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anime: Silver Spoon, season 1
Jan. 20th, 2014 10:13 pmFair warning: I'm going to be posting a lot on anime this week or so as I attempt to catch up on writing up all the anime I watched late last year before starting on the new season.
Based on a manga by Hiromu Arakawa ( the main reason I watched it) Silver Spoon is about Yugo, a boy who flees the stressful, goal oriented life of Tokyo cram school and high ranked high schools to run away and attend an agricultural school in Hokkaido. Because! Farming school! What could be easier and more low stress? Feed a few animals, harvest a few vegetables, and just sit back and enjoy a low key, relaxing high school career with no expectations or responsibilities.
Not.
The protagonist, Yugo, excels at academics and is leagues ahead of most of his classmates in those areas, but he has little practical knowledge, and no idea what farming actually entails, and the school is all about practical application of farming skills, with the students being responsible for the raising and feeding of many animals, gardens, fields, etc. most of the school's food is a result of the students' labors. In addition, Yugo comes from an environment where you study endlessly and hunt for your future career, but most of his classmates already know what they're going to do. Almost all come from farming families, and the majority are expected to eventually take over their family's farms. As such, they're learning how best to do something they already know how to do, and have been doing their whole lives. In addition, while they may not have the knowledge needed to get into a top Tokyo high school, they have scads of knowledge about the science and biology involved in agricultural studies and activities.
I watched it in 2 sittings, one of which started "I'll watch the first episode or so before bed" and ended "...it's 1:15 am..." It's a very interesting series and the environment and subject were, IMO, very involving (I grew up on the outskirts of a farming community, though my parents aren't farmers, so I was basically in Yugo's shoes a lot of the time, but starting with a lot more general knowledge than he had thanks to classmates from 15 years ago) but while I liked the characters, I wasn't really grabbed by them, save for when they were reacting to food, which was something else.
As a fair warning, the series includes characters raising and caring for animals with the intention of killing them for food, including "fattening them up," and discussions about whether or not it's a good thing to care about the animals in your care, a relatively detailed scene of a cow giving birth, a deer's carcass being stripped of meet, a chicken getting it's head cut off (those two are largely onscreen for the actual action, but there) and a detailed description of what happens in a slaughterhouse, should those be off putting squick factors. (I feel there are some things I should also mention, but I forget what.)
Season 2 is currently airing, though I haven't watched any of it yet.
Based on a manga by Hiromu Arakawa ( the main reason I watched it) Silver Spoon is about Yugo, a boy who flees the stressful, goal oriented life of Tokyo cram school and high ranked high schools to run away and attend an agricultural school in Hokkaido. Because! Farming school! What could be easier and more low stress? Feed a few animals, harvest a few vegetables, and just sit back and enjoy a low key, relaxing high school career with no expectations or responsibilities.
Not.
The protagonist, Yugo, excels at academics and is leagues ahead of most of his classmates in those areas, but he has little practical knowledge, and no idea what farming actually entails, and the school is all about practical application of farming skills, with the students being responsible for the raising and feeding of many animals, gardens, fields, etc. most of the school's food is a result of the students' labors. In addition, Yugo comes from an environment where you study endlessly and hunt for your future career, but most of his classmates already know what they're going to do. Almost all come from farming families, and the majority are expected to eventually take over their family's farms. As such, they're learning how best to do something they already know how to do, and have been doing their whole lives. In addition, while they may not have the knowledge needed to get into a top Tokyo high school, they have scads of knowledge about the science and biology involved in agricultural studies and activities.
I watched it in 2 sittings, one of which started "I'll watch the first episode or so before bed" and ended "...it's 1:15 am..." It's a very interesting series and the environment and subject were, IMO, very involving (I grew up on the outskirts of a farming community, though my parents aren't farmers, so I was basically in Yugo's shoes a lot of the time, but starting with a lot more general knowledge than he had thanks to classmates from 15 years ago) but while I liked the characters, I wasn't really grabbed by them, save for when they were reacting to food, which was something else.
As a fair warning, the series includes characters raising and caring for animals with the intention of killing them for food, including "fattening them up," and discussions about whether or not it's a good thing to care about the animals in your care, a relatively detailed scene of a cow giving birth, a deer's carcass being stripped of meet, a chicken getting it's head cut off (those two are largely onscreen for the actual action, but there) and a detailed description of what happens in a slaughterhouse, should those be off putting squick factors. (I feel there are some things I should also mention, but I forget what.)
Season 2 is currently airing, though I haven't watched any of it yet.