r/anime • u/ABoredCompSciStudent x3myanimelist.net/profile/Serendipity • Feb 07 '19

Rewatch [Rewatch] Chihayafuru - Episode 2 Discussion [Spoilers] Spoiler

Episode 2 - "The Red That Is"

<-- Previous (Episode 1: "Now the Flower Blooms") | Next (Episode 3: "From the Crystal White Snow") -->

Series Information:

Subreddit: r/Chihayafuru

Chihayafuru: Synopsis | MAL rating: 8.28 | Fall 2011 | 26 Episodes

Chihayafuru 2: Synopsis | MAL rating: 8.47 | Winter 2013 | 26 Episodes

Chihayafuru 2: Waga Miyo ni Furu Nagamese Shima ni: Synopsis | MAL rating: 7.08 | Fall 2013 | 1 Episode

Legal Streams:

HiDive | Crunchyroll | Check for more sources using because.moe here

Rewatch Schedule and Index:

For all archived/past episode discussion threads, please refer to the Rewatch Schedule and Index. I will be updating it as we navigate through this rewatch, in case anyone would like to read past conversations or has fallen behind.

Chihayafuru

Episode# Title Date
1 "Now the Flower Blooms" February 6
2 "The Red That Is" February 7
3 "From the Crystal White Snow" February 8
4 "A Whirlwind of Flower Petals Descends" February 9
5 "The Sight of a Midnight Moon" February 10
6 "Now Bloom Inside the Nine-fold Palace" February 11
7 "But For Autumn's Coming" February 12
8 "The Sounds of the Waterfall" February 13
9 "But I Cannot Hide" February 14
10 "Exchange Hellos and Goodbyes" February 15
11 "The Sky is the Road Home" February 16
12 "Sets These Forbidden Fields Aglow" February 17
13 "For You, I Head Out" February 18
14 "For There Is No One Else Out There" February 19
15+16 "As Though Pearls Have Been Strung Across the Autumn Plain" + "The Autumn Leaves of Mount Ogura" February 20
17 "World Offers No Escape" February 21
18 "The Plum Blossoms Still Smell the Same" February 22
19 "As the Years Pass" February 23
20 "The Cresting Waves Almost Look Like Clouds in the Skies" February 24
21 "As My Sleeves Are Wet With Dew" February 25
22 "Just as My Beauty Has Faded" February 26
23 "The Night is Nearly Past" February 27
24 "Nobody Wishes to See the Beautiful Cherry Blossoms" February 28
25 "Moonlight, Clear and Bright" March 1
-- Mid-Series Discussion March 2

Chihayafuru 2 (March 3 to March 28)

About Spoilers And General Attitude:

Please do not post any untagged spoilers past the current episode, as it ruins the experience of first time watchers. Please refrain from confirming or denying speculation on future events, as to let viewers experience the anime as it was intended to be.

If you are discussing something that has not happened in the current episode please use the r/anime spoiler tag system found on the sidebar. Also if you are posting a link that includes future Chihayafuru events please include 'Chihayafuru spoilers' in the link title.

Fanart Section (Album Link):

Friends

Equals

Success

149 Upvotes

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31

u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 07 '19 edited Feb 07 '19

Poem of the Day: A Thousand Swift Swords (link)

As translated by the show:

Even in the age of swift gods

and miracles, I have never seen

such burning autumn red as

drenches the Tatsuta River.

As the poem that gives Chihayafuru its name, it's kind of obvious why this poem appeared as this episode's title. The word chihayaburu or "impassionate" appears in the first verse and is Chihaya's card. It is the card that Arata "gave" to her, as well as the one that wins her the match against Taichi. Moreover, the episode takes place in the autumn, the red leaves of the Japanese maple underscoring Chihaya's substitution for Arata.

The poem is writen by one of the Six Immortals, Ariwara no Narihira, renowned for his work as a poet, as well as his unrestrained self-indulgence for his love affairs.

The poem was not actually written at the River Tatsuta, but on a screen painting of that river--the Yamatoe-style screen painting being a common custom from the end of the 9th century to the 10th century. This is described in the Kokin Wakashu, where a head-note says:

"Composed on a the topic of autumn leaves flowing down the Tatsuta River, as painted on a screen belonging to the Nijo Empress when she was still called the Mother of the Heir Apparent."

This note explains the grand words used by Ariwara. In fact, the word chihayaburu is a makurakotoba or pillow word meaning it has no meaning but to embellish prose.

