Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「kiss you」 by (miwa)
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「エゾノーへ、ようこそ」 (Ezonoo e, Youkoso)
Welcome to Ezonoo!”
I’m guessing that’s the first time in anime we’ve heard the line, "Dammit – how can something so tasty come out of an anus?!"
Just to review, here are a few of the superlatives with Gin no Saji:
- Winner of the Manga Taishou Grand Prize
- Winner of the Shogakukan Manga Award
- 7th best-selling title in japan in 2012
- Fastest Shogakukan title in history to reach 1 million volumes sold
Needless to say, Silver Spoon is a prestige title. It combines commercial and critical success in a way few manga can, and seems a fitting series to welcome NoitaminA back to the schedule (halfway back, anyway). As if all that weren’t enough it also springs from the pencil of Arakawa Hiromu, who authored one of the most beloved titles in manga, Fullmetal Alchemist – a series which spawned not one but two highly-successful anime adaptations, the second of which was arguably the best shounen anime adaptation before Madhouse’s Hunter X Hunter came along.
It could be said that there was a lot of pressure on A-1 Pictures and director Itou Tomohiko, whose previous works as director are SAO and Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin. With a manga this beloved, there’s a perception (largely inaccurate) that all a director has to do is not screw it up. That’s certainly part of the challenge, but it’s far more difficult than most believe to find the essence of what makes a great manga great and capture it in anime. So far, the early returns are excellent. Based on the premiere, Itou-sensei didn’t screw it up, and created a world that was both inviting and amusing.
One of the things that makes Gin no Saji so well-received, I suspect, is that it packs a lot of obvious sincerity. Arakawa-sensei grew up on a farm in Hokkaido, and her knowledge of this world and affection for it are clear from the moment the story begins to unwind. Because Arakawa is who she is Silver Spoon is classified as a shounen, but if such things matter (I think they’re overrated, personally) it seems very much a seinen title to me. To say it represents a departure from FMA is an understatement, but in its way I think the world of Gin no Saji (the title is a reference to the "silver spoon" newborns in Europe – when it was an agriculturally-driven continent – were given at birth, to symbolize the hope that they never go hungry) is almost as strange to most modern Japanese as that of FMA. One of the cornerstones of GnS is the disconnect modern people have from the source of their sustenance – the dirt, the dung, the blood. For most of modern history agriculture has been an immediate reality of life for most people – in the last Century that’s changed radically, and nowhere more radically than in Japan, where the flight of the young to Tokyo has been an increasing reality in recent decades.
Personifying this disconnect is main character Hachiken Yuugo (Kimura Ryouhei). We don’t learn too much about him just yet, but we know he’s a city boy from Sapporo who’s enrolled at Ooezo Agricultural High School, somewhere in rural Hokkaido. From the start it’s clear this is a classic fish-out-of-water situation – Hachi-kun seems to have no knowledge of how to deal with animals, 5 AM wake-up calls, Phys-Ed classes taught by Major Armstrong look-alike Todoroki Gou (fantastic in-joke getting Utsumi Kenji to do the voice – and a fine tribute to Utsumi-san, who sadly passed away last month, making this his final role) with 20 KM runs and the reality of where eggs come from (it’s not a pretty picture). While he’s clearly more comfortable in conventional subjects such as math – an area where he seems to be far ahead of his classmates – it’s agricultural matters that are the main focus of life at Ooezo. Hachiken’s classmates all express a desire to achieve successful careers in agriculture, many carrying on their family’s farming business – it’s clear these are not ignorant bumpkins but modern farm kids with a mind towards succeeding in the 21st-Century. Just what Hachiken wants – and what he’s doing at Ooezo in the first place – isn’t made clear, but he seems to express a certain disdain at the idea of having goals.
Life at Ooezo is hard, right from the beginning, and students are immediately thrust into the thick of it. First-years are immediately split up into groups of five students for work on "practicals" – which seem to double as first-hand experience at agricultural method and free labor for the school’s for-profit farming activity. Hachiken’s teammates are a cross-section of kids from family farms, and one, Aikawa Shinnosuke (Shimazaki Nobunaga) who dreams of being a veterinarian. Hachiken most takes notice, however, of Mikage Aki (Miayki Maire), a horse-loving girl and the neighbor of one of his classmates, seemingly destined to be the primary love interest in the story.
