When it comes to me and Chihayafuru, the answer to pretty much any question is “it’s complicated”.
There were some odd choices by Asaka-sensei for this final episode. I’m grinding on whether they make a fourth season more or less likely (if anything I’m leaning towards the former), or whether they’re just choices he made based on what he felt this episode should be. I can’t really get into the details but there was an awful lot of important stuff that happened in the manga that didn’t make it into this ep, for whatever reason Asaka had in mind.
Of course there’s another question I have to ask myself – do I even want there to be another season? When I said that with the benefit of hindsight I would have stopped the manga where the anime was a couple weeks ago, I wasn’t just venting – I meant it. A fourth season for the anime forces me to put my money where my mouth is. In effect, to throw the baby out with the bathwater because to be sure, there is some good stuff in the upcoming chapters. Very good. And some good stuff that was skipped, too, that might make it back in.
I suppose I can only make that decision when the time comes (as I suspect it probably will, all things considered). As for this episode, to give it over almost entirely to Arata and the formation of his karuta club at school was certainly unconventional. Most of what happened here is in the manga, though there was some padding too, but to make it the centerpiece of the finale when things in Tokyo are moving so dramatically? A very curious call, it seems to me, and one that leaves this final episode feeling just a little anti-climactic.
Looking at the big picture, Suetsugu is obviously drawing out attention to the opposite directions Arata and Taichi/Chihaya’s courses are taking. As they each drift apart from each other and the club (Chihaya quitting happens off-screen) the perpetual loner Arata strives to become part of a team. His motivation seems pretty clear – he’s gained an appreciation (largely by measuring himself against Chihaya and Taichi) of what he’s been missing from his life with his single-minded obsession with the meijin title. Arata has always felt isolated and lonely to an extent being in Fukui – now he’s using karuta to try and build new bonds with the world. And that’s a positive for him, certainly.
Arata is obviously shocked when he learns (fourth-hand, from Sakurazawa-sensei via Retro-kun) that Chihaya and Taichi have quit the karuta club at Mizusawa. I was half-expecting him to put the pieces together in his mind, but if he did so there’s no evidence of it to be gleaned here. And trying to become the leader of a club is taking up much of his attention anyway. Not only is this something he has no experience with, it clearly doesn’t come naturally to him. He’s the opposite of Taichi in that sense – he’s a natural leader without an innate connection to karuta (which is what the egoist Chihaya provided the team).
Of the two central figures in the story, there’s almost nothing that makes it onto the screen. We do at least see Chihaya trying to dedicate herself to her studies – which she certainly needs to do – but her breakup with the karuta club is clearly wrecking her emotionally. As has often been the case, she finds an unlikely confidante in Fukusaku-sensei (my apologies for never crediting Endou Daichi for this performance – and it’s hard to believe he’s only 39 years old). He may not share her passion for karuta but he understands the connections the poems themselves create. And he sees the sincerity of Chihaya’s desire to teach, even if she seems like an odd fit for the role.
Taichi tells Mrs. Pressure – who’s horrified that he lost his #1 class ranking to Tsutomu-kun – that he’s quit the karuta club, but she doesn’t seem as pleased as you’d expect. Taichi is focusing on college, with a focus on eventually going to medical school. But it must be fate that his cram school teacher turns out to be none other than Suou-meijin. Harada has been a great mentor to Taichi in both karuta and life, but the hard truth is that as people – and players – they’re so different that there are things Harada-sensei simply can’t teach Taichi. Suou could hardly be more different from his meijin opponent both on the tatami and off it, but perhaps he’s not so different from Taichi that he can’t offer him a different sort of mentorship than Harada does.
Even if it leaves us in what for me is a pretty dark place as a viewer, there’s no question in my mind that this third season of Chihayafuru was better than the second. While it was still pretty karuta-heavy the competition was generally more compelling, especially where Harada-sensei and his opponents are concerned. And the non-karuta developments make up in seismic impact what they lack in screen time. But of course I can’t divorce myself from the manga experience, and that leaves me extremely conflicted about the anime going forward (assuming it does). As with everything involving Chihayafuru, it’s complicated. The only thing that’s straightforward is the grip this series has on my psyche – that’s something I can never deny. For better or for worse…
Pieislife
March 25, 2020 at 8:59 pmI think the manga will end in a couple of years so hopefully we have a 4th and 5th season to cover it
Guardian Enzo
March 25, 2020 at 9:27 pmHeh, she’s been promising it was close to the end for so long now that I’m highly skeptical. I’ll believe it when it happens.