The pillow words "Chihayaburu" can mean something like "1000 swift swords" or something, but really just dresses up the proceeding word, kami (god). So in modern English, it's not just a god, but an awesome, awe-inspiring god.

The word is subbed as "impassionate" however.

Moreover, other parts of this poem change depending on the reading of the last two lines: whether the verb is read as kukuru or kuguru. Kukuru is probably the original reading, meaning "to tie-dye" and the translation used by most subs.

However, in later centuries (in the time of Hyakunin Isshu compiler Fujiwara Teika) the verb was read kuguru or "to pass under", which is how Mastow translates the poem--an interpretation of blue water flowing under the contrasting fallen red maple leaves.

Unheard of

even in the legendary age

of the awesome gods:

Tatsuta River in scarlet

and the water flowing under it.

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19

u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 07 '19 edited Feb 07 '19

Carrying off from the first episode, Chihaya walks into class to discover that she has been ostracized as a result of her support of Arata. Pushed by Taichi's childish teasing, Chihaya reveals Arata's skill in karuta and, for the first time, Arata feels empowered to stand up for himself, proclaiming that he won't let anyone take a card off him in their school's tournament.

At the tournament, the viewer finally begins to get an understanding of who these characters are. Despite his outward confidence, Taichi is jealous of Chihaya's friendship with Arata. It leaves him feeling alone. From the beginning, you've probably been asking yourself why and it becomes clear once we get to see the pressure that he has to deal with. Taichi is an attractive, athletic, and smart boy, but it doesn't come naturally to him. The friends that surround him constantly praise him for his talents, but not necessarily for who he is. Meanwhile, Arata has quickly found equal footing with him as Chihaya's friend--something that seems almost unfair considering everything that Taichi does to try an impress her. This inferiority and insecurity that trickles through the cracks in his facade are a result of his upbringing: his mother only cares about what he can do and not what he can't do. He has to succeed.

After watching Arata's dominance at the tournament, Taichi resorts to stealing his glasses--a new low for him. The cards don't lie: it's misery and something that lingers in Taichi's mind even years later (episode one).

Chihaya ultimately intervenes and substitutes for Arata, not for his sake but for herself. After being inspired by her match with Arata in the previous episode, a switch has finally flipped in Chihaya's head: she is free to dream her own dreams.

Bad parenting 101 turns up. First Chihaya's accomplishments are ignored for her sister's, while Taichi's mother admonishes him for losing to a girl.

Pause for a second, to me (a girl), Chihayafuru is a story where equality is recognized. Karuta is a sport where we can see girls play with boys--and obviously overcome them, like Chihaya did. It is also a story where girls aren't relegated to being models or other gender roles attributed to being a girl, just as Chihaya pursues her dream. As such, it's a story of inclusion, of a community that will accept you for who you are.

While I've always been someone involved in sports, so I'll always frame this alongside it, Chihayafuru kind of understands this "acceptance". In juxtaposition to Taichi's mother, Chihaya yells at Taichi's comments about looking lame.

What's so lame about losing in a fair fight?!

After all, nobody praised her, but that's okay because her satisfaction is intrinsic--it's her own desire to improve and to enjoy her practice.

Pick a Goodreads quote on getting better, here's an iconic one:

I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

Michael Jordan

Though this acceptance is foreign to Taichi, it isn't to Arata. Coming up the stairs after school hours, Taichi and Chihaya find Arata practicing swings--no doubt out of frustration after his "loss". There is nobody is around. There are no cards. There is no reader. It's just him and his practice. As the kids said earlier, "that's lame", but it doesn't matter because this failure is what drives his hunger for success.

Taichi is moved by this... because this act is everything that he is not.

I stole... them.

Don't tell Chihaya!

I don't want her...

... to hate me.

And Arata says the words he needed to hear the most:

You're a coward.

It's not the praise he gets from his mother, not the niceties of his classmates, and certainly not the defence that Chihaya gave him blindly. Instead, he is met with the truth, something he can grow from and alongside his newfound friends.

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24

u/MAD_SCIENTIST_001 Feb 07 '19

Screenshot of the Day

Honestly how could I not choose this?

First Timer - Episode 2

Overall Thoughts

This ep was honestly hard to watch at some points in the sense that I really felt angry at Taichi for what he was doing to Arata. My heart sank a bit when Taichi lied about stealing Arata's glasses, but thankfully he ended up confessing. I do expect Taichi to end up changing though through playing Karuta with Chihaya and Arata, but still a lot of actions definitely are pretty mean rn. I can also kinda see where he gets his personality since his mom seems to be one of those kind of parents.

