Gin no Saji

Apr 25, 2012

tazillo

Recommended

Preliminary (92/131 chp)

Gin no Saji, or Silver Spoon, has a lot going for it even before you read the first page. It's created by Hiromu Arakawa, who's previous work includes the highly popular Fullmetal Alchemist. It should then be assumed that it'll no doubt be another amazing manga right? Fortunately, this is true but it does so on its own merit, resulting in a huge number of sales, the 2012 Manga Taisho award and an anime project despite the small number of chapters released at the time. Who knew a manga about farming could be so interesting and enjoyable?

Gin no Saji has an entertaining yarn to spin: ... how the everyday life of Yugo Hachiken changes when, for reasons not initially revealed, he decides to leave his family and city life in Hokkaido to enrol at an agricultural school. From then on, he finds out the hard way that a talent for studying isn't all there is to life as he tries to overcome physically challenging obstacles, and meets people who've lived their whole lives differently to him. The story is a far cry from Fullmetal Alchemist in several ways, not least by replacing the militaristic world and alchemy aspects with a gentler slice-of-life setting in the school and its surrounding farms. However, Arakawa's meticulous attention to detail in developing her characters and the world they live in is still present. The mangaka has a gift for introducing fantastic comedy at appropriate moments to provoke the best laughs, while any serious issues in the story are handled delicately. The individual chapters progress the manga through each season of the year, and this is reflected by seasonal events such as festivals and activities outside of school, contributing to Hachiken's character development as he adapts to his new lifestyle.

While the manga presents us with much information about farming and the various responsibilities that accompany it, it does so through its delightful cast. Hachiken is a more than capable main character who's amusing and likes to help others, but is envious of his classmates who have their own dreams and aspirations. There's also Mikage Aki, a potential love interest and one of the first to teach Hachiken about agricultural life. Most of the other students in Hachiken's school feature regularly throughout the series, especially his fellow first-years. Despite the large number of supporting characters, it's quite easy to tell them apart thanks to their distinct personalities. This includes a would-be vet who isn't sure if he's able to euthanize animals, a student who plays baseball to support his family and their farm, the class clown who keeps getting into trouble, and many more. Even the farm animals have a certain charm, and they provide an important lesson to Hachiken when it finally hits him that some animals are raised for their meat.

As mentioned before, Gin no Saji can be absolutely hilarious at times and the art style that Arakawa employs makes a significant contribution. A wide range of facial expressions for comedy situations are used depending on which character it's for, with Hachiken himself getting some of the funniest ones. With such a sizeable cast it's inevitable that certain characters look very similar to each other, but through the use of different hair styles, clothing, and body sizes, it's not such a big problem. Anyone who's read Fullmetal Alchemist prior to this manga will surely recognize the art style, especially the character faces. The background art, including school buildings and rural locations, is a bit simple and sometimes sparse. However, for a slice-of-life series with little action this is perfectly acceptable.

To be fair, Hiromu Arakawa could easily have been forgiven for taking an extended break after completing such a successful series. However, to release a new manga less than a year later and yet manage to have it retain much of the things that made Fullmetal Alchemist brilliant, despite using an entirely different story, speaks volumes for her as a mangaka. You don't need to have read or watched Arakawa's previous series to enjoy this one, as FMA is part of the action/adventure genre. But with an impressive cast, a simple yet informative story and great comedy, Gin no Saji is recommended reading for fans of slice-of-life manga and everyone else too.

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Jun 24, 2020

animejas

Recommended

Silver Spoon was a manga written by Hiromu Arakawa (most famously known for creating the international sensation known as Fullmetal Alchemist), that surrounds itself around agriculture, farming and personal growth - which does feel already pretty personal knowing Arakawa's background, as she was born and raised around a massive farming background of her own.

Whilst I've always been a city boy, shifting country to country to live in the urban areas where take out for food is easy, and everything is convenient from internet, to meeting up to partake in various kinds of fun activities in places like malls, parks, game centers, etc, I was very ...

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Jul 3, 2011

PrincesaLuminosa

Recommended

Preliminary (9/131 chp)

This manga have a nice story which shows an fun academic life at a agricultural school.
Yugo Hashiken is a young student who lived with their parents at a big city and decided to study in a small city. He don't have any aim in your life at moment. However, when he learns each more time with his schoolmates about some things such as responsabilities, teamwork, friendship, etc; He acquires courage and determination for his academic life at new school and feels commited with his choices, new skills and his friends.

Gin no Saji or Silver Spoon is a manga by Hiromu Arakawa!!!

She is the ...

