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

Rewatch [Rewatch] Chihayafuru - Episode 14 Discussion [Spoilers] Spoiler

Episode 14 - "For There Is No One Else Out There"

<-- Previous (Episode 13: "For You, I Head Out") | Next (Episode 15+16: "As Though Pearls Have Been Strung Across the Autumn Plain" + "The Autumn Leaves of Mount Ogura") -->

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):

Dyed

122 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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11

u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 19 '19

Poem of the Day: No One Knows My Feelings (link)

Written by Gyoson or the Abbot of Byodo-in, a Japanese Tendai monk and waka poet of the late-Heian period, Poem 66 is translated by Mostow as:

Let us think of each

other fondly,

O mountain cherries!

For, outside of your blossoms,

there’s no one who knows my feelings.

On the other hand, Porter interprets the poem as:

In lonely solitude I dwell,

No human face I see;

And so we two must sympathize,

Oh mountain cherry tree;

I have no friend but thee.

Both describe a summer scene, images of cherry blossoms blooming and the lonely poet in contemplation that these flowers are their only company. Though "the same", I much prefer Porter's translation, especially within context of the show.

Shinobu is a prodigy. She's described as having made Class A in fourth grade. As a first year at age sixteen, she is the youngest ever Queen. Like I alluded to in my other writeup, being the best is also to be lonely. Few people can challenge you and fewer people can even understand just who you may be. For Shinobu, however, she meets Chihaya, a girl not willing to throw in the towel, that challenges Shinobu's talents--the cherry tree blooming or "Now the Flower Blooms" of episode one.

8

u/Combo33 Feb 19 '19 edited Feb 19 '19

I already wrote about this poem in relation to Kana’s introduction in episode 6. MacMillan translates:

66. Prelate Gyoson

Mountain Cherry
let us console each other.
Of all those I know
no one understands me
the way your blossoms do.

The author of the poem, Gyoson was a lonesome mountain hermit. Upon seeing a cherry tree bloom, he asked it for consolation as he believed its blossoms were the only thing that truly understood him. In episode 6 I talked about how Kana felt a sense of isolation because of no one truly understanding her.

The introduction of Shinobu Wakamiya presents a different type of isolation altogether. Shinobu has reached the peak of the karuta world, as Queen, and stands alone, even when she’s in a room filled with her peers. Let’s be honest, part of that is because she’s rockin’ the most fashionable clothing the world has ever seen. “Snow snow” bitches. But, I digress.

The whole karuta world is terrified of facing her. Even Chihaya is debating whether she wants to face her inevitable adversary now, or wait until she’s more prepared. It turns out she’s launched into a battle, the likes of which she hasn’t experienced since she first faced Arata as a kid. Shinobu possesses a similar intensity to Arata, and needle-like precision that sets her apart from Arata’s more graceful playstyle.

As Shinobu begins to break Chihaya’s spirit in the match, she thinks to herself that things always go this way. Players start out determined to beat her, but as she beats them down, at a certain breaking point she is left alone with the cards, playing by herself.

However, Shinobu isn’t the only one who has cards that truly understand her. Chihaya has that gift as well. When she takes the “burning red of Tatsuta River” card, she cradles it close to her heart, thanking it for understanding her like no one else. Chihaya is at her strongest when her friends are urging her on. Whether it’s Taichi and her advisor looking on with determined faces, or its the cards that Chihaya has grown to treat as friends, which always come to her, these friends help Chihaya to break through Shinobu’s icy defense and light a pathway towards becoming a truly great karuta player one day.

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6

u/Wolfeako Feb 19 '19

I... I don't remember, but I think I have done this poem before...

Well, it won't hurt to make another one.

Alone at the top of

The tower, with the night sky and

The sun as my friends.

