversation, with the son glaring at his dad, and the dad almost surprised by Hachiken's own accusatory question, "Am I worse than livestock?" There are no resolutions here, and the music highlighted that buildup of tension, like a deep breath to calm one's temper, and marking this moment as a stone upon which a future self builds.
Back at school, Hachiken tells his friends what his father asked him, but Tamako is the first one to offer a different interpretation than how the question sounds. She sees it as Hachiken failed first, but is now making up for his failure by making Aki take the next test. I actually think Mr. Hachiken has no answer to his question, which is why he asked it. He's that kind of guy. However, the question is a scalpel, and it's already starting to cut down deep into Hachiken, forcing him to examine his motives, and get to the source of his failure, excise it, and heal from it. That's another echo of the lesson from this season as we saw with Komaba, bad things happen, but what you do next defines you as a person, not the failure.
But those lessons take time, and this show is out of time. In marking a tradition for the anime adaptation, we need a big meal for the last episode, and what better occasion than a surprise visit by Hachiken's mom? At the cultural festival, all his parents saw was Hachiken in the hospital. Now, the mom gets a chance to see her son work with horses, eat fresh food, and have an impromptu party with students and faculty. Hachiken's junior high friends may force instant death by cell phone for his (almost) happy in real life situation with Aki, but his farm friends have their own weapons: tabasco sauce and wasabi! In saying goodbye to his mom, he asks her not to put words into his dad's mouth anymore. They may be coming to their own understanding. The show ends with the first snow. Fall is over, and a new season begins.
Life, goes on.
