History Manga / SilverSpoon

* AnEntrepreneurIsYou: Yugo is thinking about running his own business after he graduates.

** Said university winds up being a major plot point in the Tale of Four Seasons, as Mikage, Aikawa, and in a late move Hachiken look to be admitted to it [[[spoiler:(and all of them make it in.)]]

** In a late-series ''omake'' panel, it's noted that a cellular service repeater has been installed near the Mikage ranch, resulting in cell service being available for the Mikages and Komabas. As a result,, the Komaba twins are given cell phones...because the local government sends out bear alerts via SMS.

* SkewedPriorities: A running gag that the students (apart from Hachiken) tend to focus ''heavily'' on the agricultural side of things. When they get a virus that manifests as cartoon pigs having babies, they proceed to criticize how it misrepresents the actual breeding habits of pigs.

-->'''Yugo:''' "You got a virus and ''that's'' what you complain about?

* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Yugo and Aki's mutual feelings aren't exactly a secret around school, or anywhere else for that matter. They do seem to realize it themselves (Yugo at least), but there is the issue of [[OverprotectiveDad Aki's dad]].

** When Mikage tells her parents that she wants to get into an illustrious horse college despite her poor grades, Hachiken tells her family he'll take responsibility if she fails. While [[ShipperOnDeck her mother and grandmother are ecstatic about the idea]] ([[OverprotectiveDad and her father tries to throw a table at him]]), what he was trying to say is that he's planning to tutor her, so it will be his fault if she fails.

* InnocentInnuendo: When Yugo innocently mentions "the young cow's udders that will keep getting bigger" while looking in Aki's direction. [[OverprotectiveDad Her father]] [[http://www.mangapark.com/manga/Gin-no-Saji/c19/9 misunderstands a bit...]]

* OverprotectiveDad: Aki's father does not approve of Hachiken, and does not want him taking his little girl away.
** In chapter 63, [[spoiler:Hachiken starts to understand what Aki's father meant after being asked to name a female calf he helped deliver.]]

For another manga based on agricultural schooling, try ''Manga/{{Moyashimon}}''. Or if light novels are more to your liking, there's ''LightNovel/NoRin.''

* WorkingOnTheChainGang: The harsh conditions of "Hachi"'s imprisonment forced his escape. Little did he know, [[{{Irony}} slavery was banned shortly after.]]

An anime adaptation by Creator/A1Pictures [[Summer2013Anime aired in Summer 2013]], and a second season followed [[Winter2014Anime in Winter 2014]]. A [[TheFilmOfTheBook live-action film]] also came out in 2014.

Both seasons are available for streaming on Crunchyroll, and can be [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/silver-spoon viewed here]], for people living in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Central and South America.

* AllThereInTheScript: The first names of upperclassmen Okawa, Toyonishi, and Inada [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-05-23/silver-spoon-anime-cast-revealed-2-ads-posted were revealed in the anime's cast list.]] The rest of the Equestrian Club received the same treatment in season 2's credits.

* AntiClimax: Done ''deliberately'' in the "Memory of a Summer" side story (episode 5). Yugo's roommates engage in an epic, life-risking quest to sneak out of their dormitory at night and catch a glimpse of a mysterious entity spoken of only as "him". The story follows a dramatic "TheRestShallPass" pattern, leaving only Yugo and Nishikawa to witness the midnight arrival of...[[spoiler:a combine harvester.]] Of course, anyone who had read even one chapter of this manga knew how all this would end. To rub it in, though, [[spoiler:Tamako then reveals that her farm has several of these harvesters, meaning that the guys went through all that trouble for nothing.]]
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Hachiken is asked one by Mikage's father in episode 3 of season 2, when he bluntly asks if the two are dating.

** [[spoiler: She gains it all back in two chapters, though.]]
** The special provides a rather interesting example: Toku is a woman with a FaceOfAThug. Turns out, [[spoiler: she is very near-sighted and has to squint. She is revealed to be very beautiful, [[InvertedTrope once she puts]] [[TheGlassesGottaGo on glasses]].]]

** Some of the ingredients the boys put into their Mystery Stew while cleaning out their rooms to move out of the dorms. [[spoiler: Tokiwa's Men's Bath Yogurt]] isn't even the worst of it!

* BrickJoke: After successfully asking Aki for a 'date' right before the school festival, [[spoiler: Yugo talked to Nishikawa about places to take Aki for a date and mentioned that they would end up in the racetrack if they were to go where Aki wants to go.]] Fast-forward to the end of the school-year...guess where Aki and Yugo went when Yugo offered to treat her to anything she wanted...

