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Time for the finals! Chihaya ends up facing Sudo, and Taichi ends up facing Retro (the guy from the past). As the finals get under way, we go over to Arata, who reveals that he’s been missing Chihaya’s emails due … Continue reading →
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They made hard work of it, but Mizusawa's karuta team have made it to the regional final while also gaining a lot in terms of understanding the teamwork and togetherness required of them to progress... and not a moment too soon, as the final is about to get underway. After a period of fretting about how they should line-up given the strengths of their opponent, Chihaya has a rare moment of
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Here’s also the thing with the team matches: because Chihaya’s team has two rookies, it pretty much means that the three other players need to win all of their matches to make up for that. That does put a lot of extra tension on them compared to the usual. It’s just one of the examples [...]
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I'm now caught up on Chihayafuru, which is as much an interesting experiment in how much an anime can be fixated on a single subject without losing its human focus. Is karuta really a metaphor for everything?
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Chihayafuru: your source for excellent life advice. Chihayafuru tag-team reporting for duty~ And we are happy to because this series is pure awesome. I’m so glad Kara picked this up and would be continuing with it. <3 Enjoy our excited fangirliness~ Ah, yes. Another awesome week of tagging with the boss lady! As for the [...]
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Considering we're just about halfway through the series, I think the plot is finally starting to advance at a fairly good pace. We not only got a decent and in-depth background on the relationships between Chihaya, Arata and Taichi, but also what led to Chihaya enjoying karuta so much. Not to mention we now have Chihaya with an official karuta club and new friends, all of whom are training to compete in the Tokyo competition in order to go to nationals. Speaking of which, it looks like we have a bit of a time jump and we see several groups of teenagers - all part of different karuta clubs for different schools - whispering about Chihaya. Of course, she's oblivious to all of the talk and is busy doing her stretches; all while wearing a hakama. This causes quite the buzz around the tournament since it's uncommon for people to wear hakama during tournaments, except for the competitions to see who becomes the new Meiji and Queen. Taichi approaches her and asks if she's doing alright, but she seems exceptionally excited about the whole thing. She excitedly tells Taichi that everyone in the whole building is a fan of karuta. She even goes so far as to say they're all bonkers for karuta, but Taichi tells her not to go that far because she might offend someone. The two head down the hallway to a classroom where Kanade is getting Nishida and Komano dressed in their hakama, much to Nishida's protests.
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Hello minna-san! Here’s episode 10 titled “Exchange Hellos and Goodbyes”. Hope you enjoy! Other than being forced to wear hakama’s by Kanade and even being complimented that Porky and Desk-kun would fit well in a children’s festival or theatre stage, the guys sure don’t take it as a compliment which I found was quite humorous [...] Related posts:Chihayafuru 09 Chihayafuru 01 & Mashiro-Iro Symphony 01 [First Impressions] Mayo Chiki 07
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Training camp is over but when crunch time comes Desk-kun wants out. Chihaya gets shaken but rejoice for she might soon be stirred for Chihaya might have a rival. Kana-chan wins her first match. Taichi fails at leading and coaching. Its game time and only three are really game on. While Chihaya has put a squad [...]
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It should have been an easy victory. New Team Chihayafuru is up against a team that, in all rights, should give them an easy victory. They have three players — Chihaya, Taichi and Nishida — who are damn good at karuta, which should be enough to give them an edge and propel them to the [...]
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As it’s middel of the week, that means it time for another episode of Chihayauru. If you asked me at the start of the year if one of my favourite shows of the year would be about kurta, then I would of said no without hesitatension, but this show is amazingly conistent with quality. This [...]
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For weeks now, I’ve kept trying o find a reason why Karuta is interesting. With this, I’ve found it: the team matches. With the way this episode went down, there will be plenty of inspiration to fill an entire season. Here’s the thing: throughout this episode we breezed through three different teams. That’s incredibly fast [...]