It’s not so much that any wheels are re-invented in the premiere, but it’s a matter of that word again – sincerity. Hachiken’s struggles with runaway calves and glasses and hair-chewing horses, and his (and Aikawa’s) squeamishness at what happens to chickens are genuine and believable. Silver Spoon is quite funny and resolutely earthy, and it seems intent on showing both the idyllic and harsh nature of agricultural life. Deplorable conditions at poultry farms are mentioned in the premiere, and the OP suggests the struggle for Hachi-kun as he realizes that the bacon and steak he enjoys so much comes from cute little piggies and calves. This is a world that’s mostly unseen and unknown for most of us, and certainly one almost never visited in anime (even Moyashimon’s setting is much more traditionally urban) – one of many reasons why GnS looks to be a fascinating change of pace both for Arakawa and for the medium itself. Fittingly for a series focused in the farm, a big part of the magic of Silver Spoon is that it feels so fresh, and despite the high expectations this is a premiere that doesn’t disappoint in the slightest. All the signs point to this being one of the best shows of the season, if not the year.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「Hello Especially」 by (Sukima Switch)
Agree. Incredibly refreshing show with a very unique twist. Really looking forward to how it adapts the manga – so far it’s done a bang up job.
I’ve never read the source material (yet?), but this episode does entertain me.
So many cows….& cute too =D
The egg from butt joke did leave me hesitating about eating eggs a bit, but meh, I’ve been eating eggs into my 20’s, & as long as they’re cleaned & well-cooked I have no problems whatsoever =).
Though it does make me wonder, is raw egg tasty? Thanks to anime I’m aware of raw egg sauce in sukiyaki, raw egg as topping for katsudon & thanks to this episode, rice+raw egg+soy sauce = oshii.
Yuugo’s female groupmate flying in the wind had me lol-ing for a while ^^V
Btw, the version I saw had the censored headless chicken part too.
I wonder if it’ll be censored for the BD version.
And info update:apparently Gin no Saji anime will be a split 2-cour series. Next part in Jan 2014.
Yeah, NoitaminA announced that a while back.
Confession: I had no idea about the egg-anus connection. But I knew there was a reason eggs creep me out! I admit I eat them when I can’t identify them as themselves – in baked goods, etc – but on their own, I can’t stands ’em. And the idea of a raw one (extremely beloved here in Japan) pretty much makes me go over all Hachi-kun.
Damn you ANUS!! hehehehe
Eggs are great and I’ve always loved them, anus or not.
By the way, have you ever bought eggs at the store and seen some crusty bits on the shells? Just a reminder ;D
Your not supposed to eat the Shell…
you missed my point 😐
I am really going to enjoy reading the reactions to this series, as I come from a farming background I get to laugh at all the squeamish city folk hahaha. But I really do like this series and what it exposes the reader/viewer to. The disconnect between consumer and producer is sorta disheartening tbh.
I’ve been following the manga from the very start, so seeing this animated was a wonderful treat! Unfortunately it means I’m well-versed in spoilers, but hey it’ll still be a fun ride :3
A great first Episode, just like I expected it to be.
Since Eggs are a major topic in this episode:
How do you like to eat your eggs?
I like them when the white is hard but the yellow part is still runny.
How I like to eat my eggs?
If bought: fried eggs, Chinese steamed eggs or egg tart.
If self-cooked: soft & hard-boiled eggs (either on its own with soy sauce/pepper, or as part of salads or sandwiches), egg flower soup. After watching this episode I doubt I’ll be boiling any eggs directly with other ingredients for soup anymore. =/
either scrambled Gordon Ramsay style, fried with a runny yolk, or half-boiled. going to have to try raw egg on rice with soy sauce some time!
raw egg is good on a lot of things! you can eat it with ramen and it’d cook faster than you think! also, mixing it with rice (i think this should be steaming hot) gives such a nice texture and really enhances the flavor you get from the soy sauce. add some asian chili pepper garlic sauce (or something, too white-washed to know the name) for something really nice too! lastly, if you’ve ever had hot pot or shabu shabu, it’s probably the most essential ingredient for the sauces.
