(11 episodes ; 2nd season already scheduled for next Winter)
What’s it about ?
Slice of life comedy set in an agricultural High School, in Hokkaido.
Characters
Hachiken, our protagonist. As a city boy coming from an elite junior high school, he sticks out like a sore thumb here. (There are some mutterings about family issues that got him to join a boarding school as far from home as possible, but it’s not elaborated upon yet.) Good at academics, but does it really matter when the curriculum involves lots of very specialized science and physical activity ? It doesn’t help that he’s not good with animals and is grossed out when learning where eggs come from.
Mikage, his obvious future love interest. Loves horses, and has already joined the equitation club. Not really much personality beyond that.
The new students are divided into groups of five for practical courses ; in Hachiken’s group there’s the faint-of-heart guy who wants to become a vet, the short guy, the jock who somehow still has enough energy to be very enthusiastic about the baseball club, and the very big girl.
Production Values
This is clearly a low-budget production, with just enough animation to sell the jokes.
Overall Impression
Uh oh. This doesn’t quite work. There are some decent jokes here, but a bit too many of them rely on poop humour. The characters don’t have much depth, and Hachiken is more than a bit annoying with all his complaining. And as a whole, it feels very bland, without much of a hook. It has a semi-interesting setting, but that’s it.
It may just be a slow start ; I’m willing to give it a bit of rope. But there’s nothing particularly enthralling here yet.
