Muse: After a recap break, we’re finally back for the team tournament finals! After the official introduction of Fujisaki’s players two episodes ago, I knew that they wouldn’t go down without a fight, but this is the episode where I felt the difference between the two schools. One has prestige and respect along with an advisor who has a lifetime’s worth of experience, while the other is just trying to make a name for itself despite having excellent players. Last time, I wondered how their fractured team identity--since they compete against each other for spots--would play into their style. I got my answer. Fujisaki is not a team built around an ace or even a unified style of play. Each of them are powerhouses all on their own. By the time one of the Fujisaki players said that they could easily win without Rion, I believed him. However, Rion is an interesting player in her own right, if a little rough around the edges. After the first few rounds, easily holding her own against Chihaya, I was amazed that she wasn’t A-class yet. Her grandmother, the top-ranked reader for this match, sheds a bit more light on that in a monologue flashback, noting that Rion is a genius, but gives up easily. She sums it up in this line: "Rion has never won a tournament. She will never be Queen." This was a bit disappointing, since I was hoping that she’d join Chihaya and Megumu in becoming a serious contender against Shinobu. As the match goes on though, I can see what she means. Chihaya jams one of her fingers (a serious injury, as we saw with Kana), and the guilt completely throws Rion off her game, to the point where I wondered if she was giving Chihaya the match out of shame. Chihaya recovers in excellent fashion though, keeping her focus and setting the example for Rion. Chihaya’s level of dedication is what separates the two of them. Justin: In leaving off the last episode of the Nationals arc, Chihaya basically had to overcome fatigue, the fresh and rested player in Rion, the loss to Megumu in the semi-finals, and the reader, who is not only a Grade 7 level reader, but Rion’s grandmother. In other words, Chihaya had a lot on her plate. You then add an injury to the mix that she suffered in the match, and that sounds like a time to go home and try again next time. But of course that’s not how Chihaya operates. And in not operating like so, she realizes what she needs to do to actually beat her opponent. Maybe the injury did distract Rion. But if Chihaya didn’t follow through and have the desire to keep playing despite the pain, then she would definitely lose her match. I know I should expect this from her, but it’s always good to see her toughen things out. On the other hand, we have Rion, who in the end, and at least so far, has disappointed me. She stood on the sidelines and seemed like a great observer when watching Chihaya and Megumu face each other, and in getting her shot against Chihaya, she seemed more than able to hold her own. But then we get to her real issues, and after we get that established, she lets an injury slow her down. I can’t exactly criticize her for feeling guilty for what she did to Chihaya’s finger -- she alone knows what she did to Chihaya and how much it hurts -- but at the same time, that’s a moment she has to try and let go. What’s happening now is the tables have turned on her. What should have been her time to take advantage of her injury instead turns out to be advantage Chihaya. That needs to be fixed if she wants to prove there’s more to her than I think. Now, one thing that gave Rion an advantage was her grandmother happened to be reading the cards. Kana gave brief impressions about that, and in this episode, you see just how vital it is to have a good, consistent reader. Hey, remember back in the early episodes of Chihayafuru S2 we had that awkward newbie like reader who messed things up? There’s just a good advantage for the player when you can get the right kind of voice reading the cards. Of course, you can’t always get the best reader, but when you do, like Rion did, you definitely get an edge. It probably also helps that Rion’s grandmother is a Grade 7 reader. Muse: After the storm of cherry blossoms at the end of Episode 15, I thought that the show had significantly hyped up and explained Yamashiro’s relevance as reader in this match. However, this episode proved that there was still more to it. Before this point, our advocate for karuta as a way to enjoy poetry and Japanese culture was Kana, and while her insights on the Hundred Poets (and by extension, the game) have been fascinating, the main effect has been on her own playing style. However, this time the “images of the poems” are coming from someone outside of the Mizusawa team. Yamashiro creates amazing images with every line during this match, resulting in some of my favorite art direction from Chihayafuru so far, overlaying lineart on amazing backgrounds. Once introduced, this technique is used again and again in Chihaya and Rion’s match, particularly when Chihaya is injured. I thought that it was an interesting connecting line visually, since we go almost straight from Chihaya trying to hear the cards by “color” to jamming her finger, and I thought it carried across the feeling of the match very well. Rion does have a slight advantage since the reader is her grandmother (and a flashback shows that she’s really picky about her readers), but Chihaya figuring out her secret (thanks to Kana’s poetry lectures) may have leveled the playing field on that front. Justin: Now, we talked about Chihaya and Rion, and it looks like that matchup, which didn’t start favorably for Chihaya, will point to a Mizusawa victory. At this point, that looks like the only victory they’ll get, since everyone else is not having fun with their opponents -- and I saw that coming. Even scouting can’t hide the fact that Fujisaki has an advantage in all aspects of karuta, and it would pretty much take a near miracle for them to win their battles. So far, not so good. I’m not sure what they can do to actually get a victory. So that probably means Shinobu will have to be the answer to this problem. No, I don’t know how she’ll solve all of Mizusawa’s woes, but the fact is she was there, and none of the players even noticed her. I’m assuming they will notice at some point she was there. We know Chihaya would just get pumped up to see her, but what about everyone else? Will they up their game, or will they feel a bit of pressure to do something else? My guess is Chihaya will notice Shinobu is watching, then everyone else will follow Chihaya’s lead and try and win the final. From there, it probably still won’t be enough for Mizusawa to beat Fujisaki. The only question would be will Shinobu gain anything aside from remembering who Chihaya was? I’m going to guess she’ll think of something. Muse: Yeah, Shinobu will probably have an impact on the players, whether she likes it or not. Despite finally getting interested in the team match finals thanks to Arata, she got bored pretty easily and wanted to leave. It’s her status as Queen that forced her to stay (and also being placed in the front row), but this is the first time in a while we’ve seen Shinobu acknowledge her isolation. While I still think she was being harsh when she said that team matches were for people who don’t love karuta, I think I understand her disinterest a bit more. With the reputation and skills that she has, where is she going to find a team, let alone other teams that would play against her? It’s hard enough to find good opponents that can handle her one-on-one. The results in these finals don’t affect her at all. ...Or so it seems. Maybe something will change. I’m not sure what that “something” will be, but maybe it will happen once Chihaya realizes that her rival is watching her. That, at least, will be something to see. Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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