Silver Spoon vols. 8 & 9

The farm life isn’t all wacky fun as Hachiken learns in vol. 8.  It’s here that he finds out the reason why Komaba won’t be coming back to Ezo Ag:  His family farm has gone under and now he has to help take it apart before he starts working full-time to help pay off the debt they’ve accrued.  We also find out that this was the “something” Komaba and Aki have been talking about for the past few volumes, so it’s not like mangaka Hiromu Arakawa is springing this on us out of nowhere.  Still, Hachiken takes it about as well as you could expect. Which is to say that he spends a good portion of vol. 8 freaking out about it and trying to find some way to stave off the inevitable.  While his efforts don’t pan out, they do wind up bringing him closer to Aki and we close out the volume seeing how he’s managed to change her fate by assuming what appears to be a terrible, terrible burden.

Said burden leads Hachiken back to the last place he wants to be in vol. 9:  His parents’ apartment. While his plan is to get what he needs and then get the hell out, well… you can probably guess how that goes.  It leds to a tense lunch with his mom and dad where he’s finally able to speak his mind to his uncaring father. Even if his words don’t appear to make much of an impact on his old man, Hachiken’s mom is moved enough that she decides to pay her son a visit to see what he gets up to at Ezo Ag.  This is all to say that if vol. 9 lacks the drama of vol. 8, it at least manages to be more heartwarming in a sincere fashion. Something which is also tempered by subplots involving Hachiken running a fund to buy pigs that almost takes on a life of its own and how a computer virus threatens to ruin the boys’ Christmas party.  Quality stuff all around, as everyone should be expecting from this series by now.