I think it would literally be impossible for a series to be more cruel than Chihayafuru.

For the first time in a long time and what seems like very rarely this season, Chihayafuru takes a break from karuta and gives us a real Taichi Tuesday.  Mostly, anyway (this is still Chihayafuru).  As I’ve noted before this is a sports series where the sports and the character arcs are hopelessly entangled, so as we’ve been hurtling at breakneck pace from one tournament to the next, a lot of character stress has built up.  This is “plot tectonics©” as I like to call it – the longer that stress goes without being vented, the more violent the activity when it finally is.

Sumire is definitely not one of the flashy characters in Chihayafuru.  And to be frank, she’s often not treated especially well by the writing.  But she definitely has her moments, and episodes like this make you appreciate her.  Whatever else you say about Sumire she does, at least, say what she’s thinking.  She actually confessed to the person she was in love rather than endlessly dithering around about it (like the person she’s in love with).  And to gild the lily, she confessed again here – just to make sure the point was unmistakably made.

Not to deny Sumire the credit she deserves, but in a sense I think this is easier for her because she knows she has no shot.  And the fact that Taichi (and Tsutomu for that matter) do theoretically have one doesn’t excuse their inability to be honest about their feelings.  Does Valentine’s Day move the needle for Taichi?  No – but for Sumire, it’s all about guts in more ways than one.  Chihaya has the idea to have a Valentine’s bash at the clubroom to try and cheer Taichi up, but she and Kana are utterly hopeless at honmei choco.  Fortunately Sumire is expert enough to compensate for both of them (but unfortunately Chihaya’s dad eats all the chocolate).

In a sense it’s progress for Chihaya to at least be aware that Taichi is out of sorts, though still galling that she has no idea why when it’s obvious to everyone else in Japan.  Again I have to give Sumire credit here, because she not only re-confesses to Taichi on Valentine’s Day but packages it with a plea for him to be honest with Chihaya (and put both of them out of their misery).  She does give some of that back by renouncing that view on White Day of course, but at that point Taichi has already had almost a month to act on her advice and clearly chosen not to.  So fair game, I suppose.

Chihaya is certainly concerned about Taichi’s grim demeanor.  She asks Hiroshi to try and get something out of him, which leads to a guy’s night at the izakaya, and Taichi does open up a little when Hiroshi asks about his match with Arata.  One could be cynical here and say that Chihaya is only upset about Taichi because his not being her rock (and everyone else’s) disrupts her cozy worldview.  But in the end that’s a critical cul-de-sac – to some extent most altruism is, paradoxically, driven by that selfish impulse.  We can’t fully understand why Chihaya does what she does, and it’s not cricket to dismiss her doing the right thing even if it’s not wholly for the right reason.

Eventually this all leads to the “Taichi Cup” – the culmination of all Chihaya’s machinations to knock Taichi back onto the tracks.  Leave it to Chihaya to center the effort around karuta, but it’s the thought that counts (and the effort is impressive).  What’s really heartbreaking about all this is that Taichi has so little sense of how much he means to those around him – how much more favorably they view him than he views himself.  And that in the end, there’s really only one person whose feelings he cares about and as nice as all this is, it’s not what he wants her to feel towards him.  One of the universal truths of Chihayafuru is that being Taichi – and being a Taichi fan – is suffering.