The only thing that this episode needed was the training music from Rocky.
At first it seemed like the episode was going to be a self-contained "tournament arc" of sorts; the trio join the local karuta society and find out that a tournament for their age group will be held in the spring. Cue Chihaya studying montage (after seeing how epic Arata is at karuta once again). But after the halfway point, a more pressing problem emerges. Despite the trio's promise to always play karuta together, Tachi has been accepted to a high-ranking middle school two hours away, and Arata's grandfather has suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, and the family is moving away to take care of him. I'm sure that most of us can remember a time when a good friend moved away during our childhood, and the show did a great job of conveying that feeling of betrayal despite knowing that it's not your friend's fault. I find it amazing that this show was able to establish the close relationship between the three of them just within this one episode, since Tachi was a jerk for most of the previous two.
That said, parts of the episode felt strangely rushed, especially towards the end. I get the feeling that this flashback was longer in the manga, since we were only just introduced to a couple of characters from the karuta society that seemed interesting; I'm thinking about the Doctor in particular, but Retro-kun and the kid that was the runner-up to Arata in the last tournament seemed like they could provide some interesting asides to the series' plot as well. Then there was the tournament itself; we barely get to see any of it, and after the fact we're told that the trio lost. I enjoyed the focus on friendship in this episode, but after the nail-biter that was episode two, I was ready to see more karuta matches, and the team match at the start of the episode only felt like a warm-up. Pacing nitpicks aside, if my feeling is right and the flashback was more drawn-out in the manga, the show must be saving its time for whatever is to come next. Now that the backstory context is in place, I can't wait to see what's changed and what's stayed the same for Chihaya in her high school years. And since Tachi has already been accounted for, what about Arata...?
Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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