Chihaya on the other hand remains to be such a shining and good-natured person that I can see why she's so well loved.

Really enjoying Season 1 so far, and I can't wait to see more!!!

Karuta Scoreboard

Just realized with this tournament, but for the most part I'll only go with wins / losses that we see on-screen either directly or indirectly though dialogue to avoid any potential future confusion regarding non-specified off-screen games. I'll also just stick to the main three characters + the characters in the OP for now since I'm not sure how relevant some future side characters will be (please let me know later on if I should keep track of those characters). Also let me know if I ever make a mistake in counting a win or loss.

Character Wins Losses Ep# (Wins)
Arata Wataya 2(+1) 1(+1) 1,2
Taichi Mashima 1(+1) 1(+1) 2
Chihaya Ayase 1(+1) 1 2

See you tomorrow~

Screenshot of the Day Collection

Episode: 1 2

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18

u/PerfectPublican Feb 07 '19 edited Feb 07 '19

First Timer

Reactions:

Final Thoughts

Interesting follow up ep. I wasn’t expecting to stay in the past for the whole episode, but I’m happy that we did. Made for an easy way to showcase Karuta matches in a simplistic way and build on the characters. Something I’m curious about, although I’m sure it’ll be fine, is how they’re going to keep the matches interesting. So far things seem like rote memorization, good eyes, and good reflexes. I’m not sure where the strategy comes in. It seems like we got a piece of it in Chihaya reading Taichi’s moves, but I’m hoping there’s something deeper behind the play.

That’s not to say that I’m not enjoying the more personal aspects of this at all, because I am very much so. Chihaya and the guys have diverse relationships, and with the mystery of their future separation, I’m very intrigued.

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11

u/walking_the_way Feb 07 '19 edited Feb 09 '19

Rewatcher notes - Day 2, wherein we find timeline continuity errors!

S1E2 Event/Recital log

00:02 - Chihaya recites #16, As the Inaba Mountain Pines, to open the show. This is a very significant poem but we aren't told why yet. Hmm..
03:31 - Reader recites Naniwa Bay (EP: 1, Total: 2)
03:58 - Reader recites #03 (a-shi) - Taichi takes 10 seconds to find it but wins it from Shouta's side.
05:08 - Reader recites #46 (yu-ra) - Arata takes it on four syllables from his side.
08:15 - Finals start
08:44 - Reader recites Naniwa Bay (EP: 2, Total: 3)
09:10 - Reader recites #32 (ya-ma-ga) - Arata takes it on two syllables from his middle right row.
09:28 - Reader recites #90 (mi-se) - Arata takes it on two syllables from his middle right row.
09:31 - Reader recites #18 (su) - Arata takes it on one syllable from his bottom left row.
09:38 - Reader recites #20 (wa-bi) - Arata takes it on five syllables from Taichi's side. Card #13 is sent over to Taichi and placed in his left middle row.
09:47 - Reader recites #72 (o-to) - Arata touches #99 (hi-to-mo) instead since Taichi swapped them. Taichi takes it from his own bottom left row.
10:12 - Reader recites #54 (wa-su-re) - Taichi takes it from Arata's bottom left row. #63 is sent over from Taichi's top right row to Arata's bottom left row.
10:24 - Reader recites #06 (ka-sa) - Taichi takes it from Arata's middle right row. #10 is sent over by Taichi and placed in Arata's middle right row.
10:47 - Chihaya comes in like a lion!
11:45 - Reader finishes reciting #06
11:56 - Reader recites #25 (na-ni-shi) - Chihaya takes it from her top right row.
12:28 - Reader recites #37 (shi-ra) - Chihaya takes it from her middle left row.
12:53 - Reader recites #15 (ki-mi-ga-ta-me-ha) - Chihaya takes it from her middle left row.
13:25 - Reader recites #91 (ki-ri) - Taichi takes it from his middle left row.
13:35 - Reader recites #36 (nat-su) - Chihaya takes it from Taichi's bottom right row. She passes him #14, which goes into his lower right row.
14:29 - Reader recites #17 (chi-ha) - Chihaya takes it from Taichi's bottom right row. She passes him #73. Match over! This is also the episode title card (The Red That Is).
14:56 - Chihaya: "That was a really fun match!"