** In the first episode, Tamako mentions that the happy picture on food labels is nothing like the real unhappy farm animals. In the last episode, when [[spoiler: Yugo's mother]] shows up to school, they say "it's reassuring to meet you, to know that [[spoiler: Yugo]] comes from a good place. Just like the label on food."

* CantCatchUp: Hachiken feels this way during episode 3 of season 2, when he fails to jump the small fence on horseback, but the other club members do it effortlessly. When they talk about it amongst themselves, he suffers from some {{FlashBack}}s of seemingly falling behind other students in school.

* CitizenshipMarriage: Alexandra, [[spoiler: Hachiken's Russian sister in law.]]

* CliffHanger: Hachiken collapses the morning of the school festival at the end of episode 5.

** Keiji was later [[spoiler: the rightful recipient of another combo, attacked by almost all the girls in their class to allow Yugo and Aki to go on their "date" unmolested.]]

* ContinuityNod: The crack on the left lens of Yugo's glasses, acquired [[spoiler: during his fall in the competition]].

* DownToTheLastPlay: It's the BigGame, and Ooezo High is up against the local champions for the chance to go on to the finals! Bottom of the ninth! Bases loaded! The toughest batter on the team is at the plate! And freshman wunderkind Komaba is pitching! [[spoiler: The batter gets a hit on the first pitch and [[DownerEnding wins the game]], shattering Ooezo's chances and Komaba's self-esteem.]]

* FaceFault: Hachiken does one in episode 10 when Keiji asks a monumentally stupid question.

* FoodAsBribe: Tamako tells the crew pulling her sled in episode 6 of season 2 that she would give them a lot of meal tickets in the lunchroom if they win. Later, they use Nakajima-sensei's secret cheese stash as the prize, causing many others to volunteer and race as well.

** [[spoiler:In [[http://manga.animea.net/gin-no-saji-chapter-23-page-10.html chapter 23]], Komaba scolds Tokiwa telling him he may not be able to graduate, and then Hachiken reassures him, saying he'll help Tokiwa so they can all graduate together. Heartbreaking when you realize that it's actually Komaba that won't be able to graduate, not Tokiwa.]]

** Early in the manga and episode 6 of the anime, Hachiken finds himself in the unenviable position of being forced to swing at Komaba's pitching. Through sheer luck, he manages to hit a ball. It's just a pop fly to the pitcher, but it shows that for all his skill, Komaba is hardly invincible. [[spoiler:Later, during a vital game, someone gets a much bigger hit, to devastating effect.]]

** One favour owed by Hachiken eventually turned into many down the road, [[spoiler: which were all called in at the same time before the Cultural Festival]].
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Tamako. In chapter 2, Tamako [[{{Acrofatic}} pulls a surprising jump]] in her ping-pong match. Later in that chapter, despite being so overweight her body-shape is compared to an egg, she is shown being being blown away into the wind while holding onto a canvas everyone is trying to tie down [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded by Tokiwa]]). Three chapters later she's seen entering a bet at the horse races. She's also seen eating in every stall during the summer festival, and [[spoiler: chomped on a whole slab of bacon belonging to Hachiken without him noticing]].

* {{Gonk}}: Tamako, though subverted with a tasteful touch of SheCleansUpNicely -- the boys are shocked to realize that if you ignore her weight, Tamako is ''gorgeous''. Put simply, Tamako has an egg-shaped body but the face of a super-model. [[spoiler: And now, after returning to school and losing her weight... [[HeadTurningBeauty HOT DAMN]].]]

** [[spoiler: Bacon-san]]'s graduation in Yezo Animal Husbandry University left no details spared!

* HamToHamCombat: Tamako engages in a brief one with her parents during episode 7 when she reveals her plans to takeover her parent's farming business in a hostile manner upon graduation from college, rather than succeeding them after they retire.
* HeldBackInSchool: Subverted when [[spoiler: Okawa-senpai unsuccessfully tried to invoke this and refuse graduation to avoid becoming a {{NEET}}.]] The principal's and Todoroki-sensei's actions implied that this had happened before.

** Hachiken suffers another one after his father sees him in the hospital during episode 6 of season 2. [[spoiler:More specifically, he still doesn't approve of his son being at that school, although his WhamLine of telling the poor kid that he never mentioned liking the bacon Hachiken sent home hit him pretty hard.]]

* HopeSpot: In episode 6, Hachiken's father visits him in the hospital, and doesn't hold back his criticism of the school and his homeroom teacher of allowing him to collapse from exhaustion in the first place. As he's leaving, Hachiken attempts to find at least one good thing regarding him being there, and mentions the bacon he sent home. His father does remember eating it, bringing a smile to his face, [[spoiler: only to then say he never claimed to like it, causing his son to fall into a HeroicBSOD.]]