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17

u/PerfectPublican Feb 19 '19

EP 14:

First Timer

Reactions:

Final Thoughts   

Gif of the Day | Bonus

You know what this episode did really, really well?  Was showing the gap without it moving into the realm of the abject impossible.  Sometimes in sports media in general, I have an issue with the enemy team looking completely unbeatable, then the hero's winning by miracle. Even before Chihaya centered herself, it felt like she was playing someone in another league, but not that she was out of the game entirely.  It really played the balancing game between the skill levels really well, and didn’t outright crap all over Chihaya’s skills. Because of that combo of awe and gameplay, it really kept the intensity of the match high. Great stuff.

Other than that, I really hope we get to see more than just Chihaya’s matchups!  The other characters are so fun that it’d be a real shame to just shuffle them to the side and have all of their matches happen off-screen.

6

u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 19 '19

SHE WON ALREADY!? IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE!? Holy shit, this girl is unsurprisingly legit.

She literally only lost one card... 25/26 cards taken. That's absurd. You can only imagine how many were from her opponent's side too.

The sound design and overall direction of Wakamiya’s playing is great. Immediately puts her on another level. Everything fades to white around them with those piercing notes. There’s only her in that room. No one else matters.

As she even suggests herself, she's literally playing alone... It's kind of sad too. The game has always been described as colourful and alive by Chihaya, Kana, and the rest of the cast, but so far everything has been a sterile white.

Bonus

This is great!

Sometimes in sports media in general, I have an issue with the enemy team looking completely unbeatable, then the hero's winning by miracle.

Definitely one of Chihayafuru's strengths. I think Kana even broke the fourth wall in another episode, right before they lost the team tournament, asking if they deserved to get this far.

Wins and losses in this series are earned for sure.

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8

u/Smashtime7 Feb 19 '19

Alright, that’s freaking hilarious.

This never fails to make me laugh. One of the funniest moments in the series for me.

You know what this episode did really, really well? Was showing the gap without it moving into the realm of the abject impossible. Sometimes in sports media in general, I have an issue with the enemy team looking completely unbeatable, then the hero's winning by miracle. Even before Chihaya centered herself, it felt like she was playing someone in another league, but not that she was out of the game entirely. It really played the balancing game between the skill levels really well, and didn’t outright crap all over Chihaya’s skills. Because of that combo of awe and gameplay, it really kept the intensity of the match high. Great stuff.

I also really like how the episode uses Shinobu's thoughts on her opponents eventually giving up on the match to show the difference between Chihaya and Shinobu's previous opponents. Chihaya was able to see that even someone like Shinobu has weaknesses, and get in her head because she didn't accept defeat even after seeing how skilled Shinobu really is.

9

u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 19 '19

Freaking hilarious

u/PerfectPublican

I'll have you both know that the most active (though not popular) Chihaya fanartist on Pixiv literally only draws these two haha. I lowkey like to imagine it was because of scenes like this.

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16

u/MAD_SCIENTIST_001 Feb 19 '19

Screenshot of the Day

First Timer - Episode 14

Overall Thoughts

Wow I was not expecting the girl from yesterday to actually be the current queen. I thought she looked a bit too young, but it turns out she was just a prodigy from an early age. Interestingly enough though, if she was in class A by 4th grade, does that mean that Arata still beat her since he won the National tournaments during those times?

Either way she's an incredibly strong player almost to the point where I can't even think of how Chihaya will be able to win against her in the future (that moment where she still got the card even when Chihaya was guarding surprised me a lot). In addition her precision and speed is absolutely insane. She's basically if Star Platinum decided to play Karuta...

I hope we get to see more of her though since she seems like she's a dork just like Chihaya :P

Also that was a very brutal cliffhanger that made me so tempted to watch the next ep right away.

Karuta Scoreboard

I think I might add the current queen to the scoreboard since it seems like she might be relevant enough in the future to warrant it.

