THIS MANGA HAS EVERYTHING
A review.

Hiromu Arakawa has veered from Alchemy-and-the-Meaning-of-Religion territory and dived right into the Slice-of-Life Valley with Silver Spoon, or, Gin no Saji (she only mentions the namesake of the manga in one chapter in the first volume and leaves it alone; wonder what it means), which is soon to get an anime adaptation, now as of this writing. This is not the first time Arakawa has talked about the reality of a young dairy farmer. Actually, she's gone into it with another manga about her own life, of which there are only a few chapters scanlated, so far.

This time the main character is a sweet looking kid with somewhat fierce eyes behind his thick glasses, a kid entering an agricultural high school in the northern tip of Japan, Hokkaido. So far there's less than 60 chapters out which I've just marathoned. And my verdict?

BASIC BREAKDOWN.

Actually this is a classed up boyish-type comedy manga in quite a few ways. Minus the fan service you get cute girls who're realistically characterized but when drawn are not (hallelujah) all that flat, and furthermore there are a horde of cool figure-drawings of humans and animals, plus technical specs on machinery, and plenty of strong images of typical anime otakudom, and to add to pictures of the daily labours of farming, baseball scenes (to complement the many horse-sled--race scenes) along with other sports references.

It's also about education and learning new things.

There's great comedy, visual gags with good pacing, jokes your friends would make, ironic situations you'd NEVER want to be in....

It's also great to see how people live, work, and study collectively to prepare for, make, and eat their own food together and then clean everything up together.

Did I mention a budding romance?

And one more thing... DELICIOUS FOOD (PICTURES)!!!!

Yup, this manga basically has everything.

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING.

Really I read it for how well Arakawa can express very human worries and show how people slowly work through things like their fears, their issues, their hangups, and how they work towards things like preparing for a difficult career or going through a summer job for some spending money, all while doing backbreaking labour most people don't really ever do anymore. There are clear moral issues that are taken on that, since they come out so strongly in the plot and so relentlessly, come off somewhat heavy handed, but they are given along with a lot of other good questions, coming from such a hard place as the primary sector of a highly-industrialized capitalist but somewhat isolationist society as Japan: What if you don't have a choice but to work hard to make a profit, or else just go off and die? What if you're the human beings that are deciding this fate for hundreds, thousands of sentient beings throughout your career? What if your own future track in life is like that black and white/life or death situation too? What do you do when for this reason people hurt you both actively and passively? How do you get out of it and properly justify yourself? What about other people that are getting ground down slowly? Why do people love money so goddamn much?

I personally think a single devastating moment in chapter 56 alone is reason enough to read this.

FINAL WORD?

TRY READING IT!! Right now! Arakawa's got a winner!

... Last updated on November 22nd, 2012, 2:08am

This is a manga essentially about how life is in a farm, and how animals are interesting (and cute). Things that are obvious to people live in a farm (or even to folks in "traditional" markets or a butcher) are not obvious to city dwellers.

In many ways, the series reminds me a few things in Aria as both build on the concept that many things in this world (and its people) are interesting as long as you let yourself observe and experience it. Somehow such concepts are lost to people who are stuck in circle of consumerist and fancy modern city life. Anyway, I really enjoy reading this - gives me a good laugh and make me questions am I lost in the jungle of city life :-).

If someone had told me "you'll eventually find a manga about farm that you'll read in one sitting and enjoy every second of it", I'd have laughed at the guy.

And I would have repented afterwards, 'cause this work is truly great. All the characters are cool (yep all of them, even the ones you don't see more than one time). You really enjoy the great relationships between the different characters, and the art is good even if not baffling.

I can't really say anything about the plot, mostly because there is no real plot, apart from the fact that the guy screwed his high school-exams, and instead of going to a lower ranked one as in every school manga, he goes to an agricultural one. If you ever saw an other manga like this, please do tell me. So with this goes a little trouble one would most likely encounter when faced with such a situation ( Could you eat an animal you named and saw when it was a kid ?)
Afterwards it's slice-of-life-ish, with no real drama apart from a few times.

