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Season 2, Episode 9

This is really taking on some hard topics. The Komba family spoiler[watching as their cattle were being taken to be sold off] was heartbreaking. We had been told how spoiler[important they were and how much they cared for them], and there was no magic fix. And then we had a serious talk with Mikage's family about their spoiler[debt, the amount it has, and that looking some money brought up selling the horses, something really dear] to Mikage. And to finish it off Mikage chooses that spoiler[moment under Hachiken's confidence to tell them she can't take over, presumably for her dream].

I so would not have seen something like this pop up. There were also some great romantic moments too, Mikage spoiler[almost let it slip], well it was pretty obvious. Hachiken's choice in trying to understand and help was great, he wanted to help his friends. The ED as always brings a smile to the face, which is probably why they chose to put it where it was.

Episodes 9 &10: This show hits right where it hurts when it comes to realistic, true-to-life drama. Yet, I can't help but think that what's happening to Komaba is not only unfair, it doesn't make much sense. How much money can a teenaged high school dropout make, anyway? He's acting as if he's the only breadwinner, but couldn't his mom get a better job? I would understand him leaving school if it were all about the tuition--the school and dorm do not look cheap--but he's leaving school all together just to do some part-time work. It seems penny wise and pound foolish, and very shortsighted, to deny a kid an education just so he can make some money now.

Aki's family gets it spoiler[they have told her that she needs to go to college in case her first choice of career falls through. College is expensive, but they recognize it as an investment. Komaba isn't that lucky.

The romance on this show is understated and adorable. I loved the Mikage's family's reaction to Hachiken saying that "he'll take responsibility". (ha! Great scene!) The kids at school's reaction to finding out Hachiken tutors Mikage was great, too (what does "(quasi) Happy IRL" mean?) The tutoring scene was great.] Man, I LOVE this show! We need another season!

Season 2, Episode 10

Very Happy

This has been great, I really like how this has gone. "spoiler[Definitely better than Tokiwa]" now that is funny. Hachiken teaching spoiler[her history through horses], being spoiler[hated for happy situation], being spoiler[pitied for not being more], spoiler[bath] yogurt, and spoiler[taking responsibility]. I could not help but smile and be happy at how things have progressed.

One more episode, and what does icy roads mean?

^Normally I'd be worried that "icy roads" spells danger for a character who's traveling, but spoiler[Hachiken's traveling by train, which is rarely effected by weather. I suppose it could cause a delay?]

Lol, Mikage's dad reactions was just priceless. I think deep down, he probably does want her daughter to find a husband soon Very Happy

Decent episode again with the talk about spoiler[dreams and her future. I hope Hachiken can keep up with the words he said to her family though. It won't be easy and there's always a risk with a business being shut down that can lock out job opportunities. But with a college education, doors to more opportunities are opened.]

Agent355 wrote:

^Normally I'd be worried that "icy roads" spells danger for a character who's traveling, but spoiler[Hachiken's traveling by train, which is rarely effected by weather. I suppose it could cause a delay?]

Yeah, I'm betting on spoiler[a delay being the point. He did say he wanted to get in and out as fast as possible. Even if the storm doesn't stop the trains it can maybe make it too hard to reach the station from his home... forcing him to stay there for a night and confront some of his family issues. ]

Season 2, episode 11 (finale):

Definitely right considering the journey that Hachiken has been going forward with. Dreams, inspirations, and working on the farm. I really like how this show examines that for more than just discovering themselves but also learning about others too like Mikage's dream of taking care of horses.

Great episode and way to finish off the series. I'm hoping for a season 3 in the future too!

Rated as very good.

What can I say, Tamako just rocks. Smile

Also very satisfying scene with his old classmates. Overall, no complaints from me, unless there's no more to come.

Season 2, Episode 11 (finale)

A very nice ending. I think Silver Spoon has been incredibly consistent in its quality and just making me smile. The entire scene where everyone spoiler[brings out their specialties for food including teacher bring out beer, and Yoshino bringing out cheese making the teacher cry], just made me smile a whole lot. Brought the show back to some of its roots, and reminded me that despite all the hard parts there are still some good old horsing around and good people.

I rate it Very Good, this show has not looked away from hard topics, it is informative, charming, and funny. Something I am very happy to have watched.

I was completely satisfied with the second season of Silver Spoon. It delved a bit deeper into agricultural topics, plus really did a good job of adding depth to Hachiken's character. Also, just like the first season it was completely consistent in its storytelling quality. It's so rare for me to have an anime where every episode is the same level of "good" as the previous and the next. I hope they'll greenlight another season, I'd like to see where they take it next.

Second season was better then the first season,since it focused on actual issues that characters experience and it had lesser dose of boring slice of life.Still there were plenty of episodes in which nothing happened and second season also forgot Hachiken's dilemma about animal killing.Also I find it strangely hypocritical for someone to claim they love horses and Ban'ei horse racing.