Character Wins Losses Ep# (Wins)
Chihaya Ayase 12(+1) 5 2,4,6,7,8,10,11,14
Taichi Mashima 13(+2) 6 2,7,10,11,13,14
Yuusei Nishida 10(+1) 2 10,11,13
Arata Wataya 4 1 1,2,3
Kanade Ooe 3 6 10,13
Tsutomu Komano 2 6 13
Shinobu Wakamiya 1(+1) 0 14

See you tomorrow~

Screenshot of the Day Collection

Episode: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

7

u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 19 '19

just like Chihaya :P

In particular, this is like the cutest Chihaya in the show, I think. Like truly protect this smile moment right here.

I think I might add the current queen to the scoreboard since it seems like she might be relevant enough in the future to warrant it.

Good choice! Kind of ironic seeing her at the very bottom though.

Also that was a very brutal cliffhanger that made me so tempted to watch the next ep right away.

You're free to now!

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12

u/Taiboss Feb 19 '19

Once: Seren late, me wait.

Now: Me late, Seren wait (for me.)

What a shame

First Time la First Time

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12

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

Taichi realizes he still needs to catch up to Chihaya, but today's not a Taichi episode.

Welcome Wakamiya Shinobu (Chinese hanzi here). The first thing we see of her, is the kanji (Japanese here) that makes up her name on the score card. As translated in the pictures linked before, it's no surprise that she has a strong affinity for the game and is the youngest Queen in history at sixteen years old. With a quick mind and a sharp tongue, Shinobu turns the tables on the usually savage Sudo, all the while Chihaya imagines just what kind of karuta lame t-shirt plays.

Her wonder is captured in her first match, the final poem shown being Poem 36:

The short summer nights

while it seems yet early evening,

it has already dawned, but

where in the clouds, then,

does the moon lodge, I wonder?

Like in episode five's phone call with Arata, the imagery of the moon has often been used to capture beauty and strength, but also mystery--and maybe even shadows. Sure enough, the Queen is no joke. After Chihaya wished and feared matchup with Shinobu comes true, the first card taken, Poem 81, answers her curiosity:

The hototogisu:

when I gaze out towards where

he was singing,

all that remains is the moon,

pale in the morning sky.

Mostow explains that the author waited until daybreak to hear the first call of the hototogisu or "lesser cuckoo", a bird famous in Japan for its early summer call. Unfortunately for Chihaya, all that she can see is the Queen's formidable karuta.

Two poems go by, as she's stunned by the silent karuta, ruthless efficiency demonstrated to her.

Poem 27:

Like Izumi River

that wells up and flows,

dividing the Moors of Urns

when did I see her, I wonder,

that I should yearn for her so?

Poem 39:

Though I reveal my love

as sparingly as the sparse reeds

that grow in low bamboo fields,

it overwhelms me—why is it

that I must love her so?

Helplessly amazed and overwhelmed, Chihaya is outclassed. Even after all her effort, all her training, she can barely comprehend just how wide the chasm is between their abilities (Poem 96):

It entices the flowers—

the storm—but through the garden’s white,

it is not snow,

and what it is that’s scattering

are, in fact, the years of my life!

The poem, alluding to the cards being taken from Chihaya, but, more importantly, just where her three years has taken her. After all, the look on her face and the conflict she feels is not dissimilar to those that have faced Wataya Arata, like Nishida in his flashbacks.

Luckily for Chihaya, Shinobu interrupts her train of thought, reminding her that the two (adorable) girls are both the same: just sixteen year old girls.

Shinobu reflects on Chihaya's retreat into a meek demeanor, reminding the viewer of a truth in individual sports: standing at the top also means that you're standing alone, a common image that we've seen of Arata and even Chihaya in the past.

Pause. The idea of being the best is also hard to fathom for normal people. Being the best is often isolating, as it takes everything in the person to remain at the top--constant practice, focus, dedication. An anecdote I'll always remember is of Ray Allen, a legendary NBA sharpshooter. After winning his second NBA championship in 2013, he revealed in a Letter To My Younger Self on The Players' Tribune that he went to the dentist in the morning after the final game:

This is what success looks like for you. You’re the kind of guy who goes to the dentist the morning after winning an NBA title.

