Gin no Saji
Silver Spoon

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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 ... lacking and uninformed in the other side of the spectrum. I never really gave a thought to how a lot of food, a lot of the activities that I enjoyed, a lot of the culture that I enjoy nowadays, how much it was because of the other side (the rural side surrounding farming), that makes me feel more blessed with what I have now. And this manga does a brilliant job in showcasing the beauty of farming, agriculture with maintaining its roots and realism with tons of detail, passion, and charisma too.

Story & Writing (9.99/10)

If Arakawa-sensei was healthier/her family was in a healthier situation, and she was able to write more to flesh out the ending sequences even more, I would have given this a 10.

But regardless, the actual content of Silver Spoon is phenomenal for me, since it presents something I have a lack of awareness of, in a very interesting, humble, charming, and even introspective way. Arakawa manages to create a compelling story about a boy who is lost in the world with no aspirations, escaping to a completely different environment to try and enjoy doing something in his life with no shackles of pressure and depression to hold him down (that was caused mainly by his family's expectations and his own lack of self-worth as he constantly pushed himself away from everyone by trying to study and not enjoy life whatsoever that it became too much of a burden on him). It's very real, and the way he develops over time with a natural flow of storytelling is very nice to see.

Arakawa-sensei utilizes her childhood experiences with farming and presents her own ideologies about how the realities of farming is, with there being bitter undertones to them (like with the treatment of animals and growing them up to turn them into food/products to sell). She chooses a clear side, of what's the way she would go with when it comes to farming, but presents both sides of the spectrum really well when comes to questioning the ethical nature of the farmers' actions at the school through Hachiken.

Since he was brand new to farming, he wasn't sure of what was right or wrong but rather than being too preachy, he naturally understands both sides and tries his best to adapt to how farming works in Arakawa's head but still showing tons of respect to the animals involved to make their sacrifices worth it in an ethical fashion by treating them very well consistently. I love how this question of what's right or wrong, not only presents interesting arguments to both sides, but also characterizes many people incredibly well, and builds fascinating conversations and hearty chemistry between everyone.

Seeing Hachiken grow and adapt as a person, seeing how farming is incredibly fascinating to learn about from a non-rural resident's perspective, seeing how harsh realities can be but also seeing how beautiful it can also be when it gives fruit to so many great aspects of life from tangible to intangible ones, Silver Spoon is a rollercoaster of emotions with its narrative. Ends nicely too with solid build for its romance too.

Characters (10/10)

Heavily described what the appeal was for the characters in the last section, but I'll just say Hachiken is one of my favorite protagonists in all of manga and anime. A guy who's very relatable to me, in terms of not knowing what the hell to do for his future and having high expectations of everyone else to succeed, to escape and drag his life out in a completely new environment to see his real self-worth. And seeing him grow over time with his charming personality, with bonding with tons of people from varieties of farming culture (like with cattle, pigs, cheese, vegetables, etc) was astounding.

The side characters come from various backgrounds and due to that, all play very good roles in creating tons of entertaining dynamics between characters.
And when they come together for events like festivals, or pizza parties, it creates such a heartwarming storyline full of passion and love that I rarely feel from other casts in anime or manga. Real bonds right here.

Other than how fantastic Hachiken's characterization was, Arakawa-sensei also did wonders with Mikage and Komaba's characterization as they go through their own personal struggles and try their damn best to overcome them and succeed with their aspirations (even with some unpredictable events in life trying to shackle them down). Hachiken's influences on those two, and everyone else, and everyone else's influences on him were so goddamn great to see from an outsider's perspective. Seeing people like them give me hope in a way to find my dream with the right people.

Art (9/10)

It's not the most brilliant looking manga out there, but it oozes simplicity and charm. Love the designs, love the detail and it really fits the setting well too. Great looking covers especially for the volumes, with lovely artwork present.

Enjoyment (11/10)

It's really one of the heartiest, most compassionate and emotional rollercoasters I've been on when reading this. It doesn't have explosive shounen-esque battles, or the most dramatic scenes in the world, but there is a lot of aspects that made me feel so happy (pizza party), made me feel sad (the end of the festival and some dreams being shackled), and gave me hope in a way with life with seeing the evolution of all these characters.

Gin no Saji/Silver Spoon is one of my favorite manga and anime of all time. I wish Arakawa-sensei could have fleshed out the ending portion a bit more but regardless, the amount of growth, development, and emotional rushes I got through watching and reading it was too much for me to not include it in my top 5 manga list. Exceptional work from her, and I even like this a lot more than her Fullmetal Alchemist manga.

And my god, it's made me appreciate the agriculture and farming culture so much more than I ever gave it credit for before. I really sincerely thank all farmers out there for providing tons of great quality ingredients and other materials for us to enjoy our lives with. They're all truly a blessing.

Score 10/10

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.

Silver Spoon | Gin no Saji Manga Review. A manga made by the FMA author. Can it hold up to the fame and recognition that Full metal alchemist has made?

No.

Note: I watched the anime both seasons before reading the manga. Though i did also concurrently read the manga while i was at it.

S1 Review: https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=358718

S2 Review: https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=358855

Silver Spoon starts off with the the MMC who is highly academic joining a school focuses on agriculture. He later joins the 'horse club', which i refuse to write the official name, cuz you know he's got a crush on the main heroine like all main characters do. Throw ... in some situations. Parental issues, and character hijinks and you got yourself a slice of life series about farming.

The series actually starts of pretty strong. Making the main character very likable. The side characters funny and not the annoying kind (mostly). The heroine is fun and the series in general is wholesome. Much of the series being SOL is actually very good in trying to keep your attention while simultaneously being funny and important. Some of my favorite are the people working together on a goal.

For the first 2/3rds of the series (the first 2 seasons worth) I was pretty enthralled by the series. They were problems here and there but overall they weren't a big issue. The series was wholesome. The romantic tension was nice. The heroines adorable. The MMC's father had an incredible Chiseled jawline. Like damn. Making me question my own damn heterosexuality. (nothing like making the same joke twice).

But then the series starts slipping. When the idea of the starting there own company starts. The series starts slipping. The cracks started showing in S2 but it still wasn't that big of a problem. But in the last strech, nitpicks become issues, issues becomes problems and so forth. Its quite sad that the series just looses the magic of the original. Its not a lengthy series so i can't just forgive the final arc for being weak since the good part lasts so long.

Part of the problem was that the last arc just felt like it was draggin on and on. The romance felt like it was being extended just out of no reason. And overall the problems just felt like it was piling on and solving without real weight behind it.

They do dive somewhat into killing animals that you consider as pets but that part never really shocked me. I feel like the author was partially hoping seeing farm animals and the reality behind would keep the series more entertaining but honestly i have butchered goats myself. Killing animals isn't really unusual or shocking for me. Including animals that you have may have been a bit more attached too.

TLDR: As far as the farming aspects go its more realistic end. But in terms of power of freindship and everything getting a happy ending it just loses me. Its kind of tough but i just think with the mediocrity of the final arc i will have to drop my score from a must read. 6/10. Also if you think that my review isn't giving it enough credit. Maybe read the TLDR of my S1 and S2 reviews.