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I’m convinced at this point that grouchy old Miyauchi-sensei knew exactly what she was doing when she forced the Karuta Club to name Taichi as President. And right now, she looks like a friggin’ genius for doing it.
I’m quite struck with just how thoroughly Chihayafuru blends its genres to the point where even assigning one is meaningless. If you look it up, most places will tell you it’s a josei manga. But the art is as shoujo as you can get (in a good way) and the mechanics of the romantic plot feel very shoujo as well. But it’s also very much a sports shounen in the mold of Hikaru no Go or even Major, and I’d go so far as to say that Chihaya is very much filling the role of the shounen male lead. She’s the kid with the dream and the talent to back it up, a passionate purist for her sport who inspires people not with her words but with the force of her actions. She’s also almost unbelievably clueless when it comes to social niceties and the feelings of other people. It’s a thankless role in some ways, which is why so many male leads are ridiculed by readers/viewers, and in fact I’m very much of the opinion that if Chihaya were a boy, she’d be on the receiving end of a lot of fan hate for her cluelessness. But as Chase said to Adams on “House” last week, “Yeah, but you’re hot, so it’s easier to put up with.”
Mind you I often find myself defending those good-hearted but tone-deaf male leads as I have a soft spot for that kind of character, and I adore Chihaya in spite of her failings. That said, though, she’d be the worst possible person to lead a karuta club (or anything else at this point in her life) because she’s so single-minded and almost literally runs around with blinders on. Taichi, on the other hand, is continuing to show himself as a remarkably poised and sensitive kid. I have a theory (based on personal experience) that people who think too much tend to be more unhappy than people who don’t think very much, and Taichi certainly falls into the first category. He carries a lot on his shoulders because he’s considering the implications of everything that happens, but that quality makes him ideal as a club president.
Case in point this week was Tsutomu. It was great to see a focus on the two weakest (and though everyone on the team is of an age, they seem the youngest, too) team members, and both Kana – who seems to be nearing a record for most flower-framed close-ups – and Tsutomu had some great moments. Naturally both of them were a little overwhelmed at the prospect of their first tournament – not that it stopped Kana-chan from seizing the opportunity to turn the club into walking, perfectly-dressed billboards for her family’s traditional clothing business. But Kana took to the competition a little better than Tsutomu did, and even stole her first win. Understandably this made Tsutomu feel even worse, especially given the fact that he’d attacked karuta as he attacks everything, trying to beat it into submission with hard work. Unfortunately Chihaya was so focused on celebrating Kana and the team’s success through the early rounds that she didn’t see that Tsutomu was slipping deeper and deeper into a funk, while Taichi and Nishida seemed to sense trouble brewing.
While not being used to giving orders may have made Taichi hesitate, when Tsutomu cracked and announced he wasn’t needed and was leaving for the day he stepped in and salvaged the situation by ordering Tsutomu to sit out the semi-finals but play in the finals. Whether through instinct or calculation this was exactly the right move, as it gave Tsutomu – who would have been useless in the semi-finals in his state – a chance to reflect on his selfish actions, and the others to focus on pulling together to get through their match against an obnoxious opponent that relied more on shouting than skill. Here again, Taichi stepped in to right the ship when Chihaya was faltering as a result of her guilt over Tsutomu’s breakdown. By deliberating spraying a slew of cards across the room, he gave himself a chance to get up and give the others the pep talk and pat on the head they desperately needed to get their mojo back. Whether he knows it or not, Taichi has the makings of a natural leader.
As it stands, Mizusawa is through to the finals based on Chihaya, Taichi and Nishida going undefeated – though Chihaya cut it close in the semi-final and had to fight back from being down eight cards to two. Nishida appears to be just as strong as ever, solid and unshakeable at the center of the team, and Taichi seems to have benefited from all those drubbings by Chihaya. As for the noobs, Kana-chan is clearly the further advanced at this point, having won her first match and come close a second time. The matches were interesting to follow, and the show is showing itself capable of some very exciting tournament episodes. As in Go, much of the strategy comes from the playing order – trying to find the matchups most beneficial to your team via a blind draw, even if that means trying to place your weakest player (Tsutomu) where you think the opponent’s “A” player will be and effectively throwing that match as a trade-off for better matchups in the others. In the finals awaits a very powerful team including old nemesis Kinashi “Retro” Hiro (Nakai Kazuya) and a mysterious sadist (“I like to toy with pretty girls”) that’s made the Nationals five years running.
What really sets Chihayafuru apart is the genre-bending romantic undercurrent that runs through everything that happens, adding a tension to seemingly simple actions and words. The others on the team are slowly becoming aware of this, too – they see the tension in Taichi’s face whenever Arata is mentioned, and the boys know something of the backstory – Nishida has even come to the same conclusion I have, that Chihaya started the club so that she could meet Arata at Nationals. Chihaya has been texting Arata, it seems, though she’s getting no response, and indeed wonders why Arata sent her birthday greetings through Taichi. Taichi thinks he knows, though – the issue being that he and Arata both believe that Chihaya “belongs” to both of them. Even Chihaya, dense as dwarf-star alloy (a cookie for anyone who can spot the reference) when it comes to human feelings, has picked up that something is bothering Taichi – though of course she doesn’t appear to have figured out what that actually is. There even seems to be a discernible chemistry building between Kanade and Tsutomu, who shared an intense moment in the hallway after the semifinal win. Baby steps, I suppose – for all concerned…
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Anonymous
December 7, 2011 at 5:54 amChihaya is probably gonna turn that Sadist into a Masochist the next episode haha
ELX
December 7, 2011 at 6:02 amThis episode had me all kinds of choked up. It blows my mind how the ties of friendship hit just as hard as the romantic undertones, it makes you want to root for everyone even when they're at their worst. And the way Taichi stepped in and saved the day … man, such a good kid (WHY ARE YOU SO BLIND CHIHAYA?!?!) I don't know HOW I'm going to part with this show once it's run is thru … I really don't.
