A manga about an agricultural school? In Hiromu Arakawa’s hands, you can bet the farm we’ll be singing its praises ‘till the cows come home!

Just in time for its 10th anniversary, we’re doing a retrospective on Hiromu Arakawa’s Silver Spoon, a story about a studious city boy who moves to a country farm school and beefs up to bring home the bacon! Fellow Silver Spoon fans Buggy and Kelly help us put our hands to the plow as we go whole hog on the series’ meaty themes of community and interdependence and gush over Arakawa’s hog-wild art! Plus, straight from the horse’s mouth, Buggy shares his personal experiences growing up on a farm in the midwest and visiting Hokkaido, and how he can relate to Arakawa’s detailed depictions of the agriculture industry! We also horse around with some silly tangents about the characters and the food, and what makes them so good!

There's a lot to digest, so let's make hay while the sun shines and chew over why this series makes us as happy as a pig in mud!

For a complete list of links and Community Shout-Outs mentioned in this episode, please visit this podcast's webpage at http://all-comic.com/2021/manga-mavericks-ep-156-silver-spoon/

PODCAST BREAKDOWN:

00:20 - Intro

03:43 - Introducing our Guests
05:14 - Silver Spoon's Publication History
09:20 - Our Histories with Silver Spoon
09:40 - LumRanmaYasha
13:10 - Buggy
16:23 - Kelly
18:21 - Arakawa’s Authentic Depiction of the Agricultural Industry
21:31 - Colton
26:00 - Silver Spoon’s Pacing
27:36 - The Equestrian Club Kohai
29:43 - Silver Spoon is like a Dark Nabe Pot
33:04 - Pork Bowl
36:36 - Mentors in Silver Spoon
38:15 - Pursuing Dreams
41:46 -  Komaba
52:30 - Hachiken & Mikage’s Relationship
57:15 - Tokiwa Gags
58:02 - Hachiken’s Father & Family
1:10:30 - Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
1:13:16 - Tamako, Capitalism, & Fat Jokes
1:18:00 - Ookawa
1:20:38 - Arakawa’s Comedy & Art
1:30:55 - Mikage
1:32:47 - Pizza Toppings
1:35:24 - Sausages
1:37:24 - What Food Would We Want to Make?
1:39:16 - Buggy’s Farming Experiences
1:46:51 - Sharing Food
1:48:18 - The Silver Spoon & Legacy
1:54:28 - Capitalism vs. Collectivism
1:59:00 - Final Thoughts & Recommendation
2:07:48 - Lettering Thoughts
2:12:57 - Q&A: “If Scar and King Bradley moved to a farm together, what hijinks would ensue?”
2:14:43 - Guest Plugs

2:22:05 - Community Shout-Outs! 

2:27:48 - Wrap-Up 

Enjoy the show, and follow us on twitter at @manga_mavericks, on tumblr at mangamavericks.tumblr.com, and on Youtube! You can also follow the hosts on Twitter at @sniperking323 and @lumranmayasha. If you’d like to help support the show financially you can pledge to our Patreon and receive some awesome rewards like our Patreon-exclusive Bonus pods! If one-time donations are more your speed you can donate to Colton’s Ko-fi here and LumRanmaYasha’s Ko-fi here, and if you want to support LumRanmaYasha’s art and other projects you can follow them @siddartworks on Instagram and Twitter and donate to their personal Patreon. Don’t forget to also like and subscribe to us on Youtube and iTunes and leave us reviews to help us curate the show and create better content!