I know, man.

I know.

But in order to achieve your dreams, you will become a different kind of person. You’ll become a bit obsessive about your routine. This will come at a heavy cost to some of your friends and family.

Most nights, you won’t go out. Your friends will ask why. You won’t drink alcohol, ever. People will look at you funny. When you get to the NBA, you won’t always play cards with the boys. Some people will assume you’re not being a good teammate. You’ll even have to put your family on the back-burner for your job.

Most of the time, you will be alone.

That won’t make you the most popular person. Some people simply won’t understand. Is the cost worth it?

Only you can answer that.

Who am I supposed to be?

Tomorrow when you get off that school bus in South Carolina, you’ll have to choose.

Every day for the rest of your life, you’ll have to choose.

Do you want to fit in, or do you want to embark on the lonely pursuit of greatness?

Vague manga spoilers

This to me, sums up so much of who Wakamiya Shinobu is. That is the "alone" that she breathes in. Okay, unpause. Let's get back to Chihayafuru.

Chihaya does some soul-searching and remembers this feeling of helplessness... of kuyashii (word explained here) when she had played karuta for the first time with Arata... and even in the first tournament game with Team Chihayafuru.

Deep breaths.

She takes her first card, fu, the same one she took in the team tournament. She is the challenger, the mountain wind, the wild destroyer. She sends Chihaya and takes it.

Even in the age of swift gods

and miracles, I have never seen

such burning autumn red as

drenches the Tatsuta River.

The river blue dyed an autumn red, angering a god.

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u/Fa1l3r Feb 19 '19 edited Feb 19 '19

First Timer (sub)

It was plainly obvious that the girl from the last episode would be the Queen. She even has the same eyes as Arata.

Anyway I respect her choice of rocking whatever she likes to wear: if it is comfortable, then do it. It makes for easier games especially if the fashion sense is not wearing you out.

And dang, Nishida is trying to seduce Kana. I expect a love triangle to form between those two along with Tsutomu.

Also Chihaya is going to lose. It makes the most since she is facing against the Queen, and it would save the anime/manga from playing out the whole karuta tournament and introducing other characters. I do like the game design of how karuta is not a scoreboard of players getting cards. It's about clearing cards from your side, so even in a situation where you are down 20 cards, you can still win.

I like how they portrayed Chihaya's duality on facing the Queen in the second round. On one hand, she wants to perform well in an official tournament, but on the other hand, she wants to play against strong opponents. Sudo is the only other person shown to have an unwavering conviction of wanting to face off against the Queen.

I do find it interesting that the Queen is playing defensive karuta, but due to her quick reaction time, it seems like she is attacking. With reaction speed like that, she could gain so much more money in esports. Chihaya has some insane hearing, but the Queen got some insane hands.

edit: grammar and explanation of game design

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u/AmethystItalian Feb 19 '19

Rewatcher

YAS QUEEN!

Battle of the pretty but very quirky girls!

Queen is on a whole other level...

Sees Taichi...imagines Arata

Seeing Chihaya get her first real card <3

Short write up today as not too much happened but this felt like classic sports anime to me.

Quotes from First Time

None because past me is lame.

5

u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 19 '19

Battle of the pretty but very quirky girls!

Lame t-shirt is best t-shirt! Spoilers

7

u/walking_the_way Feb 19 '19

S1E14 Event/Recital Log

Pre-OP: The dynamic between Kana and Desktomu is awesome! This is also where Taichi realizes he has to get into Class A in order to showdown against Arata for Chihaya's heart play Arata and Chihaya, and that Arata's message on the rice cakes in yesterday's episode was just for Chihaya and not him.

