The karuta hour has come again! We return to Chihayafuru at the climax of an incredibly intense battle, as Arata and Harada grapple for the right to challenge Master Suo. Though I expected this match to be a dramatic highlight, I could never have predicted how much time and energy Chihayafuru would dedicate to this battle. In a season that’s seen entire tournaments come and go over the course of an episode and a half, Harada and Arata’s battle has already taken up two full episodes by itself, and now seems poised to consume a third.

I’m certainly not complaining, though – this battle, and its Haruka/Megumin compliment, feel like like the culmination of season three’s most central and compelling themes. What it means to grow up or grow old with karuta is a question all of Chihayafuru’s stars have been asking themselves, whether they’re nearing retirement, hoping for a late-career comeback, or simply wondering how karuta can fit into a post-high school lifestyle. In Harada and Arata’s battle, karuta’s past and future collide, with Arata calling his grandfather’s spirit back to the playing floor, and Harada responding with a vigor that argues however our bodies age, our passions need not be diminished. It’s been an riveting battle, and I’m eager to see how it ends. Let’s get to it!

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Folks, it is wonderful to see you all again. After an end of December dominated by family activities and an early January consumed by the preview guide, I can at last return to my regularly-scheduled reader projects. And you know what that means: it’s time for more goddamn Chihayafuru.

When we last left off, Chihayafuru’s two most senior competitors had each pulled off victories of inches, just barely defeating their much younger opponents. But along with speed and reaction time, youth also blesses us with tremendous stamina – and as Harada and Haruka’s own stamina is used up, their chances of securing a second win become that much slimmer. Harada’s response to this reality is to immediately forfeit the second round, thus giving himself a chance to recover his strength for the deciding match. That leaves Haruka to face Megumin alone, as her anxieties about aging, guilt regarding her children, and complicated relationship with her own professional legacy all collide.

Haruka has become this season’s breakout star, with her and Harada’s feelings expanding Chihayafuru’s emotional scope from the pains of adolescence to the compromises and disappointments of adulthood. Her fear of aging out of karuta is palpable, and though this season has consistently emphasized that change is inevitable, I can’t help but really really hope she wins. Let’s see how she fares against Megumin in the second round!

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Alright folks, buckle in for more Chihayafuru! We’re a week behind after I foolishly took a week off for holiday affairs, and the challenger tournament finals won’t wait. Chihayafuru’s last episode set us up for a fairly unusual pair of matches, with the contrast of eastern and western representatives also neatly falling upon generational lines. In the east, two separate generations of older karuta players are fighting to demonstrate they’re still just as talented as any of their younger peers. Dr. Harada must battle not just his opponent Arata, but also his failing knees; meanwhile, Haruka’s attention is unavoidably divided by her obligations to her family, and as Sakurazawa noted, her reaction time and game sense can’t match her talent in her prime.

Over in the western corner, we’ve got a pair of snot-nosed upstart kids who should really accept they’ve got all the time in the world to become champions, and let their long-suffering elders take the crowns this time. Both Arata and Megumu are obviously sympathetic characters in their own right, but neither of them need this the way Harada and Haruka seem to, and both of the older contenders are such sympathetic characters that it’s hard not to root for them. Regardless of how the matches play out, we’ve got a thorough understanding of the strengths of all of today’s contenders, and I’m eager to see how their styles collide. Let’s get back to Chihayafuru!

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Pile in folks, it’s time for more Chihayafuru! When last we left off, the Masters qualifiers had just ended on a surprising conclusion: Arata and Harada would be competing for the challenger seat. Taichi fought his hardest, but his run through the qualifiers was ended by one more luck of the draw, and he was forced to shuffle off to Kyoto in total defeat.

Where this leaves the overall Chihayafuru narrative is a bit of an open question. Taichi had seemingly planned on treating the Masters tournament as his karuta swan song, but I can’t really imagine him happily submitting to his mother’s wishes from here out; additionally, his struggles over the course of that tournament also seemed to indicate he might be moving towards a more positive and fulfilling relationship with karuta, and not just seeing it as an avenue to get closer to Chihaya. Meanwhile, Chihaya seems to have possibly realized that Taichi is love with her, while Arata has discovered that acknowledging that fact prompts feelings of jealousy.

