Anime: Gin no Saji

Note: This review is just about the first season of Gin no Saji. There's a specific review for its second season: Gin no Saki (2014).
Review
Gin no Saji is a short tale about the challenges and bizarre situations your average city-nerd guy may face when dealing with farmers, animals, and the daily life of the country-side. It is a simple, yet surprisingly different, way to explore a slice-of-life show. Making it short: Gin no Saji is perhaps one of the most intriguing shows of the last few years. Why? Because it manages to be your average school drama in the likes of Honey & Clover and Ano Hana, yet it tackles with a topic and situations that were rarely even remembered by other pieces of japanese animation.

Hachiken Yuugo is the typical guy to lead a harem show. He is Keitarou all over again, an intelligent boy with a lack of social skills and zero experience when it comes to dealing with anything that doesn't belong to a big city like Tokyo. Damn, he evens looks as generic as it can get. Hachiken, however, suffers from your typical teenage crisis and can't comprehend his harsh father. His strategy to flee from the opressing place that is his home is to enroll to an agriculture school, where he can live at a dormitory and be free from his annoying father's cold demeanor. Is he right about that? Certainly not.

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1. Drastic change of life...
   Life-changing events are basically the heart of the majority of slice-of-life shows out there. Gin no Saji, however, manages to topple your average stuff when it decides to deal with something that most people can find amusing: city guy versus rustic life. Jokes about it are everywhere in the world. We always make a funny comment or two when meeting with a friend that lives in a minuscule village, and people from the country also get a deal of laughs when a city-boy comes to a place where he clearly doesn't fit. It is a safe area for a slice-of-life to explore, full of opportunities to provide comedy, drama, and self-questioning.
   
   School?
   School.. this setting, as I state in dozens of reviews I've made, can turn a masterpiece into a pile of trash in the matter of seconds. Today's shows are mostly giving us annoying schools with zero creativity, bland club activities, dumb characters, and no charisma whatsoever. Gin no Saji is one of the rare exceptions. This happens because Hachiken's school is unlike anything you've seen and the focus of the show is on his hardships adapting to his new reality, and not about stupid club activities or engaging in romance with all chicks around. His life is far more acceptable and realistic than most others and the setting helps a lot in that, especially because it also has a good deal of nice people living in it...
   
   Farming and farming
   The 11 episodes of Gin no Saji are used to present you all the people from Hachiken's school, their way to deal with things, show how different their priorities are when compared to Hachiken's, what dealing with animals and crops is about, and so on. As someone who was born in a metropolis but had parents who lived at small farms, I can just say that every action, every challenge Hachiken faces, every event in to show somehow related to something my mother told me about her infancy or to something that I've experienced myself when living in a smaller city for a few years.
   
   Character development
   There are a LOT of characters in Gin no Saji for such a short show. There are half a dozen good friends, teachers, Hachiken's family, Mikage's family, etc. Fortunately, they are all very human-like personas, have just a bit of exageration in order to provide more funny moments when necessary, and never turn out to be your cute-loli or annoying cliche'd ecchi cast. They also take just short moments on the screen, leaving all the development window to Hachiken, who mainly learns how to deal with life and death across these episodes. His reaction when watching chicken poping eggs, when learning about discarded cows and horses, when meeting cute pigs that will become bacon later on, all of that work positively to enhance Hachiken's resolve and persona, especially because he is such a weak willed guy at the start. For just 11 episodes, Hachiken manages to change from stupid typical harem to a belieavable guy facing life at a farm.
   
   And all is nicely done
   A-1 Pictures once again does a great job. Watching Gin no Saji confirmed for me that this studio can be a master when dealing with this kind of slice-of-life. The artwork is as cute enough and as vivid as necessary for comedy without losing many points to the drama, the direction puts us into emotional situations that can really get you, and the atmosphere as a whole is always positive and fun so you won't ever find the show boring or repetitive. Join that to a matching soundtrack with great quality and Gin no Saji can shine as Ano Hana did.
   

