Silver Spoon Season 1 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Silver Spoon (Gin no Saji) is a 2013 television anime series based on the manga of the same name written by Hiromu Arakawa. It was adapted by studio A-1 Pictures and directed by Tomohiko Itō. Aniplex published the series and was first broadcast in Japan on July 2013 as part of the Summer season.

Background:

“The only reason why Yugo Hachiken decided to attend the Oezo Agricultural High School (a.k.a Ezono) was simply because the school had a dormitory. Entering Ezono was a way for Yugo to run away from the stifling academic pressures in the city, however, it didn’t take long for him to realize that life is not that simple.

Yugo is soon forced to face more hurdles in his new environment surrounded by all the farm animals and the magnificent Mother Nature. He also begins feeling a different kind of pressure as he deals with his classmates who, unlike him, all have a clear view of what they want for their futures.

Even so, as Yugo overcomes one challenge after another at Ezono and deepens his bonds with his classmates, he begins to grow stronger both physically and mentally.

This is a coming-of age story filled with sweat, tears, and literally a lot of dirt!”

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, June 2019

If you saw the mention of Hiromu Arakawa at the top of this post, you probably recognise her for writing Fullmetal Alchemist which is a big anime and manga series that pretty much everyone has watched by now. That being said, her other works are not that well-known. There’s Hero Tales, the manga adaptation of Yoshiki Tanaka’s The Heroic Legend of Arslan and the title we’re talking about today – Silver Spoon.

Silver Spoon is all about farming which sounds rather random but both the anime and the manga have received good reception overall. The anime has two seasons with this post focusing on the first and as you probably also saw by the publisher mentioned at the top of this post, it’s also an Aniplex series.

Aniplex of America acquired the English rights during its broadcast and released it on a barebones subtitled only DVD for the price of what you expect on a Blu-ray. Fans ain’t happy and fast-forward to now it’s pretty much out of print. Fortunately though, Anime Limited managed to acquire the United Kingdom and Ireland rights for a Blu-ray only release which is surprising, but given how it was acquired in 2016 and released a few years later, Aniplex were probably chill about it though it’s still a collector’s first approach.

Collector’s Edition Contents:

Anime Limited loves providing collector’s edition releases for their catalogue and Silver Spoon shares the same treatment.

Both seasons were given a rather almost barebones package but the overall presentation of artwork is nicely done. You do still have the traditional digipack packaging and clean artwork, but there are also a couple of art cards and a fold-out poster to go with it.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray has 1000 units printed for an SRP of £59.99. This is also a Blu-ray only release but a standard edition may happen but might take a while due to Aniplex’s strict stance on cheaper releases.

I should note that this set was included in the 2020 Mystery Box bundle from Anime Limited’s 12 Days of Christmas sale and I acquired the set via other means to secure a copy. Thankfully I found one at the price I was happy to spend (which is what I would have spent if it were on sale). I don’t know if the set is on the verge of being out of print but at the time of this post it may last another couple more months if you want to risk it.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with digipack packaging and clean artwork
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• 5 art cards
• Fold-out Poster

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 3rd June 2019

Silver Spoon Season 1 includes all 11 episodes across two Blu-ray discs. The encode and authoring were done by Anime Limited as this is actually the first time the series has been made available on Blu-ray across all of the English-speaking territories. The audio options available for the series include Japanese with English subtitles because Aniplex did not provide an English dub.

The white subtitles are locked during playback, and the regions are locked to B for Blu-ray. Amusingly these discs have the classic Aniplex disclaimer intro at the beginning.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	Japanese
Audio	Japanese Linear PCM 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	Yes
Discs	2 BD-50s

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 1:

• Trailers

Disc 2:

• Commercial
• Clean Opening “kiss you”
• Clean Ending “Hello Especially”

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Silver Spoon Season 1 is available to order through multiple retailers across the United Kingdom. You can order the collector’s edition on Amazon UK.

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)