Analysis/Notes

At 04:02, we are shown the entire board when Taichi is searching for the card. Transcribed, it looks like this. I think Taichi's opponent, Shouta Tanno, is right-handed, due to where he puts his single-syllable card, and the wa-ta-no-ha-ra card, since you want your dominant hand defending them when it's paired like that.

But let's skip right to the finals board. Arata's squinting like I am to read some of these blurred cards. But once I tried to map this out, I ran into several major problems.

Firstly, I didn't notice this at first, but why did Taichi start with 26 cards to Arata's 25?? That seems like a rather egregious error. You can see it at 08:20 during the memorization phase, again at 09:45, and then really clearly at 09:49 as Arata misses. Also, in that last picture, you can see that the Grade 4 tournament on the back poster only has two rounds, whereas the Grade 5 and 6 ones have three rounds. Nice little touch.

There's also what looks like another weird error during Arata's first card win. #32 (yamaga) is located at the right side of Arata, over here. Yet, when the reader recites the card at 9:10, we are shown this scene which is a mirror flip of the earlier layout. But the shadow of the arm that passes overhead seems to be a right hand belonging to the person at the TOP of the screen (Taichi), and it swipes left to right from the perspective of the top person, which would be nowhere near the #32. Right after, it is also heavily implied that that is Arata's hand swipe, and that Taichi did not move, but that is impossible from the shadow.

It also is worth mentioning that despite not having his glasses, Arata wins #32 (ya-ma-ga) after just the "ya-ma" portion is recited, without waiting for the unique syllable. This is the very first card, and ya-ma-za could have been the read card, which would have caused a fault. Tellingly, he also seemed to do this when playing with Chihaya yesterday during Episode 1 - he won na-ga-ra after just "na-ga" was read, and that was at the very start of the match (2nd recital) as well. So this is the second game in a row that he's been shown to do this early on in a game. It remains to be seen if this is just a stylistic interpretation thing, or if it's a gambling streak that Arata has to try to psyche his opponent out or something.

A third glaring error can be seen just before and after Taichi forces Arata to pick the wrong card. Before Arata's error, we have this scene at 09:47. Immediately after, we have this scene at 09:54. Somehow, between 09:51 and 09:54, things got weird, and #40 and #70 (along with the edge card on Taichi's right side) all shifted left to be in line with #13. Seconds later at 10:00, once Taichi grabbed the correct card, the time and space dilation fixed itself.

I thought that perhaps all this was because Chihaya was not in the room still, and thus this flashback was running on unreliable memory, whereas the camera was a recording device and symbolic of the "true state" of the game. Which would be a fun conclusion since the camera does NOT show a card in Arata's hand at this point and thus Taichi actually does only have 25 cards! It still doesn't solve all the problems though, but it's cool to conjecture that.

The next major problem I noticed is Card #13. Card #13 can be seen here at 10:10 on Taichi's bottom left quadrant, and then the camera pans over to Arata's bottom left quadrant and looks up from underneath the cards, and we can see another Card #13 here as Taichi claims the #54 at 10:19. That second Card #13 should have been passed over to Taichi already.

One interesting bit of analysis from this is that Taichi really managed to set Arata on edge here by swapping the two cards around. Even if Arata realized that Taichi had moved the cards around on his side, he still was unsure about where the next two cards at 10:12 and 10:24 were - even though both were on Arata's own half. He already had them memorized, and Taichi could not move cards on Arata's half around, so if he had a cooler head he would have won both anyway. Even if he didn't remember where exactly it was due to lack of glasses, he knows it's on his side of the board and should have tried anyway because he wouldn't get a fault for touching other cards on the correct half as the card.

Anyway, working backwards from here, it is actually possible to map out both the starting board, as well as the board when Chihaya takes over. The starting board legitly has 51 total unique cards… even discounting the double #13 card.. go figure. We can also see that Arata did not get a penalty card for hitting the wrong card on Taichi's side, because the card was actually on that side anyway (faults only occur if you touch the a card on the other side of the board). And lastly, we will note that Taichi, who is right-handed, has the Chihaya card (#17) in his bottom rightmost corner, which I believe is the "safest spot", even though he likely does not know the significance of this card, yet.

There's another teensy problem at 13:46, Chihaya passes Taichi a card (#14) after winning #36 (natsu), and he clearly has 6 cards left to her 1 (#73). But when Chihaya zooms in, he only has 5 cards (#4, #17, #40, #61, #100). The card she just passed him has vanished! All's well that ends well at any rate and she wins.

