10 Second Anime: Silver Spoon Episode 11 [END]

Silver Spoon Episode 11 [END]

Bacon is life. Bacon is justice. Bacon pairs well with fried rice, smoked cheese, and beer. Bacon also makes Hachiken a popular guy among the girls and the seniors. It's also the name of his next pig.

There's not much to say about this last episode that wasn't said in the last episode. I will echo something said by the senior who taught Hachiken how to make bacon: "Having money makes you popular among the girls. Having meat makes you popular among the guys." And then Hachiken used his money to buy a pig to make meat. Now he's popular among the guys and girls! Aki isn't sure what to make of that.

One of the seniors in Hachiken's equestrian club gave him food for thought about using his talents in life and analogized it with riding different kinds of horses. It's nice if you can ride a horse that fits your rhythm, but it's also fun and challenging to fit your rhythm to a different horse. Like in life, maybe you don't have to have a specific dream to fit your talents; it's also fulfilling to fit your talents to wherever you find yourself. And who says it has to be one way or the other, or even always and forever?

And a fitting resolution to the season is the introduction of the new pig litter. Hachiken's classmates want to know if he'll get attached again, like he did with Pork Bowl. And if he does, will he "take responsibility" if they all lose their taste for pork? Hachiken makes his decision: "Bacon!" And "Pork Cutlet Bowl, Ham, Char Siu, Pork Cutlet, and Ginger Pork!" As Tokiwa says, Hachiken's smart but an idiot.

This may be the end of this season, but another one will be starting next year. This is an amazing slice of life show where the introduction of the issues of life and death, factory vs. family farming, and following your own dreams vs. others' expectations are seen through the filter of a city boy studying at a farm school. Really, just a neat little story with great characters. Knowing that the author also created Fullmetal Alchemist just makes it all the more remarkable.

10 Second Anime: Silver Spoon Episode 10

Silver Spoon Episode 10

RIP Pork Bowl. Your meat is bittersweet.

It's almost time for the pigs to be sent to slaughter, but we have to have a bit of comedy before then. Yoshino talks with Hachiken about how he's been honestly open about his mixed feelings with taking care of animals only to eat them later. Yoshino says that Hachiken "better take responsibility" if she loses her appetite for pork. Tokiwa overhears the end of this conversation from far away, and the phrase "taking responsibility" has other connotations in Japan, specifically, marrying a pregnant woman. Rumors fly, the animal husbandry teacher awkwardly counsels them about being "in heat, er, puberty," and ultimately gets resolved with Tokiwa getting even more detention.

But the heart of Silver Spoon approaches, Hachiken's relationship with the runt of a pig litter, and what he'll do with Pork Bowl before the slaughter. He chooses the middle path. It's not responsible to raise a pig as a pet at a farming school, and he can't just let him go to slaughter as a mere animal, so he buys Pork Bowl's meat with his money from his summer job with the Mikages.

And then, like a boss, he makes bacon out of Pork Bowl by himself. On the day of the smoking, when the meat has been cured long enough, he and his friends have their own little funeral for Pork Bowl outside the smokehouse, by having a feast of roasted pork bowls. Hachiken says the meat, "tastes bittersweet!"

This episode was quite emotional, especially when the pigs were crying from not being fed right before slaughter. And we know, that even if Hachiken has his heart broken every time, he knows how to raise pigs right. Aww, sniff. Pork Bowl, your life was short, but it was filled with care and warmth.

10 Second Anime - Silver Spoon - Episode 9

Silver Spoon - Episode 9

Thin Tamako. Fattening piglet. Random corgi. And summer memories.

I was wondering why they made the pig practicum teacher wear sunglasses, fatigues, and have an enormous bust: all for the scene at the festival where she blasts all the stuffed animals so we would think of Lara Croft. Well-played, well-played.

Hachiken comes back from the Mikage farm and is surprised to see how large the pigs have gotten after only three weeks. Lara Croft-Sensei lets them know that pigs are not flabby, having only about 15% body fat, compared to human males at 10 to 20 percent, and women at 20 to 30 percent. Aki did not want to hear that. But little Pork Bowl is still smaller compared to his litter mates, and it's almost time for them to be sent to slaughter. Because Pork Bowl is so small, he might not fetch a very good price, so Hachiken takes it upon himself to help fatten him up and catch up to his siblings.

In contrast to fattening, Tamako has become super thin in the last couple of weeks. She blames the summer heat. Aki and Komaba don't seem that surprised by her transformation, as if this kind of thing happens every year.

The local summer festival happens around the same time the students come back from summer break, and the food stalls all dread them coming by. One of the girls from the equestrian club thinks the festival is a good place to make cherished summer memories, but Hachiken remembers is summer moments: getting lost, dead deer, dead bear, annoying older brother, and spilling a whole bunch of milk. Meanwhile the ag students decimate the food stalls, and helping them out is Tamako.

