It's hard to follow a legendary work, but....

Well, Mikage was not the best choice for female lead (I would've gone with...almost anyone else, though Yoshino, Inada, hell, even Minamikujou are at the top of the list). The "romance" is pretty much non-existent and progresses so slowly that even the other characters make fun of it.

And then there's "The Four Seasons" arc which dominates the latter part of the manga; it's pretty superfluous and focuses on things that I didn't particularly care about.

Is Silver Spoon worth your time? Yes. Is it a Mizukami-esque triumph following on the heels of another triumph? No, not even close.

Really good read, my only gripe maybe would be lack of an epilogue showing the main characters. Aside from that recommended to all.

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.

... Last updated on October 3rd, 2020, 2:15pm

Huh I started reading this manga quite a long time ago and it feels like we're finally graduating HS and moving into college life. The HS parts and farming were OK but glad we see some progress in studies and the MC's farming company progress. The romance is still on standby but then again it's the same manga-ka as FMA so you know they'll get married after 30 vol.

I kinda miss the fantasy setting of the FMA but props for a totally original idea outside the usual SoL HS setting and problems.

3/11/2021 : I finally read the final chapter and it was just OK. I'm glad there was a mini-epilogue for the cast but that romance subplot dragged it down a lot since it's still not resolved 9 years later. I'm like just a scene there they're on a city date... anything really.

... Last updated on April 8th, 2022, 4:12pm

I really liked this one, has a freshness to it but one thing is ruining this for me, having an imbecile interrupt Hachiken each and every time he's trying to make a move on Mikage grows old on the first time and it's been used at least 5 times already, and Hachiken instear of getting angry he apologizes.... So not only the mangaka made the main characters pretty slow on their romance he also made sure no progress is made in the relationship in the worst possible way. There are a few things I hate in stories, among them are ridiculously dense characters, resetting endings and like here unnecessary interruptions to perpetuate something the author has no better idea of how to continue.
Other than that it's great but it's getting dragged and worse, the mangaka had the great idea of making the most annoying guy in the whole series be the third main char....

By the way Udred, how can you say this is rushed, it's true the resumes one year (not two as you say) in 2 volumes, still the pace of the story is rather on the slow side and the third year of school is still going.

... Last updated on September 11th, 2016, 11:24pm

I really liked Gin no Saiji/Silver Spoon, but, while not bad I like it a lot less with the super condensed time scale. Eighty or ninety chapters to cover one year and then boiling two into around ten chapters? It feels like the author got bored with it. Still very much reading but it feels far too rushed once they get past the first year

Don't misunderstand me, it's a fantastic manga.
I just want to point out a tiny thing I haven't seen anyone mention.
Gin no Saji teaches a lot about the value of hard work, stating hard work surpasses what people would call a genius on many occassions.
However, I would like to pose some questions about the manga in general:
Before reading it, did you put it on hold for some time, because you just couldn't imagine the theme being interesting?
Did you drop it early after just a few chapters because it didn't seem exciting, but came back later?

Judging by the other reviews, many people would answer at least one of these questions with yes.
Now, where do I want to go with this? The author.
How many mangaka do you think exist that have the ability to take literally any theme and turn it into something of this quality?
Arakawa Hiromu has proven with Fullmetal Alchemist that he is a genius mangaka and by taking the theme of Gin no Saji to this level of quality, manifested it, even though Gin no Saji teaches that being a genius has no value.

When I first read this, I didn't even finish the first chapter. It didn't pique my interest at all. So I dropped it. Lol. Then after I don't know how many weeks and after several manga, I browsed the catalog and saw it again. I was looking for something slice of life-ish. So I picked it up again. Then I found myself reading through all the chapters available in one sitting. It was wordy and may seem kinda boring but it was actually fun to read. Very different from FMA. And I don't know if there's even a plot. Well, it's probably Hachiken's journey or him getting a dream or something. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to reading more.

This manga started off very entertaining, there are distance events and characters and the plot/arcs move at a good pace.

However, at about vol 8 onward everything feels like fillers. The "love comedy" stops being funny, most of the characters just stop developing, and because of the somewhat large number of characters, you just stop caring what happens with them or even who they were. The farm work and learning disappears (the one thing that were interesting about the series). It slowly become just another run of the mill "school life" manga with bad love-com.

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