* LastEpisodeNewCharacter: Hachiken's parents are seen briefly at the end of episode 11 receiving Yugo's bacon, after being only referred to most of the first season of the anime.
* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: Hachiken did ''not'' go to the National Equestrian Tournament at Gotenba and did ''not'' [[spoiler: [[EpicFail rack up 255 demerit points right out of the gate]]]]. He had a very productive summer where nothing like that happened.

* LoveEpiphany: [[spoiler:Mikage finally starts to think about Hachiken in that way during episode 5 of season 2, after several of the girls around her paint the obvious for her, such as the way he asked her out, and wanted to spend time with just her alone. It understandably makes her uneasy as she wonders how she'll act around him.]]

* MomentKiller: [[spoiler: Almost averted when the girls prevented Keiji from becoming a third leg on Aki and Yugo's "date" at the shrine. Unfortunately, the rest of the Equestrian Club didn't seem to have gotten the message.]]
** Played utterly straight when [[spoiler: Aki's accidental LoveConfession is cut off short by an upperclassman barging into the barn]].

** In "Autumn 21", just when Hachiken finally catches a break [[spoiler: by making a date with Mikage, he passes out from overworked exhaustion.]]

** Episode 7 of season 2 has one near the end. [[spoiler:Ooezo lost their semi-finals baseball match. While the other students are talking about trying again next year, they notice Komamba's desk has been vacant for a while. The cheerful ending song starts to play right afterwards.]]
** The first half of episode 8 is almost like a BreatherEpisode, with several students learning how to make cheese. [[spoiler:Then the second half covers Komaba dropping out to start working to repay the debt his family owes on their farm.]]

** [[spoiler: And all that effort to escape the dorms just to see a gigantic combine harvester in action.]]

* NotWhatItLooksLike: When Hachiken first sees Mikage in episode 6 of season 2 after returning from the hospital, the first thing she does is to turn away from him. He immediately starts imagining bad things, but in reality she's happy that he's okay, but couldn't find the words to tell him at that moment.
* OcularGushers: Hachiken, after eating a chicken's egg in chapter 2 (ItMakesSenseInContext, see MundaneMadeAwesome above).
** Also Tokiwa, after he "got a good score" on his math test in chapter 3 - except the score was still terrible, just better than he'd ever done in his life.
* OhCrap: Hachiken has this look in episode 6 of season 2 when his father shows up at the hospital he's at. Even his hospital roommate feels extremely uncomfortable while he's in the room with Hachiken.

* PrecisionFStrike: After 116 chapters with little to no hard profanity, Hachiken, Beppu, and Tamako have this reaction to the new that [[spoiler: Okawa just bet all their pizza earnings on the next horse race]]:

* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: Hachiken claims this in episode 3 of season 2 when Mikage's father asks if they're dating.

* SickEpisode: Hachiken collapses right before the school festival in episode 6. While he's not technically sick, he is bedridden for the whole day at the hospital.

* SnowMeansLove: [[spoiler: It starts snowing as Yugo and Aki finally have their first kiss.]]

* SpoilerOpening: The opening of Cour 2 shows [[spoiler: [[PreciousPuppy Vice Prez]], Ayame]], and if you're observant or have seen the manga before, [[spoiler: the fact that Ichiro is not in school uniform and is standing with the school staff instead of the students]].

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: This hits home rather hard in episode 8 of season 2, after Hachiken finds out why Komaba has been missing classes for a week. [[spoiler:Due to his team losing in the semi-finals, his chances of becoming a professional baseball player went down the drain. To make matters worse, his father died shortly after expanding their farm, the Mikage family co-signed the loan for them, and the debt is so big that he feels he has no choice but to drop out of school and start working to avoid burdening Aki's family. Hachiken being Hachiken, he refuses to believe that there's nothing that can be done, but practically everyone around him tell him not to worry about it, and farms go out of business all the time. He also hates that they probably are boiling up inside, but seem unable or unwilling to help each other out here and instead seem to accept their lot in life.]]

** Happens again in episode 3 of season 2, this time with Mikage. This time however, Hachiken is right behind him to immediately clear up any misunderstandings Tokiwa may have with the two.

* TitleDrop: In chapter 2. However, we aren't told what the silver spoon in the cafeteria stands for until chapter 63. In the anime, it's explained in the same scene it shows up in.
** That late drop was quite dramatic in the manga, [[spoiler: especially when contrasted with the news of the Komaba Ranch's bankruptcy a few scenes later]].
** Hachiken named his [[spoiler: pork business]] GINSAJI.

* TragicDropout: [[spoiler: Ichiro Komaba. By the time the other students learn that his continued education is/was riding on their school's continued baseball victories, they've already lost.]]