When I was young, I hated the yolk. Always prefer the white. I have no problem with omelette and scrambled though. Now, I pretty much prefer it in the same way as you are.
Raw egg on various rice dishes is really good indeed!
I like eggs in almost any way be it raw, omelette, benedict, deviled, etc. except for when it’s hard-boiled because the yolk gets too dry and powdery. Give me soft-boiled any day.
Been anticipating this show since it was announced but damn this was so hilarious AND educational at the same time! and that chicken head chop I think It was more horrifying rather than the anus thing.
Well, if you cut the head. they can still go some steps on its own, or try to Pick up food as nothing is wrong… Horror? 🙂 You must get used to it, if you want to do that. Oh and dont faint of the Smell you Nose is giving you
or… If you are going to “cut” a Pig.. His Screams, his chills go so deep into your Bones…
you will swear, that you never would eat this flesh 🙂
In modern slaughterhouses, pigs are knocked out cold by applying a high voltage shock on the base of the neck, so they can cut it without pain or screams.
There is even a scene on this manga showing how they do it.
I highly anticipated this show, i love FMA and i’ve missed not a single Noitamina show so far. But i’m sadly not completely happy with this series.
You speak of “sincerity”, but I don’t see it shown consequently: we see the laying battery, but not with all it’s consequences, it isn’t realistically presented: in reality you would see wounded stressed hens without feathers, some even already half-dead. THAT would have been sincere (“it’s critized in the west”, No sh*t, idiot!)
We hear and see how much place they have there: than please share it with the animals who provide food for you. As much as i like Japan, as a vegetarian and animal rights activist it really sad to see that they have no idea how to treat animals fair.
And make no mistake: the scene with the beheaded hen was fine, because that’s how meat comes to your table, i wish that every person who wants to eat meat had to care for and butcher the animal themselves. That way you would value what you eat, and the individual animal had stil a meaning.
I will continue to watch this series, but i hope for fewer embellishment.
that pretty much sums up some of pet peeves I have with this show – its pretty much a propaganda trying to justify the current agricultural practices in our world.
i think your comment is fair. to be honest, i would have rather seen the egg battery cages seem more restrictive as well, but perhaps that was crossing the line moreso than beheading a live chicken, and arakawa didnt feel it necessary to pressure the viewers. the aim of the show is definitely to promote the views on rural life, so i am pretty convinced some grueling details will be spared (and probably unjustly so).
i watched this without a slightest bit of expectations and i gain a good 20minutes full of entertainment. unique anime and really refreshing and it kinda remind me of my agricultural education i was forced during my high school days 😀
You mentioned Armstrong, and didn’t the other roommate look like Gluttony?
The list of FMA Shout outs goes on…
Yugo = Shiezka (reverse gendered)
Aki = Rose (with short hair)
Komaba = Dolcetto (from Greed’s party)
Anyway, this is one of the few manga that torment me each week with antecipation for the next chapter (specially in recent arcs) and a testament that Arakawa was not a victim of plagues like “one-hit-wonder syndrome” or “chronic genre deadlock” that usually afflict so many famous authors. I’m sure that those who were still looking for something different, funny and heartwarming this season don’t need to look further.
It’s certainly not in every anime do we see a decapitated chicken that still wriggles in post-mortum tics. Complete with nonchalant (to the adult farmers) blood spattering upon faces, too!
This is kinda like seeing a story with the city mouse meeting the country mouse, with the addendum that the city mouse stays extensively with the country mice. I don’t really know what to expect from the protagonist, but it’s really nifty to see how Arakawa depicts farming life in Hokkaido, which I’m hoping doesn’t require any sort of glossing over of facts. Though, it’s not like I’m expecting this to be some sort of “Food, Inc: the Anime edition” either, but it’s always cool to see how other countries want to depict the most essential foundations of their lifestyle.
