Justin: So I think for the most part, this episode of Chihayafuru had a balance of main characters appearing at good times. Of course, the most important character thanks to the cliffhanger last week got his fate determined. Let’s just say though, that it was a surprise in how it all turned out. Well, I should say I probably would not have been surprised if the teachers suddenly turned a blind eye -- it’s obviously clear Arata has immense talent for the game, and he is the grandson of someone famous in the community. The reasons for trying to keep Arata in though -- in that it involves finally taking down the current King, Master Suo -- actually reminded me of how there are always backhanded justifications when it comes to certain things. And it’s pretty clear that the staff has been more than exasperated when it comes to dealing with Suo, talented as he is. Does that really mean you have to toss the rules out to make an exception because one person has the ability to challenge the current King? The scene is played out in a joking kind of way, so it may not be quite so serious, but let’s just say it would have been pretty unfortunate if they did let Arata get away due to their reasoning. They should somewhat thank Shoji for trying to explain the situation (that seemed to warm their hearts), but even so, in the end, it speaks to not trying to set an example, but to give exception to a certain few people. Of course, their reasoning was a mild surprise -- for Shinobu to basically deal the karuta staff a crushing blow, that surprised me. Come on, I know none of you believed Shinobu would have thought about saving Arata...no matter how much she wants to play him! Maybe she does want to prove herself a lot to Arata, but to throw away her Queen status for him? In a way, it makes me wonder if she plays karuta out of love...which A) would seem contradictory compared to what she said in last week’s episode and B) would be disappointing. But I say in a way. In the end, this could have easily been a good bluff, or maybe she was considering it seriously. Whatever the case, if the staff had any thought about banning Arata from the tournament, they definitely had to let those thoughts die once Shinobu said she would forfeit. I have to give the anime credit. It was a good way to let Arata play again, though I do feel sorry for some people. Muse: When I tried to think of possible ways Arata could still play in the tournament, Shinobu walking in and basically saying that she’d give up being Queen if she couldn’t have a match with him was not something that I pictured. I guessed that she’d be mad, since there are very few people she acknowledges as worthwhile to play against, and I don’t think we’ve ever seen her this excited to play against someone. But it’s also interesting how it gets pushed to that point, since it looked like the officials were going to let him off with a warning after hearing the real circumstances. Arata insists on being punished for his actions, and while that is commendable, why give the officials a reason to take the ability to play in the tournament away from him? And he doesn’t reconsider until Shinobu steps in and says this: “Do you not want to play against me?” There are still parts to Arata’s reasoning that aren’t completely clear. Last week, I talked about my confusion surrounding his vague reasoning for helping out a team he wasn’t part of. This week, Arata says point blank that he was jealous. Chihaya was strong enough on her own to form her own karuta club, and now she’s got a team that supports her. Arata hasn’t bothered with any of that since he started playing again, at least not until the previous episode. Why? Does he really feel that separated from his friends? (It might help if you call and text them more often, Arata.) There’s still a missing piece here, and until the show decides to reveal it, I’ll have to continue to speculate. Justin: It makes sense for Mizusawa to obviously face the toughest teams at Nationals. It also makes sense to have some sort of variety apparently as well, since now we get a team that’s not just good at karuta -- they also happen to be a part of the Quiz Society at their school. We’ve seen some interesting styles pointed out in this episode, but one of course that takes the cake is the Mioka team attempting to use their memorization skills to their full capacity. Why it happened to involve moving the cards each and every time, well, considering the differing reasons between the leader and the coach, who knows. Speaking of the leader, I find it interesting what Chihayafuru has done so far. In some shows, you’ll always get that nondescript team that just so happens to be in the way of our main team, and usually nine times out of ten our main team wipes the floor with the nondescript, and this is generally reflected by quick narration of how they won, or with the usage of stills. Instead, we end up not only getting a quirky team, but we get a character or two to identify with and learn how they got into karuta. In a sense, it’s a sneaky way to show how people get into the game of karuta -- but it works for the most part. In this case, I think it worked because of Poseidon’s -- Nakayama Manabu -- way of how he got into Karuta. From just merely watching a DVD of the Queen/King match, he was hooked. From the timing to the understanding of the works, he treated it like a quiz game -- except the more karuta he played, the more he started to really just love karuta. Chihayafuru obviously has its own storyline to tell, but along the way, we get to see other ways to get into karuta. It’ll be interesting to see what reasonings other people that appear in this anime have in terms of getting into karuta. Muse: