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Japanese manga series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Silver Spoon (Japanese: 銀の匙, Hepburn: Gin no Saji) is a Japanese coming-of-age manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. It was serialized in Shogakukan's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday from April 2011 to November 2019. The story is set in the fictional Ooezo Agricultural High School in Hokkaido, and depicts the daily life of Yuugo Hachiken, a high school student from Sapporo who enrolled at Ooezo Agricultural High School fleeing from the demands of his strict father. However, he soon learns that life on an agricultural school is not as easy as he initially believed. Unlike his new classmates, he has no intention of following an agricultural career after graduating, although he envies them for already having set goals for their lives and the pursuit of their dreams.
| Silver Spoon | |
_1.png) First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Yuugo Hachiken | |
| 銀の匙 (Gin no Saji) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Hiromu Arakawa |
| Published by | Shogakukan |
| English publisher | |
| Imprint | Shōnen Sunday Comics |
| Magazine | Weekly Shōnen Sunday |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Original run | April 6, 2011 – November 27, 2019 |
| Volumes | 15 |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by |
|
| Produced by |
|
| Written by | Taku Kishimoto |
| Music by | Shūsei Murai |
| Studio | A-1 Pictures |
| Licensed by | |
| Original network | Fuji TV (Noitamina) |
| Original run | July 12, 2013 – March 28, 2014 |
| Episodes | 22 |
| Live-action film | |
| Directed by | Keisuke Yoshida |
| Produced by |
|
| Written by |
|
| Music by | Takefumi Haketa |
| Studio | Toho |
| Released | March 7, 2014 |
| Runtime | 111 minutes |
An anime television series adaptation produced by A-1 Pictures aired for two seasons between July and September 2013 and January and March 2014 on Fuji TV's Noitamina block. A live-action film based on the manga produced by Toho was released in March 2014.
By February 2020, the manga had over 17 million copies in circulation. It won the fifth Manga Taishō in 2012, the 58th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category and the Japan Food Culture Contents Award, both in 2013.
After failing to pass the entrance examinations for the high school he planned to attend, mild-mannered student Yuugo Hachiken moves away from his suburban home and enrolls at the rural Ooezo Agricultural High School (大蝦夷農業高等学校, Ōezo Nōgyō Kōtō Gakkō) – often abbreviated as Ezonō (エゾノー, lit. "Ezo Ag") – in the countryside. His relationship with his family is strained at the start of the story, which influences his decision to attend a school far from home. He continues to worry about his future career over the course of the series. He soon finds himself slowly getting used to his new environment despite some initial struggles, and grows into an empathetic and compassionate individual as he struggles to understand the world of agriculture and how it affects the lives of his new friends.
After the completion of her successful fantasy series Fullmetal Alchemist, author Hiromu Arakawa and her publisher Shogakukan agreed that she should begin the more realistic Silver Spoon as a way to challenge herself as a manga artist and recruit new readers.[5] Having grown up in a rural setting, many elements of the manga are drawn from Arakawa's experiences in her youth. For instance, characters such as the piggery teacher Ichiko Fuji and members of the Holstein fanclub are based on individuals she knew in her high school.[5] Though the story contains matters like the protagonist Yuugo Hachiken's ethical dilemma over animal slaughter, Arakawa insists Silver Spoon is not a "green" manga. She states that she simply wants to tell the story of a high schooler's maturation, similar to how Fullmetal Alchemist focuses on the development of the main character Edward Elric rather than promoting alchemy.[5]
Silver Spoon began its publication in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on April 6, 2011.[6] It was serialized regularly until August 2014 when Arakawa announced she would slow the pace of producing new chapters of the manga so that she could care for a family member in declining health.[7] After an eight-month hiatus, the manga briefly resumed in April 2015 until another short hiatus was announced the following month.[8][9] After the release of the manga's 13th volume, the author announced its "imminent" conclusion. She later explained that she had originally planned to depict Yuugo's first year at Ooezo in detail, followed by rushed second year and shortened third year, and his eventual life after graduation.[10] In 2016, new chapters were published from January to February and August to September.[11][12][13] The manga went on hiatus in July 2017, after three chapters were published.[14][15] Four chapters were published between May and June 2018.[16][17] The four last chapters were published from November 6–27, 2019.[18][19][20][21][22]