And over all of this, Suo’s strange prediction still looms, dictating that Arata will be the Master one day, but not the next Master. Does that mean that Harada actually has a chance here, or will Suo remain unchallenged for another year, and only fall when Taichi takes the crown? Either way, the Harada-Arata match hovers in the distance, and I can’t wait to see Chihaya and Taichi awkwardly stumbling through their new relationship dynamic. Let’s get to it!

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Folks, it is undoubtedly time for more Chihayafuru. We return to the ongoing drama in the midst of a tumultuous transition period, as both Taichi and Arata are grappling with their true reasons for playing karuta. The unsustainability of Taichi’s simultaneous deference to his mother’s wishes and dedication to karuta came to a head at the Masters qualifier, where Taichi bet everything on winning the Master’s crown, and lost everything in one more tragic luck of the draw. That loss forced Taichi to at last honestly grapple with the hopelessness of his current situation, but his joy at watching Harada ascend to the finals seems to imply he may find a way out of this emotional swamp yet. Taichi really does like karuta, and he is also extremely good at it – if he can somehow divorce his healthy passion for karuta from his unhealthy infatuation with Chihaya, he might actually be able to convince his mother to let karuta be a part of his life.

Elsewhere, Arata seems to finally be engaging with his own feelings regarding Chihaya, while Chihaya herself seems to be grasping the nature of Taichi’s own feelings. And at the same time, Harada is still locked in desperate battle, about to face Sudo for a chance at fighting the Master himself. We’ve got a whole bunch of urgent, paradigm-threatening balls hanging in the air, and I’m eager to see where they all land. Let’s get back to Chihayafuru!

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Buckle in folks, it’s time for more Chihayafuru! We return in the midst of another tense tournament sequence, as both Taichi and Arata separately battle for the right to challenge the current karuta Master. However, claiming that karuta crown might be the least of Taichi’s worries at the moment, or at least, just one potential solution to his current anxieties. As Taichi faces his toughest opponents ever, with Harada too burnt out to support him and only Hanano defending him from his mother’s rage, he seems to also be at last facing down the emotional conflicts that have consistently haunted his relationship with both Chihaya and karuta. With only this tournament remaining before he must dedicate himself fully to a pre-med career track, Taichi is finally asking himself what he truly wants, and who he wants to be.

These are difficult questions for any teenager to answer, and in Taichi’s case, his inability to articulate and pursue what he truly wants has been Chihayafuru’s most intractable emotional conflict for the majority of its run.  Whether he truly loves Chihaya or is simply infatuated with her, whether he’s genuinely passionate about karuta, whether there’s even a path he can follow if he wants to continue the sport at the highest level – these questions have been percolating for three seasons now, and it’s both gratifying to see Taichi at last acknowledging he needs to answer these questions, and thrilling to wonder at where he’ll move from his current stasis.

It’s also a little worrying, to be honest, largely because of Chihayafuru’s overarching strengths and weaknesses, as well as its specific genre-melding compromises. The Chihaya-Taichi-Arata love triangle has consistently been Chihayafuru’s weakest element, and has hung on a certain style of fantastical “destined love” inevitability that feels dramatically and emotionally unconvincing, particularly in the context of the show’s far stronger reflections on personal anxiety and identity. On top of that, the question of whether Arata truly loves karuta is complicated by the fact that Chihayafuru has one foot in classic sports dramas, where total obsession with some sport is a base dramatic assumption, and one foot in coming-of-age character dramas, where “hyper-obsession over one pastime to the exclusion of all else” isn’t actually a healthy attitude. How the show will navigate both the base dramatic/emotional complexity of this situation, as well as how it intersects with the show’s traditional weaknesses, is a question that has me equally thrilled and nervous for whatever’s next. Either way, I love Chihayafuru, I’m happy to see Taichi engaging with these questions, and I’m eager to see where we go from here. LET’S GET TO IT!

