Justin: I think Taichi said it best at the end of the final episode of Chihayafuru S2: “Forward. We can only move forward.” This episode of Chihayafuru was not quite the best (then again, how do you follow up Arata vs Shinobu?), but since this show started 25 weeks ago, it’s been a roller coaster of emotions and good times. It only makes sense for the final episode to leave us with that scene between Arata and the person he works with at the bookstore, and the banter that ensued. It also makes sense that most of episode 25 had to have its characters move forward -- from Chihaya deciding to have surgery, to her attempting to learn from the Arata/Shinobu match, and to Taichi realizing what he needs to do before its too late to attract Chihaya, it could only end in this manner, and in this fashion. Of course, the major part of this episode is the final nail in Taichi’s coffin. It all started back in S1, and it all started in S2. The one constant in Chihaya’s mind, that she would always turn back to, was to the one who got her into the world of karuta in the first place. Even with his limited appearances early on in S2, it was always Arata that had managed to evoke a response out of Chihaya that changed her every action, and for her to declare that she loves him pretty much confirmed what I had figured out at least 16 weeks ago. Of course, who knows what the future holds, but unless Taichi can do something to get even the clueless Chihaya to understand, it seems their future is set, but set without each other. Muse: The first season of Chihayafuru ended with a pause, and it makes sense for this season to do the same. However, this time it feels more like it’s holding its breath than letting it out. This episode dropped a bombshell on the love triangle, a.k.a. Plot B, and just like in season one when we hoped we’d get to see Chihaya’s growth after watching the King and Queen matches, I hope that we get to see the fallout from this reveal. But let’s back up a little bit and set the stage, since as usual, there was a lot going on in this episode. We finally got an answer about what was really going on with Chihaya’s finger. It turned out that she had a rare bone disease called Enchondromatosis (what a mouthful!) that makes a part of your bone soft. It probably wouldn’t have even bothered Chihaya if she wasn’t such a determined karuta player. It can be fixed through surgery, but it means a week’s stay in the hospital. Of course Chihaya opts for it, since anything standing between Chihaya and karuta has got to go, but I don’t think she considered what she would do when she was alone with her thoughts and a DVD of Arata winning the tournament. There was nothing else for her to do but wonder what she was lacking. Which leads to the first part of the breakthrough--calling Arata. At the end of the tournament, Chihaya asked him why he was always smiling, but he gets cut off before he can give her an answer. Later in the episode, once Chihaya has thoroughly beaten herself up for losing and feeling farther from her goal than ever, Arata gives an interesting answer: He pictures himself in that old apartment, when he played karuta against Chihaya for the first time. In the first season, I felt that there was a lot left unsaid about Chihaya’s mental state in the years after Arata and Taichi left her behind. It seemed to me that Chihaya’s actions had an undercurrent of loneliness to them at first, like she was trying to recreate what she’d lost. I don’t think that she believed that she could ever go back. However, Arata never left that moment, and it’s probably the source of his strength and bolstered by the hard training he put himself through when he came back to the sport. The idea that she could always go back probably never occurred to Chihaya (click your heels together three times). This is just my interpretation, but it’s fun to think about in the context of this episode. And then there’s the second part, which comes from both Kana and Chihaya. Kana berates Chihaya on the importance of taking poetry writing seriously (which is all well and good, but I doubt it matters that much at a high school level) and is disappointed at first when it seems to have flown right over her head. But then she sees these two poems: "Inside a room isolated from the summer heat, I feel bliss upon hearing your words." “Will I ever turn the corner and find you? I can only wait for a dream or a miracle.” Their meaning is obvious to Kana. She saw Chihaya talking to Arata that day. And then Chihaya drops the final blow: “I'll always love karuta, and I'll always love Arata.” You could argue here that the translation could be interpreted a bit differently and you’d be right on one level. That said, I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard a fangirl online arguing that the word “suki” (which is what Chihaya uses here) is not strong enough to mean “love,” so I’m a bit biased in this argument. Anyway, the phrasing and other evidence within this episode provides a stronger argument in favor of the translation used here. There’s no doubt that Chihaya loves karuta (if you’re willing to argue otherwise for the sake of preserving your ship, it’s time to get off the internet) so for her to put Arata on the