Influenced by Arakawa's own life experience, as she was raised in a dairy farm in Hokkaido, Silver Spoon started in Shogakukan's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine on April 6, 2011. It became one of the magazine's main features not long after.[23] The manga finished on November 27, 2019.[20][21] Its individual chapters were collected in 15 tankōbon volumes, released from July 15, 2011, to February 18, 2020.[24][25]
The manga has been licensed for English-language release in Singapore by Shogakukan Asia,[26] while in North America, Yen Press announced the acquisition of the manga in July 2017 and published the volumes between February 27, 2018, and September 22, 2020.[27][28][29]
| No. | Original release date | Original ISBN | English release date | English ISBN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | July 15, 2011[24] | 978-4-09-123180-2 | February 27, 2018[28] | 978-0-316-41619-1 | ||
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| 2 | December 14, 2011[30] | 978-4-09-123427-8 | April 24, 2018[31] | 978-1-9753-2619-7 | ||
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| 3 | April 18, 2012[32] | 978-4-09-123653-1 | June 26, 2018[33] | 978-1-9753-2746-0 | ||
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| 4 | July 18, 2012[34] | 978-4-09-123772-9 | August 21, 2018[35] | 978-1-9753-2759-0 | ||
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| 5 | October 18, 2012[36] | 978-4-09-123886-3 | October 30, 2018[37] | 978-1-9753-2760-6 | ||
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| 6 | January 18, 2013[38] | 978-4-09-124169-6 | December 11, 2018[39] | 978-1-9753-2761-3 | ||
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| 7 | April 18, 2013[40] | 978-4-09-124285-3 | February 19, 2019[41] | 978-1-9753-2762-0 | ||
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| 8 | July 11, 2013[42] | 978-4-09-124346-1 | April 30, 2019[43] | 978-1-9753-2763-7 | ||
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| 9 | October 18, 2013[44] | 978-4-09-124474-1 | June 18, 2019[45] | 978-1-9753-2764-4 | ||
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| 10 | January 8, 2014[46] | 978-4-09-159177-7 | August 27, 2019[47] | 978-1-9753-2765-1 | ||
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| 11 | March 5, 2014[48] | 978-4-09-124574-8 | October 29, 2019[49] | 978-1-9753-2766-8 | ||
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| 12 | August 18, 2014[50] | 978-4-09-125088-9 | December 17, 2019[51] | 978-1-9753-5313-1 | ||
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| 13 | June 18, 2015[52] | 978-4-09-126059-8 | February 18, 2020[53] | 978-1-9753-5314-8 | ||
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| 14 | August 18, 2017[54] | 978-4-09-127720-6 | April 28, 2020[55] | 978-1-9753-5315-5 | ||
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| 15 | February 18, 2020[25][56] | 978-4-09-129549-1 978-4-09-943064-1 (LE) | September 22, 2020[29] | 978-1-97-535365-0 | ||
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An anime television series produced by A-1 Pictures aired for eleven episodes from July 12 to September 20, 2013.[57][58][a] Tomohiko Itō directed the series with assistant director Kotomi Deai. Taku Kishimoto wrote the scripts, while Jun Nakai served as character designer and chief animation director, and Shusei Murai scored the music. A second season aired from January 10 to March 28, 2014.[60][61][62][63][b] For the first season, the opening theme is "Kiss you" by Miwa, while the ending theme is "Hello Especially" by Sukima Switch.[65] For the second season, the opening theme is "Life" by Fujifabric and the ending theme is "Oto no Naru Hō e" by Goose House.[66]
The anime has been licensed by Aniplex of America for streaming and home video in North America. Aniplex of America released the first season on DVD on July 15, 2014,[67] and the second on December 16 of that same year.[68]
| No. | Title | Directed by | Original release date [58] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Welcome to Ezo Ag" Transliteration: "Ezonō e, yōkoso" (Japanese: エゾノーへ、ようこそ) | Tomohiko Itō | July 12, 2013 | |