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Well folks, somehow we’re in it all over again. After the tense conclusion of the pre-Masters tournament left Chihaya elated and Taichi in despair, Chihayafuru wasted only seven or eight minutes handling the post-tournament cooldown, before immediately ramping up into the next tournament’s preamble. At this point, Chihayafuru’s overarching narrative seems to be rising up the curve of drama you generally expect from each individual arc, except applied to the show as a whole – arcs don’t really “cool down” anymore, since we’re actually approaching the story’s overarching dramatic crescendo. And with Tsutomu having made clear how high the stakes are for Taichi at this point, it feels like we really might be approaching Chihayafuru’s ultimate climax, or at least a meaningful relational shift from all that has come before.

The plain fact of it is, Taichi just can’t keep doing this to himself. In emotional terms, he’s spent his entire high school career pining for his best friend, and even making her passion his own, all without ever telling her how he feels. This situation is unhealthy for Taichi and unfair for Chihaya, and as time has gone on, it seems he’s only gotten even more emotionally dependent on her. In practical terms, we’re approaching the end of our heroes’ second high school year, and if Taichi’s planning on actually pursuing a pre-med path, he can’t possibly maintain this level of karuta study. Something has to give soon, and though I hope that “something” involves coming clean with Chihaya, I’m not sure Taichi is capable of taking that step. However things shake out, this is bound to be a tournament loaded with emotional baggage, as Taichi’s balancing act is strained to the breaking point. LET’S GET TO IT!

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THE BATTLE CONTINUES. As we return to Chihayafuru, Chihaya and Taichi remain locked in a finals bout that could dictate not just the course of their karuta fortunes, but also their personal relationship, and perhaps even their futures altogether. I don’t expect this battle to outright resolve any elements of this show’s central relationship drama, but it seems almost guaranteed to provoke meaningful changes on that front. Chihaya has never been forced to acknowledge Taichi so directly, and seeing the two of them up there has apparently provoked even Arata to find some small shard of jealousy within himself.

Beyond its emotional consequences, this bout has also been one of Chihayafuru’s most tactically gripping and aesthetically impressive matches so far, and I’m eager to get back to it. I preambled the heck out of this fight last time, so I hope you’ll forgive me if we dive directly into the action this time. LET’S GET TO THE MATCH!

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Dear lord folks, do we ever have a battle ahead of us. After spending two full seasons (and the entirety of their own high school lives) battling together as karuta teammates, today’s pre-Masters finals will see Chihaya and Taichi at last competing against each other. Though they’ve fought in a million practice matches, this time they’ll be competing as equals, and simultaneously representing the new vanguard of karuta champions. Though they’re not truly rivals, they share a closer and more complex bond than any other characters in this show, and are undoubtedly the show’s twin protagonists. And now, at last, they fight.

For Taichi, this battle will serve as the truest testing ground of his fundamental relationship with karuta. Taichi enjoys karuta, but he doesn’t necessarily love it, and he certainly doesn’t possess Chihaya’s overwhelming passion for the sport. What he does love is Chihaya herself – absolutely, unconditionally, overwhelmingly. Taichi’s love for Chihaya has been both a drive and a burden, propelling him to the highest tiers of karuta competition, while simultaneously having a deleterious effect on his scholastic performance, social life, and general sense of self. Taichi often comes under fire for his one-sided obsession, and yeah, it’s not exactly a healthy feeling – but at the same time, his messy and passionate feelings are one of the most human things about him. And now, having at last caught up to Chihaya’s meteoric professional rise, he can meet her as an equal in the field she loves best, and perhaps finally make her truly see him as the man he is.

For Chihaya, the meaning of this match is far more ambiguous. Taichi has always been an assumed variable in her relationship with karuta, but never the goal, and never the source of her passion. In professional terms, Chihaya only has eyes for Shinobu; she is absolutely committed to becoming the queen, and her lack of concern for anyone aside from the current queen actually ended up aiding her in her battle with Haruka. In personal terms, she’s always seemed more preoccupied with Arata than Taichi, as the lost friend who actually inspired her love of the sport. Chihaya is frankly pretty oblivious when it comes to Taichi, but now that he’s actually sitting across from her in a professional match, they might get a chance to honestly communicate in her most comfortable language.

Personal stakes aside, this matchup also promises to be a thrilling contrast of styles, as Chihaya’s classic speed and newfound strategic weapons clash with Taichi’s hyper-analytical play and hard-earned confidence. I’ve been awaiting this battle ever since we started Chihayafuru, and I could not be more excited. LET’S GET TO THE FINALS!

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