10 Second Anime - Silver Spoon S2 - Episode 9

Silver Spoon S2 - Episode 9

Hachiken wants to become reliable. Komaba says goodbye to their cows. Aki wants to pursue her dream.

One of Silver Spoon's major themes is that sometimes all you can do is watch something bad happen. Animals die to become food, life goals are dashed by life circumstances, and there are problems that can't be solved. All life asks you to do is witness, remember, and become stronger for it. Not so you can avoid or prevent these things from happening again, but to be a better person that can appreciate what you have, and not to let mourning your loss debilitate you.

This debilitation already happened to Hachiken, which is why he ran far away to an agricultural school, and is now reassembling his shattered pieces into the young man he'd like to be. He has no specific goals yet, except to understand what his friends go through in their lives as farmers. Part of this we saw last season when he raised a pig to slaughter, which is cruel reality to livestock. This season, we see the human side, with the cruel reality of a family business going bankrupt because of an untimely death.

For Hachiken, who always wants to help, he realizes that there's nothing a high school student can do about money and business, and that not even stealing the little coins from Vice Prez's snack budget can help. All he can do is stand next to his friends while these things happen, and that is the way to help.

We have a nice symmetry here with Pork Bowl's meat and bacon tasting "bittersweet," and the Komabas enjoying the last milk. It's still fresh and good, but bitter and sad all the same.

A family farm is still a business, and with the Mikage's cosigning the Komaba's debt, they now have hard decisions to make. Again, the children can't really do anything but watch, but they can witness. After the relatives size up Hachiken for husband material, not even knowing about Aki's almost confession of her feelings for him, they start getting specific.

The first thing that happens, is the Elder Mikage steps down as president of their corporation, and hands the reins over to Aki's dad. He suggests selling their horses, which were a side project for him, almost a hobby really, since draft horse racing is becoming less and less popular anyway. It's up to the new president to decide if they should do that.

This leads to a crisis point for Aki, because as an only child, it was always assumed she would take over the farm, but she could live with that if she could still raise horses. But without the horses there, there would be no ties at all to her secret dream of being a competitive equestrian rider. Hachiken encourages her and does the only thing he can, which is stay beside her when she tells her family something which will affect the future of the farm. Aki now has the courage to speak up, and we'll have to find out what happens next week.