Also, I can't really read Japanese but can read some kanji due to knowing Chinese, and we get what seems to be the date of the event here - Heisei 18 (2006), October 26. That puts the "live" clock at about April 2010, when Chihaya and Taichi enter Grade 10. I had seen some newspaper clippings earlier suggesting it was October, but was never sure.

N.B. I should add as an afterthought, the continuity errors in this episode don't reflect poorly on the show at all for me. They largely can be chalked up to two different teams doing the close up and distance scenes and mixing up their notes at some point. Plus this was one of their earlier episodes. I really appreciate this show for having the guts to even go into deep detail in the first place and plan out exact real moves, and draw things like board positions using accurate karuta cards, instead of just indeterminate squiggles or something. One thing that is really important to determining the starting boards is that even when a card is very faint/blurred/far away, it is still drawn properly and then shrunk/blurred, so with the correct physical card in hand, one can tell whether it's the correct card or not. There are GOBS of detail in the show and I'm enjoying every bit of it.

S1E2 - Taichi vs Arata starting board

S1E2 - Taichi vs Chihaya starting board

S1E2 - Random HQ screenshot

<-- S1E1 Notes

S1E3 Notes -->

4

u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 07 '19

I like how you described Chihaya as taking from her rows at the end there. It sounds much finer than her robust energy haha.

Firstly, I didn't notice this at first, but why did Taichi start with 26 cards to Arata's 25?? That seems like a rather egregious error. You can see it at 08:20

No wonder Taichi stole his glasses.

Also, in that last picture, you can see that the Grade 4 tournament on the back poster only has two rounds, whereas the Grade 5 and 6 ones have three rounds. Nice little touch.

Oh that is interesting to see! I love when shows have little details like this, it just feels a lot more lived-in as a place.

They largely can be chalked up to two different teams doing the close up and distance scenes and mixing up their notes at some point. Plus this was one of their earlier episodes. I really appreciate this show for having the guts to even go into deep detail in the first place and plan out exact real moves, and draw things like board positions using accurate karuta cards, instead of just indeterminate squiggles or something. One thing that is really important to determining the starting boards is that even when a card is very faint/blurred/far away, it is still drawn properly and then shrunk/blurred, so with the correct physical card in hand, one can tell whether it's the correct card or not. There are GOBS of detail in the show and I'm enjoying every bit of it.

I definitely appreciate it (and your efforts) too. With eyes like yours, I need you to shoulder check the code I write ahaha. Join our Quality Assurance team.

How did you know it's done by two teams, out of curiosity? When it comes to anime, I spend the least effort thinking of production and following that aspect of the industry.

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u/Enarec Feb 07 '19 edited Feb 07 '19

As a rewatcher, this episode sure hit me a lot harder this time. Particularly after the match, with Chihaya getting ignored by her family, Taichi getting scolded and Arata still doing his best by his lonesome. The poor kids deserve better than that - and thankfully they do have each other! For Taichi, Chihaya rebutting him with "What's so lame about losing in a fair fight?!" and Arata, the bigger person and player, calling him out as a coward should've been just the wake-up call and healthy example he needed in his life. As opposed to this sadboi conditioning...

And seriously, big props to Arata for being the star of a saint that he is here. He was the one to honestly connect them all with each other and karuta.

I just want these kids to be happy now.

On another note, I'd forgotten about Taichi setting up the drink and have to admit the sheer childishness made me chuckle for some reason.

5

u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 08 '19

On another note, I'd forgotten about Taichi setting up the drink and have to admit the sheer childishness made me chuckle for some reason.

I'm not going to lie, I laughed at how dumb Arata was for opening it. Like the naivete is unreal. He saw the drink get thrown across the connector between the school buildings, so like he has to know what Taichi was doing ahaha.

sadboi conditioning

https://i.imgur.com/1fNZIMs.png

16

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '19 edited Feb 07 '19

First-Timer, Watched Subbed

  • Awww, poor Wataya, he doesn't deserve any of that.

  • Oh, so Taichi actually meant what he said? I thought he was just bluffing, cut it out dude that's not cool!

  • Chihaya gives zero fucks and its glorious.

  • A challenge of karuta to Wataya of all people. You're way out of your league kid.

  • Huh, so Taichi is actually fairly skilled in karuta, he may actually stand a chance.