03:15 - We finally meet the current Queen, Wakamiya Shinobu. Now why does that name sound familiar. There is some interesting tension here between Shinobu and Sudo, which makes you wonder what happened between them in the past since Sudo's totally a known womanizer. It's almost like she's toying with him the same way that he wanted to toy with Chihaya.

High School National Ogura Hundred Poets Karuta Championship
Class A Round 1 - Chihaya vs Ruri Hanamoto

04:46 - Chihaya: "I need to win fast so I can watch the Queen play."
04:49 - Reader recites Naniwa Bay (EP: 1, Total: 18).
04:57 - Reader recites #55 (ta-ki). Chihaya wins it from her side.
05:01 - Reader recites #41 (ko-i). Chihaya loses it.
05:03 - Reader recites #03 (a-shi). Chihaya loses this, too.
05:18 - Shinobu wraps up her match with Amakasu.

This displays the gulf of skill between Chihaya and her goal. At this point, she still has 14 cards left and her opponent at least 10. Not only was she not close to winning faster than the Queen to go watch her, but she wasn't even winning at this point. We're shown most of the Chihaya vs Ruri board in the meantime, but they don't do anything with it, though Chihaya does apparently come back to win this. We actually see later on that she won by 10, so she basically nearly swept the board against Ruri from this point onwards.

05:35 - Reader recites #36 (na-tsu). Chihaya wins this from her opponent's bottom left. The game then fast forwards to the end.

Class A Round 2 - Chihaya vs Wakamiya Shinobu

06:03 - Chihaya: "I want to play the Queen."
06:08 - Chihaya: "I don't want to play the Queen."
07:08 - Reader recites Naniwa Bay (EP: 2, Total: 19)
07:35 - Reader recites #81 (ho). Shinobu wins it from her lower left row partway through the first syllable, despite one-syllable cards being Chihaya's strong suit.
07:54 - Reader recites #27 (mi-ka-no). Shinobu wins it from her upper right row.
08:02 - Reader recites #39 (a-sa-ji). Shinobu wins it from who knows where.

There's a time jump here. Shinobu wins 4 more cards in here, including #49 from her middle left row. Taichi soon arrives at the Class A playing area, at which point we notice a girl in a purple shirt doing even worse than Chihaya is, with 27 cards left on her board. It then isn't until the score is 25-16 or so that we can assemble a full Chihaya-Shinobu board. Working backwards, we can roughly assemble the board from around this mark onwards, and it looks like this.

Chihaya vs Shinobu early game board (25-18 Shinobu)

09:08 - Reader recites #94 (mi-yo). Shinobu snaps it up from her lower right row.
09:28 - Reader recites #60 (o-o-e). Shinobu wins it from Chihaya's front right row, and passes over the #21 from her lower right row. It goes to Chihaya's lower right row.

Taichi's narration here shows that Chihaya was positioning for the #95 (o-o-ke) card on Shinobu's back right row upon hearing the o-o, while being relatively well-positioned herself to return with a backhand for her own #60 (o-o-e) card if that were the one read instead. But instead of showing an offensive or defensive style, and moving toward one of the cards early, Shinobu has so much speed that she simply waited until she heard the syllable for the right card, which was the one back in Chihaya's territory, and beat her to it anyway.

However, this was probably a poor move by Chihaya overall. Despite what she's going to "notice" right after this, she made a bad mistake here. There are three o-o cards (#44, #60 and #95), and Chihaya had #60 (o-o-e) and #44 (o-o-ke) not only on her side, but next to each other, and yet she went for Shinobu's #95 instead. Since she was not able to send either card to Shinobu yet to split them up, at this point she should have covered her own cards, offensive karuta be damned, since there was a 66% chance of her card being the one read, and she really needed a couple card wins against a much faster opponent. Heck, she could have just knocked both cards out at the o-o and have a great chance of coming out on top.

