Episodes: 11
How: CrunchyRoll
Grade: A
Summary: {From MAL} Yugo Hachiken dreams of life separated from his family, so he takes the initiative by enrolling in an agriculture school. He thinks, with his talent in studying, no problems will arise no matter what kind of school he attends. He is proven wrong very quickly. Raised as a city boy, he is forced to uncover the inconvenient truth about agricultural life. Enjoy the story of Hachiken, as he tries to keep up with his new friends, farmers' heirs, who are already accustomed to the harsh world of farming. With no clear goals or understanding of farming life, how will Hachiken survive this new, cruel reality? The story of a sweat, tear, and mud-stained youth begins!
Thoughts: This was a happy accident, an Anime about Farm life. Never in a million years would I think I'd enjoy a show about raising farm animals and stuff, but here we are. The show has an excellent mix of drama, comedy and well.... live stock.
In a way, I kind of wish I went to this type of school when I was in school. haha, waking up at 5 AM would have been a bit irritating at times, but... taking care of the animals looks like a lot of fun and great exercise I'd imagine.
I spent most the show wondering why Hachiken was even at this High School, but when the older brother shows up and more of his background is established it really started to make sense.
Glad there's a second season.
Who we have...
Mains.
Yugo Hachiken- He may be the most lovable main character I've ever seen, the shock he exhibits with some of the ways of agriculture/farming is beyond amusing and sometimes a little sad. Hachiken only goes to agricultural school because he wants to get away from his parents, his father is a bit of a butt head from what I've seen in the later episodes. Making it where he doesn't even want to go home over Summer break.
Since he has a bit of a crush on Aki, he joins the Equestrian Club even though he seems to be scared of horses at first. Slowly he warms up to them and vise versa. His relationship with the other students is really quite good, no one seems to dislike him and they really consider him someone they can talk to.
Throughout the show though, he starts to realize that he has no goal in live. Most if not all the students at this school are from farm families where they will be helping and eventually taking over for their parents. Hachiken needs to find some sort of passion in life....
Early in the show, while visiting the pigs he falls in love with the runt of the litter. Everyone told him not to name any of the baby pigs but... he couldn't help it. He takes "Pork Bowl" under his wing and is constantly worried about him getting enough food... in the end he makes sure Pork Bowl reaches an optimal weight to get a good price at market.... tearfully he ends up purchasing Pork Bowl {with the money he made over the Summer at Aki's} and makes food out of him.
He sends some of the Bacon home to his parents, other parts to Mikage and Komaba's family and the rest is eaten by students and teachers, some for free and some purchased.
Aki Mikage- The love interest, her family runs a small cow and horse farm specializing in Ban'ei race horses. Being the only child she's set in line to inherit the farm, but she isn't really sure she wants to. Of course, she can't tell her family this.
She's the reason Hachiken joins the Equestrian Club, she absolutely loves horses and talks quite poetically about them.
During the Summer break she takes Hachiken home with her to help out on their farm, for the most part he does quite well until he accidentally doesn't secure the hose to the milking machine and they loose quite a bit of milk.
Her family is quite nice and caring, nothing like what Hachiken is use to and her grandmother may be the most amusing person on the show. Too bad she's not there more..
Ichiro Komaba- The quiet, childhood friend of Aki. They grew up on farms not far from each other and are quite close, this is a bit of a hot button of jealousy for Hachiken.
Komaba helps his mother and younger, twin sisters run their small Dairy Farm when at home. His father passed away several years ago and it's really very difficult for his mother to get by. Komaba's hope is to become a pro-baseball player and improve the family farm. Will this happen? I hope so. It's looking pretty good in the first season seeing he is just a freshman and is all ready starting pitcher on the schools team.
Others....
Tamako Inada- I love this girl, she's amusing and extremely driven. She's also one of the only "fat" girls I've ever seen in an Anime, she's skinny for a few episodes after Summer break citing the sweating from the heat, but after the summer festival she's back at her Egg Shaped Weight!
She too is a first year student in the dairy farming program, she's actually rather scary obsessive about the bottom line. Specializing in accounting and micro transactions, it's seen while Hachiken is visiting her family's mega farm that she's bent on taking over the business even before her parents want to relinquish it. Saying her parents aren't running it optimally...
Shingo Hachiken- Yugo's older brother and once "golden child" to his parents, he was what Yugo can possibly never be. Shingo was accepted to the University of Tokyo, the most prestigious University in all Japan... Once accepted however he decided that was enough for him. It made his fathers dream of having a child accepted there come true and....now he wanted to follow his own dream. Becoming a Chef!
It seems he has a superb since of taste, but he can't cook worth a damn. Wandering about he finds Yugo on his parents behest {maybe?} while he's working at the Mikage farm. Trying to be nice he nearly kills Mikage's family with his cooking and then again the students at the school during the Summer festival.
He and Yugo don't really get along or at least it's sort of one sided, Yugo hates him and he tries to be a friendly older brother.
Pork Bowl- Hachiken's Pig, he was the runt of the litter and was always pushed aside during meals... even when he was a baby pig he was forced to take the last teat. He accepted his sad way of life,but Hachiken never could and always attempted to get him to fight for more food... and failed.
In the end, he ended up a happy, fat piggy.....and then bacon and other pork products for the school. Poor Pork Bowl.
The End; It wasn't really an end, there's a second season soon which is really good since it really leaves you wanting more. Komaba gets to start in the baseball game even though he's a first year, Mikage actually admits to not being completely certain about wanting to inherit the family farm; at least the way it is now and Hachiken...well...he's still Hachiken.
I'll miss poor little Pork Bowl, I bet he made some tasty bacon....Oh that sounds demented. I'm really not sure if I could raise a pig just to slaughter and eat it. At least they didn't show the slaughtering process of Pork Bowl.