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Running away from home, Yuugo Hachiken leaves the urban life at Sapporo to enroll at the Ooezo Agricultural High School and it does not take long for him to learn that adapting himself to his new environment will not be easy. | ||||
| 2 | "Hachiken Rides a Horse" Transliteration: "Hachiken, uma ni noru" (Japanese: 八軒、馬に乗る) | Ho Pyeon-gang | July 19, 2013 | |
|
Getting used to his new environment, Hachiken must enroll at one of the school clubs according to the curriculum, and encouraged by his classmate Aki Mikage, he ends up joining her at the equestrian club. However, he spends the day doing menial tasks like cleaning the stables and just when he is starting to regret his decision, he is invited to experience the joy of riding a horse for the first time. | ||||
| 3 | "Hachiken Meets Pork Bowl" Transliteration: "Hachiken, butadon to deau" (Japanese: 八軒、豚丼と出会う) | Kazuo Nogami | July 26, 2013 | |
|
With most of the students on leave at Golden Week, Hachiken, Mikage and their classmate Ichiro Komaba watch a Ban'ei horse race together, and despite the horse bred at Mikage's farm do not win, she gets some relief learning that he gets well placed enough to have a chance of not being killed for livestock. After returning to the school, Hachiken pities a piglet that is the weakest and smallest among its siblings and, giving it the nickname "Pork-Bowl," decides to take care of it, just to later know that it will be sent to the slaughterhouse in three months. | ||||
| 4 | "Hachiken Bakes Pizza" Transliteration: "Hachiken, piza o yaku" (Japanese: 八軒、ピザを焼く) | Yasuo Muroi | August 2, 2013 | |
|
During the regular campus cleanup, Hachiken stumbles upon an abandoned oven (which was later revealed to be owned by the School Headmaster) and his classmates convince him to make pizza with it, as most of them never ate one before. As Hachiken and his friends gather the necessary supplies throughout the campus, a teacher from his old school in Sapporo drops at Ezo to check on him. | ||||
| 5 | "Hachiken Runs Off" Transliteration: "Hachiken, dassō suru" (Japanese: 八軒、脱走する) | Ken Andō | August 9, 2013 | |
|
The boys take heed of a certain special event to be held at night and come with a plan to slip past curfew to get a glimpse of it. Having no idea about what is it or why his classmates are so pumped up with it, Hachiken ends up dragged along in their scheme. | ||||
| 6 | "Hachiken Stays with the Mikages" Transliteration: "Hachiken, Mikage-ke ni iku" (Japanese: 八軒、御影家に行く) | Kotomi Deai | August 16, 2013 | |
|
Learning that the dorms will be closed for summer vacation but refusing to return home, Hachiken accepts Mikage's offer to work at her family's farm. However, once realizing that he has not warned his parents about it, he looks for a place with cellphone signal until he gets lost and is rescued by Komaba. In the events that followed, he got to dress his first deer as a result. | ||||
| 7 | "Hachiken Goes to Giga Farm" Transliteration: "Hachiken, Giga fāmu e" (Japanese: 八軒、ギガファームへ) | Ho Pyeon-gang | August 23, 2013 | |
|
Hachiken and Mikage take a break from work and pay a visit to Giga Farm, a huge industrial farm that belongs to their classmate Tamako Inada's family. In the occasion, Hachiken learns about the rather harsh reality of the animals living there and realizes Mikage's worries about her family's expectations for her future. | ||||
| 8 | "Hachiken Makes a Huge Mistake" Transliteration: "Hachiken, dai shittai o enjiru" (Japanese: 八軒、大失態を演じる) | Kiyoshi Murayama | August 30, 2013 | |
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Hachiken's older brother Shingo pays a visit at the Mikage farm to check on him, much to his young brother's chagrin. Just as his part-time job is about to finish, Hachiken's carelessness leads to damage to the farm. Wanting to take responsibility for the accident, he refuses to be paid for his work. However, he is convinced by the Mikages to accept payment as they consider that all the help he provided them during these three weeks were worth it, despite what happened. | ||||
| 9 | "Hachiken Hesitates over Pork Bowl" Transliteration: "Hachiken, butadon ni mayou" (Japanese: 八軒、豚丼に迷う) | Tomotaka Shibayama | September 6, 2013 | |
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Back from summer break, Hachiken learns that Pork-Bowl has not grown as much as its peers and takes extra measures to ensure that it gains weight faster, even knowing that this will make things even more painful for him when the time comes to part with it. | ||||
