Muse: Once again, those nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat tournament arc finals are back! I thought that this episode would resolve the match, but if anything, Mizusawa and Akashi Girls proved that this is going to be a hard-fought win for either side. It’s anyone’s game, but the matches are pushing all of them to do their absolute best. And in the center of all this tension is Chihaya and Megumu, who have a lot more in common than was first pointed out. They’re both contenders for Queen (Chihaya hasn’t been recognized as such yet, but we all know that’s just a matter of time), they both have teams that support them and practice with them the best that they can, and they both go on the attack in their karuta style. But as always, the details make the difference, and I think the key one here is what I guessed at last week: Megumu doesn’t want to become Queen. It’s not that she’s being forced; if anything, she seems apathetic towards the title, since she drops in the fact that she doesn’t care about being Queen into her voiceover like she’s talking about the weather. She also states her reasoning in a straightforward way: “The person who can make everyone happy is me.” But here’s where it gets a little murky. Megumu mentions that she’s the only one giving verbal support to the rest of the team (“One card at a time!”) and she sounds sort of sad when she says this. However, later in the episode, when one of her teammates picks up the slack on that end (and also admitting that they didn’t really know what they were doing), Megumu gets upset. She has the support of her teammates, and she says that she’s only going through with this because she thinks that is what will make them happy... So why is she trying to control their actions? Does she only want them to be “happy” in a specific sense, on her own terms? This was unclear and a bit confusing. Like what happened with Arata a few episodes back, the stated reasoning doesn’t completely make sense. I feel like we’re missing a part of the puzzle to understand Megumu. Justin: I think I made a few predictions, and not a lot of them actually came to fruition. The only thing that saved me slightly was the focus of Akashi Girls -- it’s lacking. The good news is they aren’t going to roll over for anyone and they are just as strong as Mizusawa. And when you get a quote like this from Yu about playing Karuta: “How can you not enjoy getting stronger?” The mindset is in the right place when it comes to playing competitively...but as Muse brought up Megumu, her actions toward her team, and actually Yu’s action by encouraging the team instead of Megumu, only makes me think this team is missing something. Of course, that something so far is reflected in Mizusawa. Whereas we learn that Akashi Girls wanted to get stronger for the sake of helping Megumu become Queen, we already know what Mizusawa has gone through to help get Chihaya to become Queen, but that’s not the only reason they’re helping -- they all have other reasons to get better at karuta, and most importantly, they want to do so as a team. So far, they’re all just about in unison, with that cry from all five of them at the same time, whereas Akashi Girls is just disjointed and showing a near collapse at this point. The thing is, it’s still anyone’s game at this point. Both teams obviously are really good, so it’ll come down to who can win their matches. As far as I can tell, while guaranteeing victory is never a good thing, unless Porky does a 360 Yu will win her match. It just might come down to how everyone else performs in order for Mizusawa to win, and not surprisingly, it will come down to Chihaya and Megumu. Megumu and Chihaya may have their quirks and similarities, but the one obvious difference is one desires to be Queen, and we have seen her reasons for wanting to become Queen; the other however, is indifferent to being Queen. No one on her team actually knows how Megumu feels about this. The only explanation I can come up with is that something happened in Megumu’s life that had to have made karuta fun. What that is...we can hopefully find out next week. I think Megumu has to have some sort of secret, so it can’t end without giving a solid explanation of why she chooses to become Queen for those around her. Muse: I think that the difference between Akashi Girls and Mizusawa is how truly open they are with one another. Both of these teams have done the same thing: they’ve trained their ace to help them become Queen. However, Chihaya has had this goal all along, and the Mizusawa team is a collection of friends helping each other reach their individual goals in karuta, whatever those might be. I don’t get the same feeling from Akashi Girls. I think that the team has their heart in the right place, but the fact that Megumu is hiding that she doesn’t want to be Queen builds a wall that most of them don’t seem to realize is there. Yu has picked up on it, but until Megumu actually talks to the group about it, they’re ultimately a team focused around a player that doesn’t care about their goal. A good example of this is Akashi Girls’ headbands. Their advisor has this great sob story about how they made the headband for Megumu, and she made them some in return, and isn’t youth great, but when we pull away from him and hear Megumu’s thoughts on it, she says point-blank that she did it because she didn’t want to look stupid. Is that something a friend does? Would Chihaya do that to the other Mizusawa members? While the match itself could go either way, I think Akashi Girls, Megumu in particular, could learn a lot from Mizusawa and Chihaya’s playing style. The team that they wrote off is making them fight their hardest for a win. This is the power of conviction, trust in your friends, and belief that you will make your dream come true. I think that trumps apathy and misguided reasoning every time, but we’ll have to wait for the next episode to see if the show agrees with me. Justin: So now...it’s basically time. What do you all really expect is going to happen in Episode 14? Will it end with Mizusawa advancing to the Finals? Will a wildcard emerge from Megumu’s desire to play karuta? You state it, then start hoping your expectations come to fruition! Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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