Silver Spoon (Gin so Saji) First Impressions--City Boy in the Big Farm

Drinking game: Take a shot every time Hachiken says "anus."

 
This fish-out-of-water story follows Hachiken, a student who chose to go to agriculture school simply because he could live there. However, his book smarts aren't helping him much in a school focused around hands-on education, and in just the first episode, he is repeatedly forced out of his comfort zone. While I'm unsure whether this show will continue the "day in the life" format, there's no denying how entertaining it is already.

 
There are a lot of small moments that sold me on this series, mostly involving around Hachiken's interactions with the animals. The calf is already the best character in the show, and the difference between the apocalypse plow horse and the one that happily munched on Hachiken's hair while the other characters had an innocuous conversation cracked me up. While I don't know a lot about farm animals myself (thanks to city living and allergies), I felt that I could take this show's portrayal as close to reality as it could get. It didn't shy away from the grosser details either; look no further than the scene where a chicken is casually beheaded for a good summary on what this show is setting itself up to be.

 
A little less believable was Hachiken's complete ignorance on everything agriculture related, specifically when it came to the chickens. It felt like it was taking the "ignorant city kid" aspect a bit too far, since I've never even touched a chicken in my life yet still know what body part eggs come out of. Also, isn't Hachiken meant to be smart? Why wouldn't he have come across that at some point in his studies? That said, it does give him a lot of room for growth in this series, as well as an endless list of topics for the other characters to educate him on. All in all, this one looks like a keeper despite lacking the flash of the more popular titles airing right now. I feel like I'm going to learn something facinating. (Hopefully next week won't be so focused on anses.)

Images from Crunchyroll.com.