Chihayafuru – 21
Chihayafuru takes a turn for the moe
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I-I’m totally not posting this from school. I swear! Well, once again, it’s time for Chihayafuru! I REALLY hope that someone wins something this time, or else I’ll be really disappointed. Plus I think exams will be over so Chihaya will actually be allowed to do things. |
Exams are over and Chihaya and Desktomu are already practicing. However, there’s been an obvious change in Chihaya since she’s much calmer when she loses cards. We get a look at what’s going on in Chihaya’s head and it turns out that she’s trying to play like Arata. The team practices together, but Taichi notices that there’s been a big change since Chihaya saw Arata last. After the match, the team panics says that Taichi doesn’t have t try so hard and Kana explains to Chihaya that Taichi was reading out the cards from memorization. Perfectly. Without skipping or repeating any. Nishida tells him that Taichi’s problem is that he plays with his mind, but not his body. Oh and Chihaya successfully passed all of her exams.
SexhairChihaya.jpg
On to the Eastern Qualifiers, Chihaya isn’t wearing a hakama this time since they don’t open windows or doors due to sounds being so important. Chihaya is pretty focused until Sudo comes along. He’s there since placing high in tournaments equals good scholarships. Suddenly, Chihaya starts thinking of completely unrelated things. The two end up making a bet that whoever loses first has to shave their head and Chihaya agrees without thinking. Nishida’s first opponent is Sudo while Chihaya is facing some grade school prodigy named Ririka.
ドS indeed.
Chihaya is blown away by Ririka’s moeness and the match starts by Ririka taking a bunch of cards. Ririka’s way of playing is strikingly similar to how Chihaya used to. She’s fast, unafraid and has super hearing. However, Chihaya is playing more calmly now, so she actually is pretty even with Ririka. Chihaya even manages to strategize against her way of playing.
With Harada satisfied with Chihaya’s progress, he sends her a message saying that she can play with her speed now. With that, Chihaya pulls of a great win and also somewhat makes a friend of Ririka. There’s a great moment where people start saying that Ririka isn’t that good for a prodigy, but Chihaya yelling at them makes them shut up. Over at the Western Qualifiers, Arata won his match too and everyone in his society is pinning their hopes on him.
Eastern Qualifiers, GO!:
…Taichi can do that?! Me too, Chihaya, me too.
Let the battle of the Ossan begin!
BROFIST!
Ah, what a great episode! It’s nice to see Chihaya back in action after so long…This match had a completely different feel from that match with the annoying Obaa-san (…I think her name was Sakura? Not that I care much) and it was so much more satisfying to watch. It was a nice touch that they had Chihaya play someone with her same skill set as well since it really showed how Chihaya has progressed since her last failure. …Though I think my favourite part of the episode (Sudo’s ドS aside xD) was the fact that Chihaya’s match with Ririka didn’t scar the girl for life. We could clearly see that the girl was getting frustrated, but there was something in Chihaya’s playing that didn’t shut her out completely. I mean, Chihaya wasn’t going easy on Ririka at all, but it still managed to be a fun match instead of an all out war.
Okay, back to Chihaya again. I CAN’T GET OVER HOW MUCH SHE’S IMPROVED! She’s definitely learned a thing or two from Harada’s order not to use her speed and that skill set combined WITH her speed, she’s now a force to be reckoned with. …Or at least she is against people like her who rely on speed alone. Though from her thought process today, she could probably stand up against people who focus heavily on strategic methods as well. What else can I say? I’m impressed with her progress. Harada isn’t that main of a character, but he should get more credit for his teaching skills. His words of advice were just what Chihaya needed to progress.
So I assume that Nishida lost against Sudo…? I wish we could have seen that, but I have a feeling that Taichi’s match with him was the last game of Nishida’s that they’re going to bother showing. In other news, YAY! Sudo is back! I wasn’t paying attention to if the matches in this tournament are divided by gender or not, but if they aren’t, I’d like to see the two play a match again. Without Sudo underestimating Chihaya and getting distracted by his personal problems, I wonder how the two would match up. Speaking of people we haven’t seen in a while, I also wonder how Shinobu is doing in all of this so far. Normally she’d be in the center of things.