It seems like this current team arc is really trying to make a point in contrast to the statement Shinobu made in the last episode about the team matches not having any love. Yet again we’re seeing that regardless of how they got into the game, everyone in the building loves karuta in their own way. This episode was interesting in how the characters introduced had started playing karuta for academic reasons--many people have pointed out how great karuta could be as a study game--yet, three-quarters through the episode, Chihaya’s opponent Nakayama says this: “I work hard at the quiz championship for the sake of karuta.” He started playing for a specific reason, yet now that reason is more like an afterthought. However, it deeply colors the way that Nakayama and the rest of his team play, using a highly unusual card placement method, and changing the order of their cards every turn. It plays to the strengths of memorization, but it’s not enough to beat Mizusawa. There’s an interesting scene towards the end of the match when we pull away from Chihaya and Nakayama a bit and see how the other members of Mizusawa are handling their matches. Each of them tackles the duplicated strategy in a different way, and like the quiz team, each strategy also speaks to why they started playing, and how they’ve improved since then. Porky goes on the defensive, which is how his school teaches karuta. Kana can follow each card regardless of its placement on the field, since she knows all the poems, the poets, and their history by heart. Taichi has both memorization and speed, speaking to his perfectionist nature. And Chihaya... well, I don’t have to say anything about Chihaya. When she gets serious, it’s already over. Justin: I guess this is about the time where I guess drama is supposed to start with the team. And when I mean drama, I mean a bunch of cliffhangers. Last week it was Arata. This week it is...Tsutomu and Porky? In a sense, it felt kind of weird to have that happen in the end. But this does make me wonder if one of these two will take over an episode. We’ve had the Sumire episode, the Taichi episode, the Arata episode, and is it time now to have a Tsutomu or Porky episode? Well, it might be unlikely, mainly because I think we have to figure out why Porky even suggested that they stick with the original lineups. At this point, the only time it looked like Tsutomu would get involved in anything direct was when Sumire began her spiel on not having the spirit to win a championship. Needless to say, this didn’t make Tsutomu happy as he hurriedly got away from her. Otherwise, it had been straightforward. So why did Porky suggest to keep the same lineup? Does he think Tsutomu isn’t good enough to compete? Does he feel he serves a better purpose doing something else? This is a key decision since I don’t think they can change the order again, if them mentioning they could change their lineup after two rounds means anything -- but it’s hard to figure out Porky’s reasoning as nothing was hinted at, really. Muse: Yeah, I was really confused at the end. What exactly was he getting at? The earlier scene with Sumire seems to hint that Tsutomu is going to be accused of being more interested in data collecting than in playing. However, it seemed to me in that scene that Tsutomu was more disappointed with Sumire’s insistence that she doesn’t care. Also, I think it would be really sad if he stopped playing now. Aside from Taichi’s struggle to A rank, Tsutomu is the only one who’s shown having problems getting better at karuta but still playing anyway. Also, let’s not forget how in the last season, he declared himself worthless and ran off, leaving the team in a bind. He’s gotten much better at the game and has also matured as a person since then, but with that in mind, I really hope Porky isn’t about to make a broad statement about him not being needed on the team. And if he does, he’ll need some good reasoning to back it up. Images from Crunchyroll.com. Follow Justin at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses!
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Arata becomes Sket-Dan, and Shinobu is a fushigi-chan, reminds me of a girl from my middle school.
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Muse: I don’t know where to start with this episode. Well, no, that’s not true, I know exactly where to start... Arata! After all those times where he only showed up briefly, usually at the end of an episode--to the point where it was almost a running joke!--he not only got a great chunk of screentime, but was also the main focus of the episode! Arata! I’ve missed you! So aside from my fangirl heart attack about Arata actually participating in the show instead of sending ripples from offscreen, there were two big parts to his appearance in this episode, one of which takes up the running time; the first is his connection to Shinobu, and the second is the team match he plays in. (Of course, there’s also Chihaya’s supersonic hearing moment, but I’ll leave the fangirling over shipping for a future episode, once they all meet up again.) In Shinobu’s case only one thing was made clear; Arata is more important to her than she is to him. Apparently they played against each other as kids (presumably before Arata moved to Tokyo and met Chihaya and Taichi), and Arata was the only player Shinobu’s age that could beat her. Taking into account everything we know about her up to this point, this is huge for Shinobu. The majority of karuta players can’t even touch her, making A-rank matches more like her personal practice time. Since Arata beat her in the past and he’s still aiming for Master, it makes sense for her to have high expectations of