It’s time for Nationals, everyone! After an extremely close loss in the regional tournament against their fiercest rivals, Chihaya and the gang are setting off for the national-level team tournament for the very, er, second time. The last time this tournament came about, Tsutomu and Kana were barely integrated into the team, and Chihaya’s collapse due to injury prevented the group from really getting anywhere. That collapse was a fairly natural narrative twist at the time; after all, Kana and Tsutomu weren’t nearly good enough to compete on a national level then, and their arcs needed a great deal more fleshing out before Chihaya’s crew could compete as a tactically cohesive group of five.

In contrast, Chihaya’s current team is composed of characters who’ve all survived individual arcs, all committed and recommitted to karuta, and all grown closer over time. This tournament is no longer dramatically hamstrung by the imbalanced dynamic of Chihaya’s team, and given this is the biggest team tournament they’ll experience this particular year, it seems very likely that the story will now embrace all the match-by-match theater it skipped over last time. Chihayafuru has essentially set up its dominoes to allow this tournament to be payoff after payoff all the way through, and I’m very excited to see just what’s in store. Let’s settle in for another episode of Chihayafuru!

Episode 8

Opening with a shot of that iconic shrine gate, a landmark that Chihayafuru’s opening songs have turned into one of the show’s most enduring motifs. Shows can essentially train you to see certain visual signifiers as inherently exciting or meaningful purely through repetition, regardless of their narrative significance. This shrine gate means “it’s go time”

I feel like this season has put more care into making Chihaya seem even more beautiful during her closeups. It feels like a somewhat odd priority, since it almost makes her harder to relate to, and she’s normally our closest perspective character. I could see “Chihaya is beautiful when we’re in Taichi’s head,” but a lot of times it feels like the closeups during her own matches are designed to favor beauty over intensity, which seems like the wrong choice

Okay good, Kana slapped cooling pads all over her. She looks suitably dorky now

Kana overtly refers to how Chihaya collapsed last year, seemingly just to cross out the possibility of a repeat. There’s no real foreshadowing at all this time – last time the shrine visit both hinted at Chihaya’s illness and introduced Shinobu, but this time it seems like we’re going into the matches cold

Tsukuba sneaking photos of girls, because I guess every single show needs at least one creep

Nishida’s sister made them t-shirts, but totally dunked on them by including “Second Place” in deference to Retro-kun. Owned, Chihaya

Tsukuba finally gets his wish, as Tsutomu acknowledges he’s trained enough to be roughly level with him, and thus earns a spot as a starter during their first match

Tsukuba’s always been in a somewhat awkward place drama-wise. My own fondness for her gremlin personality aside, Hanano’s clearly the new recruit that the story itself cares most about, and who’s been given by far the most emotional focus. But Tsukuba often feels relegated to a background role, and much of what he does offer the team isn’t exactly glamorous – he often comes across like Kuchiki from Genshiken, a narrative latecomer who’s too removed from the other characters’ emotional journeys to be anything but the class clown

What Tsukuba does have going for him is that unlike Hanano, he actually has experience with karuta, and could theoretically catch up skill-wise with the older recruits in the timeframe the show is proposing. That means that even if Tsukuba is kinda underwhelming as a character in an emotional sense, he can still carry his weight tactically during actually matches, and enough time spent contributing even in a largely mechanical, strategy-focused context will naturally help flesh out his character in an emotional one

Meanwhile, Tsutomu handles scouting, and actually brings Hanano along. That’s a smart use of her character, too – there’s no way she’d be at a level where she can meaningfully compete, but she’s a dynamic member of the commentary gallery, and assigning her some of the scouting means she can contribute tactical advice even though she doesn’t know much about karuta

Chihaya contemplates Tsutomu’s strength – that he’s strong enough to acknowledge Tsukuba is more useful on the starting lineup than he is, even though he joined the club much later. Tsutomu’s definitely one of the most mature members of the crew, though some of that is kind of a natural consequence of him not being one of the main protagonists – there just isn’t enough time for him to have ENDLESS FEELINGS like Taichi does