| 10 | "Hachiken Says Goodbye to Pork Bowl" Transliteration: "Hachiken, butadon to wakareru" (Japanese: 八軒、豚丼と別れる) | Tomohiko Itō | September 13, 2013 | |
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The time has come for Pork-Bowl to be sent to the slaughterhouse and Hachiken decides to make use of the money he earned during summer vacation to buy all its meat. After the meat is delivered to him, Hachiken's friends come with several ideas about what to do with it. He decided to turn 50 kilos of the meat into bacon. | ||||
| 11 | "Take Off Running, Hachiken" Transliteration: "Hashiridase, Hachiken" (Japanese: 走り出せ、八軒) | Kotomi Deai | September 20, 2013 | |
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The bacon Hachiken prepared with Pork-Bowl's meat becomes a fad among the students and it does not take long for it to run out. As Komaba plays in the local baseball team aiming for the nationals, his friends come to the stadium to cheer for him and Hachiken realizes that six months has passed since he enrolled in Ezo Ag and, unlike his friends, he still has not decided what path he should take in life. | ||||
| No. | Title | Directed by | Original release date [63] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Hachiken Becomes the Club Vice President" Transliteration: "Hachiken, fukubuchō ni naru" (Japanese: 八軒、副部長になる) | Jun Soga | January 10, 2014 | |
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The seniors from the Equestrian Club appoint Hachiken as the new vice-president against his will. Troubled about it, he later witnesses Mikage crying after having a serious conversation with Komaba and can't stop worrying about them as well, even after they tell him to forget about it. | ||||
| 2 | "Hachiken Adopts Vice Prez" Transliteration: "Hachiken, fukubuchō o hirou" (Japanese: 八軒、副ぶちょーを拾う) | Yasuhiro Geshi | January 17, 2014 | |
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Hachiken finds an abandoned puppy during campus clean-up and decides to adopt it. However, taking care of his new pet is not an easy task, as he not only needs money for vaccines and registration, but has to train it (the food bill is thanks to a donation box Tokiwa attached to his collar). Yoshino and everyone in the Equestrian Club temporarily named the puppy "Fukubucho no Inu" ("The Vice President's Dog"), which, by the next day, was shortened to just "Fukubucho" ("Vice President"), with hilarious results for Hachiken, THE Equestrian Club vice-president. Also in this episode, Hachiken injures himself after trying to save Komaba from getting pinned by a cow that slipped on some manure. | ||||
| 3 | "Hachiken Jumps High" Transliteration: "Hachiken, takaku tobu" (Japanese: 八軒、高く跳ぶ) | Tomotaka Shibayama | January 24, 2014 | |
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The newbies from the Equestrian Club have their first jump class, but Hachiken is the only one who fails to have his horse jump an obstacle, bringing some unpleasant memories of his past to surface. Claiming that it needs more than words to have him figure out the reason why, Mikage takes him to a jumping competition. | ||||
| 4 | "Minamikujou Appears" Transliteration: "Minamikujō, arawaru" (Japanese: 南九条、あらわる) | Hiroyuki Kanbe | January 31, 2014 | |
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Hachiken participates in his first official jumping competition, where he finished fourth in his category (with Maron). In the occasion he and Mikage have a short meeting with Ayame Minamikujō, Mikage's childhood friend and self-proclaimed rival, and is startled when meeting his brother again by surprise. | ||||
| 5 | "Hachiken Has His Hands Full" Transliteration: "Hachiken, ōwarawa" (Japanese: 八軒、大わらわ) | Hiroki Negishi | February 7, 2014 | |
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With the Ezo Ag Festival fast approaching, the Equestrian Club begins work on Ban'ei horse racing track, despite Hachiken tasking himself with way too much work. Afterwards Hachiken takes initiative and asks Mikage out on a date and his feelings for her are revealed by her friends. However, on the morning of the festival, Hachiken suddenly collapses on the race track. | ||||
| 6 | "Mikage Gives It Her All" Transliteration: "Mikage, funtō su" (Japanese: 御影、奮闘す) | Yasuhito Nishikata | February 14, 2014 | |
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Hachiken wakes up at the hospital and comes face to face with his father, who wastes no time blaming the Ezo Ag institution for Hachiken's fatigue. Meanwhile, Mikage and the Equestrian Club work their hardest to make the festival a success and praise Hachiken for all his hard work upon his return. | ||||