him. However, while Arata does know who she is, he obviously values their connection far less, immediately commenting on her superhuman ability to lose weight, making her cry. He’s preoccupied with Chihaya and Taichi, since they had much more of an impact on him. I don’t think that this is the last we’ll hear of this though, since the show has been teasing it for quite some time. What effect that will have on the tournament remains to be seen. Justin: As I mentioned last week, eventually Arata would get his moment to take the spotlight. It took 8 episodes, but he finally made his debut as someone who was the main focus, or at least one of them, and carried the anime through to the end. And instead of stalling or showcasing this moment later, Episode 9 picks up immediately after Episode 8, and after much speculation, it seems to be confirmed that Shinobu and Arata are, after all, rivals when it comes to the game of karuta. Well, at least from Shinobu’s perspective this seems to be the case, as Arata seems to know after taking time off from playing competitively, he would have an uphill battle when it comes to facing Shinobu right now. That and it doesn’t help he didn’t immediately recognize her off the bat. But whatever the case, they seemed to have met back when they were kids, and right about when both were already ahead of their class when it came to playing karuta. Is that all there is to this encounter however? I get the feeling it’ll soon be time for Shinobu to take the spotlight and we’ll get to delve a bit more into her past and her relationship with Shinobu. However, their encounter turned out to be less of the focus of the episode, as Shinobu’s words provided the entire theme for this episode when it came to taking part in the team tournament: “That’s for players who don’t love karuta.” Needless to say, the anime has gone to great lengths to prove this is not the case. We already ended up getting a course of how much fun playing in the team tournament was -- heck, even Arata texted Chihaya if she had fun at the end of the High School Tournament -- so when Shinobu ended up saying that, it made me wonder what got her in that mindset to believe Team matches are for those who don’t love karuta. Then Murao, who Arata happened to run into while avoiding Chihaya and Taichi, says this: “The Team tourney means more in high school, but the individual tournament is where you can test your skill.” So with that, I think I can get a sense of why Shinobu has her mindset, but also the biggest difference between team and individual matches. In a team match, you have to do your best not just for yourself, but for your teammates. It’s a one on one battle after the order is set, but your role in a team match can be pretty critical. What if you’re one of the best players on your team yet you lose first (example: Porky losing his match against Hokuo)? What about getting into a situation where you have to know what cards are in play for your whole team (again, the situation at the end of the Hokuo/Mizusawa match)? While ultimately the talent matters in a match, in the end, one team needs three victories to win, and the loser goes home, without having gotten a chance to do anything (see Mizusawa’s first match in Nationals in S1). But in an individual match, the only thing that stands in the way is the one playing against you. That is the only chance to prove just how good you are, and this is probably the mindset that Shinobu can think of when it comes to matches, since she wants to prove herself. But Muse, do you think team matches are for players who don’t love karuta? Muse: Definitely not, and I think that the last episode proved that. Did the Chiba team have a lot of skill? Not really; it was way too early for them to be going against trained karuta players. But they made up for that with lots of love for the game itself, to the point that Mizusawa was reminded of how they felt when they first started playing. You could argue that there’s less skill involved and that aspects of it come down to luck (the “luck of the draw” moment that happened a few episodes ago is still crazy), but I don’t think that was exactly what Shinobu was getting at with her statement. I don’t think that she’s had the experiences that the Mizusawa team has had or what Arata got in this episode with team matches. The show has very strongly characterized her as a loner, so it’s not really surprising that she has a disdain for this part of karuta. She considers very few players as her equals, so the idea that she’d play in a team is almost unimaginable, unless she goes through a big character change. Throughout this episode, Arata struggles with being in the middle of these two arguments; he doesn’t really care about team matches, but he doesn’t have anything against them either. It’s not until his team is put on the losing side that he understands the way that morale and respect for your opponent play into it. You have to be aware of a lot of changing factors in a team match while still focusing on your own and doing your best, a lesson that Taichi learned in his character episode. In fact, after all the episodes dedicated to team matches so far, I’d say that they’re more difficult than individual matches, since you can’t just rely on your own skill; you have to take your entire team into account. With that in mind, you have to be on good terms with your team. This seems like an obvious statement, but it brings up a question I had throughout this episode... Why did Arata help out that team? The guy who asked for a favor was the one he’d punched in the face for making a stupid comment about his grandfather back in middle school, and Arata is clearly worried about being caught breaking the