This episode certainly makes me want to dry raw egg over steaming bowl of rice, though! (insert fears of salmonella right here)
Sold after thecasual chicken beheading. Going to enjoy this as much as season 1 of Moyashimon!
I will always say that this title made me lose the incredible amount of respect I had for Arakawa.
When I first read the first chapter a few years ago, I was just dumbstruck by how incredibly generic, slow-paced, commercial and plain boring this is.
Arakawa can do great slice of life stuff as shown in FMA calmer moments, so I would read/watch a slice of life series form her any time, but not this.
The agriculture setting is incredibly generic and derivative(which is no surprise since agriculture IS pretty much the most generic thing on this earth after highschool romance), the characters are barely characters and there’s not even one little bit about this to be interested in.
Its just mind-boggling that something so generic, commercial and boring came from someone who wrote FMA and was known for unique interesting characters, and out-of-your-mind unique settings.
Well i guess this should interest those who somehow for some unknown reason ended up getting into the whole agriculture thing(although I don’t know why you would, unless you did not get into any even remotely interesting subject in any of even remotely good universities/colleges).
This is the first noitaminA show that is a definite pass for me.
Now when I think about it – this COULD have worked as a slice-of-life-thriller sort of thing that revolves around the showcase of ACTUAL cruel and disgusting practices in meat industry, having the main character’s dreams and fantasies of “farm life” be shattered by what actually goes on there.(there’s saying that if you visit an agricultural company or any sort of meat production company, you will instantly become a vegan). That would at least make the whole setting more interesting.
Not all people are the same, my child. We may love watching anime, yet, our taste varies from genre to genre (or from plot to plot). That’s an unspoken rule/norm – I like Nichijou, but my friend turned it down after watching 2 episodes.
I’ll leave it to your comments’ votes to be the judge of your argument.
First, I just want to address your “could have worked” comment. I suspect a “thriller” showing the gore and “cruel and inhumane” practices would have “worked” less. Smaller audience, smaller appeal. As it is, I think Silver Spoon works fine. It’s unfortunate you don’t like it, but, can’t make everyone happy all the time.
I can’t help but see your comment as one that’s heavily biased in and of itself. For instance, I doubt farmers themselves have gone vegan, and they’re the ones who see the practices of the farm more than anyone else.
It’s like when “they” say that the more you learn about air travel, the less safe you feel. And yet at the end of the day, people who work at and for the FAA all still fly when they have to get somewhere.
I know there’re people out there who talk about how inhumane farms are towards their animals, but I honestly don’t feel a thing for them. It’s one thing if they’re pets, but if they were born to be food….well their lives aren’t going to be great anyway.
To be clear, I don’t come from an agricultural background. This is the perspective of an overly-soft city-slicker who simply does not care. I very much like having good-tasting food for cheap prices, and that’s where those highly-efficient, highly inhumane farms excel. At the end of the day, I have to care about myself and my household before I care about Doomed-to-die-young-pig-number-307-of-batch-50-in-the-year-2013.
As a point of suggestion for someone who seems so in rage about this, may I suggest you instead direct your energy to finding a way to make humane practices cheaper, more affordable, and more efficient than current practices? If so, the practices of farmers will change on their own, no lobbying required.
Too bad the hundred of thousands manga buyer don’t agree with you. Personally I love the series a lot. It got a simple charm that attract me to rural life. It’s like watching a more realistic version of Harvest Moon the Anime XD
popularity =/= quality. If popularity equaled quality, Call of Duty would be the best game ever and Twilight would be the next Citizen Kane.
and no one plays Harvest Mon for how awesome agriculture is. They play it for how awesome and addictive gameplay is. Its a game that takes a very generic concept and adds a very polished and addictive gameplay to it.
I loved Harvest Moon! Totally agree with that reference!