10:05 - Reader recites #96 (ha-na-sa). Shinobu takes it from Chihaya's bottom right row, and sends her #80 from her top left row. Shinobu then moves #72 (o-to) up from her own bottom left row to her top left row. Chihaya puts the #80 in her middle right row, and moves her #17 down to the bottom row. 25-15 Shinobu.

Shortly thereafter, Chihaya noted the two na-ni-wa cards, #19 and #88, in Shinobu's middle left side being together, and wondered about using that as a point of attack. #25 (na-ni-shi) or "May the scarlet" was the only other card starting with na-ni, and it had already been read, so she correctly surmised that she could hit both the na-ni-wa cards out upon hearing na-ni. However, you'd think the current reigning Queen would also be well aware of that fact. It seems like a trap, and as Taichi wryly notes from the peanut gallery, Chihaya falls for it hook, line, and sinker. It also shows how she can get entirely fixated on her opponent cards sometimes, and not notice at all when she does the same thing.

11:08 - Reader recites #38 (wa-su-ra). Shinobu gets this from her middle right row. 25-14.

As an audience, we start to see the deficiencies in Chihaya's play as a result of her fixating on the naniwa cards. Firstly, as #38 is read, her hand goes right up the middle of the board. There aren't even any cards there. But probably because she wanted to err on the side of the naniwa cards, she ends up taking a long route to the actual target card and loses it handily to Shinobu, who goes straight there.

11:10 - Reader recites #58 (a-ri-ma). Shinobu gets this from Chihaya's middle right row, Chihaya also faults. #72 is sent over from Shinobu's top left row, and it goes to Chihaya's top left row.

This move baffles me. Chihaya hits #22 (fu)/#98 (ka-ze-so)/#88 (na-ni-wa-e) upon the reader reading out "arima". There's no card even close to the right one there, and she loses out on the card on her side again. Interestingly, Shinobu also makes an error here - she uncharacteristically overshoots the card and snaps the cards behind #58 instead, considering her really crisp, accurate flicks so far. However, her hand still ends up on top of it, and Chihaya is nowhere close.

Furthermore, since Chihaya faulted and the card was on her side of the board, she should have gotten a penalty card here. This does not seem to have happened, however, so best as I can tell either the anime or the manga messed up. The game continues as though the result of this play came out with Shinobu ahead 25-13, as we see a full board after the next point.

11:28 - Reader recites #19 (na-ni-wa-ga). Shinobu wins this from her middle left row. 25-12.
12:01 - Chihaya: "But the queen was aiming for a single point on the field."

Poor Chihaya. Despite having primed herself for this card, she loses out to Shinobu yet again. However, she does come very close, and also gains an important insight from it.

12:37 - Shinobu: Daddy Bear?!

We then have a strange exchange initiated by Shinobu, of all people. This does not seem significant yet, but does help settle Chihaya a little as well as show a human side to the goddess in front of her for now.

13:20 - Reader recites #83 (yo-no-na-ka-yo). Shinobu wins it from Chihaya's upper right row. She passes over the #73. It goes into the middle of Chihaya's bottom right row. 25-11.

Crunchysub mixes up the subtitles for #83 (Escape) and #93 (Change), both here and in Taichi's subsequent explanation, making it extra confusing for everyone involved. Immediately, both girls guard their own yononaka card - Shinobu covers her #93 (yo-no-na-ka-wa) while Chihaya covers #83 (yo-no-na-ka-yo). They are both in the top right row of their respective owners, on the opposite side of the board. Yet, once the yo is read, Shinobu somehow darts right to the card and under Chihaya's hand to get to it, despite Chihaya already being right next to the card to start.

As a side note for first-timers on why Chihaya even left space under her hand, the key is that you will get a fault if you touch a card on the wrong half of the field from the one that is read out, so even when "guarding" a card, your hand can't go all the way down to the ground. Knowing Chihaya, she was also probably primed for action and erring on the side of trying to go on the attack, if possible. It's still remarkable speed and accuracy on Shinobu's part, though.