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Comments
It has been a while since I've watched something that stirred my imagination as Gin no Saji. It worked as a charm for me, considering my background, and the refreshing change of scenery is so welcome these days that you can watch only because of that. The great production value, when added to this more grounded premise, manages to consolidate it as one of the best shows of its season and of the last few years.

In days where generic shounens and highschool settings with club activities are drowning the industry, Gin no Saji is certain to please anyone looking for refreshment. Slice-of-life shows can't get much better than this.

Ever wanted a taste of parenting? Try Usagi Drop. Curious about farming? Silver Spoon's got you covered. This latest noitaminA feature contains yet another interesting and unique perspective that actually provides meaningful lessons beyond how to immediately get dumped by girls. As with Usagi Drop, the show manages to take a potentially dull and boring topic and turn it into something intriguing and entertaining. While this isn't as emotionally touching as Usagi Drop, it is still a fun watch for anyone even a bit curious about farming or how a city boy will deal with the culture shock of agricultural life.

Animation:
The animation studio took a more conventional approach than that in Usagi Drop. For the most part, it looks like any other rural-based anime. The only major differences are the agriculture-specific tools and facilities and a bunch of farm animals. The show uses a fairly saturated palette that gives the series a bit of a lighter mood. Color shading and background details are average overall and character styling is also a bit on the simplistic side. You also have an instructor who humorously resembles Buddha.

Don't expect much here in terms of either action or fan service. There is a tiny amount of blood once and a while but nothing really significant by action standards.

Sound:
The show has a fitting guitar-based OP and ED. I'm not a fan of slow, country-ish songs of this sort though so I skipped out on them for the most part. The BGM is minimal and for the most part not really worth mentioning.

This is in part a documentary and in part a comedy so it is dialogue driven in many parts, but it wasn't very demanding character emotion-wise and no one ended up really standing out for me.

Story:
Hachiken has lived his life in his brother's shadows, so much so that his entire dreamless life consists of studying. Having no real drive or future plans, his teacher sends him to a live-in agrarian high school. To his amazement, Hachiken finds himself surrounded by people with strong goals and dreams. Will Hachiken be able to cope with his new, culturally-different classmates and five AM practicums?

This is an eye-opener of a series in many regards. In telling Hachiken's tale of learning about agriculture, the show is able to expose and confront a lot of misnomers about agriculture and even address some philosophical questions regarding livestock's transformation from respected living creature to meat. Between these conception-shattering moments, you get a bit of character development and a good deal of comic moments; a lot of these revolve around Hachiken's ignorance of the field that he's studying.

This isn't the most intense of series plot wise. Don't expect much in the way of cliffhangers or rising action, in fact the series doesn't even really end on much of a conclusion. I guess this fact is slightly mitigated by the fact that a second season has already been announced.

Character:
There are a lot of characters in this show, and while a lot of them contribute to the central plot in one way or another no one is really well developed. The focus of the show is clearly more on showing farming procedures and practices than on giving the, admittedly, bland history of farm hands. While the protagonist clearly becomes much more adept at manual labor, he still maintains a significantly different world view than that of his classmates at the end of the show. The show does occasionally tease at possible character relationships but this is used as more of a comedy gimmick than for plot progression. Overall, the show features a balanced cast that really is presented to highlight the core farming theme rather than the other way around.

Value:
My strongest takeaway from this show (at least to confirm) is that farm-fresh foods appear to be highly superior to what I, as a cheap scape consumer, can get from the local grocery store. Expect to see the protagonist literally prostrate as a reaction to tasting food. Overall, despite being an average show plot wise, the show managed to stick to its unique theme; this alone earns it a lot of kudos. Unfortunately, I don't see it becoming a hit like Usagi Drop, it just lacks the emotional and character depth. Regardless, it still stands on its own as a reasonably entertaining look at how life is as a farmer. While I have new found respect for those in agribusiness, I'll stick to my white-collar line of work thank you very much. If you're willing to ditch established anime norms (required beach scene, unreasonably cute girls everywhere, etc.) and watch something that can teach you a thing or two, give Silver Spoon a go.