And I do think that Harvest Moon has quite a bit of agriculture in it… you have to make money and you have a farm and raise animals and plants so to UnknownVoice – yes it’s addicting, but the game made FARMING addicting =O
are you some sort of farmer? i don’t know of anyone who cares to think about how their food was grown or how hard a farmer’s lifestyle really is, so seeing you type something like “agriculture setting is incredibly generic” comes off as really strange to me. i don’t know of any anime/manga that covers this topic… i wonder if it is as few as i think they are.
No and nowhere did I say that “farmer’s life is hard”, but I am strictly against the meat-industry practices that are going on and am a certified vegan. The amount of glorifying this has to the meat industry is incredibly gross.
And the setting IS generic – it does not matter on if there are not that many anime shows that cover it – you do not see an anime about office worker’s life, but that does not change the fact over how generic and boring that would be.
you’re not using the word “generic” correctly, but i understand what you’re trying to say. anyway, i’m not interested in fighting your ideals, so i’ll leave no comment on your thoughts of the anime glorifying the meat industry. lastly, i’d like to say i don’t agree with your conclusions on how dull a show about office life or agricultural life is. after all, shows like The Office are very popular because they use the mundane to contrast well with their exaggerated comedy.
Well, there is an anime about office life -> Servant X Service and it’s pretty funny from what i heard, not to mention there are many western Sitcoms that use office life as part of the setting.
Also .. you need to double-check the difference between “generic” and “mundane” .. it’s not the same.
Jeez, what’s with all the hate? It’s just a god darn agricultural-themed story. How does that make Arakawa an inferior author simply because YOU happen to dislike the work?
And for that matter, while you rage on and on about the meat industry’s brainwashing, but as a vegan, you too are being very patronising to the rest of us ominvorous bunch.
Some one-man crusades really baffle me.
Its “just” an agricultural show. That alone makes it unfitting in quality for someone like Arakawa.
Also its a show that grossly misrepresents the subject at hand to the point that it feels like propaganda. That also does not bode well for her.
When manga started those few years ago I got up to maybe chapter 10 or 15 before I dropped it because none of characters grew or advanced through that time and all we got was “farm life is great and hard , guyse, realllyyy~!”
arakawa is definitely drawing from personal experience here, though, as she was raised on a dairy farm, so I’m not sure if it’s unfitting for someone like her.
her memories must be colored by nostalgia quite a lot, because quite a few people who did work at places like it, that I know, can’t talk about it without almost throwing up.
This is getting way too far off topic – this isn’t a thread for a broad debate about veganism and eating meat, it’s a discussion of an anime. When and if Arakawa broaches the topic in the show, debate the way she does so. Until then most people don’t want to read 20 posts that have nothing to do with the series itself.
And tone down the insults and name-calling, too. Some of what I’m seeing is pretty close to troll territory.
It seems that you’re letting your own views as a vegan shape your opinion of this series in fairly unfair ways. I don’t really see how this episode (which was 75% of the main character being grossed out by farm stuff) is “glorifying the meat industry”.
Frankly, that’s a ludicrous thing to say. Agriculture is far more than just getting meat, its the foundation for human society. It doesn’t matter if you’re a vegan, unless you’re surviving on wild berries or something you wouldn’t be alive if not for agriculture.
Because the show grossly censors and softens up how farms REALLY work – everything is prettied up and made more attractive here and amount of pain and suffering caused to animals is completely ignored.
And even lead characters being “grossed out” is more of “oh how cute they are so unprepared for this glorious and hard work” than “welcome to the place where some of the most inhumane and horrible things are done to animals ever”.
Maybe Arakawa, herself being born to an agricultural family and having gone to an agricultural high school is allowed to reflect back on her upraising and presenting its charms to her mostly urban fans? Maybe an agricultural high school was a perfect setting for the book-bound main character to learn that not everything in life is about acing exams and that people he might have initially looked down upon can be respectful people in their own right?
Oh also, maybe Japanese cartoons don’t always need to be soapbox for the author to broadcast his/her brand of social commentary?
The worst thing that a brainwashed person can do is spread it to others. I am not saying she is brainwashed, but her outlook towards it is clearly colored by nostalgia.