** [[spoiler: Proceeds to become heart-''shattering'' when it's revealed that their loss also indirectly cost Komaba's family their farm, by damaging his odds of becoming a professional player at exactly the wrong moment.]]
* UnresolvedSexualTension: Definitely starting to accumulate between [[spoiler: Hachiken and Aki]].

** Chapter 52/episode 5, season 2. [[spoiler:Mikage starts to feel unsure about how to feel about Hachiken and Hachiken faints from all his hard-work]] .

** Chapter 61/episode 7, season 2. [[spoiler:The Ooezo baseball team loses their BigGame...[[HumblePie while Komaba is pitching]]. And Komaba doesn't come to school after that.]]
** Chapter 63/episode 8, season 2. [[spoiler:We learn ''why'' Komaba hasn't come back -- his family has gone bankrupt. Worse, Mikage's family co-signed the loan for them, so they're on the hook for it as well, which is more reason why Komaba wants to work, so that he doesn't burden them as well. Hachiken doesn't like it, despite Mikage and others tell him not to worry about it.]]

* WhamLine: Hachiken's father delivers one in episode 6 of season 2, [[spoiler:when he mentions that he never said he enjoyed the bacon Hachiken sent home from season 1. This hits him pretty hard and puts him in a HeroicBSOD.]]
** He delivers another (very different) one in Chapter 127: [[spoiler: "I already believe in him."]]

** In episode 3, Komaba asks Hachiken why he went to their school, considering how out of the way it was, and that he had no set goals for the future. Hachiken tries to counter, wondering how Komaba can take it so easy considering how hard farm work is. He thinks Komaba has it easy, since he has a job as soon as he graduates from high school. The former wonders why the latter seemed to be throwing his future away in the meantime. A short while later, Hachiken learns that Komaba would like to go to college, but his family can't afford to send him, and both apologize to the other for not knowing their respective situations.
** Mikage yells at Hachiken during episode 3 of season 2 after the latter contemplates practicing more horse jumping after school. Mikage tells him not to do it, because the horses need rest too, and basically gets mad at him for thinking only about himself, and not caring about the horses at all.
** Hachiken does this towards Komaba, and the other students indirectly in episode 8 of season 2. [[spoiler:When Komaba drops out of school so he can start working and repaying the debt his family owes, Hachiken asks about his dreams. Komaba seems content with giving it all up, and the other students largely worry about reality as their own families have debts as well. Hachiken however, hates that they seem okay with their lot in life, and seem unwilling or unable to help each other out at all with situations like this, and despite Mikage telling him not to worry about it, he tells her he wants to.]]

* WeNeedADistraction: Mikage seriously needs one in episode 3 when Komaba and Hachiken get into an intense argument about each other's lives and how "easy" one thinks the other has it. Fortunately for her, her uncle sends her a text which gives her a pretext to interrupt them and cool down the situation.

* LethalChef: Yugo's older brother Shingo. Has become a bit of a legend, being the only person in recent memory able to stop the hoards of [[BigEater hungry Yezo students]] from consuming all food at the local festival. The only one who can eat his food is Aki's [[DeterminedHomesteadersWife great-grandmother]], [[GrimUpNorth because she's]] had ''worse''.

* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: Aki's great-grandmother whenever she starts talking about the [[GrimUpNorth good]] [[DeterminedHomesteadersWife ol' days]].

* SamuraiCowboy: The story centers on the lives of the ''actual'' {{Samurai Cowboy}}s (and cowgirls) of historical Hokkaido. After the conflicts that began the Meiji period, many samurai families were driven north to the province of Hokkaido, where they began new lives as farmer pioneers ([[ThePioneer with all]] [[DeterminedHomesteader the]] [[SettlingTheFrontier attendant]] [[InjunCountry tropes]]...including an unfortunate fate for the native Ainu tribes).

* UpToEleven: Some of Yugo's whimsical remarks turn into big school-wide events, such as the pizza party, turning Butadon into bacon, and [[spoiler: pooling money to buy another pig for bacon and sausages into a real-life exercise in corporate and business management of the Pork Eaters' Party Ltd.]]
** In a literal example, Okawa's raclette oven has this feature.

''Silver Spoon'' (銀の匙, ''Gin no Saji'') is a manga by Creator/HiromuArakawa of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' fame, which ran in Magazine/ShonenSunday from 2011 to 2019. It draws heavily on the author's childhood on a dairy farm in Hokkaido, and puts a new spin on the high school drama formula. (Just try to name another school-days manga in which the hero gets roped into helping [[GoryDiscretionShot chop off a chicken's head]] within the first chapter).

* {{Megane}}: Hachiken.
** Fuji-sensei, if mis-shaded sunglasses count.

* MixedAncestry