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Feb 18, 2013

SuperMoonBiscuit

Recommended

Preliminary (Unknown/131 chp)

Silver Spoon is great. Evey character is enjoyable and play their role perfectly. The deilver and execution of the story is very well done, as expected from the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist. It really shows how awesome Nature is and how much animals affect our life. Silver Spoon dosen't really have many flaws worth mentioning. The only negative thing I will say about Silver Spoon is that it hasn't yet reached its full potential.

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Dec 30, 2020

animeth1ngz

Recommended

I browsed on the internet for about a whole day just looking for some feel good, slice of life manga, and I somehow got to Silver Spoon. I heard of this title earlier in my life, but I just never got to reading it, but with this.. ahem.. interesting year, I decided to finally read it. Don’t know why. Just did. I probably should say that this is my first ever review, but this manga hit me so hard, I just felt compelled to say something about Silver Spoon. Also, there will probably be some spoilers, I don’t know how to do spoiler free reviews ... well yet, but I’ll try and keep it to the minimum and to ones that aren’t plot changing (I’ll say if I do give a spoiler).

For those who don’t know, Gin no Saji, also known by the English title of Silver Spoon, is a manga written and drawn by the author of the Fullmetal Alchemist series, Hiromu Arakawa. It follows the story of Hachiken Yūgo, a high school student from Sapporo who has no direction and dreams for his life and a strained relationship with his parents. With this in mind, he was recommended/informed by his teacher of Ooezo Agricultural High School, also known as Ezo Ag in the Hokkaido countryside. Expecting to breeze by in school, the manga follows the story of initial struggles of fitting in, everlasting friendships, the persistence and results of hard work, and learning the ins and outs of Hachiken’s new world: agriculture.

I think one of the most important things to me that stood out were the little things and details that Arakawa-san brought out from this story. One was about how much you could learn about agriculture. It’s like a watered down version of an agricultural class; I don’t actually know if it is, because I’m just a high schooler who likes anime, but I feel like you can learn a good percent about agriculture. You can hear bits and pieces of the way bacon is made, milk is produced, among others I probably forgot. You get to see the side of agriculture we don’t get to see often. We see the finished product. We just buy it. But so much time, sweat, and effort is put into getting these items to the selves. Like for example (SPOILERS), Hachiken put in so much effort just to make some pizza. “Pizza? Easy, just need cheese, pepperoni, batter, etc..” Is it actually easy? We tend to just put frozen pizzas in an oven or buy it. We don’t need to make it from scratch.

Another thing that this manga made me realize is that we forget where we get our food. How much sacrifices people make to bring food to our tables. Hachiken’s reluctance to kill animals really struck a chord with me too. I tend to forget that the meat we eat comes from animals slaughtered, taken from their mothers, never living a full life. While it won’t fully affect me, there were reactions from Hachiken that really resembled how I felt, and made me realize that farmers shouldn’t, more like can’t, be attached to them. In a way, they have to be “cold hearted” and put their emotions behind their line of work.

There is also the idea of dreams and goals. Hachiken didn’t have a dream, didn’t have a goal. His hard working, competitive spirit made him into a person that helped everyone, even if he didn’t have the energy and dropped dead, and tried to excel them to become the best. A running gag is him trying to help his classmates in core subjects like math and english. Let’s just say 9 times out of 10, their tests don’t go well. (SPOILERS for the rest of the paragraph) But it’s through his kind hearted nature that he finds his own dream, it’s through these trials and tribulations that he realizes that starting a business is his way forward. He built bridges and carved new paths for people, another way of helping. Another form of the theme of dreams comes through the form of Komba Ichiro. While Hachiken found his dream, Komba, in a way, couldn’t follow it. His dream of being a baseball player was crushed when his team couldn’t win regional qualifiers for Koshien, Japan’s premier HS baseball tournament. Koshien was a means to get scouted, to get signed, to get money to help his family’s struggling business which was in a lot of debt. His loss meant he had to focus on the business more now.

Something that struck me was the importance of simple phrases like good work and thank you. It’s subtle, and it may just be me, but I think it’s something Arakawa-san put in on purpose. We always use these words, but do we truly mean it? Has the essence of simple gratitude phrases lost its meaning because of the constant repetitive use of it? Of course, it’s not limited to these simple phrases; it’s also other compliments and encouraging words. On a normal basis, I feel as though we use words like thank you because it’s expected of us, but with a half hearted feel to it. In Gin no Saji, these words are used when you truly deserve it, as a means to bring one’s spirit up, because they truly deserve praise for the hard work they did.

The only fault I can think of is really just the epilogue. It felt rushed, but from what I’ve heard, with Arakawa-san’s health and long hiatus, I really can’t complain haha, at least it was satisfying.

