Futatsu no Spica Episode 2
At the end of episode 1, Asumi was told by Sano-sensei that she will never make it to space as her father was the one who caused the crash of the Japan's first spaceship, The Lion, which killed everyone in the ship and those people who were nearby when the spaceship fell from the sky. Classes continue with a test for swimming with clothes on. Unfortunately, that is not Asumi's strong point.
There is a funny scene when all involved had to have their body measurements taken for the fitting of the spacesuit.
The measurements were loudly announced by the staff who was doing the measurements. Those who were waiting beyond the privacy screen were all laughing at Omi when she pleaded that her measurements to not be announced.
Ukita have started viewing Asumi as her rival and declared her intentions to never be beaten by her. Shu is seen sleeping again and they gang can't believe that he is the top of his class as he never is seen studying.
Ukita's mom visited the school to inform them that one person from the class who has the best results will be given the chance to go to NASA.
It's the time for the parent-teacher meet and Asumi's father has been called to the meeting. However, in the flashback, its shown that her father opposed her decision on entering the space school. As such, Asumi is unsure if her father will attend the meeting.
The next day, the swimming practice continued. As Omi was swimming her lap, her foot cramped. Asumi immediately jumped into the pool to save her. Ukita, was watching all this with a frustrated look on her face. Later, in class, she nonchalantly informed Asumi on the correct method to save a drowning person. Omi got fired up with Ukita's condescending tone and both got into a fight again. Asumi suddenly stated that it is not possible for a person to go to space on his/her ownself. Sano-sensei entered the class at that moment and again announced that the person who keeps thinking of "cooperation" and "friendship" will never be able to go to space, that everyone must think of their classmates as rivals.
Omi was walking back after class and suddenly spotted Shu working in a grocery shop. The shop owner spotted her and teased her for being Shu's girlfriend. Shu didn't comment and just gave her a can of drink, while putting his index finger on his lips, clearly indicating " keep this a secret between us". Omi smiled while looking at the drink.
The group was discussing on dividing some of Asumi's laps between the rest of them, in order that Asumi will don't have to shoulder the burden too much. However, Ukita stood up and said that she has no intention of shouldering other people's burden and that she will need to take care of herself.
In the parent-teacher meet, Asumi was sitting with her instructor, waiting for her father, who was late. She seem already resigned to her father not appearing when her father walked through the door. The meeting proceeding smoothly. Later, while walking outside the school with her father, Asumi blurted out the question that have been plaguing her, on whether her father is really the on who killed the crew of The Lion. Her father admitted it.
When Asumi asked if her remembered her promise to him that she will take him to space when she's grown up, he clearly remembered but lied to her that he have forgotten. Asumi was dejected by the answer. Ukita, who watched the conversation from the distance noticed Asumi's sad face.
Asumi was in the planetarium watching the stars and enjoying the crackers given by her father. When the lights came up,Asumi started clapping in delight at the show. the guy Asumi met the other time(Mukai Osamu-his character haven't been formally introduced, so I'm keeping in line with that) couldn't help laughing at her antics.
They began talking and he saw that Asumi was looking depressed so he tried to cheer her up with a story. Asumi's spirits lifted a little after the exchange.
The next day, while on the after a run, Fuchuya told Ukita a little bit on the background of Asumi and why she is so driven to go to space. He told her about Asumi's father fault in the crash of "The Lion" spaceship and the death of her mother from that crash, on how difficult it was for Asumi's father to have to shift from the feelings of a perpetrator to that of a victim.
Later that day, Ukita caught Asumi practicing her swimming alone in the pool. Suddenly, she noticed Asumi drowning and immediately jumped in to save Asumi. While in the process of saving her, Ukita had to pull onto Asumi's shoulders and that caused a slight injury to Asumi's shoulders.
When they were both out and cleaned up, Asumi tried to comfort and encourage Ukita with a story to tell Ukita indirectly that she is not alone, that she has friends around her supporting her on. In return, Ukita affirmed Asumi's dreams of going to space, and encourage her to not be bothered by other people's expectations or obstacles.
The day of the swimming competition arrived. The team decided thus, Sho and Fuchuya will swim 250m, Asumi and Omi will do 150m and Ukita will do the original 200m.
The race starts.
They got a head start and was doing well until Asumi's turn came. Due to the shoulder injury that she got during practice, she was not able to really swim well. all her teammates could see that she was struggling to complete her part of the relay. Ukita decided to encourage Asumi on with the swim, to see Asumi's dreams of them all going to space coming true. Ukita jumped into the pool earlier than planned and took over Asumi's laps. Eventhough she managed to catch up on some of the time, their team didn't win the race. Asumi was really sad that she caused their team to lose. however, Ukita declared that though they lost this time, they will win the next competition.
Asumi even declared to Sano-sensei that she won't give up her dream of going to space, that she'll definitely go to space. Ukita also confronted her mother and declared the same intention.
Asumi met Mukai Osamu's character, who's name is Kiryu Haruki. It seems she kind of like him. Fuchuya saw their exchange also suspected something.
When Asumi introduced herself to him, he seemed to be particularly interested in her surname, Kamogawa.
In the next scene, we see Asumi's father taking out the paper where Asumi wrote her promise to bring her father to space, meaning that he actually didn't forget. He was visiting a primary school and bump into Kiryu Haruki. That's when we the audience is brought to realize that Kiryu's parents were also a victim of "The Lion's" crash.
Kiryu promised Kamogawa-san that his daughter will never graduate from the astronaut school, that he will never allow for that to happen, because of his parents' lives that were sacrificed in the crash.