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OK, I confess I’m starting to get a little worried.
A couple of weeks ago someone might have joked about this entire season taking place at Omi Jingu with the national high school championships, and I would have gotten a good laugh about it. But now I’m not so sure. The pacing has been quite a bit slower than it was in the first season already, but many more episodes like this one – five minutes for background on the creepy losers taking photos of a minor character? – and we might just be looking at that seemingly silly notion becoming reality. We managed to get all of six cards read in this match, which is only the semi-finals of the team event – then there’s the individual event after that, which – given all the dramatic permutations that are possible just in the Class A portion – is likely to take up several episodes on its own.
It’s a testament to just how good Chihayafuru is that it can stage an episode like this and still be very entertaining, without any feeling of dragging. But it’s definitely not the emotional powerhouse it was in the first season for me, for reasons that I laid out last week having no idea that this episode would exemplify them in such dramatic fashion. I don’t know whether this shift in focus and pacing takes place in exactly the same fashion in the manga, and it’s hard to blame Morio-sensei for following it faithfully if that’s the case. But given how much is left undone in what until very recently I felt confident in believing were the major plot arcs, it seems obvious we’re not going to get anywhere near closure on any of them in 25 episodes. Hopefully there’s going to be a third season, because if there isn’t Chihayafuru is probably going to feel very much like an unfinished story in anime form.
Points for consistency – every single opponent this season has been developed in much detail, either in terms of the team or its key individual. And now we finally have one who’s truly significant enough to warrant that development in Ousaka Megumu, a player serious enough to have been the Western finalist in the Queen qualifiers before being taken out by Yumi in a memorable match from the first season. Megumu was an afterthought then but she’s in full focus now – and she managed to make me dislike her pretty much immediately with her casual arrogance. The opponents on Chihayafuru are nearly always oddballs (so are the heroes, of course) and often do unsympathetic things, but this show is remarkably good at humanizing them. They have some work to do with Megumu – we’ve seen questionable sportsmanship but rarely anything quite so irritatingly improper as her “They should just let us play the final now.” Confidence is one thing, but casually disrespecting the opponent (she also sits down in front of Fujisaki instead of Mizusawa at first) so openly crosses any line of sportsmanship you might care to draw.
I’ll be honest – when this match was set up, I was sort of hoping Chihaya would lose because the cycle of every team match boiling down to her individual one is getting a bit repetitive – it would be fun to see everything come down to Tsutomu or Nishida for once. Well, no longer – I’m really hoping Chihaya pounds some respect into Ousaka. And Chihaya’s maturity is perhaps the most welcome change from the first season – we see signs of it just about every week. She doesn’t panic when Ousaka takes the first four cards (although in truth Chihaya seems to fall behind in every match), even when one of them was a card she was camping. Not only that, she remembers Komano-kun’s advice about scouting the cards based on the opponent’s name, and remembers details from Ousaka’s performance in the Queen qualifier. She could use a little work on now showing her emotional state so openly on her face – that often puts her at a competitive disadvantage – but in terms of the emotional state itself, what a difference a year makes. She’s patient, calm and even though she’s irritated by Megumu’s poor behavior she doesn’t pointlessly rage about it – she channels it into a stronger desire to prove Megumu wrong.
As for the rest of the matches, well – there’s not much to say because we have no idea how any of the boys are doing (only that Nishida is sweating profusely, but that’s normal). We do at least see that Kanade is up by four cards – and indeed, that she’s impressing the hell out of an exhausted Tsukuba by performing so well despite having played every match and lost two by agonizingly close margins. And Kana also delivers the finest moment of the episode, where she and Chihaya bond over a shared memory of the “When winds blow” card – one that has special meaning for both of them. In this small way we see that Kana-chan has subtly influenced Chihaya’s Karuta – to see the meaning in the poem and not just the syllables that comprise it doesn’t come naturally to Chihaya, but here we see it as a source of inspiration for her.
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Kim
March 30, 2013 at 12:15 pmI think you should resign yourself to the rest or most of the series taking place at Omi Jingu.
However the location itself should not affect the emotional high points of the series. We might not have gotten any big ones yet but I think there are still opportunities for that during this tournament.
