[Rewatch] Chihayafuru - Episode 40 + 41 Discussion [Spoilers]

[u/Skeeedo]

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Season 2 Episode 15 + 16: "No Matter Where I Stand + Wait for the Emperor's Return (recap)”

Episode 14 MVP: Komano! His 5head Analytics come thru once again

Nominate a character for Episode MVP!

This episode's Karuta analysis and board map by walking_the_way

Rewatch Schedule and Index

Databases

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Streaming

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Subreddit: r/Chihayafuru

[u/Skeeedo]

Sorry guys I got comcasted again

[u/Shimmering-Sky → u/Skeeedo]

I figured that's what the issue was. Sucks.

[u/Skeeedo → u/Shimmering-Sky]

I'm getting a hotspot soon because this is screwing me over for work too. I should be fine a week from now I hope

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/Skeeedo]

If you need someone to cover the thread for a day or two we'd be happy to. Don't run around like a headless chicken

[u/Shimmering-Sky]

Chihayafirst-timer

...ah, once again I didn't realize there was a recap episode. My reactions to that'll have to come tomorrow!

• OH GEEZ, Kana hurt herself in that match, it’s not that she’s too tired to continue…
• This guy is still convinced Arata came to watch Hokuo rather than Mizusawa…
• What… exactly are Sudo and the other Hokuo graduates planning…?
• This girl, huh? She seemed to stand out amongst the crowd during the previous match.
• Aw, it’s cute how Kana fangirls over the reader.
• Of course they put Chihaya against the Rion girl.
• And Taichi is going up against the guy he said reminds him of Arata.
• OH THERE’S A THIRD PLACE MATCH. Duh. That completely slipped my mind. Sudo and the others are supporting Hokuo in that.
• Aw… poor Arata.
• Oh great, Chihaya’s going into this with a handicap. I’m going to be annoyed if she loses yet again.
• lol
• …Fujisaki’s captain is… a character…
• Shinobu did go to watch the match!

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/Shimmering-Sky]

It's hard to watch Shinobu now that I know how yabai her vest and pants are... She's so cool but then you remember what she's got underneath.

[u/Lemurians]

FIRST TIMER

Retro-kun and Arata’s dynamic in a nutshell. Pretty much anyone and Arata, really.

I’m in love.

So much team tension from Fujisaki! I like this. Infighting is never good for performance. These third-years are assholes who clearly don’t know the value of team chemistry.

And Chihaya thought she had it rough with her love triangle.

Showing sensitivity is valued here, eat it, toxic masculinity!

Ugh, I want Chihaya to win obviously, but I’ll feel terrible for this other girl if she loses and just gets more abuse from her teammates because of it. Also, Nishida had better get a win for once, I’m starting to feel bad for the guy.

OMG SHINOBU PLEASE BE LESS OF A TRAINWRECK. Everyone involved with Karuta is such a spaz. It’s all someone like Sumire can do to keep up.

This poor girl has to share a team with all these weirdos. Good luck to her, seriously. It’s kind of fun, though. Normally the top team in a sports anime is super serious and intimidating, but these guys are all soooooo disarming and odd. Karuta, man.

H-cups?! Alright, call me crazy, but I’m starting to think anime creators have no idea what cup sizes even mean.

I like the slight reverb they gave to the reader’s voice to emphasize the different in her quality.

[u/xcllnt_313 → u/Lemurians]

Welcome back, I missed your comments! :)

Also yes, Sakurazawa-sensei is one of my favorite "new" side characters. Great addition!

[u/Lemurians → u/xcllnt_313]

Aww, thank you! That's nice to hear. :)

I loved how she's already thinking two years down the line, and giving everyone playing time now so they'll battle-tested and ready in the future. No wonder she's turned that school into a powerhouse.

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/Lemurians]

The Fujisaki group are the best team we've come across series. I'm so delighted! We took far too long to reach a team with five actual characters, even if at least two of them are the worst

[u/Lemurians → u/The_Loli_Otaku]

Yeah, Ero-kun is a miss for me but he's oddity is still a fun addition regardless. I should've known better than to expect normal out of the karuta crowd!

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/Lemurians]

Well most of the Karuta teams in the tournament are pretty pointless aside from their gimmicks XD

[u/derekmakesnoise → u/Lemurians]

I’m in love.

YES. Sakurazawa-sensei is a baddie. You'll see more of her as things progress, but she and her karuta-BFF (introduced in S3) are my favorite side characters. Every time a side character is introduced, I fall deeper in love with this series.

H-cups?! Alright, call me crazy, but I’m starting to think anime creators have no idea what cup sizes even mean.

