How will a show that has thrilled and charmed handle one of the final episodes? By breaking our hearts. Episode 23 of Chihayafuru continues the punishingly bad news for our favorite Karuta players. There are also moments of comedy and kyaa, but for the most part we get to watch as every character we can pin [...]
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How will a show that has thrilled and charmed handle one of the final episodes? By breaking our hearts. Episode 23 of Chihayafuru continues the punishingly bad news for our favorite Karuta players. There are also moments of comedy and kyaa, but for the most part we get to watch as every character we can pin [...]
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After Chihaya’s loss last week, she goes into a state of depression for a while. Meanwhile, Harada challenges Sudo to protect Chihaya’s hair and beats him. In the end, though, Harada is unable to make it to the finals, but … Continue reading →
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After Chihaya’s loss last week, she goes into a state of depression for a while. Meanwhile, Harada challenges Sudo to protect Chihaya’s hair and beats him. In the end, though, Harada is unable to make it to the finals, but … Continue reading →
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I honestly don't know how this show is going to wrap itself up. This episode felt like the start of a new story arc, with Chihaya gradually getting over the fact that she lost her chance to face the Queen this year. It was heartbreaking to see her working through it ("If I hadn't messed up, would that be me up there?") but it was great to see her turn the pain of losing into the drive to go all the way next year. However...we only have two episodes left. Where are we going to go from here? What are we going to focus on? I went into this show knowing that there wouldn't be a definitive ending (the manga is still ongoing) but it's disappointing to see that all that build-up towards Chihaya's rematch with the Queen mean nothing this time around. I'm still looking forward to seeing that cheat get what's coming to her, though. Anyway, my main concern is that Chihayafuru will just stop rather than attempt some kind of closure. An open ending is fine, but from where we're at in the storyline, I just don't know. This show has proven me wrong before though, and I hope that it'll happen again. I would love to see this show go out on a high note. Concerns about episode limits aside, this was a pretty emotional episode. On top of Chihaya dealing with losing the tournament, Tachi once again did a pretty good job of acting as the emotional support for the team, despite his own feelings. I particularly liked the way that he handled the news that some guy had asked Chihaya out as well ("You need to realize that you can't date a guy who hasn't seen you play karuta"). The Christmas party scene, where we actually see the group apart and with their classmates for once, put a nice cap on how far they've come and how much more is ahead of them. On the other side of things, I'm getting a bit worried about Arata. When Chihaya called him, he wasn't hanging out with his class, he was with the karuta society. Not that there's anything wrong with that in and of itself, but after seeing him make a kid cry by taking a match too seriously and tracking down a guy who wasn't interested in the competitive side of it anymore makes me feel that maybe he got back into it too quickly and that he's forgetting about the fun side of it. Maybe the final two episodes will focus on that. With the competetive part out of the way, I wouldn't mind a human-relationship driven ending. Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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After Chihaya's devastating loss in the qualification tournament, it's not surprise that she's an emotional wreck in this week's episode. The episode picks up right where we left off last week; Yumi has just won the match and Chihaya is stunned at the turn of events. Dr. Harada notices that Chihaya doesn't thank Yumi for the match (it's pretty much an unspoken rule to thank your opponent for the match even if you lose) but doesn't say anything. Chihaya exits the room only to be surrounded by her friends, but she bursts into tears and runs off, locking herself in a storage closet. Everyone tries persuading Chihaya to come out because they understand how frustrating it is to lose, but then Sudo appears. He makes the remark that he'll enjoy seeing what Chihaya looks like with a shaved head and tells Taichi that he'll send him his e-mail address because he wants to see the 'after' photos. Everyone panics - it appears that they had all forgotten about the bet - and they all offer to shave their heads in Chihaya's stead. Kanade even offers to cut her hair extremely short, but Nishida pleads with her to stay out of it. Dr. Harada appears and asks what all the commotion is about and Taichi explains the situation. Dr. Harada sighs, saying that Chihaya was an idiot to agree to that bet (something her friends all agree on) but makes another bet with Sudo; if he's able to defeat Sudo in the tournament, Chihaya if off the hook. Sudo mentions that they aren't each other's opponents in the next round and Dr. Harada tells him not to lose in the next round.
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Okay. We’ve finally gotten near the point that has been looming over the entire series: the ending. At first I thought that the creators wanted the finale to focus on a really important match, but Chihaya’s loss last week made that impossible. This episode instead was really different from all of the previous episodes. And [...]
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「しろきをみればよぞふけにける」 (Shiroki wo Mireba yo Zofuke ni Keru) "The Night is Nearly Past" Damn, this show is seriously going to be the end of me.
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Episode 23 - Chihayafuru this week has a noticeable shift in tone, where the focus shifts from pure karuta to the brooding romantic undertones that the series has had since the very beginning. It’s a refreshing change-up that eschews the constant competitive tournament matches, and with the end to this series fast approaching, shifting towards [...]
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Despite her best efforts, qualifying for a chance to take on the reigning Queen once again was simply a bridge too far for Chihaya, as her challenge came to a grinding halt against former Queen Yamamoto, teaching Chihaya some more important lessons about playing karuta in the process. Not that this really helps Chihaya all that much - while previous defeats have still given her an opportunity to
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Yes, but it would be nice to see it in the first place, love. Hello, Hana here, doing the main part this week while Crusader-senpai is partially preoccupied with never-ending Mid-Terms (I apologise in advance for the lack of RAEG). So, this week sees Chihaya do battle with the former Queen, Yumi ‘Tenacious’ Yamamoto, who [...]
