This is not the first opening sentence I’ve written for this piece, believe me. I’m in a pretty difficult position here as someone who’s read the Chihayafuru manga and feels so passionately about the choices it makes. So I’m trying to be careful while still being honest, and after an episode like this one that’s not an easy balance to strike. To be blunt I’m glad the season – which has been a very good one on the whole and certainly better than the second – is ending next week.
As long as we’re being honest, I hate the fact that Chihayafuru has the ability to wreck me as few other series ever have. Suetsugu is such a good writer and Madhouse and Asaka Morio do such a phenomenal job with the adaptation that my level of buy-in has always been sky-high. But I feel a certain connection between this series and Diamond no Ace as far as my reader/viewer experience is concerned – the difference being, Chihayafuru is so much better than even when the author royally pisses me off I’m too enmeshed in it to quit. Or at least that was the case until oh, 18-24 months or so ago – when I finally realized I’d had enough and began a “break” that I’ve never felt the urge to return from.
I don’t know what the deal is with Suetsugu and Taichi to be honest – whether the fact that he grew to be a co-protagonist of the series and its most popular character surprised her (which we know to be true) caused her to resent him as a character (which is conjecture). But there’s a sense of a dog relentlessly gnawing at a bone with the way she writes him. She just keeps grinding him down, over and over, and never lets go even when the marrow starts leaking out all over the carpet. And for Taichi fans (and I know there are a lot of us) we may as well be the bone ourselves.
That’s exhausting. And it was exhaustion, really, that finally forced me to cut the cord (some ways after this point in the narrative, for the record). Things started out well enough here – we had the Taichi Cup, and the news that Arata was so distracted after beating Taichi that he lost the Takamatsu Cup. Chihaya has set up the Taichi Cup as as a “Genpei” tournament, similar to the one the three leads played as 6th-graders. Under Genpei rules teams of three compete for all 100 cards, with players earning points both for team wins and individual cards taken. That leads to some amusing team dynamics, but once Chihaya announces that the first prize was going to be a kiss from Taichi, it was pretty obvious how things would turn out.
To be honest (since we’re being honest) I felt a little relieved when these events came down in the manga, along with having my heart ripped out. At least Taichi was finally able to unburden himself of the crushing weight of the truth that Chihaya’s cluelessness forced him to carry all these years. The confession scene in the clubroom, with the sakura blowing in on the breeze, could not have been animated better by Asaka – it was sublime. It felt even more brutal and agonizing than it did reading it, and that’s saying something. But at least it was over – and the truth about that stupid glasses incident was out too.
Did anything that happened here surprise me? No – I knew in my heart that Chihaya wasn’t capable of reciprocating Taichi’s feelings. But while the temptation is there to blame her for that – to rage at her for not realizing that the guy in front of her was the one who’d given her his entire adolescence and asked for nothing in return, that substance and reality is better than an idealized fantasy – that’s her right. No one can tell the heart what it wants. No, as much as I hated it I was almost at peace with it. My problem with Chihaya comes after, when she pushes him to utter the most important line of dialogue this season – “Chihaya… Do you think… I’m made of stone or something?”
This, ultimately, is my issue with Chihaya and her namesake series more than any other. She always, always, without exception takes Taichi for granted. Nothing he gives her is ever enough, despite the fact that he gives her everything. For her to plead with him not to quit – I’m sorry, even for her that’s a new low. She doesn’t owe him her love, but she can at least allow him the luxury of getting on with his life – that is, if she were capable of feeling true empathy for other people. That quality in Chihaya makes her a trying protagonist to say the least, and the Karmic imbalance among the leads makes Chihayafuru wearying to the soul.
Mi-chan
March 19, 2020 at 1:32 amI feel a void inside you know, the accumulation of 9 years waiting since I first watched season 1 to this date had me writing my own scripts and none of them was as painful as this.
Is this where you stopped in the manga? Please say it is because anymore is just too much. I do not think any series of love confessions was as hurtful as this one was. I will point out my destruction points I this episode:
1 – Offering Taichi kiss as an award at his birthday and not making anything of it.
2 – When Arata confesses, she just blanks out and he leaves while she is still frozen but with Taichi it took her close to nothing to say sorry. Images of Arata appearing during his confession was salt to the wound. What he hated most was her who thought of Arata and even then she was. Even his confession, every word of it, was painful to hear in words.
3 – The repeated notion of “it is a lie Chihaya” as he told her what was troubling him (us included) for so long ate away my heart.
4 – “I cannot hear you (when the bell rings), I dont have game sense hurt so much it cannot be described.