rules even before the match begins. It’s not until the end (when he blows his cover) that Arata really seems to grasp the important dynamic of team matches, so that can’t be the reason. So then why? Justin: Well, it was in middle school...I mean the situations are so drastically different since then. Now instead of them going their separate ways, they end up meeting in Nationals, and for Shoji, it’s the worst possible time: one of Shoji’s members got stuck in traffic due to an accident. He doesn’t have anyone to sub in and be their extra member because they got to Nationals with just three members. Basically, all their issues -- from starting his own karuta club, to making it to Nationals with just three members, and with the other member of the group, Misaki, deciding to get LASIK surgery just to compete in karuta -- they’ve managed to overcome it somehow, but despite working so hard as a team to get to this moment, they might not even play a match in Nationals. But was Arata moved by Shoji and the West Fujioka team’s plight, or was he curious about what Shinobu said about team matches? Whatever the case, only by taking part in the match did he come to an understanding of what team matches can provide -- if a flashback to Chihaya bawling at the end to Arata and Taichi when they were kids didn’t hit Arata, then nothing will! Basically, some people just feel more inspired to play better with a team (hence why you always hear in sports “It’s a team game!”), and most importantly, you can go through all the highs and lows and grow as team. I think also, it just may be fun to play with a team. Even though Fujioka lost the match, once Arata put his glasses back on and he got serious, the team was inspired to keep playing hard until the end, and had a smile on their face when it was all over. It’s hard to say that people who play in team matches don’t love karuta after watching how this episode played out. Of course, as Muse pointed out though, Arata ended up in a situation where if he got caught, he would get in trouble. And it just so happens he got caught once he decided he had to help Fujioka in some way besides sitting down -- and also not to disrespect his opponent any further. We didn’t quite know what the ramifications were if he decided to take part in the team match -- well, as it turned out, because of his entry, he may have just gotten himself disqualified from the individual tournament. Needless to say, that would be pretty disheartening for Arata: to work hard to get back to form, only to not even be able to prove how much better he’s actually gotten is pretty sad. However, he knew there was a chance this would happen, and really, even besides joining the team, he made a mistake showing up to the team tournament in the first place. He should have just kept his surprise to himself and decided to show up at the individual tournament. In the end, he got caught, and while he’s talented, he should be treated just like any other karuta player who breaks the rules. So I would hazard a guess that he’s gonna have to get over not being able to compete in the individual tournament, but stick around anyways just to put unneeded pressure on everyone else (or mostly Chihaya, Taichi, and Shinobu). Or disappear, once again cutting his screentime to quarters... Muse: I think that I would’ve been less questioning of Arata’s motives about participating in the match if the outcome wasn’t so frustrating. If we understood his reasoning better, then maybe it would make more sense why he risked getting banned from the tournament... But I guess it doesn’t matter now. The point is, the big cliffhanger of the episode is that Arata broke the rules, and he has to be punished, even if that means getting banned. Clearly, no one wants this to happen, but as Justin said, they can’t grant exceptions just because he’s talented. That said, I’m hoping that his punishment will be something less strict, since an outright ban doesn’t feel fair in this case. While he was substituting in for a player of a school he didn’t go to, it wasn’t until after it was decided that the team had lost that he started playing for real. Before that point, he wasn’t wearing his glasses, and was essentially throwing the match. He didn’t make his move until after the outcome was decided and his actions wouldn't change it. Let’s say, hypothetically, Arata played at his full strength all along and that motivation also caused both of the real team members to win. In that case, breaking the rules changed the outcome, and a strict punishment would make sense. Here, it was about Arata’s personal sense of pride as well as showing respect to his opponent and his teammates. Hopefully how the circumstances played out will be considered before they throw Arata out entirely. (I don’t want to go back to only end-of-episode scenes!) Justin: Hmm, well I don’t know Muse...but who knows, I think we might have readers who might have differing opinions on what to do with Arata. So what do you guys think should happen to Arata? What do you think will happen to Arata, knowing this show? Feel free to share in the comments! Images from Crunchyroll.com. Follow Justin on Organization Anti-Social Geniuses!
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As a new school year begins for the Karuta club, Chihaya and her friends are faced Read More...
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Oi. Chihayafuru was flawless until now. And it tarnishes its perfection with an absurd faux pas. I guess it’s plausible that one may be intimidated by another of a larger stature in karuta but moments later Lizard-kun invokes race into the equation by implying that he has never seen a black guy. Nani?? Unless one [...]