same level says a lot. There’s also Kana’s reaction after she reads the poems, when she calls out Taichi for not trying hard enough, which I fully agree with. I may not ship it, but Taichi is giving up way too easily. However, it’s very possible that Chihaya has long been a lost case. Justin: Man, you people and your ships. Oh well, we all know whose ship is sinking-- Anyways, I think there’s a few things to keep in mind thanks to this episode: the most important out of them is how can Chihaya get better? Will she be able to figure out what she needs to do? That’s why it’ll be interesting to see how she’ll do in the Fujisaki minicamp, along with Taichi. I think it’s starting to become clear that Sakurazawa, who at the start seemed pretty cold and didn’t seem like she’d play a major role in Chihaya’s development or important enough aside from her team’s match against Mizusawa, really has become Chihaya’s boon. I’m not sure that if Sakurazawa was around, Chihaya would have managed to see what she had lacked when it came to karuta. And when it comes to this minicamp, it can only improve Chihaya’s game and maybe she can see what she needs to be aware of. The other thing of course is to know how everyone else is coming along, as most of Mizusawa advanced up a level and will be tough to defeat in a match. …But not surprisingly, we would need a Season 3 to go see that (or just go read the manga.) I’ll keep wishing that will get announced eventually. I still remember the excitement I had when S2 of Chihayafuru was announced way back when. Since I heard the anime didn’t sell all that well, I was not exactly hopeful we would be getting more of it. Except that we did. The only question that came with another season of Chihayafuru is how would it manage to live up to S1? Would it be so different that I’d actually start hating the series? But the first episode quelled my concerns. It has a premise and charm that Madhouse would have been crazy to change, and for 6 months, it’s been nothing but an intense, exciting, and refreshing anime to watch. Sure the pacing was incredibly fast this season, and yeah, not every episode was perfect, and I did find one episode I wanted to forget about for the most part, but when Chihayafuru was on, it delivered in spades and just kept me wanting more each week. It brought forth varied characters, actually brought strategy into this season, and produced some memorable moments. To see it go again is pretty tough, but as Taichi said, I need to go forward. All the moments -- from the debut of Sumire and Tsukuba, to the intense match between Mizusawa and Hokuo at the High School Tournament, and to Arata vs Shinobu, among many other moments that stuck out in S2 -- will keep me sated for a bit, until the return of the series sometime in the future. Though of course, I don’t know how long I can wait! Muse: I wouldn’t call the pacing fast--I think when I rewatch this season I’ll be skipping quite a few of the team tournament arc episodes--but I agree that the show is still fantastic and I’m very happy that we got a second season. I’ve heard that this season is selling better than the last, and we’re getting a Chihayafuru OVA later this year, so things are certainly looking rosier than they were at the end at of the first season. That said, the anime industry works in strange ways, so it’s better to assume nothing until an official announcement is made. I’m still perfectly willing to hope, though. It worked last time! Justin: And with that, I guess my adventures on Subdued Fangirling have come to an end. Well, ok, I will definitely still be reading Muse’s posts or lurking and then throw out the occasional snarky comment every once in a while. But yep, it’s been an interesting and fun 6 months (can’t believe it’s been that long!) blogging with Muse. I wasn’t quite sure how this would go when this idea was proposed. I at least expected at some point our tastes would clash as well. But we probably picked the perfect anime to do a tag team about, and while we managed to miss a post 2 weeks ago, and we had some delays in scheduling when to write about Chihayafuru over the past few months, we ended up getting it done consistently. Needless to say, it’ll be quite an adjustment to have my Friday night on the East Coast back to me! I can only expect next Fri to try and get ready to write about Chihayafuru, then realize that it’s over. Oops! Muse, it’s been fun. Thanks for letting me write about Chihayafuru with ya! Now go back to fangirling alone! Muse: Thanks Justin! It’s been a lot of fun having someone to bounce my crazy ideas off of. I’ve never done tag-team blogging before, but I think that we can say that this was a success! And thanks for putting up with my crazy fangirling comments in the chat so that I can put my head on straight for the actual post. Those six months really flew by! So how did everyone else feel about the finale? How good/bad do you think the chances are for a season three? Do you wish that I would shut up about shipping? Let us know in the comments! Thanks for sticking with us for these 25 episodes, and hopefully there will be more in the future! Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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