5 – The setting of the room they created together, the nostalgia of the tatami mat and even setting the curtains that was the perfect setting.
6 – Taichi falling second in grade n his first time during highschool and only we know why it happened. (I mean Komano got his wish but even he knew what it meant.)
7 – The club scenes where both Taichi and Chihaya are going on without telling others.
8 – If it didn’t get any worse, Taichi (club’s president) and co-creator leaving during the last and final year of highschool hurt so bad. There was a manga cover I saw once once with all the team mates and not Taichi and I wondered why. Ok.. so does Misuzawa want me to root for their team without the person who was there all along? Should we just watch the next competitions without Taichi? We are used to no Arata, but no Taichi (who was at every episode since day 1) is not something I emotionally can accept. I cannot imagine them celebrating or playing to win on just that.
9 – The club reaction to his departure broke my heart to pieces. At this point, I did not like where the story was going.
10 – If Chihaya had not gone back or the way she aggressively pulled him did not happen, I would hate the series even more. This scene is both written eloquently and with every intention to destroy us. Yo, Taichi literly kissed her and the way he let go of her my heart broke.
11 – Ok so the kid tickling Arata, who resembles him a little, is supposed to be his lookalike replacement. I will be angry.
Sorry about all this post but you have no idea how long I waited for this and I never expected this. If I haven’t written it down somewhere, I will keep thinking about it longer than I should. I researched this episode over 20 times since yesterday.
If no season 4 is announced within the year (because we know manga is done now), then I will read the manga. I cannot be destroyed like this again even if the animation is so brilliant, I do not think I could forgive a more depressing answer in the future.
Thanks for your post, M.
Mi-chan
March 19, 2020 at 1:40 amI forgot to mention the scene when he looks black and the cards turn all black with the “I don’t where this love will take me” taking us back to season 2, was close to a murder scene for me.. the black Karuta cards are so symbolic.
Guardian Enzo
March 19, 2020 at 9:08 amNo, as I said it was later in the narrative when I stopped with the manga. Though as I also said in last week’s post, that was the point where “if I knew then what I know now…” I probably would have stopped.
The reaction of the clubmates is gutting, indeed. Because they love Taichi and appreciate him for who he is in a way Chihaya never has and never will (because, presumably, she never can).
Mi-chan
March 20, 2020 at 12:11 pmI didnt understand it through the post, I understood that still s couple.of chapters ahead from.this one :P..
Kamil
March 19, 2020 at 2:51 amI rarely comment on anything, but this episode left me floored. The confession scene, the fallout, and the conversation between Taichi and Chihaya at the end… I’m speechless. I have to confess I wasn’t always in the Taichi camp, but damn me if this wasn’t one of the most relatable situations I’ve ever seen in anime. Poor guy. And it is indeed very low of Chihaya to be mad at him for quitting – he can do whatever he wants with his time and doesn’t owe her anything. Why would he subject himself to daily meetings with the girl who spurned him? If she gets even worse in the manga, then I’m not sure if I want to pick it up after this season ends. I probably will, though. I want to find out what happens to Taichi.
Guardian Enzo
March 19, 2020 at 9:10 amIf you want me to answer that manga question I will, but not in open forum.
Also, TBH I suspect there will be a season 4 at some point.
Say
March 19, 2020 at 1:43 pmI still read people who accuse Taichi of quitting the club. Have you ever confessed to someone after many years, being rejected and being asked to remain friends? Some people don’t understand how deeply they were loved and how painful is to keep that friendship. And you know? There’s no use in explaining that you can’t act as a friend anymore, they won’t let you go sometimes. That’s what happened to me. At some time I gave up on explaining and said “All right, let’s be friends” and simply decide to never meet that person again in my life, because that person wanted to live in the lie that we were still friends and couldn’t understand.
Guardian Enzo
March 19, 2020 at 4:26 pmSome people still hate Taichi over the glasses incident in the third episode (when he was 12, for fuck’s sake). The hate runs deep sometimes.
Say
March 19, 2020 at 6:13 amThis episode was as painful as superb. I loved any minute of it! It may mean nothing regarding who Chihaya will choose in the end but I have no doubt which confession was the most touching.
“I love you, I love your cut nails, your mouth so unbelievable open… but I don’t love the Chihaya who thinks of Arata” Love and jealousy in the same spot, side by side to nourish the heart.