And it IS already a soapbox for opinions. Any sort of narrative is that, because the very basis of WRITING something is all about thinking up a theme that narrative implies.
In this case its “FARMS FUCK YEA”
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WindmillCrusader
Enough said.
Oh, I was surely waiting the most common “argument” by those who want to discredit any sort of activism – “but maaaan, its not a problem, its nothing to make a fuss of” I have seen the same shit being thrown around sexism, misogyny, racism, homophobia and now we have it for animal cruelty. fuck yea!~
Since when does complaining about Japanese cartoons on a comment section of someone else’s blog fall under the scope of “activism”?
You call it complaining I call it a critical opinion
More like critical delusion.
According to what you said, you only read the first chapter. Of course you’re going to find characters boring and generic. Add to the fact that the beginning was to introduce readers to the setting and what the main character was getting himself into, and not so much on the bunch of characters around Hachiken.
In this case, the agricultural setting was what Arakawa was trying to show us readers. Thus I can excuse Arakawa for not drawing people in with attractive (as in personality) characters right off the bat.
But really, the story and characters do get fleshed out after the, you know, introductory episode/chapter. If you really find the setting that generic and boring that you’d literally give up on Gin no Saji on the first chapter, then suit yourself I suppose. I personally like this manga and would love to see how the anime plays out.
Oops I’m sorry, I only saw your post about reading 10-15 chapters right after I submitted my reply. Though that’s even more baffling for me because that’s around the time when Hachiken’s character and abilities begin to shine through, given that he started out as a reclusive city boy who knew nothing about agriculture. That… isn’t an example of a boring and generic character, is it?
Boy, I’m not even going to touch the rest of all of your arguments because I’m not too knowledgeable when it comes the pros and cons of agriculture. So please excuse me for only looking at your post at a storytelling standpoint 😛
“this anime is bad because it has opinions and my opinions differ”
“this anime is bad because it’s not what i want it to be”
Grow up a little. Your opinions aren’t universal, and are in fact horribly biased. Your argument for why the characters are bad is literally because they aren’t completely disgusted and appalled by the farming practices like you are, which is absolutely ridiculous.
I don’t understand what’s so hard about this. Is it completely impossible for you to respect the fact that this is a story with characters and a writer that have a different worldview from you?
I think this summarizes what we have on our minds by now.
Didn’t know Fai browses RC too. And he’s still at it with his thoughts about this manga/anime. All these years and still mad huh.
absolutely loved this episode! having raw egg with ramen or rice is truly delicious, you can really get a taste of it just watching this episode (if you’ve had raw egg with anything before), so i can only imagine how it’s like with an actual fresh egg!!
on a side note, arakawa hiromu seems to love delving into the topic of the necessities of life. in fullmetal alchemist, equivalent exchange was the universal law . in gin no saji, or the real world, farmers must spend time and bond with the animals they will soon slaughter and use to feed the hungry. it’s a cruel yet beautiful world; what i think arakawa loves to do the most is place naivety alongside the cold hard truth. examples: eggs come from chickens’ anus’, but it tastes damn good. while it might seem you’d ace everything in a farmer’s school assuming farmers aren’t booksmart, you’d be surprised to find that they are very smart when it comes to subjects within their passion.
i also love how this show seems to be educational. i never knew eggs came out of a chicken’s anus. like hachiken, i was also surprised at how systematic japan egg harvesting is.
i was anticipating this show, but i was not expecting this much fun to come out of it. agriculture and the way of farmers are things that are put way into the back of everyone’s minds. we don’t like to think about how our food was raised, or think much about how the crops are harvested. i’m sure many of us also share hachiken’s notions that farmers aren’t smart and that a farmer’s job, while busy, isn’t exactly something difficult. however, my way of thinking has definitely turned after watching this, and now i can’t wait to learn more about the agricultural world as a result!
more over, i’d love to see the dishes the farmers can make out of their fresh produce! it seems they like to make simple yet REALLY good looking food!