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Justin: I think by now everyone who has watched Chihayafuru 2 has realized a lot of things, but one thing is definitely obvious: Madhouse has somehow managed to juggle a number of different plot elements in every episode and make it come out almost relatively clean. Episode 8, for me, was a culmination of their ability to manage important plot elements while not either lessening one scene from the other or going so fast that we lose sight of the core of the episode. That core involved switching things up for Nationals this time. A few weeks ago, at about the end of our discussion of Chihayafuru 2 Episode 6, we had asked what do you know about karuta, and in it, I basically wondered if maybe there’s just something more we have to do to truly understand karuta and its nuances. Then, for the first opponent for Misuzawa, they end up facing the Chiba International School of Information Sciences. As it turned out (despite their efforts in speaking English), the five people as part of their school’s Karuta team lived in Japan their whole lives. However, they obviously aren’t strictly Japanese, and while living in Japan probably was an influence, it was refreshing to see a different type of team appear in Chihayafuru with a desire to play karuta. I didn’t expect to see that, and I also didn’t expect to see how everyone on Misuzawa would react. Needless to say, it varied (with Chihaya believing the game has suddenly gotten so popular), but in the end, this was probably the perfect first round matchup for Misuzawa. Not because it was supposed to be an easy win, but because it was a reminder of how the team got to where they are now, and it was only because they chose to play karuta competitively. To see a team that can be seen as outsiders to Japanese people because of how they look manage to love the game and want to play competitive karuta can only remind Misuzawa of how much they value karuta, and also show that maybe this card game can be pretty global. Tsukubu may have brought reality to the situation with this: “How can foreigners like karuta? Not even Japanese people like it!” But I wouldn’t like to say that’s true. No, karuta may not be all that popular, but of course there are those who like it. In fact, some may love it just as much as the main character of this anime. And as for the foreigner bit, I can only convince myself that maybe, just maybe, that line was directed to someone like me, who is now interested in just playing karuta because of this show. I can’t really say I like it because I haven’t played it, but I am most definitely interested in karuta, despite the language barrier. Muse: Having the Chiba school be Mizusawa’s first opponent brought an interesting dynamic that the show hasn’t explored before. A lot of people, myself included, have expressed our amazement at being able to get wrapped up in a show that is completely based in a unique aspect of Japanese culture that most of us had never even heard of before the first season aired. The nuances, references, and cultural value of the game caused us to question how much we could really understand it, since we’re American and not Japanese, resulting in the main question from the “How Much Do You Know About Karuta?” post. But this episode took the notion of not being “Japanese enough” to enjoy karuta and turned it on its head. I will not pretend to be a cultural expert, but Japan is not really known for its openness towards foreigners. Sure, they’ll be polite and let us be tourists and all that, but there is a big part of Japanese society that judges you on whether you’re an “outsider” or not. For example, look at the Chiba team. They state that they’ve lived in Japan their whole lives. They speak Japanese fluently. They’ve been born and raised in Japan. Yet, they’re not considered “Japanese.” They’re still “foreigners,” and by extension, “outsiders.” This is a pretty different viewpoint from that’s held here in America, where if you’re born and raised here, you’re American. End of story. Another example from the episode is how a news team has followed the Chiba team to the tournament, clearly trying to find a human interest story. However, the underlying theme of them not really belonging is still present when we hear the news anchor state that he wanted a story about a “blond samurai.” They’re banking on people wanting to watch because they’re different. “Hey, look at these foreigners try to fit in.” This underlying point is what defines the interaction between Mizusawa and the Chiba team, and how the episode crafts their story. The “blond samurai” Anthony lets the audience know in flashback that thanks to the fact that he’s not “really Japanese,” he’s been mostly ignored by his peers his whole life. He’s been looking for a way to become “more Japanese,” and thought that karuta might be it. Of course, like Tsukuba said, karuta is not exactly wildly popular, and he was still left alone. However, he found that same love and passion that each of the Mizusawa team members have, and followed that love anyway. It’s assumed that the other team members have the same story that Anthony has, since at the beginning they bank on their appearance and subpar English skills (which Taichi calls them out on... although he’s not that good himself...) to throw off their opponent. They know very well how “real Japanese” react to them, and it was good enough to get them to nationals. This strategy works... to an extent. Aside from Tsukuba’s hilarious irrational fear of his opponent, Mizusawa was really just baffled, since they have no context for someone not Japanese playing karuta. Chihaya is the only one with an immediate positive reaction, thinking that karuta has gone global. Kana falls between the two extremes, only mad that her opponent is wearing her hakama backwards (which I didn’t know was possible. Thanks, Chihayafuru!) Anyway, the emotional heart of the episode comes in two parts. First, when the Mizusawa team players realize that despite their beginner’s skills, it’s the Chiba team’s genuine love of karuta that has carried them this far, not their distraction tactics. They really want to just enjoy the game, and against opponents who are expecting polished competitive techniques, it’s really refreshing. They haven’t had years of being told about form or what to do. They just follow their instinct, and it serves them well. On that level, the entire Mizusawa team recognizes them as good players, even though they’re not