Justin: This is yet another simple day for Hachiken and the crew as they…they have some cleaning to do. With the mess around the school they gotta clean it up. Normally that’d be no problem, but Hachiken always seems to discover something while trashing things (see brick oven). And this time he’s found a stray dog! This stray dog is named Vice President…after the current Vice President of the Equestrian Club, Yuugo Hachiken!
Takes maybe a few pages for everyone to dote over the dog and…Hachiken to get jealous?!?Silver Spoon Volume 5 explores not just Hachiken learning how to take care of a dog for the first time, but him managing to get his horse to jump on a course. With the school festival coming up, there will be plenty of events on campus, but for the Equestrian Club, they need something that’ll stand out. Why not have a Ban’Ei like event on campus? Thanks to some help, it’s all a possibility. But while the rest of the club can get their horses to jump over the obstacle, Hachiken’s horse refuses. Between this and getting into an argument with Mikage, this semester isn’t quite off to the right foot for him this time.
Well, it kinda wasn’t even before, but this time, his past creeps up on him in unexpected ways, which does prompt Mikage to try and snap him out of it. I do like that Silver Spoon continues to tease Hachiken and his broken relationship with his parents (specifically his dad), but I think it’s starting to get time to pay that off. Maybe not quite Volume 6 either, but at some point, Hachiken’s gotta show his parents he’s changed soon. But whether he thinks he’s ready…who knows?
The humor of Silver Spoon, as always, consistently stands out. For example, this volume manages to showcase Tokiwa’s stupidity, but also him being smart…? It also has a class course where you have to stick your hand inside a cow’s butt…?…Do I even want to get to the part where the Student Council calls on an already overbooked, overworked, and over everything Hachiken…? Yeah I probably don’t! But again, Arakawa manages to make what should be boring fun to learn due to her art and her type of humor. Like you wouldn’t think Komaba giving up a home run to a batter would ultimately lead to me smiling, but here’s the context:
- Komaba is the team’s headline pitcher
- His team is eliminated if they lose
- He had to turn down a girl because of baseball
- It’s Hachiken’s first game
- Hachiken immediately begins panicking
- Girl Komaba rejected immediately yells at Komaba because he turned her down because of baseball
and as it turns out he sucks
All in all, there’s a bit of some looking in the mirror type stuff in this volume — from Hachiken feeling bitter about his horse riding not going well, to Komaba telling Hachiken to finally start thinking about himself (at the worst possible time), and to Mikage’s future as she wavers between telling her family what she really wants to do, it’s a pretty compact volume of Silver Spoon, and still a fun read.
Justin’s Rating: 4 out of 5
Krystallina: For a bit, I thought Arakawa had pulled a cruel, cruel prank on readers like me. First, she lured me in by way of an abandoned puppy Hachiken finds. Happily, the pup finds a home on campus as kind of a school-wide pet, although much of the responsibility falls to Hachiken. I am an admitted dog lover, and I loved Black Hayate in Fullmetal Alchemist, and so I am looking forward to more of Arakawa’s brand of dog-related humor. Heck, the little guy already got Tokiwa to have a stroke of genius. Shocker!
But then I thought it was all going to be downhill from there when the class has to go to a lesson showing a cow rectal exam. I know Silver Spoon hasn’t shied away from the less glamorous parts of farm life, but for me, it was like going to an amusement park to a dentist. I let my guard down because of a puppy!
Fortunately, we don’t spend too long on this, as Arakawa moves on to other, more pressing subjects. Ezo Ag starts preparing for their school festival, and that’s a lot of work on top of the students’ normal activities. Plus, Hachiken starts to get frustrated as he falls behind in the equestrian club, and his stress keeps building as more and more work lands on his shoulders during this busy time. No doubt all this will catch up to him in the next volume even though he is warned by Mikage about taking on too many projects. Hachiken has certainly found his place at the school, but he hasn’t quite accepted that sharing responsibility is not a sign of failure.
Meanwhile, things between him, Mikage, and Komaba are still a bit awkward as the latter two deal with their own issues. I know I’ve been a critic of Mikage, but this volume finally brought what I’ve been looking for: a side of her besides the all-too-sweet, unknowing love interest. Mikage’s secret quirk is revealed, and the look she has on her face in one of my favorite scenes (a surprise paint job) makes the whole thing even funnier. As for Komaba, it’s finally time for him to make his pitching debut, and his effort inspires Hachiken and their other classmates. I like how their frictional association is slowly becoming that of — dare I say it — friends. There is still some exploration needed to be done on his relationship with Mikage and his somewhat over-dedication to baseball, and I’m looking forward to that.
Through it all though, this volume of Silver Spoon manages to crack me up. Nishikawa’s sense of style, Hachiken vs. a horse and a dog, Mikage’s dad asking some loaded questions…it just all worked, and the various storylines connected so well with each other. With the school festival coming up, there are plenty of potential gold mines with either characterization or comedy, and if this volume is any indication, Arakawa can deliver on both.
Krystallina’s Rating: 5 out of 5