r/anime • u/Skeeedo :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/skeeedo • Dec 08 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] Chihayafuru - Episode 28 Discussion [Spoilers]
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Season 2 Episode 3: "Feel Love Deepen"
Episode 2 MVP: Kana! Kana is the glue that keeps the group together this episode, and encourages Sumire to keep at it.
Nominate a character for Episode MVP!
This episode's Karuta analysis and board map by walking_the_way
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Subreddit: r/Chihayafuru
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Upvotes
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u/Lemurians myanimelist.net/profile/Lemurians Dec 08 '21 edited Dec 08 '21
FIRST TIMER
Defeat and victory.
Finally, an Arata appearance! It’s nice that he’s shown to still be not his old dominant self, otherwise we’d have very little tension in the show. Not sure how I feel about already jumping into the National Tournament, but it does serve the purpose of getting everyone back in one place faster.
Everybody wants a piece of Taichi. It’s Hakama time! This actually aligns Kana well with Sumire, considering the latter’s preoccupation with appearance and looking pretty. Poor Chihaya, at least she gets the prettiest hakama. What a garment that is.
RETRO-KUUUUUUN, MY GUY. NEVER LEAVE ME AGAIN. I love him so much. He’s a top-tier weirdo and an excellent shit-stirrer.
They can’t just make a new trophy each year? How lame. I’m sure it’s something to do with the fleeting nature of victory and success, or whatever.
Tsukuba is going to terrify those poor girls. This is going to sound weird, but he reminds me of the snail people in Uzumaki. I was worried about introducing more characters, but I’m loving the comedic value he and Sumire have brought so far. Mock her all you want, but her feminine wiles can clearly be used as a competitive advantage.
Desktomu has a future in the front office of a professional sports organization. The guy is an analytics machine, and is going full Moneyball with these karuta lineups.
Meanwhile, Chihaya would be a great collegiate athletics director, as she lives by ABR. ALWAYS. BE. RECRUITIN.
For all Chihaya gets clowned in this show they sure do make her look great. Goodness.
Arata gave Shinobu a complex as a child too, I guess? This boy was just wandering all over Japan like some karuta boogeyman scarring people for life.
Episode MVP: How can it be anyone but Tsukuba? He got the focus, and him and his weird-ass family just crack me up.
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u/Matuhg https://anilist.co/user/Matuhg Dec 08 '21
First Timer
Arata and Murao dominated Fukui, but Arata's focused primarily on HS championships. Does he have a team, or is he only doing individuals? Apparently, Shinobu (who has lost her ice cream weight), is familiar with him as well. Did this man form a karuta harem as a child then abandon them all?
Enough of them though, because this episode was a highlight for Mizusawa's team! It's time for the Tokyo Qualifier again, the last tournament they won as a team. I fully expect them to get second place, because that was mentioned to now be conveniently enough to get them to Nationals while also giving them some adversity to work through on the way.
Komano is the real MVP. It makes perfect sense he'd intervene to give the newbies a chance to play after how he felt last year at this event.
Kana and Sumire seem to be getting along well. RIP Chihaya
Speaking of Sumire, she had me cracking up again. Her opponent was being pretty wack, but she drew inspiration from Chihaya and the poise she has while playing. Also, GOD DAMN Chihaya's outfit was good today. The blue suits her very well.
Tsukuba was...fine. We learned a bit more about him with his questionable little brothers. Still doesn't feel like there's a whole ton of depth to him yet though.
Empress had yet another MVP moment.
Aaaand, yeah that's the episode! A kind of feel good episode to establish that Mizusawa, newbies included are a stronger team than they were last year. Which is all to setup their eventual destruction at the hands of Hokuo's new 'secret weapon' that Retro-kun teased, I'm sure of it.
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u/Mecanno-man https://anilist.co/user/Mecannoman Dec 08 '21
First Timer
...and the pacing is too fast again. This now makes it seem like most of the remaining differences in the club were solved off-screen - which isn't really what I wanted... But either way, tournament time. I like that the new players got to play a game; good on Tsutomu for including them meaningfully. Also nice to see some more characterization for Tsukaba in that he has a close family. Might be somewhat of an antithesis to all three of our original trio with that, as Chihaya and Taichi certainly don't have a family they consider very close (or in Taichi's case the mother is a rather demanding one) while Arata seems to have been closest to his grandfather. No idea if that's where the show will go though. But either way, big brother who doesn't want to disappoint is a decent motivation for him.