“i was also surprised at how systematic japan egg harvesting is.”
are you serious? you’ve never heard of laying batterys? they’ re not only used in japan, but worldwide. In some countrys it’s frowned upon because it is animal abuse.
here, have a nice picture of reality: http://de.academic.ru/pictures/dewiki/76/Legebat.jpg
I’m stunned how naive people still are.
yes, i’m serious. why else would i type it? i have had no prior interest in anything agricultural, nobody has gone out of their way to teach me it either, so why should this come off as a surprise? agriculture as a whole comes off as boring and non-essential knowledge to any college student, so how is it that you do not understand people’s naivety about this subject?
my answer to that comment (there is no reply-button)
“yes, i’m serious. why else would i type it? i have had no prior interest in anything agricultural, nobody has gone out of their way to teach me it either, so why should this come off as a surprise? agriculture as a whole comes off as boring and non-essential knowledge to any college student, so how is it that you do not understand people’s naivety about this subject?”
what has being a college student to do with anything? I’m at university too, i’ve never lived in the countryside, but have heard of it in tv and newspapers. a least in germany it’s common knowledge, (and i thought in every other industrial country, too), every child here knows what a leg battery is.
i definitely knew and understood that agriculture was industrialized and efficient, and while i have seen similar or perhaps the same things in some mcdonalds awareness documentary before, i had no idea of the name of the construct or if they were used in japan. maybe college wasnt a good filter, but from personal experience, many of my peers would definitely spare not a thought towards agriculture or farming.
Thats why we sorely need more stuff that brings awareness to the grossness that is going on, than try to glorify it.
I would recommend looking up Paul McCartney’s Glass Walls video on youtube for starters. I turned vegan because of health concerns/problems, but shit that goes on in most of farms and slaughterhouses could turn anyone healthy vegetarian in a second.
I will definitely give the video a look once I wake up. I have managed to stay an omnivore after watching a few farmer cruelty exposés, so I’m pretty confident I will remain unchanged in my stances, but I will let you now should that not be the case.
Oh you’ll see plenty of food and cooking in this series…
Just be careful not to watch when you’re hungry. 😉
Credits give a subtle tribute to the late veteran VA Utsumi Kenji, who passed away last month to cancer, by leaving a space between his name and the rest of the cast. Older fans would know him for various memorable roles, and FMA fans would of course recognize him as Major Armstrong, and sure enough, Todoroki-sensei uncannily resembles him, thus explaining why Utsumi was cast in that role.
Silver Spoon will be his swansong, and his voice will be missed dearly. RIP
I confess I was not aware that Utsumi-san had passed away – that’s very sad news.
yep, you just know utsumi kenji would have been cast for the role, not to downplay the current VA, but it’s just a shame things couldn’t work out that way.
I didn’t know he passed away either. I loved him as Armstrong. 🙁
RIP
Does anyone know who will be the continuing VA for Todoroki-sensei?
I can’t picture anyone else replacing Utsumi-san for that role…
Supposedly he finished dubbing his lines for the first cour. Beyond that, I have no idea.
this season full of manservice
alchemy when?
Oh God, the ag school flashbacks. And the war! The war!
…Eggs do get a really bad rap though, with people clamoring about colestoral and coming out of anuses. They contain all the vital proteins that should make up your daily diet. Don’t worry about organic or whatever. Eat eggs. EGGS DAMNIT.
…This was my education, folks.
The only problem I had with the episode is that Aki is somehow riding in a skirt in the OP, it’s something pretty stupid to mess up on
I would assume she’d be wearing pants underneath. It’s certainly a realistic touch that wouldn’t be out of place if it was actually mentioned in the story.
Lemme guess. This art style looks a lot l-YEEEeeah same mangaka as FullMetal Alchemist I should have known. 😀
wow…this is what i have been searching for !!
a really earthly anime that i can sit back and watch every week ^_^”
* so…has it been announced how many episodes will be airing of this anime ? *
Only watched this anime out of curiosity. Now, I’m antsy for the next episode.
I love the ED.