Preview: Go Chihaya! GO!!!
About Karakuri
University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
For all the yuri that has been happening this season, it’s a change of pace to see the depth that the Taichi x Ararta bromance is reaching for. “You had better become the Eastern champion”. Don’t over sell it Eyebrows.
OMG, the absolute zone of MOE surrounding Ririka; it could shield EVA 02 (if only that could really work, sorry EVA 02 your are always in the land of the screwed). Critically speaking I had a hard time accepting she was 11; as she acted younger and had the design to match that. All in all, a good supporting character, especially with her yotsuba charm…kawaii!
Best part for me was Sensei alerting everyone that he’s spending all his credit on Chihaya to win the mantle of Queen someday. “She needs all the tools she can get”; great show of confidence in her.
…with only a few more programmes to air, I’m starting to get anxious about it ending…this is one of those rare shows that capture you by surprise.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Bromance? What bromance? I see no bromance. AHAHAHAHA *extreme denial*
…No kidding. From the looks of her, you’d think that Ririka was 8. Though I guess that’s a norm for anime. YES! An awesome supporting character. There’s no denying that moe.
Harada seems to know what he’s talking about, so I’m all for Chihaya becoming Queen. That guy knows Karuta.
…Again, no kidding. I’m worried about the ending too, but I think I’ll always remember this anime as something that came out of nowhere for me.
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
They really know how to set up a match that makes the audience feel conflicted. Before we had Taichi vs. Nishida and Tsutomu vs. Kanade. This time I was torn because I obviously wanted Chihaya to win, but felt sorry for little Ririka-chan, because she has to lose to make that happen. 🙁
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I felt bad for Ririka as well… Which is why I was so glad that Chihaya managed to connect with her and manage to make the game fun for the girl, even if she lost.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 323 comments
maybe this anime can be a drama live episode …(i wish it would )
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…blooper clips of the actors faulting on cards would be weird…
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
…I can actually see that happening and working. Though if Arakawa can be turned into a drama, then anything can.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Seeing both versions of Arakawa is on the pile of things to watch. That’s a big darn pile, btw.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
I dunno about the drama (I still have to check that out), but you can’t simply miss the anime. It’s made of total WIN.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
You (and skylion) should watch the live drama. If you thought the characters were wtf worthy before, wait until you see what they look like if people actually went around like that. xDD
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Chiahayfuru has the strangest, yet cool line of shirts I’ve seen in anime. Random Naruto shirts and weird words/phrases or this week’s “Caruta”. I would like to have a shirt like Arata had this week, pretty cool design.
I was kind of concerned about Taichi after he read the 100 poems. It was a little bit autistic of him to do, and made me think about how intense the mindset of playing Karuta can affect a person, especially these younger kids.
Sexhair.jpg… oh I should just stop here.
Ririka’s a pretty good character and opponent, though I liked seeing child prodigy being pwned by Chihaya.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I realised this week that Arata has the greatest fashion sense of them all… But yeah, they’re pretty creative with those shirt designs.
Yeah, I’m a bit worried about Taichi as well. He seems stuck as a character right now and I want to see him get past all of this.
AHAHA
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
This episode was so win, I still regret not tagging but oh well, my NEET days are over. >.>
I want to see this Suo dude now, the current Master. He sounds like a bomb and I LOVED the bromance between Taichi and Arata. You qualify from there and I will from here, THEN we will compete
WHO GETS CHIHAYAwith Karuta~ Ah, such bliss. xDPOWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Next week, Kyo!
Oh yeah, the current master. I want to see him too! But what I’m really waiting on is that match you just mentioned. Though I think Taichi needs to stop being so depressed (or whatever he is) before any of that can happen…
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 144 comments
The writers showed how fickle the crowd can be, and I liked that. It’s amazing. She lost a match and suddenly she’s garbage? She’s still a sixth grader and she’s still in A rank! Yet, this kind of thing happens every day in real life. It even happened to me once or twice. Props to Chihaya for being the cool big sis in all the nonsense.
POWUH: 400-499 with 489 comments
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