Romy
March 25, 2020 at 9:04 pmThat last episode was so frustrating….. I guess the important stuff just can’t be handled lightly…..if ever there is a 4th season they’ll have to touch back on this!!! Or Taichi’s coming development just won’t make sense, especially the role Suou is playing with Taichi! It was also a bit meh to not see what truly goes on with Chihaya. All we get is Arata making his club when so much else is going on!!! Dang! And about the manga….. I know which point probably broke you (it did me too). I’m still waiting for it somehow to “click” in the end … But it may never do that. Thanks for your reviews!
Guardian Enzo
March 25, 2020 at 9:27 pmThanks. That’s why I’m leaning towards this episode suggesting a fourth season, because the stuff it left out will presumably be brought back in later. Still – it’s an odd way to end a season.
Mi-chan
March 26, 2020 at 12:53 amShould I just read the manga? I figure the anime will be too long to wait for and honestly I dk if I can not spoil it for myself anymore. I just need a push to go ahead and read it..
Also while I appreciate Arata thinking of his friends, that whole clip was hard for me to watch without wanting it to end, it did not feel like the right time for it but I think if you didnt read the manga like me, this end was perfect to ease the pain of waiting for a 4th season.
Mi-chan
March 26, 2020 at 2:53 amI remember at one episode the Karuta society said Master Suo about not having a teacher therefore cant teach. Poor Suo is actually an instructor in the realm outside of Karuta. I feel bad for the guy xD..
A fun fact for me:
Ep 23 season 1 : Taichi says hes hopelessly in love with Chiahya
Ep 23 season 2: Taichi has his A class moment.
Ep 23 season 3 : Taichi crushed.
If I were Taichi I would never trust number 23 again xD..
Pieislife
March 26, 2020 at 12:46 pmProbably how Karl Malone felt too
Guardian Enzo
March 27, 2020 at 12:38 pmWell played.
Kim
March 26, 2020 at 6:06 amI think part of the reason Suetsugu doesn’t want to end the manga is it actually has helped the Karuta association a lot and she is probably right to think that when it’s over that will slow down the popularity of Karuta
It probably happens with a lot of things but perhaps Karuta needs the boost more. I know she started a Chihayafuru fund where proceeds go to the Karuta industry.
I think she made a lot of friends in the industry who helped her with the manga so I know she wants to leave something behind even when the series is over
Guardian Enzo
March 26, 2020 at 8:28 amWhilst I appreciate the sentiment, IMO that would be a very bad reason to continue a series. Art for art’s sake, ROFL. Hikaru no Go certainly helped popularize go, but Hotta Yumi ended it when she wanted to end it (if anything too soon, I would argue).
Nadavu
March 26, 2020 at 11:41 amTo link the past with the future, eh?
(that line always cracks me up)
Nadavu
March 26, 2020 at 11:50 amI had huge expectations for season 2 and was disappointed.
I expected season 3 to be a disaster and was very pleasantly surprised.
The only real complaint I have with this season is how little we got from the Mizusawa supporting cast. Sumire had a few brief moments in the sun, and Kana was around here and there, but Tsukuba was mute for almost the entire first cour (and had, what, 20 words in total the entire season?) and tsukue-kun and nikuman-kun were sidelined completely. I wouldn’t have minded seeing a bit less of every karuta player in Japan and a bit more from the characters that really meant something back in the day.
Kim
March 27, 2020 at 12:29 am“ Whilst I appreciate the sentiment, IMO that would be a very bad reason to continue a series. Art for art’s sake, ROFL. Hikaru no Go certainly helped popularize go, but Hotta Yumi ended it when she wanted to end it (if anything too soon, I would argue).”
I don’t disagree with you that the longer she continues the series the longer it will feel dragged out
But I also don’t think the situation is exactly the same with Hikaru no Go as while I know that series grew appreciation for Go I think the Karuta industry (which of course is only in Japan) is much smaller
LimsKragma
February 11, 2022 at 9:08 pmIt was recently announced that the manga will end with volume 49 soon.
I would suspect we could get another season, I don’t know about a full adaptation though
Guardian Enzo
February 11, 2022 at 10:43 pmI fully expect it to get another season but the big question, as you say, is whether it’d get a full adaptation or they’d cram everything into two cours.
landofthekwt
August 16, 2022 at 12:41 amNow that Chihayafuru manga is nearly finished, does the Haikyuu Final Movie make a Chihayafuru Final Movie more likely?
Guardian Enzo
August 16, 2022 at 8:41 amProbably not. This seems to be largely a shounen phenomenon, and Chihayafuru isn’t quite popular enough to tempt the production committee into thinking movies could make them a bundle.