Already looks like it’s gonna be a great adaptation. I give this episode an A
wow…their routine looks exhausting but also ridiculously fun
the headbutt to the ballz caught me by surprise…
lol at major armstrong with hair…
chicken-sensei ftw
only ‘beef’ i have with this one is that it needs more bgm…the delivery came off a bit monotone…a lil background track will add a lot to the atmosphere…
seems like we’re in for a lighter season this time around with shows like this and uchouten kaizoku, SxS…won’t catch me complaining though…
definitely following this one…
I was definitely curious to see how well this series would adapt into animation, and am relieved that it didn’t fail in the slightest if this first episode is anything to go by. Certainly looking forward to seeing how the rest of the series will play out from here.
Man this was a fantastic first episode. I might be biased by how much I’ve been following the manga since it started, but I can’t say enough how happy I am with this adaptation :D.
For me, a huge part of what drives the manga is the characters — not just Hachiken and Aki, but all the other characters too and the community environment they create. It was really great to see all the characters getting air time right away. Aikawa, Komaba and Tokiwa got a lot of time this week, but they’re not forgetting about Tamako or Beppu and Nishikawa either. Without taking away from any of the events that happened, I feel like the team behind the anime did an awesome job introducing a ton of characters and making them feel unique right off the bat; a big cast that feels homogeneous is an easy way to screw up a first episode, and they deftly sidestepped that potential mistake.
Can’t wait to see more!
I don’t hate vegans, in fact I find their virtues to be pretty respectable (even though I don’t exactly follow their beliefs) but Unknown Voice is trying really hard to make us all hate them.
Agree with you there. I respect vegans but Unknown Voice is making them look bad to us. I mean, his main problem is that he just can’t take the idea that other people are not sharing the same opinion with him so he started to scream and go around ranting how this sucks and that sucks.
*sign*
If he doesn’t like this show, why not just leave and stick with non-agricultural animes?
This was ridiculously refreshing. I can see why you used the word “sincere” to describe this episode, Enzo.
I loved all the jokes, and cringed a bit when the chicken’s head was cut off right after they caught them. I thought Hachiken’s reaction to the origin of chicken eggs was hilarious! For an academically smart guy, I was pretty surprised he had never known where they came from! Lol.
I’m also glad they chose Kimura Ryohei to voice Hachiken. Liked him quite a bit in Sakamichi no Apollon as Nishimi Kaoru. Nice hearing inner monologue from him again, and in a character who just moved to a new place.
The final scene really topped it off for me. Hachiken giving in to eating the egg as everyone else had, showing his first real step into blending with daily life over in Hokkaido agricultural life.
We never kiss a pig,never.
Fuhrer without his famous trademark,moustache.
https://randomc.net/image/Gin%20no%20Saji/Gin%20no%20Saji%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
I love how down to earth and unapologetic the manga is.
I have high hopes for the anime, and it seems to be off to a good start!
I’m going to enjoy Silver Spoon… first episode was great ^^
However I do agree that it is a bit naive… industrial farming is not pretty, although the trend (at least in my country) is towards free range produce, especially when it comes to eggs. Free range eggs are usually bigger and tastier than caged ones anyway! 🙂
What struck me most was how well-adapted/revised this anime is in comparison to the manga. I felt that the re-arrangement of some of the events made the whole storyline develop more organically (pun intended).
After reading the manga and hyakushou kizoku(another manga that created by arakawa sensei that featured her early life in the farm), I wish I could study in this kind of agricultural high school.
If you think about it closely, almost all food we eat comes from very “dirty” places. Its one of the many reasons why I don’t automatically condemn a food-provider by where they get it from, and what they did to it. Only when we understand the effects thoroughly do I make an opinion.
Picking up this show for obvious reasons. That’s one hot bitch.
She stole my heart the instant the wind picked up her light-self up into the air… <3
The main character also mentions an another reason for entering the school – it’s a boarding school, meaning he doesn’t have to go home, which is a huge plus for some reason.
Why was he so shocked to learn where eggs come from?
Well, i think they play here with the Idea of “Dirty, Unclean, Unpure!”. But we ate food that was raised in Earth. So, what is more “Dirty?”. Some People just overreacting
There are some People that find this things not “Kosha!”…