10 Second Anime - Silver Spoon S2 - Episode 10

Silver Spoon S2 - Episode 10

Aki needs help studying if she's going to college. Hachiken is in a (almost) happy life, but first he must visit his own family.

I really liked how they told the story in this episode. Last episode left us with Aki about to tell her family she didn't want to take over the dairy farm, but this episode opens with the aftermath. Hachiken becomes Aki's super-tutor to help her pass the entrance exams for the local agricultural university, and we get lots of jokes about how poor a student Aki is. Hachiken hits upon the idea of telling history through horses, but that will only take him up to the Industrial Age. His club mate jokes "so, the iron horse is your enemy?"

With Hachiken taking his responsibility to help Aki seriously, he has to begin saying no to other people who need his help, since he has to spend so much time with Aki. This leads to a moment of growth for Hachiken when he refuses a senior who wants his help in making outdoor pizza baking a yearly event. The senior is all understanding about keeping promises to one's friends, until he realizes this friend is a cute girl. Have some smelly socks as punishment, Hachiken! The amount of time they're spending together makes people surprised that they're not dating yet, which puts Hachiken in that (almost) happy life, much to the jealousy of his friends. They know that his brother got into Toudai (Tokyo University), so he must have prep materials he no longer needs. But Hachiken really doesn't want to ask for his help, and his friends tell him where to stick that stubbornness if he wants to protect his (almost) happy life with Aki.

After calling his brother, he finds out he has to go back home to pick up those notes and prep material, which he wants to do even less, but for Aki he will. As Hachiken looks through the goodie bag his friends made for him to give to his parents, he sees a thank you note from Aki, which makes him think back to her own awkward family meeting. Excellent story telling here to get us back to the continuation of last episode.

Poor Aki. Her family is under no illusion about how smart she is, and she can't even talk back because they bring up her grades. However, none of it is mean-spirited at all, just blunt and frank, and with the farm folk attitude of solving a problem. The problem here is that Aki doesn't want to inherit the farm, but to work with horses, and asks her uncle about working in the draft horse racing industry. He is veeeery reluctant to consider it, because it's a dying sport, so he insists Aki needs a university degree to fall back on if the industry folds. But they know Aki is dumb, so how is she going to get into a public university to study veterinary science?

Hachiken speaks up, and Aki's Dad gets a bad feeling about what he's going to say. Hachiken says he will take responsibility for Aki passing the entrance exams. The women take this to mean he'll marry her if she fails, which enrages Aki's dad. But, of course, Hachiken means he'll help her study, and they all know he's the best student at her school. Which takes us back to the beginning of the episode.

One thing I liked, which marked the acceptance of Aki's dream to work with horses, was when Grandpa casually picked up a rice cracker and asked which university she should go to. All the stress and worry Aki had carried with her about disappointing her family flew away from the room, and so did the tone of the conversation. Just before then, Great Grandma counseled Aki not to take on the challenge of raising horses half-way, if she's serious about working with them. With that, the conversation turned into a practical discussion. The Mikage family has to settle the Komaba debt and find a way to pay for Aki's education, so Grandpa's horses still have to go.

Next episode is the last one of the season, and we'll get to see Hachiken in his home environment. More frank awkward family conversations about their children's future to come? Let's see how Hachiken's growing backbone handles his father now.