Complete dissection of both seasons:

Concept/Story/Setting:

1) authors have shown cowardice by avoiding the brutality of the farming -- camera always looks away in key moments. If you want to have honest conversation about the topic, you should depict all of "graphic" that happens there. Just make an on-screen warning message for those who do not want to see it;

2) authors are also cutting corners since main hero lad does not butcher his spoiler[beloved pig himself, but sends it to be killed by outside party];

3) otherwise writing is very natural, nothing looks overly stretched, no nonsense events and moved by characters;

4) authors decided that characters will make the unhealthiest meat possible -- smoked one (it guaranteed to have cancerogens in it);

5) for other types of depicted celebrations, authors chose to use another cancerogenous way to cook meat: barbecue (roasting makes meat highly toxic);

6) veterinarian guy is portrayed wrong: he explains that as child he has seen a bad cow surgery that made him afraid of blood. But this is nonsense since fear of blood is low-level brain instinct that does not care about whether a person seen a surgery or not, or whether the surgery was bad or successful. The function is to ultimately switch brain off once it sees blood -- it is ancient mechanism for energy saving when organism is wounded. Brain supposes that blood it sees belongs to its own organism, hence it tries to turn off whole thing via "collapse" function;

7) the story about main lad spoiler[friend's farm going to close] seems realistic, but details showcase unhealthy practices. Smaller farms that use owners as their own workforce must have loans should be insured for a case of spoiler[sudden illness or death of one of family members]. This would prevent the farm from being spoiler[closed]. This might also indicate a case of predatory lending, depending on details of the loan;

8) showcase of horse sports like riding and heavy-weight dragging is highly controversial since it utilizes metal utilities inserted in horse's mouth -- as researches have proven, it is painful to horses. More humane thing would be controlling horse without causing pain to it: for that, you have to use only bridles that do not enter horse's mouth -- straps should go around the head, not inside it. A lot of horsing schools that do not use metal in horse's mouths have proven that you do not have to be torturer and sadist to ride it.

The issue with horse-related sports is that most people are in denial or hypocritical. Some even claim that having metal in mouth does not bother horses at all. But if so, they should be perfectly ready to remove it as it would not change how controllable the horse it, right? But no, in reality, of course, they can not cease to use metal because they were only trained to control horse via pain, and horses would not listen to them if they would switch to humane methods. It will take new generation of riders that are more humane and caring for horses to cease use of metal in horse's mouths.

Some animal lovers even say that whole horse sport thing is ethical abomination as people should not force horses to undertake risky activities where they can break legs and killed just so smug riders and public will be entertained.

Author has studied materials for the theme, but not to enough degree to make truly accurate portrayal -- at least in terms of horses.

Characters:

1) main lad is super cute character, very likeable in general. It is not believable that he had no friends left from all the previous years of his life;

2) cute puppy also adds to the cuteness factor;

3) overweight girl is cool character;

4) it is not nice that lovable little guy character gets beaten by girls -- violence is not an answer;

5) critique of main female character as being kind of bland is not accepted, since not every character has to be super animated about everything with theatrical reactions. She was presented as perfectly believable character that you could meet in real life. Characters renditions overall is probably perfect.

Visuals:

1) the fact that visual character design was not overdone, but still had mangaka's style, is appreciated;

2) white above full-sized iris makes characters slightly insane;

3) there is nothing extraordinary in quality of animation or backgrounds, it is solid, but not better than that.

Music:

1) weak, barely noticeable, no strong musical themes.

Summary:

This is an improvement over Fullmetal Alchimist, which had few more serious issues. This work has great writing and realistic characters, which is a rarity. There are few issues with research background material that author has used to make this project, but overall it is "Excellent" for first season, and "Very good" for second one (a level below since horse theme was poorly researched).

More honest showcase of animal treatment brutality and better research on animal treatment ethics would have helped the project.

Wow, you've really outdone yourself here.

MaxSouth wrote:

1) authors have shown cowardice by avoiding the brutality of the farming -- camera always looks away in key moments. If you want to have honest conversation about the topic, you should depict all of "graphic" that happens there. Just make an on-screen warning message for those who do not want to see it;

Did you forget the chicken decapitation? It made the point, so not every episode needs to be an up-close bloodbath. And you might want to have a "conversation" about the topic, but that's not the anime's goal, nor is the medium capable of such. All they can do is present a story, not a documentary, based on the author's knowledge and experience (of growing up on a Japanese farm) that hopefully won't bore people or get bogged down in polemics.

MaxSouth wrote:

2) authors are also cutting corners since main hero lad does not butcher his spoiler[beloved pig himself, but sends it to be killed by outside party]

This is not cutting corners, it's SOP. Farmers generally don't butcher their own cattle, they send them to market and later on slaughterhouses to do the butchering. Unless he's taking a course in butchery, there's no reason for him to learn how to butcher, any more than there's a reason for him to become a farrier just to ride horses.

