Justin: Finally, we get one of the desired matches we’ve been clamoring for months: Chihaya vs Shinobu. There’s only one big problem. After months of training and still remembering the loss to Shinobu last year, it would have been interesting to see just how far Chihaya had come in karuta and whether she could compete with the current Queen. But all of that came to an end when she got her finger hurt against Rion. Remember all of things Chihaya wanted to accomplish way back in January? We all knew she couldn’t accomplish everything, but she dared to try and do it anyways. In losing her match soundly to Shinobu in their rematch, it almost seems like it was just wishful thinking. We all knew that a healthy Chihaya probably wouldn’t be able to beat her, but at least we could think she could compete with her. Now we’re trying to convince ourselves that she could play against Shinobu with a sore finger -- a finger that may have gotten worse in this match? So all in all, it seems like all of the training was just about worthless. But...maybe, just maybe, this match proved one thing: Shinobu will keep in mind who Chihaya is. Shinobu didn’t exactly take note of whoever she was playing aside from Arata, but that was because Arata beat her while she was a child. She ended up taking note of Chihaya in the team match, then in this match had to consider why Chihaya would try so hard to win despite being injured. After the match was over, Shinobu started to question whether she should have let up. Chihaya reassured her that’s not what she wanted -- she needed Shinobu to play at her best, as two signs: to not disrespect the game and show respect to her opponent. If there is one thing I believe Chihaya accomplished in facing Shinobu now instead of bowing out of the individual tournament, is that Shinobu respects her now. Now they both have goals set for each other, and that opportunity wouldn’t have come if Chihaya had quit. We’ll see how they act after this otherwise, but in the end, it didn’t turn out to be a complete waste, and considering the circumstances, that’s not too bad. Muse: I had pretty high expectations for this match, and even considering Chihaya’s injury, I assumed that she’d find a way around it. However, Chihaya is only human in the end, and she lost pretty badly. However, like Justin mentioned, the match isn’t a complete wash. This episode had an interesting focus on Shinobu’s belief that when she plays against others her age, she holds back, which we saw briefly in a flashback a few episodes ago. When she sees that Chihaya is injured, she offers to play with a handicap, but it’s clear from her tone and expression that she’s not saying it out of good sportsmanship but because she already feels that the match isn’t worth it. However, Chihaya quickly puts her in her place: "Show me your true strength. The strength of the number one player in Japan, in the world.” Even with her injury, Chihaya wants to play against the real Shinobu; this is the moment that she’s been working towards. However, we still see small moments where Shinobu assumes that she’s beaten Chihaya’s spirit but Chihaya always comes back. But even after seeing her tenacity, Shinobu assumes that Chihaya must have hated playing against her: “How many cards should I have let her take?” Shinobu is used to being alone. She’s used to people being overwhelmed by her power and therefore ignoring her. Therefore, it’s a pretty big moment for Shinobu when Chihaya runs after her to thank her for not holding back. I doubt that Shinobu has ever heard that before. Now, Chihaya making it to the Queen match isn’t just a goal; it’s a promise to her rival. I don’t think Shinobu will doubt herself again the next time she plays Chihaya. While I thought that this would be the epic rematch I was waiting for, this turned out to only be the beginning. The real rematch will come later. Justin: Yes Muse, it will. And hopefully adapted! Anyways, now that Chihaya and Shinobu’s match has ended, it’s time to get ourselves hyped for the matchup that Shinobu’s been waiting for and I’m sure everyone else has been waiting for too: Shinobu Vs Arata. It’s been pretty clear that they just stand out compared to the rest of the competition, and while they still have to go through one more match, I can’t see either of them losing to whoever they face. So ultimately, I have to wonder about a lot of things, but I’ll just say three: one, are we really going to see this matchup? Like, on our actual screens? I mean, we know how good these two are! Two, who will end up changing the most out of this match -- Arata, Shinobu, or Chihaya? Considering Arata’s approach thanks to hanging out with Taichi and Arata, maybe Shinobu can still learn a thing or two that will only make her change for the better...or maybe the worse. And the third thing: how will this match affect Chihaya and Taichi? I’m going to believe they’re both going to watch this match, and both see just how far they have to go before they can even dream of competing against them. It’ll be interesting to see the aftereffects once the match is over. Muse: I’m really excited for that match, but first things first! At the end of the episode, we finally got some long-awaited screentime for the other members of the club, and it looks like a match far more intense than Chihaya’s is underway. Taichi is facing off in the finals against Retro, and unless the way that scene was shot was deliberately lying to me, it looked like Taichi only had one card on his side. This puts him in a pretty bad situation; he only has a split second to decide whether to attack or defend. Add this to the fact that Retro has just as much of a stake in this as Taichi does and you’ve got a serious match on your hands. Both of them have been Class B for such a long time when they’re clearly better than that. Hopefully we’ll be able to see this play out from the start, since it would feel like too much of a cop-out on the pacing to only see the very end. Even with his bad luck, Taichi made a big discovery during the team tournament and I’d like to see it more in action. Hopefully that’ll be enough to get him that long-awaited win. Justin: Well, Taichi did get his screentime at the very end of the episode, and it looks like he will get more screentime next week as well. But what about everyone else? We had a host of distinct personalities enter the tournament, but as far as I can tell for the individual tournament, we ended up getting Yuube’s side, and it was only because she was facing Chihaya; we ended up getting Porky’s side, and that was only because he was facing Arata. What about everyone else? The members of the international team? More of Megumu? What happened? I was kind of worried that this would happen, and right now, it’s pretty much exactly how I thought it would be. This episode didn’t even mention how Kana and Tsutomu did! I feel more exploration would have been nice in the form of a match with some of these distinct characters, but at best, we only got something from Sumire, and it didn’t last very long. I can only wonder how things we’ll be next week, but on that focusing on the other characters front, I think that ship’s starting to sail. Muse: I think that they might get a little more focus now that Chihaya is out of the running, but we’ll have to wait and see! Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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