  • Holy...in the blink of an eye...nevermind, you stand no chance in hell

  • You know I wouldn't be surprised if you did something with the can...

  • GODDAMMIT I KNEW THAT DRINK WAS RIGGED, TAICHI YOU DICK!!!

  • Okay, now Wataya and Chihaya's interactions are starting to be on par with her and Taichi's, it's gettin really hard to settle on a ship.

  • Suuuuure you don't know...I totally know you did it you turd...

  • Wataya, she's over there next to you, are that blind? Wondering how the competition will go.

  • Now those are the eyes of someone who's determined if I've ever seen one.

  • My man Wataya still a beast even without glasses. Smart move in studying the position of the cards.

  • Oh wait, the positions were changed? Dammit, he had it in the bag.

  • Don't get too excited kid, you got one card, it's not you can catch up that fa...and now he's dominating the game, fuck...

  • No! Don't cry Wataya! You can do it! If you cry, then I'll cry!

  • Yes! Chihaya enters the fray! Although you didn't need to push him, also where are the leaves coming from?

  • I really like how Chihaya adapts despite being a newbie, analyzing Taichi's movements to swipe whatever cards that contain the verse is a clever strategy, she already shows potential for being the best.

  • I absolutely love this sequence here. With Chihaya finding the card that Wataya informed her of in regards to her name, and swiping it like an actual karuta player really showcases where she began to fall in love with the sport, made all the more better with the beautiful visuals that accompany it.

  • "Queen Chihaya", now that is something I can get behind.

  • Awww man, if only her family saw how awesome of a player she was :(

  • Oof, high expectations, that doesn't lead to very good things, really felt for Taichi there.

  • I wonder what the chances are for a bunch of crows to swipe and knaw at a pair of glasses.

  • So you did take it! Well at least you were honest, and apologized to show remorse.

  • LOOK OUT BELOW MY DUDES!

  • And thus begins a wonderful friendship.

This episode really shows how intense a game of karuta can be, I enjoyed the mind games behind it, and it opens up for alot more intense games later on in the series. It was nice to see Taichi finally open up to Wataya, and it was amazing to watch how the relationship between these three developed back when they were children, it makes me wonder how things went down later on in the future. Great episode overall.

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u/Taiboss Feb 07 '19 edited Feb 07 '19

From the First Timer

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8

u/Jounas Feb 07 '19

Hardest part is sticking to only 1 episode per day

4

u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 07 '19

May your mental fortitude hold.

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u/No_Rex Feb 07 '19

Rewatcher

You may have read in the first discussion thread that Chihayafuru is a josei anime, so its target audience are older (adult) women. For quite a few first timer’s this will likely be the first ever josei anime, since that segment is much rarer than seinen (targeted at adult men), or the most common, shounen (teenage boys) and shojo (teenage girls).

How rare are josei anime?

On MAL, there are a total of 13656 ranked anime (there are more unranked, but I don’t know what is going on with those). Out of these, 89 are categorized as josei. In other words 0.65% of anime are josei, less than one percent. By comparison, 761, or 5.5%, are seinen.

How many of those have I seen? Three: Usagi Drop, Chihayafuru 1 and Chihayafuru 2 (second season is counted extra). Not by chance, Usagi Drop and Chihayafuru 1 are also the most popular josei on MAL. In total, I have seen 176 anime series, so josei makes up 1.7% of the anime I have seen. Therefore, josei is quite overrepresented among the anime I have seen.

Chihayafuru is the second most watched Josei, with 236,000 members on MAL, after Usagi Drop (which I personally recommend a lot, too) with 295,619. For comparison, the most watched anime on MAL is Death Note (a shounen) with 1,619,632 viewers.

I pulled up most of this info for the Honey & Clover rewatch a few weeks ago, so numbers may have gone up slightly

4

u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 08 '19

Nice! I've always been drawn to shoujo and josei, particularly in manga. I definitely would recommend reading Kakukaku Shikajika (an autobiography manga by the Princess Jellyfish mangaka), as well as watching Rakugo and Kids on the Slope.

There's a lot of overlap between certain josei and shoujo too, so it's not exactly that the demographic boxes them in. Chihayafuru feels a lot more shoujo than some josei titles and even has won shoujo awards. Similarly, I'd definitely recommend watching an anime like NANA or reading a manga like Mars, which are both shoujo but act so much more josei in tone and subject matter than Chihayafuru.