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It's finally time for a tournament arc! After getting to know all of the characters as individuals, how will they work as a team? Since we didn't actually see the match the last time there was a group tournament, it was great to finally see the teamwork side to karuta instead of just the individual matches. Of course, they're all still playing their matches on their own, but as this episode showed, team spirit accounts for a lot. However, before it gets to that point, Tsutomu's disappointment in not being able to keep up causes him to point out the flaws in the group, and in more ways than one. For most of the first half, we see a lot of how Tsutomu and Kanade are having completely different experiences in their first tournament. At first, they're both losing their matches, but eventually Kanade nets her first win. Meanwhile, Tsutomu is taking cards to the face from Chihaya's match and doesn't manage to take any cards. It's only natural that he feels disappointed and unnecessary back to what I said earlier about pointing out the weaknesses... What he said to Chihaya may have been a low blow, but as I pointed out last week, I'm not completely sure of Chihaya's intentions anymore. Is it to meet Arata at nationals? Become Queen of karuta? Or is it just to get and keep the friends that she has in the only way that she knows how, through a game? And as usual, the other half of this is Tachi. I forgot to mention it in last week's post, but making him president of the club was a good idea. He's more dependable than Chihaya, who runs strictly off of her impulses. Throughout the episode, we got to watch Tachi struggle a little with his leader position after Tsutomu called out Chihaya but then bring them all together with Chihaya let the pressure get the better of her for the first time. It goes without saying that he cares about the team as much as Chihaya does, but I can't help but wonder where the line is drawn between what's best for the team and what he wants personally (i.e. his crush on Chihaya). At the beginning of the episode, he says that Chihaya belongs to both him and Arata... but judging by his actions at the end of the last episode, I don't think that he really believes that deep down, or at the very least, he wants to change that dynamic so that Chihaya will look at him more. While I'm not budging from my Arata ship, over the last couple of episodes I've come to like Tachi quite a bit and now regard him as a worthy opponent. I love how there's so much stuff going on underneath the surface of the character relationships in this show, and how everyone is still growing and changing with each episode. And I still really want Arata to show up and throw a wrench into the works, just to see how everyone would react to him. Additional Screenshots &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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I truly do love this show. Chihayafuru episode 10 had so many things going on, from the tension around the central love triangle, to personal triumphs and sorrows, all within the larger context of the Tokyo Regional tournament preliminaries. The pacing is excellent. There always seems to be an excellent mixture of pathos and comedy. [...]
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It’s shocking how you continue to message the guy. Episode 10 – Exchange Hellos and Goodbyes It’s Karuta Season and the comeptitions have started. The team have to make their way up in hopes of getting to the Nationals and meeting Arata once again. Review It is really nice to see that instead of making [...]
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Lost in America Winter 2012 Season Preview and Poll: 「ゆくもかへるもわかれては」 (Yuku mo Kaeru mo Wakarete wa) "Exchange Hellos and Goodbyes" I’m convinced at this point that grouchy old Miyauchi-sensei knew exactly what she was doing when she forced the Karuta Club to name Taichi as President. And right now, she looks like a friggin’ genius for doing it.
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Episode 10 - The music this week was a bit too overpowering, but I’ll admit that I was quite surprised at how well the conflict worked out. It worked out in the sense that it reflected upon Desk-kun’s insecurities in a realistic manner, as well as brought some proper closure to his mini-story. But what [...]
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The day of the Tokyo regionals. Naturally, Kanade is a bit excited about everyone wearing hakama (even if they’re the only ones). Tsutomu gets a bit depressed that he can’t take a card, but Nishida later reveals that he was … Continue reading →
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Birthday celebrations out of the way, it's tournament time already for Chihaya and company as we reach episode ten of Chihayafuru.  To celebrate the occasion, Mizusawa school's newly formed team are even kitted out in traditional hakama for the event. Given their entry to the tournament as a team against opposing groups of five players, it seems as if Chihaya, Taichi and Nishida should have
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