Pieislife
March 19, 2020 at 7:01 amI don’t blame Chihaya, I don’t think she understands what love for a person is; even for Arata. That might be why she can’t understand Taichi. Whatever Suigetsu’s problem with Taichi is I feel that she intentionally writes him so harshly so we love him and that there is a happy ending for him in all this, whether with Chihaya or not we’ll find out when the manga ends.
Maybe she likes him more than she lets on and just as he won us over maybe he won her over too and she’s saving it for the end.
Mi-chan
March 19, 2020 at 7:55 amI hope so :((..
Nadavu
March 19, 2020 at 10:53 amI’m gonna write something that doesn’t actually have much to do with Chihayafuru, but it just came up when I read Mi-chan’s passionate post on top.
!!!Spoiler Alert: Avert your eyes if you haven’t seen 5 Centimeters per Second and Kimi no Na wa!!!
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I watched Kimi no Na wa almost exactly 10 years after I saw 5cm/s for the first time. In the very last scene, when Mitsuha and Taki pass each other on the stairs, I was ready to die. And then he turns and calls out to her, and she turns, and in that very moment I felt a phantom hand that’s been squeezing my heart for a decade, so long, in fact, that I no longer even remember that it wasn’t supposed to be there, let go. It took 10 years, but I finally got catharsis, and it was liberating.
I can only hope Suetsugu is building up Taichi for something similar.
Guardian Enzo
March 19, 2020 at 11:53 amYeah, but they’re not the same people. So – kind of scant comfort there, no?
I actually don’t have a big problem with the 5 CM ending, though it obviously gutted me at the time. In the context of the story Shinkai was telling (which was far more genuine than the one in KnNw in my opinion), I thought it made perfect sense.
Nadavu
March 20, 2020 at 2:18 amOh, I’m not saying that I have a problem with 5cm/s’ ending (although the first time I watched it, I thought for sure my file was corrupted. And I still think it’s a shame it clocks at barely an hour, when Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo was two hours too long). I mean, not in the sense that there’s anything wrong with it. That would be like saying Oedipus should have had a happy ending. No, I love 5cm/s, and the ending is a huge reason why. It was so good, in fact, that it kept hurting for so long, that when I watched Kimi no Na wa, it was as if Shinkai himself was like “alright, you deserve some fanservice, you earned it.”
Guardian Enzo
March 20, 2020 at 9:38 amBut see, this is the problem with Shinkai’s last few movies IMO. He’s trying to give his fans what they want, and I think that’s a dangerous place for a creator to go. It may be resulting in huge commercial success (which was obviously the aim) but artistically, they’ve suffered.
Longevity as artists is what really makes Takahashi and Miyazaki so remarkable to me. Despite success – obviously much more with Miyazaki – they continued to evolve and be idiosyncratic creators. We’ve seen the two young lions of Japanese anime, Shinkai and Hosoda, creatively stumble when they became too successful – Shinkai because he tries too hard to live up to his reputation, and Hosoda because he fired the writing partner who lifted the material he directed to greatness. Miyazaki and Takahashi just kept on being auteurs no matter how established and how successful they became. Hopefully the two heir apparent candidates can grow through this phase in their careers and regain their former glories.
Mi-Chan
March 19, 2020 at 1:15 pmI am sorry I literly disected this episode for 100 times I watched it. It was 9 years in the making, the patience and imagination is wild. If I really had to say, it is because I am one of those people who always try hard, it never works out for me so I needed the hope this char needed and I litterly keep thinking of ‘is everything I do futile’ line and gahhhhr ill stop here! I need to stop T__T..
I watched Kimi Na Wa but not 5 cm, I am sorry I couldn’t read what you wrote!
Thanks
M
Nadavu
March 20, 2020 at 2:22 amI feel your pain, Mi-chan. <3
Mi-chan
March 20, 2020 at 12:08 pm:'((((((..
Romy
June 13, 2021 at 12:13 pmThis episode is the pivotal moment in the story. If you read the manga, and look carefully, you will be able to understand that Chihaya rejected Taichi, because she rejected “romance”, which she initially hadn’t understood when Arata confessed. The only thing I’ll say is: you don’t know what you got, till it’s gone. Chihaya isn’t a flawless heroine, her cluelessness is annoying and something she’ll have to work on bit by bit. There has been several moments that I almost cut the cord as well with this story, but because it’s so ingenious, coupled with the Hyankunin Isshu, I could never let go. The manga is nearing its final climax, so it is now to see if all this torturous suffering was worthwhile something.
Guardian Enzo
June 13, 2021 at 8:38 pmI’ll read about it when it’s over. But I have very little confidence Suetsugu is going to deliver an ending that would have satisfied me on any level.