Oh, random corgi.

And also random, Hachkiken's older brother is working for the yakisoba stand. He offers his friends a little discount, but Aki and Hachiken think this is a bad idea. Yup, the cooking skills still haven't improved, the students are laid low by horrible noodles, and the other food stall owners rejoice that they'll have food to sell throughout the rest of the day.

By the end of the week, Pork Bowl has almost caught up to his siblings in weight, after being fed Hachiken's liquid meal diet. And Tamako has also caught up, so to speak, after all the food from the festival.

10 Second Anime - Silver Spoon - Episode 8

Silver Spoon - Episode 8

Hachiken's time at the Mikage farm is almost over, he slowly earns the respect of Aki's father. Runaway cows learn not to mess with great-granny's carrots. And Hachiken overreacts to tasting fresh food.

Now that Aki's father has recovered enough from his hernia surgery, he gets to spend more time with the part-time worker, and he doesn't like what he sees. He doesn't like how much the rest of the family likes him, but Hachiken's work ethic grudgingly earns his respect. We also get to see a little bit more about Hachiken's problem's with his family when his talented older brother drops by for a surprise visit. It was hard trying to live up to the expectations set up by someone who made it into Tokyo University, and we see a hint of the failure Hachiken suffered. But even the older brother didn't live up to their father's expectations since he dropped out to make ramen instead, even though he's terrible at it. We're beginning to see why Hachiken wanted to go to a school very far away from home.

After accidentally spilling a lot of milk, even the Mikage father forgives him in his manly way, letting Hachiken work through his feelings of responsibility, and showing him everything is okay by giving him the first soy roasted corn brought over by the Komaba twins. As he receives his paycheck, still willing to have the lost milk portion deducted from it, he learns that work is rewarded on a different scale than what is just able to be materially sold at market. As the Japanese would say: That is that, and this is this.

Finally, a bonus gif to remind you not to accidentally look at women's udders.

10 Second Anime - Silver Spoon - Episode 7

Silver Spoon Episode 7

Hachiken visits Giga Farm, to see how a modern, large scale dairy farm operates. Instead of seeing death this time, he sees birth. Also, an overprotective father casts a long shadow.

Worst prize for winning tug of war ever. Okay, okay, after the calf was cleaned up, he was pretty cute. But since the newborn was male, that means castration, fattening up, and slaughter. It just doesn't have the plumbing to remain at a dairy farm. The organization and procedures may be different at the Inada's farm, but the issues of life, death, and food are still there, as well as inheritance and expectations in a family business. Tamako seems to have no reluctance whatsoever in taking over the business, and might even be a little too impatient for her parents' taste. Oh, and Aki's father seems to be recovering well from the hernia operation.

10 Second Anime: Silver Spoon Episode 6

Silver Spoon Episode 6

Out on the Mikage horse ranch, Hachiken needs to watch out for bears, deer, and overprotective fathers with hernias.

We see lots of hints of family issues this week on Silver Spoon. Hachiken wants to avoid going home so much for the summer break, he takes a part time job on Aki's family horse ranch. Aki herself seems to have an issue with the expectations of inheriting the family business. And the ever present theme of raising animals, then having to kill them and prepare them for food is shown with Porkbowl, a run-over deer, and huge roadkill with a bear. I just like the idea of using a city boy going to an agricultural trade school to learn about farming to show us other city slickers all these issues of life, death, family pressures, and how some things are the same no matter where your family lives. Well, sometimes it's hard to get a cell signal where some families live. That's different.

10 Second Anime: Silver Spoon Episode 5

Silver Spoon Episode 5

Crop circles? Area 51? I want to see it tonight!

Even at an agricultural high school in the middle of farm country, boys still want to get in trouble by sneaking out at night. The city boy Hachiken gets mixed up in a plot to escape the dorms to see "it" after curfew. After seeing a crop circle in the fields earlier that day, and overhearing "Area 51" from one of the other students who knows a guy who knows where the thing is going to appear, of course he thinks of little green men. Immediately, all the guys want in on seeing this thing too. But no, it's not a spaceship. It's just some new big harvesting machine. All the boys, who are sons from farming families, obviously keep up with all the new tractors coming out on the market, so they knew what they wanted to see. The harvester could only be moved at night since it was so large and had to use public roads to move from field to field.

But what about the crop circles? Area 51? The circles are just a prank from a neighboring high school that the senior class does every year. Section 51 is the number of the plot where the harvester was being moved. So, the city boy took 2 and 2 together and added up to Roswell. As the other boys see it, catching a glimpse of some huge machine was definitely worth detention chores.