Manga review · Coming of age
Silver Spoon Manga Review: A Farm-School Story for Anyone Who Doesn’t Know What They Want to Be
“What do you want to be in the future?”
If that question ever left you stuck for an answer, this manga is for you.
Silver Spoon at a glance
- Japanese title
- 銀の匙 (Gin no Saji)
- Creator
- Hiromu Arakawa, creator of Fullmetal Alchemist
- English publisher
- Yen Press
- Length
- 15 volumes, complete
- Genre
- Coming-of-age, school life, comedy, food
- Setting
- An agricultural high school in Hokkaido, Japan
- Best for
- Readers who are unsure about their future, food-manga fans, and anyone who loved Arakawa’s storytelling
What is Silver Spoon about?
Silver Spoon is a coming-of-age manga set at an agricultural high school in Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island. Its hero, Yugo Hachiken, grew up in a family with no connection to farming at all.
Hachiken is good at studying. But at this school, test scores don’t get you very far. He is thrown off by the animals, pushed around by hands-on farm work, and can’t help noticing how capable his classmates seem. He is a little hopeless, a little awkward, and impossible not to root for.
The fun of everyday farm-school life
The first thing that makes Silver Spoon such a joy is the daily life of the school. Early-morning chores, banter with friends, life in the dorm: for Hachiken, every day brings a new surprise. Between laughing at his larger-than-life classmates, you start to feel like you have moved into the dorm yourself.
And the food looks incredible. They work hard, get hungry, and sit down to eat together. Those meals are drawn so warmly that you will want to put the book down and find a snack.
What comes before “delicious”
But this manga also shows what comes before the good food.
Caring for an animal, and eating it. Having a dream, and turning it into a job. When simply liking something is not enough to find the answer, Hachiken stops and struggles. Little by little, that clumsy honesty starts to look like real strength.
Why it hits close to home
Everyone around you seems to have a goal, and you have nothing. You tried so hard to meet someone else’s expectations that you wore yourself out. If either of those sounds familiar, Hachiken’s confusion will feel very close to your own.
Do you need to know anything about farming?
Not at all. Hachiken starts out knowing nothing, and the story is at its best when you are surprised right alongside him. Japanese agricultural high schools may be unfamiliar to many American readers, but that is part of the fun: you learn the place the same way he does.
The bottom line
You laugh, you get hungry, and then, almost without noticing, you start thinking about your own future. That is the kind of time Silver Spoon gives you. Start with Volume 1 and take a peek at this slightly unusual high school life.
- Look for the Yen Press English edition, Volume 1
- The series is complete in 15 volumes, so you can read it to the end
- Check the Kindle listing for current price and availability in your region