Even though there is so much depth in the plot and underlying themes in the story, Arakawa-san does very well of developing the whole cast. Hachiken, the main character of the story, character development is arguably the best in the series. From a boy with no direction, he found his footing, in an environment without experience nonetheless, not without a lot of help! At Ezo Ag, he met many people along his journey, from Mikage Aki, the horse-riding lover, easygoing, amiable love interest of Hachiken, to the rough and honest, baseball loving Komba Ichiro, to the carefree, yet hardworking cheese lover Yoshino Mayumi. There are some many characters you can fall in love with, and these three are just three of my favorites among everyone I like, which is... the whole cast... yea.

In a compact 131 chapters of amazingness, Arakawa-san went through Hachiken’s struggles and dreams, growth and change, but also had other short, and even story long, side character plots. We go through Mikage and Komba’s stories, their struggles, their battles, their growth. We have shorter plot stories, like (SPOILERS) Aikawa Shinnosuke, Hachiken’s friend, going through his struggle of not liking to work with blood, yet having his dream of being a veterinarian.

(Oh, the horses also had different personalities, which is a 10/10 in it of itself)

I don’t completely know how to judge and grade art, but I loved the art here. There were moments of madness and it was conveyed nicely. I don’t really have a preference for an art style, I do still have standards :(, but this art was down my alley. I do love myself some simple art, and I don’t know if you’d count this as simple, but it’s very clean and detailed. Facial expressions, character drawings, background art all had a certain charm to them. The art style definitely complimented the feel good, slice of life feel to the story. I’m gladly happy that every character and every shot was drawn nicely, considering how many characters there were and so many things happening.

Overall, there was a great balance of character development, plot, emotions, drama, art, among many. The characters were lovable and I can relate to some of them. I can probably say so much more about the plot and themes of the manga, this freaking review is reaching two pages on docs, let’s not add more. I haven’t read so many manga, but this has easily hit my top 3 manga, maybe even 1. While I think this isn’t everyone’s bread and butter, this manga is a manga I’d definitely try and recommend. For me, easy 10/10.

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Mar 22, 2012

azeriraz

Recommended

Preliminary (34/131 chp)

So rather drastic change for Hiromu Arakawa going from Fullmetal Alchemist to Gin no Saji but if you were to consult her wikipedia page you would see that something like this is right up her street.

A story about a boy who moves to the countryside to attend an agricultural high school does seem to fall exactly into the slice of life category but this manga is somewhat different (just like Bakuman).

The surprising mix of technical vocabulary or discussions, ethical issues such as euthanasia and a look at agricultural life from a teenager's perspective give the manga something new alongside the usual slice of life elements ...

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Oct 24, 2020

Ermhs_Parasoidis

Recommended

It was a very good manga , as it said about agriculture and Coming of age story .
First time saw the anime 3 years ago and now finally read all the manga with the ending !
Yes somewhere half way get a bit boring but then take off again.
The ending was a bit hurried but at least gave as a closure , and of coure hope some day(like in 2021 or 2022) for a new manga chapters even a few.
*Hope some day like in 1,5 year to read it again in japanese (if have time) ....

Gin no Saji or Silver Spoon is a manga by Hiromu ...

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Dec 3, 2020

takato-sama54

Recommended

Gin no Saji created by Hiromu Arakawa is a very good manga that hasn't reach its full potential or more like not given a chance.

It is more like the pace at the late part that feels like some things got change along the way. it makes me feels sad to think that it is probably not popular enough because of having 131 chapters only. Although I am only speculating here, there is a chance that it might have get discontinued because it got an end immediately making feel empty inside like there are still things that need to be explored. Like for example that ...

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Sep 2, 2013

istillcandream

Recommended

Preliminary (83/131 chp)

A slice of life manga that "takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary," Gin no Saji manages to make life at an agricultural high school seem (consistently) attractive, humorous, and entertaining. Given the mangaka's track record, I fully expect this series to become a classic, or at least enjoyed by many audiences to come. I love the characters, the setting, the plotting, the narration, the little life lessons Hachiken experiences... It has a light tone but ultimately this series is full of heart.

It's difficult to quantify what exactly makes this series so outstanding, but Arakawa has it, and the awards Silver Spoon has won are ...

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Jul 11, 2022

Angyat

Recommended

Today's review is that of the second most notorious work of Hiromu Arakawa, "Silver Spoon". A comical, coming-of-age, agricultural-themed manga of which I grew really fond.

Its story revolves on Yugo Hachiken, a kid who following the failling of his high-school entrance exam decides to run away from his family to an agricultural high school at the very edge of Hokkaido, in Tokachi. There he meets a lot of new friends and learns to look towards the future with a smile on his face, unlike in the past. Comical and emotional scenes abound, being the former the most recurrent of all, and in my opinion, Arakawa's ...