| 7 | "Komaba Takes The Mound" Transliteration: "Komaba, maundo ni tatsu" (Japanese: 駒場、マウンドに立つ) | Ken Andō | February 28, 2014 | |
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The time has come for the Regional Baseball Championship and the students cheer for Ezo Ag's team, hoping for them to reach the National tournament, specially for Komaba who is one of the team's highlights. | ||||
| 8 | "Hachiken Howls" Transliteration: "Hachiken, hoeru" (Japanese: 八軒、咆える) | Hironori Aoyagi | March 7, 2014 | |
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Hachiken discovers that Komaba has lost not only the Championship, but the last chance for him to settle the debts of his farm and is forced to quit school and look for a job to help at home. Despite knowing that there is not anything he can do about it, Hachiken can't bear to accept the fact that Komaba was forced to give up on his ambitions before he could even get the chance to fight for them. | ||||
| 9 | "The Last Milk" Transliteration: "Saigo no gyūnyū" (Japanese: 最後の牛乳) | Shunsuke Machiya | March 14, 2014 | |
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Despite knowing that there is nothing he could do for Komaba's sake, Hachiken claims to Mikage that it is fine for them to rely on him and they pay a visit at Komaba's farm to pay their respects as all their cows are seized to pay for their debt. However, with her father being a co-guarantor of the Komaba farm's loan, Mikage's farm is also in difficulties and when they are forced to sell all their horses, she comes with an important decision with Hachiken's support. | ||||
| 10 | "Dream" Transliteration: "Yume" (Japanese: 夢) | Tomotaka Shibayama | March 21, 2014 | |
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Determined to follow her dream of working with horses, Mikage is allowed to work under her uncle instead of inheriting her father's farm under the condition of making into college and Hachiken agrees to help her. | ||||
| 11 | "Over and Over Again" Transliteration: "Nandodemo" (Japanese: 何度でも) | Kotomi Deai | March 28, 2014 | |
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Hachiken returns home to Sapporo to obtain his brother's study guides for Mikage and has a frustratingly insightful encounter with his father. Afterwards Hachiken's mother visits Ezo Ag to better understand the school he chose and leaves knowing that he is growing into a better person. Finally, as the winter season approaches, Hachiken and his friends begin planning their respective futures. | ||||
A live-action film based on the manga was officially announced in the Nikkan Sports and Sports Nippon newspapers on August 7, 2013. Kento Nakajima played Yuugo Hachiken, with Alice Hirose as Aki Mikage and Tomohiro Ichikawa as Ichiro Komaba.[69] The film was directed by Keisuke Yoshida, with the production companies TBS and Wilco and the distributor Toho.[70] It premiered in Tokyo on March 7, 2014,[71] and was also shown at the Japan Film Festival of San Francisco on July 22, 2014.[72] The film's theme song is "Hidamari", performed by Yuzu.[73][71] Iwasawa Koji wrote and composed the song for the movie.[71]
Since its first volume, Silver Spoon had been well received by readers. It became the fastest Shogakukan title at the time to reach the mark of one million first printing copies, a year and three months after the manga was launched.[74] According to Oricon, it was also the seventh best-selling manga in Japan in 2012.[75] By October 2013 it has sold 12 million copies in Japan.[76] By 2014 the series has sold over 15 million copies in Japan.[77] By July, 2017, the manga had over 16 million copies in print.[78] By February 2020, the manga had over 17 million copies in print.[79]
Silver Spoon ranked second on the "Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics" by the Honya Club website in 2012.[80] Silver Spoon won the fifth Manga Taishō Award's Grand Prize in 2012,[81] and the 58th Shogakukan Manga Award (shōnen category) in 2013.[82] In 2013 Silver Spoon won the first Japan Food Culture Contents Award.[83] It was one of nine nominees for the 19th annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2015.[84]
Publishers Weekly concluded that the work is "a side of Japanese high school life seldom seen in manga, making for an irresistible series."[85] Barnes & Noble listed Silver Spoon on their list of "Our Favorite Manga of 2018".[86]
In November 2019, Crunchyroll listed Silver Spoon in their "Top 100 best anime of the 2010s".[87]
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