really nationals material. Which leads up to the second point, when they write on the white board: “We want to play a game with you again.” And in English to boot! (With Kana’s hakama note at the bottom.) I thought that this was a beautiful moment. They didn’t care about whether they were “outsiders” or not; they recognized and remembered that love from when they first discovered karuta, and reached out to them. For a group that’s been ignored for so long, I think that gift of recognition was better than winning or being slyly made fun of on some news show. And it answered my questions about karuta once and for all: when you get down to it, all you really need are Japanese language skills. Everything else comes down to passion. Justin: The Misuzawa team managed to showcase how they have managed to change bit by bit through the previous few episodes, but it was a wonder how much they have changed since their defeat in the High School Championship to Hokuo. Well, immediately, the obvious change stems back to why Chihaya wanted to have first years on the team -- more flexibility! Again, Chihaya can only look like a genius since she was so determined to keep every possible first year while everyone else didn’t even want to bother, but the payoff showed in this episode. Ok, this was mentioned in prior episodes, but, in reflecting on their last trip to Nationals where Chihaya fainted due to the heat and the pressure, no longer would they have any sort of problems where that can occur. In fact, instead of having any problems, they instead can do more: they can decide who goes and plays in a match, but while they go do that, they can have others scout out the competition. It’s basically a win-win. Of course, I pondered how would having Tsukuba and Sumire on the team affect how Nationals would play out, and as it turned out, it didn’t take long for it to happen. While Sumire goes out to scout the competition, already Tsukuba managed to get his way and participate in a match. Of course, this was decided by someone who nearly quit karuta in Tsutomu. We haven’t exactly talked about Tsutomu too much in Season 2, as chances are we know what to expect: he’s analytical in his approach to the game, when playing and when not playing. It does make sense for him to take one for the team and decide to check out other opponents, but as he mentioned, it’s not like Tsukuba was exactly better than him when it came to playing. But there’s no need to get into arguments when it comes to this. It’s time to get serious. Tsutomu felt like this was the best way for the team to do well, and while he doesn’t get the recognition, I think his role is great for what the team needs. But well, I needed to throw a shoutout to him. After all, he’s at least managed to appear a lot longer in each episode. Especially when compared to some dude named Arata. At this point, I’m just not sure what Madhouse is up to. The good news is it’s not like they’ve lessened Arata’s impact to the point where they make him feel useless and unimportant to the story, and at SOME point, we will get an entire episode devoted to him (surely! I mean we did get one with just Sumire); but I’m always baffled that just when it seems the episode has run its course, in comes Arata. It’s almost like the real plot doesn’t start until Arata shows up. And in this episode, what in the world can one interpret from Arata meeting Shinobu? Well for starters, it’s revealed Arata is impatient. So much for seeing them tomorrow, instead he would surprise them that day. I wonder exactly how Chihaya and Taichi’s reaction would be if they see him. I would also wonder how their reaction would be if Arata was with Shinobu, but we won’t go there yet. Instead, the focus is on Arata and Shinobu since the last time we saw them together, it was at the end of Episode 3, and merely a sort of flashback. This time all she does is touch his shoulder. In other words, what does this mean? How well do they know each other? Are they secretly together? Could they just be distant relatives? ...I’ll just bet on the fact that they are just rivals. And be wrong. Muse: I’m starting to become convinced that there’s some sort of rule about Arata’s screen time that only allows him to be on for a certain amount. Just wait, all of his matches will take place in the minute before the ending (I kid; I really hope that doesn’t happen). But yes, this particular ending really teases us with the undefined relationship between Arata and Shinobu. I’m still assuming that they’re rivals, but who knows with this show. There is one other thing I wanted to talk briefly about: the introduction of a character named Megumu. She comes up during Sumire’s scouting and gets an interesting amount of attention within the scene; enough that I’m expecting her to come up at some point in future matches. She’s also got an interesting group of fans, the kind which we haven’t seen in the show before this point. I know at the moment that the topic of idol culture is getting a lot of criticism (and rightly so) and this isn’t exactly what’s going on here, but I don’t have any other way to term it: Megumu seems something like a budding “karuta idol,” with the way her fanboys obsess over her every move and take tons of pictures. There are people that are definitely famous within the karuta circle (Shinobu being a good example) but none have gotten this brand of attention. It doesn’t look like she’s asked for it either, with her harsh statement against them, but it doesn’t put them off at all. We don’t get to see her play, so who knows how this will affect future matches. It felt like the show was trying to get an introduction out of the way early. We’ll have to wait and see what they do with it. Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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Kara no Kyokai is back with Chihayafuru sauce! HNNNNNNGGG these past three episodes have been great. The amazing thing about this show is that not much will happen, but every second of it will be fantastic. The end result of the team battle was kind of what I expected, but damn, it was fun while [...]
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I like to thank Monsieur LaMoe for filling in last week while I was away at Katsucon. Parents can be the worst influence for their children. We spend the overwhelming majority of our adolescence living out our parent’s expectations. We were forced into thoughts, beliefs and values that do not always coincide with our own. [...]