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May 15, 2023

hexashadow13

Recommended

tl;dr: A manga that has good character development and makes agriculture interesting, but drags on too long and meanders into its ending.

This manga is about a boy named Hachiken who due to having a mental breakdown due to the pressure of trying to keep up academically, abruptly decides to attend Ooezo Agricultural High School. The thing is, having lived in a city all his life, it’s an entirely new world to him. Thus, he very much feels like a fish out of water, finding everything that comes across his path as surprising and having to get used to everything. However, he’s also “the man that ... can’t say no” so despite how hesitant he is, even fearful at times, he still ends up being pulled into various things and due to his serious personality, he gives everything he does his all. He forms a lot of bonds, casual acquaintances, deep friendships, and even a romantic relationship.

In doing all this he goes through tremendous character growth. He starts off the series with a very narrow view of the world, unsure of what he wants to do with his life, and unsure of what he could even do. And furthermore, he has a complex about being so unsure about things and just directionlessly doing whatever he gets pulled into, which compounds on itself for an even stronger feeling of pressure. But over the course of the series, he overcomes that, coming to view his lack of a dream as the presence of endless opportunity. He comes to view his inability to refuse getting involved with things as a major asset and proactively tries to broaden his horizons. And eventually that leads to him finding what he too wants to do with his life and pursuing it at full throttle.

Furthermore, while this is a story of major character growth, even at the start of the series Hachiken is far from a lame protagonist. He’s pretty unique in his class due to the fact that he’s attending despite not having a background in farming, that results in him having skills that others don’t and bringing a fresh perspective. He has moments where he does things that no one else is capable of doing and where he definitely shines. And just as much as others bring about character growth in him, he’s a key part in the stories of those around him as well. There’s an assortment of very unique characters that surround Hachiken. Most don’t really get much in terms of character development, though are still pretty likable and feel worth getting invested in due to the general group dynamics. But a couple, Mikage and Komaba, have very strong development during stories of their own.

The agriculture aspect was also very interesting. It’s not a topic that I have a lot of knowledge about, with the anime adaptation of this being my first introduction to pretty much all the subject matter. It’s also not a topic I’m particularly fond of as, to be frank, I kind of hate nature in general and am a city slicker through and through. Despite that the writing in this was very appealing, written in a way that avoided getting too textbooky while also providing a lot of information. Hachiken being a newcomer to everything but immensely curious and very expressive about everything he learned helped tremendously with that. It was also well paced going through things fast enough that they didn’t get boring but slow enough they were easy to understand. And of course, the constant comedy sprinkled throughout was also definitely a plus. The manga also tackled various controversial farming related topics, such as factory farming or international trade, through a pretty realistic lens, wherein it presented a reasonable take on the different sides of the issue without getting preachy about anything but still allowing Hachiken to have his own opinions.

My main problem with the series is that all of this applies to the first two thirds of the manga, the first year of high school. The last third, which went through the next two years with an epilogue carrying beyond that, was nowhere near as good to the point I’d say it was bad even. The first issue is that it essentially felt like everything was pretty much decided by the end of Hachiken’s first year. Character arcs were still going to a degree, but they had already passed through all the core parts so the trajectory was clear for the rest and in the last third it pretty much just follows through with what was already established in the first two thirds. As such, it’s not able to hit emotional highs anywhere near as strong the first two thirds. It kind of felt like it was just going through the motions of showing the characters as they continued to live their lives without actually trying to tell much of a story with them.

The second issue is that Hachiken isn’t really much of an outsider past his first year, so there just isn’t anywhere near as strong a sense of curiosity or discovery, and it starts getting somewhat repetitive. The agricultural subject matter it delves into I also found to be far less interesting, being less general and more focused on narrow business uses without really tying all that well into character arcs. It also spends a lot of time focusing on things completely unrelated to agriculture, like college exams, which are pretty generic and weren’t written particularly well here so they were pretty dull.

The third issue is the pacing, which was all over the place. It goes through time skips to go through the following two years within half the time it went through the first so it feels rushed in a broader sense, but in doing so it also feels like it often lacks a sense of direction or focus and thus at times it felt like it was moving too slowly. Because of the final stretch not being very good, the ending and epilogue, while really solid in and of itself, just don’t carry much impact and thus it kind of feels like the manga just fizzled out really slowly. Personally, I think it would have been better to have crammed a bit more into the final stretch of Hachiken’s first year and then gone straight from there into the time skip epilogue.

The art I wasn’t much of a fan of. I suppose how it tackled the more technical aspects was somewhat impressive. But the character designs and art style in general were too simplistic and not all that high quality, and with the premise also being one where what’s being portrayed doesn’t stand out visually and is very grounded it very rarely had art that stood out.

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Gin no Saji
Silver Spoon
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