It is slowly becoming more evident that we won't be going back to the mystery between Mikage and Komaba, but at this point I don't want to be hung up on that issue -- though it is still lingering in my mind. So these past two episodes have way more to do with teamwork between the student, for the most part, because of the competition that Equestrian Club participated in, along with the long awaited Ezonoo Festival. For the most part we are beginning to explore the relationship between Mikage and Hachiken, but there seems to be a bit more emphasis on Mikage being fleshed out as a character, only it is far more subtle compared to the way Hachiken was developed. Either way, I'm thrilled to see that Mikage is getting more screen time.
To start, the fourth episode was all about the small obstacle competition, which the Equestrian Club was practicing their jumping skill for in the previous episode. And the competition itself helped solidify all that Hachiken has learned from the practice he has gotten. Whether it is trusting the horse, or being aware of your current state of mind while riding, that is the main reason for Hachiken getting fourth in his division despite this being his first competition.
And in all, that was a casual competition between school equestrian clubs, we met a rather eccentric new character. She is an old friend of Mikage and her name is Minamikujou Ayame. And what I mean by eccentric is that she has this high confidence level that isn't supported by anything. When Minamikujou interacts with our main characters, it is mostly her talking down to them by building a false pedestal that is very fragile. So when the competition came around she was the only one to be disqualified for being overtime -- plus she was in Division C which is the lowest level division and Mikage was in B.
With the fact of Minamikujou being one of Mikage's childhood friends, we got a small hint at Mikage's complex. Most of it is implied by the way Mikage replied to one of Minamikujou's highly exasperated stories about how wonderful she perceives herself.
Since Mikage doesn't want to feel like she is disappointing her family by taking a job that is strictly focused on horses, rather than taking on the family farm, she doesn't have the courage to actually confront her parents. And the courage to speak out despite what others think is exactly what Minamikujou does on a regular basis. So even if it was the smallest bit of a discomforted look coming off of Mikage, there was still something to be drawn from that episode -- yet there wasn't much else besides this whole competition.
But that was episode four.
And like many school anime, we enter into the preparation stages of the Ezonoo Festival, or the more generic name of "the culture festival", for the fifth episode. I've never been a fan of these type of events in any anime, mainly because all the progress is shifted to a project I don't care for. Luckily enough, in Silver Spoon's case, there was other things happening besides the tedious task of planning and build of many events that encompass this culture festival.
Probably the most notable for me is both Hachiken completely overworking himself, and Mikage finally feeling like she is in fact a main character. And this with the focus being on both of these characters, I'm seeing a deeper relationship between the two starting to blossom -- and that was pretty much backed up by Hachiken asking Mikage out in a more clever fashion.
The more Hachiken continues to contribute to, and helps out, the school the only thing that comes to my mind is how much of a pushover he can be. Back in episode two Mikage explains why he does these things, but him being swamped with all that work is really frustrating to watch and this is probably the reason Hachiken had a bit less air time this episode compared to all other episodes -- though this was the main reason for Mikage finally get her own scene without Hachiken around. So really, despite all the warnings coming from many of Hachiken's friends and classmates, he does in fact overwork himself and collapsing by the end of the episode. Who knows who will find his exhausted body, I just kind of hope it will be Mikage just to see what would happen.
And speaking of Mikage, I mentioned before that she never really felt like a main character; the main reason is that she never had any scenes of her own and as I mentioned before, this episode was the one where it happened. With the events of the preparations for Ezonoo Festival in the recent past, Hachiken and Mikage decided to go some where fun together and initially Mikage didn't put two and two together. So when it was discussed with Mikage's dorm mates, we finally have some progress in, at the very least, Mikage knowing that Hachiken has feeling for her that is more than just friends. And at this point I can assume that the thing between Komaba and her was nothing romantic simply based on her reaction to the idea of anyone liking her.
I mentioned in my previous post that Hachiken and Mikage have similar tendencies, but they express them in a different manner. In these past two episodes, the anime continued to reinforce that statement in the way the both treat their friends/classmates and family. Hachiken is way more open and honest with his classmates to the point of him doing things for them despite his own wellbeing. And as for his parents, he is the opposite and only really interacts with them to gain their respect via his accomplishments.
As for Mikage, she respects her family to the point of ignoring her passion to continue their family farm. While her classmates are far more in the dark about things because she isn't one to open up that often. And this similar but different theme will probably continue on; and if all things go well, they will continue to connect of the similarities they share and be more interested in things they are not -- aka opposites attract and what not.
Despite this series continuing to tip toward the side of slice-of-life, I'm getting more excited for the ever shifting relationships of the characters. I still want to know what will happen to our passed out male lead in the next episode, but either way my excitement for this series continues to rise.
