When someone who never read manga before asked me for a good title, I always suggested Silver Spoon by Arakawa Hiromu. Manga and Anime fans might know Arakawa from her from her previous work Fullmetal Alchemist (which used to be my favorite manga of all time). However, Silver Spoon is a completely different story than Fullmetal Alchemist.
Falling to the slice of life, drama, and comedy genre, Silver Spoon is a story about a city boy named Hachiken who went to an agricultural high school called Yezo High located in Hokkaido. Growing up with a strict father of high expectations, Hachiken chose school with a dormitory to escape from his father when he failed the entrance test of a good school. He thought that an agricultural school will be easy for someone who studies as much as him, but life in Yezo high proved to have its own challenges for a Sapporo boy like him.
I enjoyed the manga very much. It is a salad of thoughtful moments and pure comedic genius. There are many issues discussed in this manga - with family relations, friendship, and finding one's true dream being the focus. There are many well developed characters that readers can connect. Some have inferiority complex, family issues, money problems, school problems, not being able to reach their dreams, etc. I find Hachiken's struggle with finding what he actually wants very interesting and believable. I think it is a dilemma many highschoolers face. The story also makes the readers realize the things they take for granted, and taught them to believe in second chances.
Other than that, the manga is a very good, stress relieving easy read. It is one of the funniest manga I have ever read (after The Law of Ueki) with hilarious characters. I enjoy the usually unexplored theme for a shounen manga. There are not many manga with an agricultural life as the setting. The distinct clean, beautiful style of Arakawa's pen strokes is also prominent, making the art visually pleasing to look at. In short, it is greatly recommended!
No comments:
Post a Comment