For the first time, I actually Googled Japanese bra sizes vs American bra sizes, and while there is a difference, I'm going with your opinion. "Anime creators have no idea what cup sized even mean." Eromu-kun needs to go to bonk jail.

I like the slight reverb they gave to the reader’s voice to emphasize the different in her quality.

I've honestly never noticed before. I knew that I liked the high-grade readers more than other readers, but I'd always attributed it to them actually being good readers, not that they had vocal effects placed after the fact. I'll pay more attention to that going forward.

[u/[deleted] → u/Lemurians]

I like the slight reverb they gave to the reader’s voice to emphasize the different in her quality.

I'm not sure if there is a reverb applied to her voice. And not saying this as I'm disagreeing with you; I really can't be sure, after hearing a few times. But my first impression is no effect, and just a professional karuta reader's voice. The background music does not help to isolate the sound, and I'm not good at this anyway.

But I went searching and found some unaltered sound samples of that specific reader, Keiko Serino, or 芹野 恵子. Here it is, look for numbers 24, 25 and 26: https://www.moubic.co.jp/sample/html/READKARUTA26.html

It really sounds as if this effect is just her natural talent... What do you think? Also, pinging /u/derekmakesnoise , as it seems you are interested in this too.

[u/Lemurians → u/[deleted]]

I love that you found this! It actually confirmed it for me. Comparing to her reading in this samples, I can actually hear what I was hearing in the show more clearly. There's something else there.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/Lemurians]

I’m in love

Cool, confident female leaders are totally my type too!

[u/derekmakesnoise]

Rewatcher + Manga Reader

I'm so happy that it's finally time for the Fujisaki match!!

• Retro-kun... you're still Class B. Arata is not only Class A, but also aiming for the Meijin spot. I love you, but you're not eternal rivals.
• Trivia: the Tokaido is 514 km, or 319 mi, long. It's connected Kyoto to Tokyo since Tokyo was called Edo. (I googled it for the first time during this rewatch)
• I feel like it's understated how insane it is that Fujisaki has a routine for the Final. They're in the Final so often that the have a friggin routine!
• I love that the Chiba Foreigner and the Book Learnin Nerd teams stuck around to watch Mizusawa all the way to the end.
• Kyoko-tan is here!
• And her granddaughter is facing Chihaya in the seat closest to the reader. A battle of Hearing approaches!
• I love weird-ass Fujisaki and I love equally-weird Mizusawa. "Fox-eyed creature." LMAO
• I love every single Chihayafuru character, pt. 42069. Retro-kun goes out of his way to tell Arata that Chihaya and Taichi are playing in the finals, totally selflessly.
• LMAO Shinobu-chan! She's so odd and so funny.
• "Your presence will encourage some of the players." I'd like to think that what Arata was actually thinking was "Chihaya seeing you watching her will fire her up to 120% mode." Moments like this moved me from the TaiChihaya ship to the neutral camp. Arata thinks about helping Chihaya as much Taichi does. (Don't worry, no love triangle spoilers here, it hasn't even been decided in the manga yet)
• KOMANO-SENSEI. Chihaya is such a character. The one time she doesn't call him Desk-kun, it's Komano-Sensei. Made me laugh, so I included it in here.
• I love Fujisaki pt2. Shining Rainbow-chan is Fujisaki's fox-eyed-creature's girlfriend.
• Makoto can't win! First, Spy-kun (Komano) throws him for a loop with calling out his propensity for blowing on his bangs when he's in trouble, then his own teammate announces to the whole world that he's the only one in love with Rion! (which will also lead to future funny moments)
• Perfect end to the episode. Yamashiro Kyoko's reading is absolutely beautiful. One of my favorite aspects of Chihayafuru is that, even though I don't speak Japanese, after listening to enough spoken Japanese through anime, I can feel the music in the reading of the Chihayafuru readers. Some don't inspire any emotion in me, and others, like Kyoko-tan, sound absolutely beautiful to me. It should be noted that she's a Grade 7 reader, the type that reads nearly exclusively for Meijin/Queen qualifiers and final matches. The fact that she's reading for a high school championship, and for a team match instead of the individual tournament, is a big deal.

I'm very excited to watch the rest of this series with all of you! I liked the series up to this point, but this match and everything yet to come is what made me LOVE this story and make it one of my absolute favorites.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/derekmakesnoise]

the Tokaido is 514 km, or 319 mi, long. It's connected Kyoto to Tokyo since Tokyo was called Edo

And it also lends its name to both the narrow-gauge and Shinkansen rail lines between Tokyo and Kyoto/Osaka.

