Silver Spoon...the anime...

One thing I admire about anime in general is that they do a fantastic job introducing a wide range of characters with different and unique characteristics in essentially 30-seconds or less.

I think they go overboard with the color-coding of their characters, but after growing up on the color schemes of Shipwreck, Snake-Eyes, Shadow Storm, Bumblebee and Optimus Prime I shouldn't complain.

Anyway - another thing Anime does very well is continually develop their characters over time, so it's not like we get one episode of Iron Man where we learn everything there is to know about Tony and every episode thereafter has him either in the background or part of a larger story.

Silver Spoon is about a guy from a city who chooses to attend an agricultural high-school, where he learns all about farming from teachers as well as fellow students...all of whom grew up on farms and have plans to use their education to help their families.

Sounds kind of dull/boring right? That's what I thought, until I watched it.

First - I have a new-found respect for farmers. I had no idea what went into their day-to-day lives or how many different aspects of farming existed. That alone in interesting.

Then there are the supporting characters - the student who plans to take over her family's assembly-line style McFarm, the boy who's considering becoming a vet, the guy who's family is barely scraping by and plans on becoming a baseball player to earn money so he can improve his farm, the kid who loves farm equipment and machinery, and the "love-interest" character who raises race and work horses.

Then there's the main character. The 'newbie' to farm life who everyone else thinks is strange because he's from a city. Only six episodes have aired so far, and we still don't know why this smart young man (who despite making mistakes in the barn gets A's in the classroom) wanted to get as far away from his family as possible...leading him to the agricultural academy in the middle of nowhere.

My biggest problem with this show? The title.

I get why it's called Silver Spoon, but all I think of is the show I watched growing up...

...starring Ricky Schroder, Erin Gray (of Buck Rogers fame), featured Jason Bateman (...yes, that Jason Bateman), and had an episode starring Whitney Houston. I'm not making this up.

Anyway, if you're looking for an anime to try or a new anime to watch, check this out over at Crunchyroll.

Just give it until Episode 4...when the school makes pizza...that was when I was hooked.