I also now want Chihaya to beat Megumu after what she said but I do think the flashback humanized Megumu for me. Still I think Megumu needs the lesson here so she should lose.
The team better win too because I was upset at everyone thinking they are not important (which I think was the point)
cead6df4-993f-11e2-aa5f-000bcdcb5194
March 30, 2013 at 1:43 pmOh man I hope Desk-kun wins because he hasn't played a game yet and is refreshed. I hope Kana wins because she's facing girls that know love poems well, like herself. I hope Chihaya wins because that Megumu just dismissed their team. We haven't seen Nishida and Taichi but I hope they win too haha.
Helen
March 30, 2013 at 1:49 pm"I'll be honest – when this match was set up, I was sort of hoping Chihaya would lose because the cycle of every team match boiling down to her individual one is getting a bit repetitive – it would be fun to see everything come down to Tsutomu or Nishida for once. Well, no longer – I'm really hoping Chihaya pounds some respect into Ousaka." Same, I also wanted Chihaya to lose since I thought that she was mature enough now to handle it well and keep moving but, especially with the way that the entire audience isn't giving them any attention (hell even the protector thought that Arata's friends were on the Houkou team), I want Chihaya to shine and completely surprise everyone. And I would argue that yes this episode dragged, between that weird flashback (I'm with Sumire on this one, really guys!) and that fact that they spent several minutes just showing footage from the previous episode, much more than they normally do, there were some real pacing issues here.
elianthos80
March 30, 2013 at 2:03 pmThe three camera groupies are soooo creepy, although at least one of them is shown having some observation skills up to the job X,D.
I can't say the episode dragged but it lacked some emotional power. Thank goodness they put a patch to that with the Kanade-Chihaya poem connection at the end.
I wonder who is the young Chiyaya-clone with the bob cut among the spectators talking with the hot woman coaching one of the other teams. Or rather, when we're going to see her in card action . She was dressed for the part and the camera lingered on her a tad too much.
Nadavu
March 30, 2013 at 3:15 pmI really don't get Megumu's character at all. is she arrogant or just air headed? or both? or does being one makes it appear to be the other? I don't get it.
Awet M
March 30, 2013 at 11:45 pmMy best friend is actually like that – he is arrogant to a fault, and absent minded enough to seem careless.
ravenanne
March 30, 2013 at 3:56 pmThis episode is okay for me. I still find it short and did't noticed the time while watching it. 🙂
And yes, the best part for me is also the Kana and Chihaya moments. It's quite nice Chihaya maturing here. She usually panics before!
Oh? Now that we're talking about pacing, maybe season 2 will just really cover the Omi jingu arc. Not that it matters though because everything that happened in that arc will be epic and great once animated. 🙂
Awet M
March 30, 2013 at 11:46 pmHigh possibility, if not incontrovertible evidence, that Chihayafuru may get a third season!:)
Goh
March 31, 2013 at 1:01 amWell Megumu is alright.She was quite intimidating actually and I cannot imagine her losing, which is good.
But she is definitely not as great as Yumin. That was for me the best chihayafuru side character ever, and I was happy to see her even in flashbacks. She had the balls to spit on the whole TRADITION that karuta players take pride in and win by bullshiting coupled with actual skill. Her cynical viewpoint was also refreshing for a series that is too romantic at times. I hope she returns for the solo matches.
admin
March 31, 2013 at 1:33 amNot really. Finances, as always, will decide that.
admin
March 31, 2013 at 1:35 amSorry Lacie – I know you didn't mean any harm and if there were a spoiler tag option that would have been fine, but I think some people may not wish to know that much detail about the manga and where this season is headed. I know I didn't.
Awet M
March 31, 2013 at 2:05 amGood thing "Lacie" was vague enough not to give away the farm, but my interpretation is that there's plenty of story left after the Omi Jingu tournament. Right?
Even if there's no anime adaptation, I'll be happy with the manga. 🙂
Lacie
March 31, 2013 at 1:23 pmOh sorry OTL
I didn't know that it's spoilery
gomen
admin
March 31, 2013 at 2:36 pmNo big deal. But as for me, I'd rather not know what the next 13 eps are going to look like – it's better to me surprised IMO.