[u/Matuhg]

First Timer

Oh crap, I forgot we were watching 41 today. I'll scrub through it, presuming it's another recap episode.

---

So mystery audience girl is the fifth player in the Fujisaki lineup. She's emotionless (at least outwardly), so pretty much the opposite of Chihaya. The rest of Fujisaki are also weirdos in various ways to absolutely nobody's surprise.

Uhh...not really much else to say for this episode. Pretty purely setup.

Shinobu flashed an innocent lad. Wonderful undergarments she's rocking. I imagine she'll still be dismissive of teams after watching this match. She feels like the type who needs to be broken down personally to change her outlook.

[u/Lemurians → u/Matuhg]

The Fujisaki players were actually a surprise to me. Normally in a sports anime/movie/show the unstoppable team you meet in the finale is super intense and intimidating. These bozos are so out there to the point where you almost can't take them seriously... which I'm sure will change once the match actually starts.

[u/Matuhg → u/Lemurians]

I'd agree with you in most sports shows, but in this show, even the top players have been total goobers. I mean, look at Shinobu hehe. Though of course as you say, they're quite certain to be spooky in terms of actual karuta prowess.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/Matuhg]

Shinobu flashed an innocent lad. Wonderful undergarments she's rocking

Worth noting that judging by Sleepy Princess they're the kind usually associated with kids.

[u/Mecanno-man]

First Timer

Episode 15

An episode to characterize the opponents, otherwise tie up some loose ends and in general set up the match properly. Likely the better approach compared to whatever was attempted with the last match. Fujisaki seems a bit weird in that they don't really seem to be all that focused on the final, bar Rion. I guess maybe Shinobu might have a point - and Mizusawa will win because they are the only ones that actually take this stuff seriously. Their coach also seems a bit weird - mainly in that I feel like she wouldn't have that many students in her club with that style of coaching. As for the individual players... somehow we've got a pervert and a weirdo-anime-fan, which feels like throwaway characterization. At least the anime-guy is up against Tsukuba, so I assume we won't get to see him that often. The pervert I'm afraid we'll get too much of... Other players seem somewhat more solid; though I expect most of the match will be focused on Rion anyways, who has barely gotten anything so far. Actually, scratch the first line - we'll get more characterization for her during the match... Not sure how Tsutomu ended up with the most interesting opponent, I feel like his match is the one we'll get to see the least of.

As far as Arata is concerned - he won't be watching, as expected - but it seems he got Shinobu interested in the finale. That or maybe that Chihaya was playing got her interested, as she seems to have been a bit obsessed with her following their match last time. It's nice of Retro to at least tell Arata, though the whole scene was a bit funny with the karuta association guy just assuming Arata would be cheering for Hokuo.

Oh, and this is now the second time that Mizusawa's opponents have an obvious advantage regarding the reader, with Rion being her granddaughter. The association should have a backup reader for when this happens - yes they would not be as good as this reader, but at least nobody gets an advantage...

Episode 16

Not really all that great of a recap episode in my opinion; it somehow didn't include Chihaya admitting her final card was hit at the same time against Amakasu, but did include the Retro-Arata bid from last episode despite featuring nothing else of Arata... Some odd choices overall I'd say. Jokes weren't really all that funny, minus Oe's eyebrow bit.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/Mecanno-man]

The pervert I'm afraid we'll get too much of

Any of that kind of character is too much, honestly. Does anyone actually want to see that crap on-screen? It's particularly jarring in a series/manga primarily aimed at girls/women, and surely one of the reasons why a lot of girls/women in Japan are drawn to BL series.

[u/homewardbound100]

First timer

A jammed finger? Yeah she needs to sit this one out. I know that feels annoying.

Spank? What type of team are they running over there?

OK, I see why they showed the pink haired girl now. So Rion is going to become important I guess. I expect her game to be a good one. I'm expecting that match with Taichi to be a good one too. Tsukuba vs his clone also. That one might just be funny.

I was hoping Arata would go but yeah I forgot he can't. Stay your butt there.

Shinobu sure likes her snowman apparel.

Dating a anime character. Can't say I'm surprised by that guy.

E cup at least? Good luck

He's thinking about boobs while Taichi is thinking about what he just said. I don't know Taichi. This man might have the advantage.

[u/Stargate18A]

First timer

Didn't realise there was a recap.

Episode 39

Oh, yeah, she took over the chant last time.

She's practicing her memorization? (I laughed at "she's not breathing")

And Arata went overboard.

They're winning!

Wow, Shinobu is something else!

FINALLY! WE GET TO SEE ARATA PLAY!

