Gin no Saji a.k.a Silver Spoon

This time I'm going to talk about a new series that has captured my interest so much I can't wait to read the next chapter ^^ Like it said above, the title is Gin no Saji (translated as Silver Spoon). This is the story of a teenage boy who got fed up with his school and home, tired of being compared to his "wonderful and brilliant" older brother who got in a famous university in Japan in the first try. At the beginning of the story, Yugo Hachiken, our hero, experience the alieness of the world around him, down to the animals. You see, he applied and got accepted in a farming/dairy school, but he himself never did go to the farm, not even once. So he's absolutely, positively clueless about what he wants to do there, except to get away from his home. That's where the funny things started happening. All of his classmates (boys and girls) are raised in a farm and had already known what they want to study, like about running a big farm to how to make  processed foods (such as sausage or bacon) that can last longer without the aid of chemicals. While searching for his answer, Hachiken found himself adapting and even enjoying his time in the school, eventhough the work is hard and the reality sometimes hurts. Imagine that you favor a piglet because its small compared to its' brothers and sisters, so you took pity on him. But as luck would have it, in just three short months that piglet turned into a healthy (read large) pig and will be sent to the slaughterhouse in a few days time. For someone who never cope with that kind of harsh reality that farmers deal with everyday, it'll really brought you down. As a reader, I know that that's what the pigs are bred for, but my heart still ached when the time had come for Pork Bowl (yes, that's the name given to it by Hachiken) to be sent to the slaughterhouse. But as they said, life goes on, and so does Hachiken's life. 


As of now I think this series only just reached volume 4, but he's still in his first year of high school, so I hope there's still many more of Hachiken in the future. Oh, for those of you who like mangas, I think the artwork will seem familiar. That's because the artist is Hiromu Arakawa, the creator of Full Metal Alchemist ^^  Now I can't wait to read the newest chapter. See you all later!!