MaxSouth wrote:

4) authors decided that characters will make the unhealthiest meat possible -- smoked one (it guaranteed to have cancerogens in it);

5) for other types of depicted celebrations, authors chose to use another cancerogenous way to cook meat: barbecue (roasting makes meat highly toxic);

Do you want this to be more realistic or do you want a vegetarian manifesto? These are students at an agricultural school, learning how to do things the job market will require in their future. The market demands smoked meat and barbecues, so they teach how to do that at this school. Also people like smoked and barbecued meat, regardless, so it's realistic that they would choose this even if not part of the curriculum.

I'm not even going bother with 6,7, and 8. I'll just say you haven't studied materials enough to make truly accurate criticisms, in terms of the issues you've raised here. I think you forget SS is set in a country where they still serve fish cut up alive on a platter and eat octopus alive. Animal rights aren't high on their agenda, and I think the show should get props for even touching on those issues at all.

MaxSouth wrote:

1) main lad is super cute character, very likeable in general. It is not believable that he had no friends left from all the previous years of his life;

Whether you make friends is not entirely of your own doing. If you are not the kind of person who batters their way through walls surrounding cliques, or who lacks self-confidence, it won't matter how super cute and likeable you are if others aren't interested. Apparently the kids in his class in Tokyo were either unwilling or unable to get through Hachiken's barriers and vice versa, whereas the kids at Oeno were curious and welcoming and persistent. I've experienced that very thing myself in moving from one location to another, and the main difference was the attitude of the people around me, rather than some sea change in my personality. In place A, strangers looked at me like I was a freak if I tried to strike up a conversation, while in place B, the strangers were the ones speaking to me first.

Last edited by MaxSouth on Wed Apr 08, 2015 6:16 am; edited 1 time in total

Wow, you've really underdone yourself here, because:

Gina Szanboti wrote:

Did you forget the chicken decapitation? It made the point, so not every episode needs to be an up-close bloodbath.

Yes, I did "forget" it, because there was no such thing. The anime did not show decapitation, the project has never inconvenienced viewers with actual acts of reality of farming -- not even once. This cowardice does not add respect to the project, alas. You can have it in an overhyped bloodshed porn nonsense like Elfen Lied, but not in a place where it actually worth to display.

Quote:

This is not cutting corners, it's SOP. Farmers generally don't butcher their own cattle, they send them to market and later on slaughterhouses to do the butchering.

Main lad's co-student has personally decapitated a chicken and was just fine, so there is no issue with farmers killing animals themselves if they are going to cook and consume it themselves.

This move by the project is another example blatant cowardice. The anime could be so much stronger if it was ruthless with its truthfulness and honesty about facing reality.

Quote:

Do you want this to be more realistic or do you want a vegetarian manifesto?

Educational institutions are obliged to provide healthy foods to their students, so I doubt realism of those couple of examples from anime. And I am disappointed that authors has decided to promote those harmful ways to cook meat without giving proper explanations and warnings. Besides, there is nothing "vegetarian" in preparing meat in healthier ways to process it: for example, ham can very tasty and not smoked, and other meat can be dry-cured, not smoked either.

Quote:

Apparently the kids in his class in Tokyo were either unwilling or unable to get through Hachiken's barriers and vice versa

Yes, there could be issues with the lad being super shy. But there is no way that after all of his years of childhood he did not earn some friends. He is fundamentally kind person, and not the autistic kind who just shuts up and sits in the corner all the time without being able to react to what is happening.

The reason why I was complaining about this is because the decision to make him friendless was obvious seam that author has left in the story -- for the purpose of it more focused on lad's newest experiences. Ideally, authors should not leave visible seams, their stories and settings should be seamless. Because you see such slightly visible seams like this one, it distracts from the story, undermines its believability and level of submersion you can experience.

However, as I wrote, the show overall is between "Very Good" and "Excellent", and is absolute must to watch for those who strive to see high quality production, not just endless dumbing down school club or harem or a-magical-girl-fells-into-guy's-bathroom shows.

MaxSouth wrote:

Gina Szanboti wrote:

Did you forget the chicken decapitation? It made the point, so not every episode needs to be an up-close bloodbath.

Yes, I did "forget" it, because there was no such thing.

So this doesn't count because you didn't see the blade slice through its neck, and only saw the blood spray and the flopping chicken? I suspect it's only pixelated for broadcast, but even if not, you don't want to run viewers off in the first six minutes of your series.

Quote:

Main lad's co-student has personally decapitated a chicken and was just fine, so so there is no issue with farmers killing animals themselves if they are going to cook and consume it themselves.

I grew up on a farm and we never butchered our own meat. We always sent the animals out to professionals, since we didn't have time, skill or equipment to do it right. This is a school, so except for the students who might aspire to be butchers or slaughterhouse workers, there's no reason to spend the time to teach them. They did show them a video though, and I'm glad they didn't bore us by making us sit through it with them.

My mom did kill chickens though. There's a world of difference between slaughtering a chicken, vs a pig, lamb or steer. You can't humanely kill a pig or a steer with a meat cleaver.

Quote:

And I am disappointed that authors has decided to promote those harmful ways to cook meat without giving proper explanations and warnings.

So what you really wanted was for the series to be brave and bold like this.

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Silver Spoon (TV) (both Seasons).