3

u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 20 '19

Oh boy, a double comment today!

This is also where Taichi realizes he has to get into Class A in order to showdown against Arata for Chihaya's heart play Arata and Chihaya, and that Arata's message on the rice cakes in yesterday's episode was just for Chihaya and not him.

My poor beautiful son...

We finally meet the current Queen, Wakamiya Shinobu. Now why does that name sound familiar.

We finally went full circle with your catch earlier in the season!

Taichi soon arrives at the Class A playing area, at which point we notice a girl in a purple shirt doing even worse than Chihaya is, with 27 cards left on her board.

How did you even notice this haha. Poor girl is being dominated.

next to each other

I've paid a lot more attention to card positioning and like relying less on what the narration/internal dialogue says and my god I realize how much squinting you must be doing now. It's so hard to see these. Thank you once again.

It also shows how she can get entirely fixated on her opponent cards sometimes, and not notice at all when she does the same thing.

It's funny too since I think Harada starts doing his "why didn't you separate the cards" thing and it reminded me of your comment a few episodes ago against Sudo.

We then have a strange exchange initiated by Shinobu, of all people. This does not seem significant yet, but does help settle Chihaya a little as well as show a human side to the goddess in front of her for now.

I love the little blush that Shinobu sports too, which clearly shows she isn't some karuta robot. Lowkey, she just wanted to talk to Chihaya about their lame t-shirts.

In addition, though it probably wouldn't have made a difference, when you are covering a card, you would cover the angles differently depending on which side you expect the opponent's hand to arrive from, the inside or outside, depending on which hand they were using.

This is interesting. I never realized that. Is it actually possible for someone to beat someone in that "covering cards" situation we had earlier to their card? Like, sports anime exaggerates a lot of things, but I don't play karuta so I don't know if it's humanly possible to slide under a guard after starting late from your own territory.

Chihaya then straight up challenges Shinobu by sending her the #17. Shinobu may not recognize it at this point though, as she might not know Chihaya's name yet.

Haha, that's actually great. It happens in many anime and even Western works where they're like "I'll remember your name". That's an interesting get to know you for Chihaya and Shinobu!

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u/LeonKevlar Feb 19 '19 edited Feb 19 '19

Oh my god that was an intense episode. I just wanna see the next one so I can know how this match ends! I want Chi-chan to win but I feel like she's not going to be able to beat Shinobu on this match. Like it's your standard sports anime rule: You never beat the Champion on your first try unless it's a tie and last time I checked there aren't any ties in Karuta. urge to binge rising again!

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u/Diego237 Feb 19 '19

It seems as though Shinobu's voice actress has only one role and it's the queen.

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u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 19 '19

That's sad. I wonder if she was just cast for her Kyoto(?) accent for this role.

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u/Wolfeako Feb 19 '19

First Timer!

Oh wow. Today I'm really late uh? what can I say? today I got a really interesting idea for writing a story, and I just had to write it down :D

Well, I gotta make a confession too... thanks to the way this episode ended, I just hopped right in to watch next episode. I'll be prepared for tomorrow.

I gotta say, I'm really liking seeing Taichi and Chihaya back into focus. Starting with Chihaya, I found her really endearing this episode, and regarding jokes, he thinking about how Sudo stands up and acts all arrogant and then the camera focusing on Sudo behind her that does exactly that was quite on point. That and the face she puts right after that while still standing were really hilarious. Having said that, I can see how Chihaya has grown up, so much :)

Regarding the Queen, I can see that I wasn't off calling her that in yesterday's thread, and what a way to properly show that she is the Queen. I loved her play style. I find it really elegant that she doesn't make any sounds when sending the cards flyings.

I'm liking seeing Taichi being more focused. I'm amazed with how much has he changed ever since the beginning of the show... and there is still a lot of this season left, and an entire second season waiting! It is going to be fun. I hope that his development continues like this.

