One trend I’ve definitely noticed in Chihayafuru – the best chapters/episodes tend to be the ones that focus heavily on the supporting characters.  That wasn’t true in the beginning of course (and there were hardly any of them anyway), but it’s become more and more true as the series has progressed.  The logic is straightforward – these episodes rank much lower on both the bullshit and groundhog day meters.  And Suetsugu-sensei is of course very good at writing karuta subplots from the POV of opponents or secondary characters.

As to the matter of last week’s episode and the finals of the Eastern Qualifier, that was addressed here and yes – I was well aware that there was no match for Suetsugu to show.  That doesn’t change my assessment of that whole exchange as an unforced error at all – it was baked into it.  Just the buildup to that match – and Sudou’s concession – would have been far more dramatic that Arata’s coronation.  We should never have been deprived of the tension and suspense of that moment in that room, but it’s all water under the bridge now.  And if I’d known then what I know now, I’d have understood that she was going to give me far more important things to complain about down the road.

That Harada is taking this seriously cannot be doubted, and why shouldn’t he?  This is almost surely his last chance at glory and he’s going to use the full power of the Shiranami Society to try and seize it.  Taichi has been in a funk since his loss at the meijin qualifier – for once Chihaya reads someone else well enough to realize that going easy on him would be the worst kind of insult – but that doesn’t stop Harada-sensei from assigning Taichi to be his sparring partner as Arata.  This is a galling development for Taichi, no doubt, but it’s really quite a compliment.  In a sense it’s both a compliment and a put-down, because while Harada is acknowledging Taichi’s flexibility and quick mind, he’s also reminding him that he doesn’t have a deeply-seated style of his own yet.

As for Chihaya, Harada is smart enough to know that she doesn’t have the self-awareness to be able to do what he’s asking Taichi to do.  But she insists on helping, which winds up with her convincing herself to be Suou-san’s stand-in.  It’s basically doing an unintentionally-comic impression of his speaking style and adopting some of his obvious tendencies that Harada-sensei already knows, but at least her heart is in the right place.  Her phone conversation with Arata suggests someone desperately trying to convince herself that she believes what she’s saying, but what happens on the day of the match is surely a different matter entirely.

Then we have the Queen final, which features two relatively minor characters in the Chihayafuru pantheon in Megumu and Inokuma-san.  But Inokuma, at least, is a legitimately compelling character.  At one time she was the undisputed best female player of a generation, but what she’s trying to accomplish here is pretty monumental.  If in fact as Sakurazawa-sensei says game sense peaks in the teens and early twenties (if Inokuma has already lost some at 34, what does that make Harada-sensei?) Inokuma has a lot to overcome.  And then there’s the matter of her guilt too, though I don’t think t’s anything she should feel.  Nevertheless, the pressure on women with small children – especially in Japan – to give up everything for them is immense.

I have no strong feelings either way about Megumu – I don’t feel as if I know her well enough to anyway – but I know who I’m rooting for in that match.  And in the other one too, for some of those same reasons and more.  Karuta may not be a “sport” by the traditional Western yardstick, but the more one learns about it (thanks, Chihayafuru) the more one realizes that these players are indeed athletes.  And that they’re subject to the same early decline as any other – for someone in his 50’s like Harada-sensei to do what he’s doing is a triumph of will, plain and simple.