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Episode 22 - Based on the impressions from this episode, it seems that Madhouse intends on finishing this series without a conclusive conclusion. After all, in a conclusive inclusion you would expect Chihaya to make it to the finals and face off against the Queen. Instead, the story has opted to take the route where [...]
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Episode 21 starts off with Chihaya and her friends finishing their exams and preparing for the big qualification tournament that weekend. Chihaya is relieved to have her exams behind her, but she also seems a bit concerned as to whether she'll be held back or not. During practice, she puts her all into it - especially against Nishima since he's now Class A - but still seems to be making sure she isn't using her speed. Instead, she's concentrating on the placement of the cards and her opponent's strengths and weaknesses. Either way, she's improving her game little by little. However, our attention is diverted to Taichi - who is reading the cards - because he's completely memorized the cards and is reading them at random from memory! Everyone but Chihaya notices, but once the match is over everyone is completely stunned that he was able to read 100 poems at random without messing up a single time. Nishida tells him to quit being so perfect, which confuses Taichi since he thinks he made a mistake. Kanade points out that instead of feeling the cards, like herself, Chihaya and Nishida do, Taichi's weakness is that he can only see the cards as cards. Taichi considers this and inwardly seems to scold himself for having a weakness in the first place. As the group leave school grounds after their practice, they're startled by their teacher hollering out of the second story window. She's calling out to Chihaya and is elated to tell her that she managed to pass all of her exams. Chihaya is ecstatic to hear that, but she's really touched when her teacher wishes her luck in the upcoming tournament. Despite the strange looks from the other students in the surrounding area, Chihaya seems even more determined to do her best and not let her teacher down.
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Warning: This episode may make you want to kill children. Kara no Kyokai here (AHAHAHAHA GET IT? ….I apologise to the world for my lame joke m(_ _)m) with Chihayafuru~. So judging from last episode, Chihaya is on a roll! I wonder how she’ll do this episode. …Your thoughts, Kyo? Kara had been saving the [...]
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I got excited on the new IPad that was just announced by Apple today. I am aiming to get that hardware by May or June so that I can develop on it for future web projects that I am thinking of. I don’t really get is why people are disappointed over the New IPad. The retina [...]
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This week’s episode starts off with Chihaya being matched up against Yamamoto Yumi, the previous Queen in the Eastern Qualifiers. As the game starts, Yumi’s cards favor Chihaya’s style. Yumi has a self-deprecating attitude, questioning the point of even trying … Continue reading →
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I get why Harada-sensei doesn't like the other karuta society now. This is how their star player and former champion acts in a match? For most of this episode I felt bad for this character. She spends ten years playing karuta, finally becomes the Queen, but loses her title in the very next year. That's rough. I didn't blame her at all for feeling jaded and for wondering why she was even participating in the tournament. The way that the episode set things up, with the flashbacks and Chihaya's determination to not let someone who has given up beat her, I assumed that the problem was mainly with the leader of the other karuta society since it was shown that he continued to push her to compete despite the fact that she did worse every time. Like Chihaya, I was put into a false sense of security. I was convinced that Chihaya would win; how could she lose? Her opponent had been beaten down by the current Queen, and by her own admission, even if she did make it to the finals she still couldn't beat her. So when she started contesting who had gotten to the cards first, I was as shocked as Chihaya. If her pinky touched that card, then I'm the Queen of England. She wasn't playing with her eyes on a long-term goal, like Chihaya. She just got mad at the opponent in front of her, projecting her problems with the current Queen onto her (although she wasn't off in her comparison between the two) and decided that she was going to do anything to win, even if it meant outright lying. If that is her go-to method for winning karuta matches, no wonder the current Queen beat her. I'm with Taichi on this one; karuta is scary. As agonizing as it was to watch this former champion get away with what can easily be considered cheating, I'm glad that the show has established that there are ways to bend the rules in karuta, just like in any other sport. It wasn't until this episode that I realized that up until this point, every match has been played fair and square, a meeting of skill, strategy and endurance. What made this match so frustrating was because Chihaya didn't lose because of a lack of skill, she lost to someone who knows how to make a scene when it will benefit her the most. Thankfully, not everything in this episode was as exasperating. I highly approve of Kanade becoming a reader. I have wondered a little bit about the readers throughout the series, but since this show focuses on the competitive side, I didn't think that it would be addressed. I hope that we get to see what kind of tests a reader has to pass in order to gain their ranking, but given the number of episodes that we have left, I'm not sure that we will. Also concerning (given the episode count) is once again I don't know where this show will go for its final few episodes. The implication was that Chihaya would meet the Queen again but with the loss in this episode, I just don't know. ...Second season please? Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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Just As My Beauty Has Faded It’s been a while since Chihaya’s matches felt this exciting to me. The outcome is usually that she wins after making a sudden revelation. But here, it’s the complete reversal of the formula, where her opponent gets stronger instead. Not only that, she’s the former queen who has been [...]
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Holy crap, Chihayafuru. Out of all of the minor characters that Chihaya had to face so far, this was by far the best match against it, and it totally went against my expectations. Yamamoto Yumi was wonderfully fleshed out in just one episode, and as a first I actually found myself rooting for both, rather [...]
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