And omg the sadist guy … I can't wait to see where that leads. Especially when he finds out that Chihahya is way more of a (lovable) bumbling idiot than a sadist of any kind … *thinks about training camp* well actually she might have a few S tendencies lol.
admin
December 7, 2011 at 6:08 amTaichi is making it pretty hard for the haters to keep hating. 😉
Fencedude
December 7, 2011 at 8:05 amBut it’s also very much a sports shounen in the mold of Hikaru no Go or even Major,
Its Saki without the lesbians and with an even more ridiculous "Sport"
The Kenosha Kid
December 7, 2011 at 8:06 amAt first I was a little skeptical that this show was going to be two-cour. Then I was incredibly grateful. Now I'm just saddened that that's all we'll get.
Also, Taichi is absolutely awesome and I would furthermore totally support a Kanade/Tsutomu pairing if only because it would be sort of adorable (if perhaps a little implausible at this point.)
Anonymous
December 7, 2011 at 11:28 amSup, i wanted to know if you watch horizon. And if you understand the stuff/world that's going on. And if someone knows someone who blogs that show.
Anonymous
December 7, 2011 at 12:24 pmElianthos here, the LJ id comment verification is not working yadda yadda.
*enter soapbox*
Enzo… just remember that shoujo, jousei, shounen, seinen… are just age&sex target labels, not genre ones. As such the actual content of anime and manga can vary wildly, and can even have since its onset a cross-demographic appeal or a different flavour than out western sensibilities would expect a 'shoujo' or any other of the aforementioned labels to be. Ditto on the artwork ^^. Some genres and artworks of shoujo, shounen etc are more popular than others (as in… romance, flower, sparkly eyes, bishies) , but they' re as shoujo as Natsume Yuujinchou XD.
In a nutshell: target demographic and content are not the same and don't match in the same way. If anything, you could say some patterns are more common and/or popular within a certain age target manga compared to others. And those patterns are most often than not related to the original magazine hosting the manga.
For manga-derived anime, you can have a beer judgement/preduction by checking the official audience for its Japanese magazine.
Chihayafuru is among these titles, all published within the same josei magazine: http://www.mangaupdates.com/publishers.html?pubname=Be+Love : check the *genre* tags and you'll find adventure, sport, supernatural, horror, slice of life. The romance tag is often absent, when present it's rarely alone. Romance for this magazine's audience seems not to be the top-top priority ;> (but hey, I can like a subtle romance flavour as any other girl) , and Chihayafuru going by the present episodes and the manga spoilers fits happily among the other titles in the magazine.
*exit soapbox*
—
I'm looking forward to this episode XD *_*
Anonymous
December 7, 2011 at 12:27 pmNote/P.S. : forgive the 'be[tt]er' judgement typo XD… have a beer! <3
Anonymous
December 7, 2011 at 2:42 pmMaybe it's worth noting that some shonen show like Prince of Tennis is actually targeting women audiences.
Anonymous
December 7, 2011 at 3:53 pm@Anonymous: for a Shonen Jump manga sure has a lot of female fans ^^.
Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler, anyone? It's full of hooks for female readers and the mangaka herself is a yaoi lover 😉
Or even my beloved Tiger&Bunny anime series: officially aimed at a seinen audience, but the fujoshi fanbase is pretty big… most of the female fans I've converted to the Sternbild Magnificence (XD) are a) adult women b) often also yaoi or slash fans.
The point is still: don't go for the shoujo/seinen/josei/shounen definitions or expectation on the basis of genre or content or art… because those are only the demographic label for Japanese publishers, ad even in this case the audience's response can and does cross over to other demographics ^_^.
admin
December 7, 2011 at 6:12 pmKenosha, why implausible?
And yes, these lines are blurry at the best of times. Look at Oofuri.
abandonedfactory
December 7, 2011 at 6:30 pmI completely agree about Taichi, who showed excellent leadership skills this episode.
The Kenosha Kid
December 8, 2011 at 1:22 amWow I don't know how much attention I must have been paying to that scene the first time around. The two of them clearly have chemistry. I just don't have a good enough grasp on their personalities to see how they'll mesh… Which is, in retrospect, rather different from implausibility. I can be rather lazy with language at times.
Still, chemistry. Yaaay.
I'll also mention that I hope to see more of their competitors. Even the minor characters are pretty entertaining here. God I love this series.
Anonymous
December 8, 2011 at 11:44 pmI really hope Chihaya ends up with Arata, however Taichi is slowly winning me over. >____>!!
admin
December 9, 2011 at 12:21 amWelcome to Team Taichi.