“Have I been infected by Chihaya’s greed?” Taichi’s in an interesting spot. His preoccupation with the team tournament over his own Class A fortunes could simply reflect his obsession with Chihaya, but it seems like he genuinely just wants to win with his teammates for his own satisfaction. That’s a positive development if it’s a real one, but it feels like a piece of character growth that wouldn’t just be idly acknowledged after the fact

Looks like Chihaya’s team are going up a bunch of foreigners, which they’re all very charmingly excited about. I myself am equally charmed by the show’s almost-but-not-quite english names, like “Anthony Sorb.” Ah yes, of the Chesterfield Sorbs

Hanano is off to scout Megumu, who apparently lost to Yumin in the queen challenger match, but is still the best female karuta player in the west

“For now, I’ll put that they’re all ordinary looking” bless you Hanano

Megumu’s apparently an airhead, but popular with the media. See Hanano, you could have guys fall all over you for your karuta skills, too

Of course, it does seem purposeful that Megumu’s karuta is described as “beautiful.” Beauty is one of the only things Hanano respects, so if playing karuta can be seen as a beautiful thing, she might actually find a genuine, convincing reason to play

Meanwhile, Tsutomu is off hyping up last year’s winners, Fujisaki High School. This is all very encouraging stuff – instead of last year’s very brief performance, this year is laying down the groundwork for a genuine tournament arc, with already-established rivals ready for every new round

From here in the States, it’s kinda funny to see a conflict predicated on “we’ve basically never seen foreigners before, so this is tilting us off our game”

These foreigners are unfortunately pretty bad at English, but that’s kinda par for the course in most anime. It’s the rare director who has the clout and desire to demand native speakers for parts like this

“Ignoring Chihaya for now, I need to calm the others down.” Ganbare, Taichi

WAIT THAT’S ACTUALLY THE JOKE, THEY’RE ALL ACTUALLY TERRIBLE AT ENGLISH. Okay, complaint rescinded, that’s phenomenal. Instead of being a kind of lame conceit, this actually feels like a pretty great dig at our general assumptions regarding “foreigners”

This is a fine opening match – low-pressure, whimsical, full of character flavor. You definitely want a ramp up in a tournament like this

Tsukuba’s actually being used to skewer conventional reservations about foreigners in a way that’s very charming and flattering for Chihayafuru itself, but pretty unflattering for Tsukuba himself. Though I guess he’s just coming off as more helpless and naive than anything malicious

Oh man, the Empress’s little smirk when Chihaya slams a card. Wonderful

Blondie’s guiding us through his whole life story now. More adorable stuff

I had to check, and yeah, Blondie (Sorb himself) is played by Shinichiro Miki, the gravelly voice of Kaiki from Monogatari and Shimada from March comes in like a lion. Very odd to hear him play a young guy with flowing blonde hair

Aw, Kana bonding with her opponent over favorite poems. The purpose of this match has become clear – this isn’t a competitive showdown, this is a celebration of how loving karuta can bring any group of people together. A nice choice

Though Nishida draws a genuine tactical insight from their match. Playing against these very rough-edge karuta enthusiasts, he realizes his own playstyle can actually be restricted by the assumptions of competitive knowledge

Inspired by their ruthless leader Chihaya, the team proceeds to utterly decimate the Chiba kids. NO SANDBAGGING ON THIS TEAM

Arata arrives, and is immediately snagged by Shinobu! Secrets within secrets!

And Done

Whew! That was a very enjoyable episode! It wasn’t really thrilling or dramatically rich or anything; in fact, a lot of its running time was dedicated to laying the groundwork for the ongoing tournament arc, and its actual match was basically a foregone conclusion. But in spite of that, the episode moved well, built up the tension of the team tournament very naturally, made great use of almost every single member of Chihaya’s team, and essentially offered a gift of a happy match dedicated to celebrating how karuta brings people together. Adding up to a combination of carefully executed craft work and charming character payoff, this was a sturdy and satisfying episode all around. And we haven’t even gotten to the real matches yet!

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