I have always found the way Silver Spoon introduces conflict very strange; the first episode was basically "something is going on between Mikage and Komaba", but when the next episode comes around, the majority of the episode didn't even hint at this new thing even once. However, even though it is weird for me, the structure itself might be better plotted out and will make more sense once we get deeper into the season. Either way, both episode two and three were heavily focused on Hachiken, and even if there is a mystery from the first episode left behind, there was some rather interesting ways Silver Spoon used analogy to both introduce the imperfections in Hachiken and make him work toward improvement.
Both episodes are very much connected by the fact that animals helped Hachiken get over a certain inner problem, but I first want to focus on the second episode.
Right at the beginning of this episode, Hachiken finds a stray dog in the pile of trash he is cleaning up; and without thinking, Hachiken pretty much took full responsibility of: cleaning, getting shots, training and all other treatments from the dog that was needed before officially taking him in. If you ask me, the training sequence between Hachiken and Vice President, the dog, was some of the more funny stuff -- which includes the fact that they named this dog Vice President. Considering that Vice President is also Hachiken, a lot of the reactions coming from Hachiken when his dog was being praised and scolded by Mikage was pretty great.
I did mention that Hachiken would be learning from his animal companions; but what did this little pup even teach Hachiken? The most prevalent thing is being strict to anyone that is being unreasonable. Since Hachiken is pretty much the dictionary definition of the "nice guy", you don't often see him being very matter-of-fact to anyone but maybe Tokiwa. So with a dog that was initially walking all over him, Hachiken needed the knowledge and be willing to actually face the things in front of him -- and right now that is Vice President the dog.
There was also something that the viewers learned about Hachiken in this episode. I mentioned that I consider him to be a standard "nice guy", but unlike many of the more generic cases, he actually has his own reasons. Mikage was the one to point out the rhyme and reason for Hachiken's very openly friendly nature he has, which basically ties to the fact that his parent are very strict.
It is nice to have, at the very least, an explanation to some of these nice guy tendencies many anime characters have. I've always preferred characters with a bit of rough edges, but if a character actually has his or her own reasons for being a certain way, at least it feels more real and not just like a main characters is that way because there has to be a hook that allows them to have many characters flock to them.
Lastly, using Mikage's logical for analyzing Hachiken, I almost assume the reason it is so easy for her to understand many animals personalities -- which includes humans -- is the fact that she doesn't let people in. Mikage is reserved when it comes to much of her personal affairs, so she can hide away many of her more striking personality traits to seem more plain, or just to assimilate. Controlling those things in her personality takes some ability to observe oneself, and thus, she is able to understand -- or rather she is more observant about -- many not-so-clear things in a persons personality.
And that was the episode two.
The third episode showed more of Hachiken's complex about being left behind by his peers in some type of skill. And the skill that Hachiken isn't excelling in is getting his horse to jump over an obstacle. Now, saying it this way seems a bit counter to the point that is being made in this episode, but it does represent the mindset Hachiken was in before he made the realization near the end.
All three animals: Vice President, Maro, and Hachiken, have very similar personalities -- that being stubbornness -- yet Hachiken has to deal with that stubborn nature in different ways. For the dog it was dominating him, but Maro the horse had to be approach in the opposite way. Hachiken needed to make himself adapt to the way Maro acted and trust that he would actually accomplish the task Hachiken wants. So even with Hachiken's trouble with many of the different beasts in Yezo High, he had to handle himself in varying ways from things so similar and ended up learned something different.
It's rather interesting that we find out a small slice of Mikage's personality along with something more in-depth on Hachiken's side. As far as episode three goes, Hachiken pointed out that Mikage losses her accent when she is being more direct to someone who isn't getting something. And that results in this cute moment of embarrassment from Mikage for something so minor. But that detail does tell me that she doesn't like to stick out because of something that is different about her from the group -- and that is very similar to Hachiken's complex.
So really, from what has been revealed about both Hachiken and Mikage in these two episodes, I can say that both of them are rather similar. The biggest difference is how they express themselves to others and what they are willing to share. Not only that, but they both -- as well as most people in the school -- learn quite a lot from the animals around them. And that is really a cool thing to have, considering the agriculture field can be rather cutthroat -- quite literally -- when it comes to how they raise and threat animals that will eventually be turned into produce.
And now that we are three episodes in, I can confidently say that this season of Silver Spoon is pretty great. I'm going to guess that this thing between Mikage and Komaba is the major arc that will be dealt with later; regardless most of this development so far has far exceeded my expectations and I'm just glad that this season is just as good as the first.
