Silver Spoon

After not passing the high school exam and an estrangement with his family, Hachiken decides to attend a school far away from suburbia at Ooezo Agricultural High School. Here, students learn about every aspect of farming, from growing fruit, milking cows, farm animals and the meat they provide etc. He chose the school believing it would be easier and he would have extra time to study again. He soon learns though that the school is very demanding as it's an actual working farm that provides food for the country as well as growing and harvesting the food they use for school meals. He's horrified to learn about farm animal food, like where chickens eggs come out of, and having to kill chickens and pigs for their dinner, yet he can't help but be amazed at how delicious the fresh produce and meat taste. His reluctance to do tasks and help out due to his generosity makes him out of place at first. Once he discovers how all the students all have goals pertaining to farming and how it's a part of their life already, he questions what his career goal will be and admires his friends who eventually respect him.

I've see a few anime that feature job life in Japan: some more funny (ServantXService), and some more action packed (Rail Wars), but both give you an idea of what the job is like. I never knew much about farming in Japan, and so this anime (based on an award winning manga btw) was a pleasant surprise. It shows you several aspects of farm life in Japan and we get a main character who doesn't know what to expect and at first doesn't like it. But we see him start to change his mind about attending the farm school and actually learn to like to do the tasks and eat the homegrown food, never minding the fact that chicken eggs come out of their anus and that someday he's going to have to kill and prepare his new pet pig named "Pork Bowl!" And he's surrounded by a unique bunch of school chums, all having a goal of what to do with what they learned at the school. All kind of things occur at the school to create hijinks, whether it's the guys sneaking out to see a new state of the art farming machine, trying to figure out how to make pizza, or Hachiken spending time with friends and their families to see their everyday lifes. Most notable of these friends is Aki, whose family raises horses and is comfortable with Hachiken's friendship. There's good animation, voice acting and the story overall is better than you think it might be. If you're looking for something that has more of an insight in modern Japanese life, Silver Spoon is a great alternative. Thumbs up.

Digimon Xros Wars

Taiki Kudo is a typical energetic 7th grader who likes action and sports, and has a habit of helping people in need even if it's not the best idea. The school basketball team is short of a player and he helps them win a game. One day while hanging out with friends Akari and Zenjiro they come across a strange device that activates when Taiki grabs for it. The 3 friends are then sucked into a dimension portal which takes them to an unrecognizable land--an alternate digital reality.  there they rescue a strange creature that actually talks to them. He's revealed to be Shoutmon, a Digimon from an alternate digital reality. He's been watches energetic and believes he can help him be the strongest Digimon in the digital world, thus becoming the King of Digimon. There are also bad Digimon who resent humans being in their world, so they attack. Shoutmon on his own is tough, but no match for the large Madleomon. With Taiki's device he can create a "DigiXros" between 2 Digimon, or rather fuse them to create an even more powerful Digimon. Shoutmon and Ballistamon fuse together to defeat Madleomon. Taiki learns there's a Digimon war taking place between the good free Digimon and the ones ruled by Bagramon. Also keeping an eye on the new visitors are other human kids who have been in the digital world for a while to fight the war: Kiriha, who becomes a rival to Taiki, and Nene who admires Taiki's talents. The trio discover a fragment of something called a Code Crown. When the fragment (which looks like an SD card) is inserted into the Xros Device, they're taken to another area of the Digital world. Nene tells them it's important to try to collect all of the fragments of the Code Crown. Taiki and Shoutman believe it will make them more powerful and be the ruler of the land, while Akari hope it will help find a way to return home...

That took a few more sentences to explain, since there is so much going on in this kiddy anime it's a bit dizzying. Anyway, this is another anime within the popular Digimon universe, with new characters and creatures, though they we do see some familiar Digimon too. I've seen most of the other series, and they all have a spin on the tale and the Digimon evolve more and more, or the humans become digimon and so on. Here the concept of Digixros (pronounced Digicross), or in the English version Digifuse into a single even more powerful Digimon to defeat the enemy. I do like that the other little digimon (in the shape of little stars and such) can connect together to make a weapon to use. The animation style is similar to all of the other series, though a little better quality and cute enough for kids to enjoy. I liked the 3 mains characters, though they're really not anything new. The plot is interesting though having to collect magical objects all around the digital universe is also nothing knew, in fact it reminds me of...well several other anime such as Pokemon, Dragon Ball, Card Captor Sakura and others. But I guess this show will appeal to its demographic, but also fans who grew up on the previous series. Plus I do like the idea of fusion, though that's not original either. Marginal thumbs up.