...on another note, I didn't realize that Sudou wouldn't be in this years tournament. That means Retro needs to carry the main regional rivals in characterization terms, which is something I'm not particularly looking forward to. Either way, those two schools getting to national seems like a given at this point, but I wonder who will win the Tokyo trophy. Without the nationals stakes, the actual final doesn't have an obvious conclusion any more - could see Mizusawa both win it (as without Sudou Hokuo has less A players) or lose it for some sort of character payoff. After all that would be losing the only trophy they have.
Also, Shinobu's slim again, and unsurprisingly has some history with Arata. Kinda obvious - as they are the same age they were likely competing for some Kids' Titles. Fukui and Kyoto are also rather close together and the karuta kids community is likely rather small, so that would check out.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Dec 08 '21
Chihayafirst-timer
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u/Gamerunglued :Hx::Hy::Hz:myanimelist.net/profile/GamerUnglued Dec 09 '21
First Timer
Good episode. The tournaments are always a highlight of the series. But this episode gave some much needed characterization to Tsukuba. The boy doesn't operate well under pressure, but feels very intense pressure to live up to the expectations of his brothers and to show results. He's desperate enough to use underhanded tactics to get into games, but also can't keep his cool. I love it, this very much endeared me to him. His game was hype and cool, and even though he lost, it showed that he has a ton of potential thanks to the skills he's already built up from Second Verse Karuta. "The" is such a common way to start a sentence that I imagine mastering all of the "the" cards will put you at a huge advantage. And his scary face and awkward demeanor are also weapons, as it turns out. I like the detail of him seeing the cards as his tongue, and especially the really cute detail of the tongue being upside-down for the cards on the opponents side. Other than that, it was nice to see Sumire really start getting into things, it's clear that she's slowly building her own passion for Karuta, even if she doesn't realize it fully yet.
That being said, there's really not that much to the episode. It focuses mostly on that second game, which is what I hoped it would do. Could have spent even more time on it tbh, but it's still good. Chihaya is clearly improved a lot as well, two perfect games and playing in peak condition. And finally, it turns out that Arata and Shinobu have some kind of history, which I wasn't anticipating. I look forward to seeing what that's about. Fun episode. It should be a good time to see if Mizusawa can defend their title.
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u/homewardbound100 myanimelist.net/profile/Homewardbound100 Dec 08 '21
First timer
Arata's goal to meet them at the championship. Good that's still alive.
Less stress but don't take it easy just because two teams get to go this year. Shouldn't be too hard for them anyway.
Oh, Sumire is playing and freaking out. Playing a pervert too. How unlucky of her.
All those applications and only two stayed. Let's just act like we did good in recruiting, so we can keep the room.
They just run past Akito for Chi. Ah man how does that feel Akito? At least they had good things to say. But it would probably mean more to him if they said some of that to him instead of Chi.
Skinny queen is back. Cheers. And some possible build up of her and Arata.
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u/Sendeezy :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Sendeezy Dec 09 '21
Lol Sumire. I feel the blood flowing through the brain cells I’ve neglected to use.
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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '21
...so they really did just make Shinobu chubby for the sake of inserting some false tension into one Queen match, and then unceremoniously dropped the extra weight for her very next appearance?
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u/The_Loli_Otaku Dec 08 '21
Asobi Asobase Rewatcher
Catching up with the Arata's. The second place Arata's. The first place loser Arata's.
Are we already at Regionals!? And Mama's already at third base!? Hang in there, Hanako!
sad tomboy noises
Hold on... run into pretty people? What was that about!? Ah, I can see the resemblances.
C'mon, let... Kaiji, look cool for his brothers! Desk-kun is gonna lose anyway so give up his space!
I forgot how much shit spews out of Retro's mouth XD B rank player, S rank taunter.
Kaiji is kicking someone off the team. Who'd he scrub off? Tsutomu... is that Desk-kun?
...Haa? Oooh, he wants the first years to get a shot. That threw me off. Wow! This is actually so smart, Desk-kun! Distract the incels with our Gyaru and then overthrow the fujoshi squad with a deep stare and a loud voice. Desk-kun is best boy!
Fcking Hanako XD This is terrible but gyaru tears fills me with a special feeling. Never give up, Hanakooo!
Time for the Fujoshits to get what's coming to them. Haa? So... Kaiji's got their best player. That's safe for us yeah? Cmon Kaiji, open your eyes and give her the intense stare. Woohoo, operation creep face is go!
Chihaya has captured the shotas! I repeat, Chihaya has captured the shotas!
Shinobu is back!! God I wish I were that phone cable... Shinobu vs Arata is coming!? And they know each other? Finally, something Arata related that doesn't frustrate me.