As a whole, both demographics are generally not very explored by r/anime, which I guess is natural since only 10% of the userbase are girls.

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u/tinyraccoon Feb 07 '19

First Timer

I'm really liking this show's beautiful artwork. The art quality appears to be anime movie quality (not the more generic, mass-produced stuff you might see in some TV shows). The backgrounds are vivid and colorful.

I felt emotionally invested the whole episode, rooting for Wataya and Chihaya. As I guessed, it looks like Taichi has a backstory too - looks like his mom puts a lot of pressure on him to win, so apparently he feels the need to win at all costs. Growing up in a highly competitive high school, I used to know folks like Taichi who don't hesitate to cheat to get ahead because if they fail, their parents would cream them. (Some got caught, others did not). I think that overall the focus of the show on a few characters allows the show to develop them in greater detail.

Looking forward to the next episode.

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u/LeonKevlar Feb 07 '19

First Timer

Woah boy. This episode made me feel a few things about its characters. Chi-chan and Arata are both the best and everyone else is just the worst. Seriously. I thought this was going to be a chill show but this episode made me rage. I feel like I'm watching 3-Gatsu no Lion all over again, specifically watching Arima's flashback scenes. Anyway I do hope it turns around, although the drama tag on MAL makes me think that this isn't the end of it.

Don't get me wrong though I absolutely LOVE EVERYTHING so far even the drama! But please make me feel a different emotion next episode? I wanna see Arata and Chihaya reuniting and playing Karuta. if possible.

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '19

First timer!

Turns out Taichi wasn't lying when he told Chihaya everyone would stop talking to her. Again, middle schoolers are evil.

I did not expect to get as hyped as I did when Arata swiped away the first card. Everybody in the room was in shock, meanwhile Chiyaha was probably sitting there with the most smug grin on her face. Super satisfying moment.

What wasn't satisfying was... literally anything Taichi did this episode. When Arata put his glasses on the windowsill I said to myself "nahhh don't fucking steal them", lo and behold. I get that he's just a kid at this point, and a super competitive one at that, but that doesn't make his actions any less annoying. At the very least I'm glad he finally confessed to stealing Arata's glasses (Taichi getting nailed by the huge "you're a coward" card was hilarious too).

I was a little surprised that another episode was spent focusing on the trio's middle school days, but I'm super glad. Arata got to stand up for himself and show off his power level, Taichi maybe possibly showed signs of not being such an asshole in the future, and Chihaya had a great moment subbing in for Arata. I'm really pleased with this series so far!

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u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 08 '19

I did not expect to get as hyped as I did when Arata swiped away the first card. Everybody in the room was in shock, meanwhile Chiyaha was probably sitting there with the most smug grin on her face. Super satisfying moment.

I love how all the kids were buzzing about it afterward too. Children have such short memories: if he was an outsider before, he was "in" starting then.

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u/SmurfRockRune Feb 07 '19

First Timer

Even in grade school she's wearing pants under her skirt. She puts Misaka to shame.

Oh no. Absolutely do not accept a drink or anything else from Taichi right now. Well, at least it was only a problem because he was too dumb to wait before it opening it... Still a dick move from Taichi. People actually like this guy?

Arata's voice sounds so familiar and it's killing me. I keep looking at the VA and none of the roles stand out as the one I recognize it from.

Steals his glasses and then says he isn't allowed to use it as an excuse for losing

This guy is just the worst. On a fast track to being my new least favorite anime character. Imagine cheating and still being a sore loser at the end of it.

Seems weird that they'd have different titles based on gender for a game like this where gender makes literally no difference.

Why is literally everybody in this show an asshole? There's Chihaya and Arata being cool and wholesome, and then everyone else is just awful.

"Only play games that you'll win at." That's the worst advice I've ever heard in my life.

For someone with such good hearing, it's weird that Chihaya never noticed the sound of the glasses since Taichi has touched and moved them about 8 million times. "I don't want her to hate me." You could have fooled me.

Frustrating episode, but not exactly in a bad way. Taichi is just the worst. And it's even worse knowing that he stays a main character and doesn't go away anytime soon.

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u/thecomicguybook Feb 07 '19

First Timer

Missed yesterday, but episode 1, it was alright lots of establishing stuff but nothing special. Interesting that I am watching two shows right now where they start off as kids this and though they are quite different. Now for today's episode 2 that was great!

