銀の匙
Author: 荒川弘
Page Count: 196
Natively: Level 30
Summary
Japanese
大自然に囲まれた大蝦夷農業高校に入学した八軒勇吾。授業が始まるなり子牛を追いかけて迷子、実習ではニワトリが肛門から生まれると知って驚愕…などなど、都会育ちには想定外の事態が多すぎて戸惑いの青春真っ最中。仲間や家畜たちに支えられたりコケにされたりしながらも日々奮闘する、酪農青春グラフィティ!!
(Source: 小学館 (publisher))
English
Defying the expectations of family and teachers, Yuugo Hachiken chooses to leave the city and enroll at Ooezo Agricultural High School. Having always been at the top of his class, Yuugo assumes a rural school will be a breeze, but mucking out stables, gathering eggs, and chasing errant calves takes a lot out of him-and fills him with something he’s never experienced before. Surrounded by endless fields and fresh air, Yuugo discovers a new connection to the land and to life…Springtime begins at Ezo AG!!
(Source: Yen Press (English publisher))
Availability
Physical: Amazon JP, CD Japan
Digital: Kindle, Kobo, Bookwalker
Personal Opinion
I’ve been interested in this series for a long time but never got around to reading it in English or Japanese. It’s by Hiromu Arakawa (creator of Fullmetal Alchemist) and has won several awards, so it’s almost guaranteed to be amazing quality! I might request FMA too if nobody else does, but I figured I’d start with Silver Spoon since it’s slice-of-life and seems to be pretty light-hearted. Personally, I’m also interested in learning about rural Japan, Hokkaido, and agriculture!
Pros and Cons
Pros
- By the same mangaka as Fullmetal Alchemist
- Along those lines, likely to be easier than FMA because it’s slice-of-life
- Has won several awards, including the Japan Food Culture Contents Award for spreading awareness of Japanese food culture across the world — so it’s good quality as both a story and a cultural reference
- likely to have a lot of rural vocab, which could be useful for those who want to visit / live in rural Japan
- possibly Hokkaido dialect? Which may be a pro or a con
Cons
- Iots of agriculture vocab, which might not be interesting / relevant to everyone
- possibly Hokkaido dialect? Which may be a pro or a con