The really good point of this manga is that it gives of a view of something 99% of the people, including me, don't know anything about. And it is well depicted, there was probably some data searching behind the whole thing.

So a really surprising work from the author of Full-Metal Alchemist, but that's definitely a strike.

I never read Fullmetal Alchemist, only saw a few eps of the anime, didn't like it very much.
But this...
This is right up my alley!
It's so rare for me to comment on an ongoing series but i'm excited about this manga.
First of all it's very slice of life, so unusual from the typical uber strong male protagonists that only care about fighting or whatever. It's refreshing to see such a down to earth piece in the shounen genre. The theme is also refreshing, you don't know that many manga that deal with agriculture and farming in general. It feels adult but at the same time it's still funny, it's still engaging and it's still very approachable.
I'm extremely surprised at how the main character is protrayed: he's still trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life and guess what? There are no easy answers. The attitude surrounding the manga is great: discover yourself at your own pace, don't try to go down one route just because it's the norm or the easy way out. Seriously? I wish somebody told me that in my teen years instead of pushing me towards this or that. It shuns the mentality that you have to compete and destroy others in order to be the best. It promotes learning and self-discovery. There are some very powerful messages hidden in this piece. And there is so much more with only 41 chapters... seriously this is verging on epic. The only other manga that i think can compare to this one in terms of message, meaning and a more down to earth approach is Real, and Real is a masterpiece.
What i also like very much is the fact that you can learn and change perceptions and the fact that it portrays a very organic world. I don't mean this just because of the farming and fields and whatever, it's the relationships between the characters: he isn't friends only with a couple of other characters, he knows plenty of people and interacts with them on a regular basis. How often do you see that in manga? A person isn't just friends with 2 or 3 people. A person doesn't find out what he/she wants to do in a heartbeat, it takes time and searching and trying out diferent things.
It's a very compelling and honest coming of age story and i hope it continues like this for a long, long time.
All in all i higly recommend this because such good, honest manga are very hard to come by.

... Last updated on June 6th, 2012, 12:53pm

Slice of life at an agricultural high school setting? That's something that you don't come across very often. Especially from the author of FMA it is quite surprising. I became pretty engrossed in the manga; there's something very romantic of the honest simplicity of working with your hands.

I am currently a undergraduate in college. My intended majors are a double in Physics and Pure Math with a minor in Astronomy. My intent is to go on to graduate school and eventually become a university professor. My dream is the Nobel Prize in Physics.

...and now, after reading this manga, I want to go to f***ing farming school; it's that amazing.

Math be damned; I want homemade pizza.

At first it was a little boring but as it went on it turned into something really good. It has comedy, slice of life, a little romance, and its about life on a farm and how they run things on them etc.. overall a good manga which i would recommend to anyone.

I actually read the first 3 chapters of this right when it came out and was dead bored of the series. But, when I picked it up today after seeing it win the Manga Taisho Awards, I realized that it's really good as a long-running series. It has a lot of realistic aspects in it with many ridiculous comedy inside with Hirokawa sensei's ingenuity. I especially love the looks on the character's faces in WTH mode

So, don't be discouraged from reading it just after the first few chapters. Try to read the entire volume to decide on your impression on it

Whoa! I had no idea it was by the creator of Full Metal Alchemist! Since I had no idea, I have to say that this manga is good! It is definitely worth the read. There is no action in it however. It is definitely a slice of life with some good humor but with also a main character that is trying to find out what he wants to do in life -- through going through a farm school. I really only picked it up because I thought it would have been some sports like manga dealing with horses (since the cover was of a girl riding a horse). I was wrong. Using an agricultural school as a background is original, but it also gives you an insight on farming life which many people probably would have no idea about.

this is seriously good. it is different that the fare i usually consume, and i like the fresh taste it brings. i love it when a manga also become an educational vehicle whatever the subject matter is, and farming is quite an interesting thing to know since i seldom come into contact with it. i hope everyone will read this without any misconception and prejudice or hanging to old memories, and see the goodness in this manga.