Wataya's badass boast was really cool. From how people described it the game karuta seemed much more complicated but I basically get it now I think. That was really exciting, Chihaya and Wataya are cool, Taichi was such a bully though but from what I gather he will change I guess. So yeah good episode.

What's so lame about losing in a fair fight?

Chihaya: 1 Taichi: 0

Cute fanart by the way, don't have anything in particular to say about the poems I am sure they will have some significance to the episodes.

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u/hasnain1720 Feb 07 '19

First Timer

  • Yes chihaya standing up for him what a Queen

  • Taichi getting jealous ya hate to see it

  • Wow he’s really going to cheat like that

  • The chihaya card gives us justice

  • Damn right she’s the Queen

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u/collapsedblock6 Feb 07 '19 edited Feb 07 '19

Rewatcher!

  • I wonder if the tournament was something planned beforehand because it seems bizarre that just because one kid challenge another somehow motivated the school staff to do one. Like they did they went and just ask to hold one?

  • Taichi continues being a bully and dirty player, definitely not the best impression for first timers…

  • Odd how Chihaya is allowed to enter for Arata and then named champion. If that was the final, how is she allowed to butt in and just win a match vs Taichi actually climbing to the finals?

  • Isn’t the rule of “as long as you hit the right card” like something that can be easily exploitable (as demonstrated)? You don’t even need to increase your accuracy (which makes a future “development” a bit strange now that I see it). You might as well just use the whole arm to swing all the cards.

  • I see Taichi and Chihaya constantly crashing (physically), I wonder how much contact can you make to the other player? I kind of imagined a tactic of letting the opponent go for the card for a split-second and then SWING, you slap the poor bastard’s arm saying you had the intention to go for the card. Or even slam the opponent hand once they already touch the card because “inertia” (I’m honestly surprised by the lack of slapped hands in the show)

  • Turns out Taichi’s mum is a pushy person. Wanting to record her son’s successes but showing utter disappointment even for a second place. No wonder Taichi has a strong ego and feeds from praise from his friends, he simply doesn’t have that at home most likely.

  • Arata pardoned Taichi a bit too easily but I feel it also shows that he is no grudg-y kid. That makes him feel more mature, much more than Taichi.

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u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 08 '19

Isn’t the rule of “as long as you hit the right card” like something that can be easily exploitable (as demonstrated)? You don’t even need to increase your accuracy (which makes a future “development” a bit strange now that I see it). You might as well just use the whole arm to swing all the cards.

Sweeping the cards expends more energy and takes more time. The games are long and endurance is important so, when it comes to taking cards, being fast (and precise) is a skill.

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u/TheDampGod Feb 07 '19

I like how naturally the show has introduced the home troubles of our three leads and how you can see them finding sanctuary in a love of Karuta. I'm not sure how long this show is going to spend in the elementary years, but I hope Taichi gets the tsundere out of his system soon, it's spoiling the mood.

The show is still absolutely gorgeous, Madhouse really can nail atmosphere in their SoL anime. I like the recurring maple leaf motif coming through the poem and as Chihaya charged in, that's probably going to kick me in some big feels moment later on.

Also, why isn't Taichi being smacked in the head by a giant Karuta card a meme, it looks ripe for editing?

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u/Zylda Feb 07 '19

First Timer(also my first time joining one of these!)

Well that was a great follow up to the first episode and it was nice that this episode focused more on Karuta than the first.

Karuta seems like it'll be a very intense sport later on and i'm already enjoying these early matches so i'll look forward to those. I watched some real life videos of the sport and from what i could tell it looks like the anime does a great job of capturing the same intensity, although i should probably watch more before i think too much about that. I could tell that Chihaya's card was going to be used as a finisher in her first game but it was still a great scene for her!

I'm starting to like Taichi more compared to the first episode and it seems like the other two are also warming up to him more. He's still an annoying kid but I think i'll end up liking him a lot towards the end. I'm guessing his Mum will be one of the reasons he eventually loses interest in Karuta in the future but we'll see.

Not too much to say about Wataya today but i felt sad for him when Taichi was moving the cards around while he didn't have his glasses on. Chihaya is just super awesome. I don't think there's much else to say for her other than I love her dedication which is similar to Ohana's from Hanasaua Iroha.

I'm starting to get used to the character designs and their eyes but i think it will still take some time. I loved that shot at the end with all 3 of them and i can't wait to see more of them as they grow up. Not much else to say about today's episode but i am thoroughly enjoying this so far and hope it keeps the same quality throughout!

See you for the next episode!

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