Continuing on with the Master match, Suo is destroying his opponent, able to distinguish the habits of the reader to better determine the card she is reading. After the match, Tsutomu analyzes Chihaya’s play and concludes that she has 20 one-syllable cards, making her very similar to the Master with 28 one-syllable cards. Later, Kanade [...]
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Most people here will be unfamiliar with the game of Karuta. Its rules are fairly simple: two people sit around a bunch of cards that each contain a half of a poem. Someone on the sidelines starts reading cards that contain the other halves of these poems, and it’s up to the player to get [...]
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Chihayafuru A show about childhood, adolescence, dreams, hard work, and of course, Karuta! Introduction. Chihayafuru follows the life and (mis)adventures of our titular character, Chihaya. Sister of a model, she is blessed with similarly good looks, but as many an aspiring suitor have found out, she lacks the kind of poise and grace you would [...]
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With the qualification tournament completed, we have a minor time jump to the final tournament of the year where the challengers finally get to compete with the reigning King and Queen. As the episode starts, we see Chihaya at Taichi's house and she's super excited about getting to watch the match on his 60-inch tv. Taichi asks her why they decided to get together at his house and she brings up the fact that his tv is huge but eventually admits that she was invited to go to Dr. Harada's house but didn't want to bring Kanade, Komano and Nishida there since they're part of the rival karuta society. Taichi seems to understand what Chihaya means, but still seems a bit annoyed. Chihaya is taking her shoes off when she hears a voice from the hallway and instantly freezes. Taichi's mother is still home because the play she was supposed to see has been cancelled and Chihaya instantly says she has somewhere to be and tries to run out of the house. Taichi's mother tells her to stay and enjoy herself, but it's clear that she dislikes Chihaya for bringing her son back into the world of karuta. Taichi notices how wound up Chihaya is and eventually invites her up to his room where they have a smaller tv to watch the match on (by "smaller" he means a 42-inch tv). Chihaya is nervous about going into Taichi's room and being alone with him, but the other members of the club arrive soon enough to join them. As the match starts, Kanade is more focused on the kimono being worn by Shinobu and says that it has to be worth a million Yen. Of course, everyone else notices that Shinobu is a bit...well, chubby. Chihaya sees a limited edition handkerchief that Shinobu has and realizes that it was a prize from some ice cream company and comes to the conclusion that Shinobu must have eaten nothing but ice cream for the last few months in order to win that contest. As the match starts, Yumi is able to win the first match because Shinobu just isn't moving as fast as she used to due to the extra weight she's put on. Chihaya almost feels sorry for her, but remembers that she's watching the match in order to gain more knowledge on how to beat Shinobu the following year.
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「(もれいづるつきのかげのさやけさ」 (Moreizuru Tsuki no Kage no Sayakesa) "Moonlight, Clear and Bright" I don’t want it to be true, but it is – this is the last Taichi Tuesday.  I’m grateful to have had the chance to watch such a superb, heartfelt and thoroughly wonderful anime as Chihayafuru.
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So it was pretty obvious from the start that Chihayafuru and Natsume Yuujinchou would have the best final episodes of this season. But what about the ending? Ironically the best shows this season are both based on manga that are still on-going. Natsume Yuujin-Chou solved it wonderfully. Chihayafuru’s ending did some things really well, but [...]
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After spending most of its penultimate episode focusing on the Queen match broadcast live on TV, it's the Master match that grabs our attention as its final instalment begins. Then again, this particular match-up is so one-sided it doesn't actually occupy much of the episode, with the reigning champion wiping the floor with his opponent largely based upon his ability to pick out cards being read
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…This is what happens when Karuta doesn’t. So according to Kyo, the Queen and Master matches are up next! Will Yumi become Queen, or will Shinobu’s destiny as Chihaya’s eternal sismance partner rival come through? …Does anyone even care about the Master match at this point? Oh well, I guess I’ll find out once I [...]
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Well one more to go and Taichi is in desperation mode. I knew it was only a matter of time before he would try and lure Chihaya to his bedroom so that he could try something. However if Zeus wanted him to be with Chihaya he would have miracled it by now. Instead it seems [...]
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With the theme release, let’s take a look in the Animes that I had neglected of writing. Not that their bad, I just happen to have little to say to it. I had didn’t write anything about Chihayafuru in a while, despite that the ending just around the corner. It begs to question that with [...]
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Your usual Bishounen in Anime is that perfect guy who can do everything and is popular with everyone and is impeccably handsome in an effeminate way. He’s untouchable. He doesn’t exist in real life. He’s something the fujoshi crowd have … Continue reading →
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I am still resolving my thoughts. Not only because this is a rather interesting episode but also due to the restraints placed upon my writing in order to not spoil anything. But before we get to the juicy part, please allow me a quick discourse on the taste of defeat. It seems unfair. It is [...]
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After last week’s episode, this episode of Chihayafuru deals with the Queen and King of Karuta. I thought seeing the characters together watching the TV together shown how much Chihaya has changed the people in her Karuta club. So far in 2012 Chihayafuru has continued the same quality from the previous year (2011), and I [...]
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Nobody Wishes To See The Beautiful Cherry Blossoms *sigh* Isn’t it a bit too late to get me this excited? This one really thrilled me because of the introduction to Sou Hisashi, the Master of Karuta. He’s faster than the Queen, which was already hard for me to imagine, and he appears to be pretty intelligent, shrouded [...]
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Nobody Wishes To See The Beautiful Cherry Blossoms *sigh* Isn’t it a bit too late to get me this excited? This one really thrilled me because of the introduction to Sou Hisashi, the Master of Karuta. He’s faster than the Queen, which was already hard for me to imagine, and he appears to be pretty intelligent, shrouded [...]
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Episode 24 - Well, this is a rather interesting way to wrap up Chihayafuru. The past few episodes of Chihayafuru have been more focused on the characters (as opposed to karuta), but I guess that karuta would eventually have had to take center stage again. However, the karuta shown this episode was a smart way [...]
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The hunt to become Queen or Master is over for all of our major characters as Chihayafuru enters its final straight, but that doesn't mean that we shift away from karuta for these final episodes - far from it in fact, as we tune in for a TV broadcast of those two big finals. Although the presence of Taichi's mother at his home makes life more awkward than Chihaya and company might like, they
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