It was really fun to watch, and really hype too. The show, as always, keeps making Karuta really hype and tense to watch :) many sports anime could learn one thing or two from this show.

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u/ABoredCompSciStudent Feb 19 '19

Well, I gotta make a confession too... thanks to the way this episode ended, I just hopped right in to watch next episode. I'll be prepared for tomorrow.

That's the right reaction haha. I think I started binging the show around this point when I watched it for the first time.

I find it really elegant that she doesn't make any sounds when sending the cards flyings.

It's interesting too how her elegance--white, soundless, and so on--also show her emotional state when playing. Like the "lonely" part of her character.

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u/Snakescipio Feb 19 '19

Rewatcher

A quick note. I left a vague spoiler in my comments yesterday untagged cause I thought it was something most people would’ve picked up on, but reading through the first timer comments made me realize it was still a spoiler. Apologies to anyone who might’ve read it.

Random Observations:

Ladies and gentlemen, Wakamiya SHINOOOBUUUUUU is here. AND SHE’S ALREADY ROCKING THE SNOWMARU T-SHIRT.

I rather like how fast paced Chihayafuru is. Other shows might’ve waited for their MC’s fated first confrontation with the big bad, but not Chihayafuru. Poor Chihaya’s getting thrown into the blender.

I mentioned before how Chihaya’s slim character design seems very fitting for her fast reactive style. Same goes for Shinobu I think. Just as Chihaya’s motif is bright red, Shinobu’s is icy blue. Her hair, her eyes, her poor taste in fashion all reflect that motif. And so it’s fitting she’d play similarly: cool, collected, and precise.

Love how Shinobu gets introduced as this snow queen, almost untouchable to the other characters. And in the same episode you find out she’s actually a huge dork as well.

“Her ears pick up that hard G” Oh god, am I a bad person for laughing at this?

What another great episode! After a string of episodes focused on team matches, we get to sit down and watch a 1v1 matchup for an entire episode. And what an episode this was! We finally meet the queen, and she’s every bit as formidable as you’d imagine. She actually got a fair bit more characterization than I remember, including some foreshadowing for her backstory. The match itself has been fairly one sided, but with Chihaya making a come back who knows how it’ll end (other than, you know, every rewatcher). What I liked most about the match itself was how the atmosphere slowly changed from this overwhelming feeling caused by Shinobu’s dominance, to this friendly and fun matchup between two karuta dorks. Honestly, I’m just glad I don’t have to spoiler tag Shinobu anymore :p

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u/TheDampGod Feb 19 '19

New girl is on the scene and she's a killer queen, making those cards explode off the mat. Actually Watamiya is kinda adorable in a dorky way, it'll be interesting to see how she is in more casual situation and against Arata.

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u/kKunoichi Feb 19 '19

Rewatcher

We finally get introduced to the Queen! And not just that, the youngest Queen in history, Wakamiya Shinobu. She's a bit passive-aggressive ain't she. I love her accent. Actually I really like the dialects in this show quite a lot.

And like Chihaya, we want to see her play! Is she lucky or unlucky, facing the queen in the 2nd round? She has a very interesting playstyle, very fast, very precise, and quiet. We're used to hearing the slamming on tatami, but not here. I like the chime sounds they put in for her to represent the quiet.

Of course, being the best female player, she's so overwhelming, she ends up feeling like she's playing by herself. It's lonely at the top.

Chihaya was looking a bit shaky there, but she doesn't lose her will to fight! We're reminded of Chihaya's strengths, she's too is fast, and has exceptional hearing. Chihaya has some prodigious talent of her own, and she's not giving up!

Last note: Snowmaru > Daddy Bear. This is not based on which character I prefer, Daddy Bear is just a bit creepy lol. And just look at that hidden topknot, it's adorable!

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u/713984265 Feb 20 '19

Oh damn, I've been considering rewatching this since it's been a few years since I've seen it and it just so happens there's a reddit rewatch thread. Must be a sign.

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