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Muse: I was expecting this episode to jump right into the Nationals the way that the first season did, but instead we got a “calm before the storm” episode. I use that phrase loosely though, since nothing is ever calm in Chihayafuru, especially when it comes to character relationships. This episode did a great job of revisiting some secondary characters that have gotten lost in the focus on our main group as well as set up some of the drama that is likely to dominate the National tournament arc. Most of the focus in this episode goes to Chihaya’s family, particularly her mother and sister. Chitose has always been a bit of a sore point for me, since I never really liked her and thought that she was just a brat. This episode sheds a bit more light on what was brought up briefly in the recap episode from the first season; Chitose feels insecure around Chihaya because she isn’t passionate about anything the way Chihaya is about karuta. She keeps up her modeling and acting job so that she has something “normal” to lord over her. However, this plan is backfiring; since she doesn’t really care, it’s showing through in her work, and people are ripping into her online because of it. I don’t really feel much sympathy for her character, but it provided an interesting counter-thread as Chihaya beats herself up for trying to emulate Shinobu in the final match. The sister also brings up an interesting question to consider: if you don’t have the talent, is it worth putting in the hard work? Of course, everyone who’s watched the show this long knows that Chihaya is a hard worker as well as talented with a dash of luck. The main difference between Chihaya and her sister is that she has a strong internal motivation to continue with karuta, while her sister just wants bragging rights. It makes her look pretty pathetic by comparison, in my opinion. Justin: I always find it nice to rest sometimes after a pretty big episode in anime, and for Chihayafuru, it basically had its intense match...is it time to jump straight into Nationals? Nope, says Madhouse, as it’s time to take somewhat of a break and instead focus on what the characters are doing to get better in order to do well at Nationals. But the break here is a bit different here, since even with it being a fairly standard episode, a number of things took place in the episode. One of those things included taking a look into Chihaya’s family. We had of course seen them a bit in Season 1, but they barely made their presence felt in Season 2. This episode showcases them and how Chihaya has influenced their thinking. As Muse had touched on, we did not exactly see Chitose as someone to like. She was obsessed, seemed to have a huge ego, and didn’t treat Chihaya exactly like a sister should. However, her effectiveness this season seemed to mostly just be background noise, but instead her struggles are highlighted, which is in stark contrast to Chihaya’s struggles as she tries to emulate Shinobu’s game. From someone who seemed like she liked modeling to suddenly deciding it was best to go to college, it seemed like a bit of a fall from where she was. In the end, it only makes sense that the one who’s really into something, like Chihaya is with karuta, manages to inspire Chitose to actually become passionate about modeling, or at the very least, to not give up like she was about to do so easily. We then get to Chihaya’s mom, who initially we didn’t quite see how much she supported Chihaya in playing karuta, until they ended up showing a moment where she stopped by the Shiranami Society back when Chihaya was a kid. It’s interesting how much she really believes that no matter what her future holds, as long as Chihaya’s playing karuta, she’ll be all right. Of course, she’s not the only one to have brought up Chihaya’s future since this was discussed by Ms. Miyauchi a few episodes ago. But just like Ms. Miyauchi, Chihaya’s mom believes she does know what she’s doing, even though it always seems like she doesn’t. So it definitely must have been a surprise for her when she saw how depressed Chihaya was after the loss despite going to Nationals anyways. That’s why it was pretty nice of her to go take her to actually get a Hakama, instead of just using a borrowed one. Even though that would cost a bit of money! But whatever the case, it’s all kind of come full circle in a sense -- at the start, everyone happened to be fawning over Chitose and celebrating her accomplishments while whatever Chihaya did, nobody really cared. Now, it’s finally about equal I think within the family as both Ayase sisters may just be able to accomplish what they want. But of course, we’ll be mostly focused on Chihaya’s success since this anime revolves around her. Muse: It’s interesting how the overall theme of this episode turned to “support.” For a while now, karuta has been portrayed as a niche that only insiders can understand, which makes sense given the nature of the game. However, in this episode we see that the team is not alone, especially Chihaya, since she has many people around her who support her even though they don’t understand her obsession all the time. It was nice to see Mom take the initiative in this episode and get a Hakama for her daughter (even though it probably wasn’t the best time spending wise) because of her belief that someday, maybe even this year, Chihaya is going to be on that televised Queen match. And like Justin mentioned, her statements that Chihaya is going to be just fine as long as she follows her heart are a good assessment of her character. The club in general also gets an interesting bit of support from an unexpected place: the concert band club! Towards the beginning of the episode, Chihaya decides to let the concert band use the second floor of their club space for storage--which was honestly a