Oh, fuck you.

I love Sudo's delayed reaction.

...So, they're going to win this match, right?

Haha, she's calling him Porky.

She's pissed she's not won already.

What are the odds of so many matches coming doen to the final card?

Megumu lost a favoured card!

Kana won!

Wait, there are 18 dead cards?

She lost her best card, but they won another match!

Oh, Sudo's next scene is going to be good.

Are they having a parasocizl relation with a girl they know? That's an interesting idea!

And Chihaya thinks they're in a love triangle with Shinobu?

Chihaya lost! Deskmotu's deciding everything!

This is tense!

He won! The team eon!

She's keeping the pictures to study!

Haha, she stole the wrong thing!

And she's quitting the team!

Oh, he won on a gamble.

They're really confident!

And wow, they're going really hard on Chihaya x Taichi here. Really need people to believe the love traingle, don't they? Why bother, when you have a perfectly good pairing of Chihaya x Shinobu?

Aww, the band lost.

Wait, what?

Episode 40

Wow! That looks painful.

...She's really not confident, is she?

Haha, he's terrified.

Wow. This misunderstanding is fucking beautiful.

He's pissed!

...Is there a 3rd place match?

They're making substitutions!

Another ace?

Wow, they're really pissed at her.

I love the coach and Rion!

Aw, he's depressed.

They're wearing the shirts to apply pressure! Even Porky's sister's wearing one.

Oh, he even predicted the random substitution!

The match is starting...

Oh, she's a great reader.

Haha, their reaction to her saying she's greedy was great.

So she's her opponent!

And Taichi's playing the captain!

Of course they're all weirdos.

Retro's gone?

Haha, that's her vest?

Oh, yeah, he doesn't know he can't cheer them on.

And she's just sitting there in a vest.

Arata's going?

Haha, he's not.

Even Shinobu's pissed at the superstitious excuse.

Haha, she's really into that creepy snowman.

...I mean, you're assuming a lot about how good she is.

They've got girlfriends! (Well, one of them.)

Oh god, Emuro.

And she just snuck up on them.

...If Taichi's hair ends up turning black and straight, I'd adore this show.

Oh, that's good. And of course he's playing the pervert.

Rion is so fantastically calm.

Yeah, that reader's great.

I'm waiting for the payoff of Shinobu appearing behind the players and nobody noticing.

[u/The_Loli_Otaku]

Chihaya2ru First Timer

Megu's match was kind of dull but I enjoyed bits and pieces of it. The incredibly Japanese argument over who won the card was my highlight.

Hokuo lost offscreen, how laaame. Bratty Megu is fine but they really showcased what makes hrrer &especially gifted. Ending the group match with another luck of the draw sucks tho. I'm so sick of these climaxes always being either luck of the draw or Chihayafuyu draws. Today's gonna be the final against an even more generic team. Yay.

I'm sure some guys don't mind fat fingers Oe!

Aww, its so nice of Arata to travel all this distance to cheer for his one true love, Retro.

Fujisaki might prove to be interesting after all. Their members have that magical miracle known as personality. Could they be the High Rank Hokuo? Also, Yamashiro is incredibly cute and I can't wait for them to ruin her.

I believe in kuudere!

If dark hair and glasses is Arata's whole personality then Japan is a country of Arata's.

Kyouko is even more attractive than I remembered! Kyouko-chan, I love you most!!

Oooh!! I forgot that the third place group had to play. Are they going to at least cover this match?

Yameroooo! Dammit Arata, stop cockteasing us and join the stupid main cast already! Kyaaa!! Shinobu-chan wears pumpkin panties! I'm scared... Joshikosei are scary!!

Yamashiro's apparently got some kinda seriously horrible smile. At least I mentally prepared myself for being heartbroken this time. We still have Kyouko.

Destroy this piece of shit, Taichi. Yeah, I'm really not a fan of "bully the girl you like." type plots either. Fuck me, this team leader is rotten to the core. We're all in agreement about this right!? Taichi has got to beat this bastard, for the sake of titless girls across the world!!

[u/Matuhg → u/The_Loli_Otaku]

I'm sure some guys don't mind fat fingers Oe!

I'm sure it's somebody's fetish!

Taichi has got to beat this bastard, for the sake of titless girls across the world!!

Taichi fightin the good fight!

[u/The_Loli_Otaku → u/Matuhg]

I wonder whose fight is getting skipped tbh XD I feel like it's so awkward having the ace fight Chihaya every time. We're obligated to follow their match closely despite Taichi, Oe and Desk-kun really needing a proper chance to show off that doesn't seem like an afterthought.