surprise to me, since I thought that they literally only had that one room, not a second floor! Anyway, Chihaya guessed correctly that they might get something out of it if they help them, and the band decides to send them off before the Nationals by playing the full, long version of the school song. It’s pretty cute and very unexpected. Chihaya’s charm is working in favor of the club, since without a huge amount of members (only two stayed out of twenty applications... ouch...) it might help them down the road to have friends in random places. Of course, it’s possible that this event is just a one-off to pad for time within the episode, but it was cute to watch nevertheless. Justin: Oh Muse. Considering this is Chihayafuru, I can only expect that this won’t be the last time we have a part of the school supporting the Karuta club. Hence the part where I said school; as Muse mentioned, karuta is fairly niche, and aside from those that are really into the game, it’s not exactly of high interest to everyone else. You can say that for mostly everything we get ourselves involved in of course, but for this Band, it’s pretty interesting. Remember, they would have had to practice in the halls if they didn’t get the room. That would have been pretty awkward actually! But Chihaya decides (while thinking of karuta first and foremost) to let them take the room. It easily could have just passed off as a one note thing, but there was effort expended by the Band Club just to thank the Karuta Club for letting them have the room. I always find it fun when clubs can support each other, and in this case, considering karuta seemed to be isolated from everyone else, I not only found it cool, but I see it as a bit of trend. I get this feeling that as the Karuta Club does well in Nationals, it will eventually lead to more clubs checking the team out, and finally making karuta seem relevant aside from the interested parties. I think one thing we’ll definitely have to watch out for is Sumire’s desire to play karuta. Basically, everyone except her wants to admit she’s falling in love with karuta. The real question then becomes what will she fall in love with more -- Taichi or karuta? She still seems to claim that she’s playing karuta just to get Taichi’s attention, but just by joining the Shiranami Society, I feel she wants to do more than just get Taichi’s attention. I feel she actually wants to get better at the game and win. Needless to say, we’ll find out how good she might have gotten as Nationals begin. Muse: And the circle turns back to the ongoing love saga! But first, Sumire. This episode briefly returns to “the feelings expressed are dependant on the rules” line, with Sumire clarifying it a little bit with how it applies to her: “The rule in this love is to be serious about karuta!” This line and her other actions in the episode reveal that she still thinks of karuta as a means to an end, just a way to get Taichi to notice her. However, as we’ve seen in the previous episodes, there’s more to her interest than just using karuta to get a date. Tsukuba even says as much to her during this episode, but Sumire doesn’t realize it herself. If she didn’t care about the game at all, then she would’ve dropped out along with the twenty other girls who only cared about how hot Taichi is. There’s more to Sumire than the surface layer than she puts on for other people, but she won’t even let herself dig that deep. ...Also, I think she’s cuter without makeup. Sumire’s ambitions aside, towards the end of the episode she asks the million dollar question: Who does Chihaya really like? While we initially get a funny faux-yuri moment when Chihaya mentions Shinobu, we get the real answer when Taichi finds her in the lobby, talking to Arata and asking when he is going to show up for Nationals. That scene gave me an interesting mix of emotions. On the one hand, the side of me that declared my support of Arata early on when I blogged the first season was really happy and excited, but the other half that has grown attached to Taichi during the series’ run was heartbroken for him. Making matters worse, there’s still no indicator whether Arata feels the same way about Chihaya or just sees her as a friend, leaving open the possibility of an unrequited love circle. The matches themselves are emotional enough! I don’t need relationship drama too! ...Of course, I’m kidding. I love it. Justin: Ok. I guess I have to be the bearer of bad news. Readers, you can also join me in highlighting the obvious truth: it’s over. It’s a wrap. Back in Season 1, you could realistically say we didn’t know who Chihaya would ultimately be with. It was a toss up between Taichi and Arata. But in Season 2, Taichi has had more screentime, more chances to be with Chihaya, and more of a reason to get together with Chihaya, yet in all 30 or less minutes of Arata appearing on the screen, he manages to influence Chihaya more often than Taichi’s over 100 minutes of air time. Seven episodes into Season 2, and the only time Taichi and Chihaya realistically got close was back when Taichi took over one episode. But nothing seems to change Chihaya more than just speaking with or even just getting a text from Arata. It is painfully obvious where this is gonna go, and it’s not gonna go well for those who believed in Chihaya X Taichi. It’s time to let go...time to move on... ...And let’s face it, Taichi probably will have to move on, if he’s gonna find his own path when it comes to love. Muse: I hope he does, because if that extra screentime has proved anything, it’s that Taichi deserves to be happy and not have to wait around for someone who’s looking another way. Images from Crunchyroll.com
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Arata's ability to make such a cute girl like Chihaya cry made me dumbfounded!
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