Alright, let’s jump right into some more Chihayafuru! The show’s last episode saddled itself with an almost insurmountable challenge: integrate Hanano into the overall team in a way that didn’t feel completely out of character for her. Hanano is clearly not the kind of person who’d naturally gravitate towards the karuta team; making her entrance a dramatic hurdle doesn’t require any contrived circumstances, because it’s only under contrived circumstances that she’d even want to join in the first place. Instead, the true challenge of her entrance was basically just justifying its end point. Hanano’s personality would greatly help the team’s overall dynamic, but what series of events could possibly bring her to the point where her presence on the team is already an assumed fact?

Chihayafuru settled on “she’s willing to sacrifice in order to pursue Taichi, and she bonds with Kana.” Those choices don’t really result in clean or entirely believable drama, but that’s basically a tradeoff the show is forced to make in order to justify introducing a character who will clearly improve the overall team dynamic, but has no believable reason to be on a karuta team. One episode of slightly unbelievable drama is a fine price to pay for a character like Hanano, and I’m excited to see how she integrates into the group now that she’s truly joined. Let’s get started on the third episode of Chihayafuru 2!

Episode 3

Having completed Hanano’s introductory arc, we now jump over to Arata. Arata’s material has been hit or miss so far, but plenty of that has come down to his awkwardly distant place in the narrative. Not only has Arata been too far away to really impact the story, but his distance has meant the only part of the story he’s been able to stay relevant for is the shoujo love triangle, its weakest element. I’m looking forward to seeing Arata get to take advantage of how good this show is at its true strength, karuta drama

Murao is back in action! Murao actually beats Arata in a Class A tournament, neatly informing us he’s returned as an actual karuta force

Arata burning with blue fire at his second-place finish. This is good. Having Arata get competitive and petty helps to humanize him

Oh dang, Murao actually earned a match with the Master. Arata’s story is much further along its competitive track than Chihaya’s

But of course, Arata himself is more focused on playing against Chihaya and Taichi again

Hell yeah, time for the national high school Tokyo regional! And just in time for our two new players to act as the commentary bench, I suppose

The show doesn’t necessarily need newbies anymore, since it’s probably safe at this point to assume the audience more or less understands the major dynamics of karuta. That makes me interested in seeing how the show makes use of Hanano in this tournament that’s clearly going to be out of her league

Yeah, Hanano isn’t actually playing

Having Hanano be impressed by Kana’s traditional clothes is a great way for the two of them to bond. They both appreciate beauty in their own ways

“Now it feels like we finally have our second female member.” Kana is ruthless

“In our family, we’re taught to run into pretty people.” What kind of lesson is that. Who are your parents

It’s kinda tough for Tsukuba being “the other new player,” in contrast with Hanano’s deep character focus these last couple episodes, but giving him a Nico Yazawa-style “my little brothers see me as a hero, so that’s who I gotta be” relationship with his siblings does a lot of work to endear me to him

Apparently two schools can advance this year, meaning the show will either build up some new rivals or…

…yep, there’s Retro-kun

Oh dang, Sudo actually graduated from the Hokuo team. So will he be in the commentary section too?

Ahaha, this group shot where everyone else is determinedly looking forward and Hanano is checking her pocket mirror. Glad to have you here, Hanano

Tsukuba actually tries to sneak himself onto the active roster. In response, Tsutomu suggests putting both him and Hanano in for one round each. Good – that will give the new players something to do without totally sabotaging the team’s chances. Having each of them rotate in in turn will also allow the show to totally focus on their struggles for that match, and avoid a situation like the first season having to mostly skip Taichi’s match to watch Tsutomu and Kana’s one

Tsutomu has very naturally slotted into the team’s analyst position

Gorgeous shot of Chihaya here, looking a bit more sharply angular than usual. The show is good about conveying her sometimes distant style of beauty

“You have the passion and the talent. You’ll get better very soon.” Tsutomu’s character development paying off in his inspirational speech to Tsukuba

And of course, Hanano is totally out of her depth, and facing an opponent who’s just happy to be making eye contact with a girl. Ganbare, Hanano

“Chihaya never let the opponent touch her hand. She wasn’t belittled for being a girl.” Oh damn, awesome direction to take Hanano’s inspiration. I figured she might be drawn in by how beautiful Chihaya looks while she’s playing, but “when Chihaya plays, no one can demean her” is even better. This isn’t just playing off Hanano’s current motivations – this is pointing towards positive character growth for her, and a new kind of self-assurance. A very nice choice

Hanano even earns her own visual play motif! Hanano is lightning, the speedy reaction time and movement speed she wishes to embody

And of course she loses, but she’s still taken a couple of important steps on her journey

Checking in with the Empress, who was apparently busy with a tennis event

Of course, “busy with a tennis event” is an artificial complication the show invented just to put the Empress here, where she can reflect on Chihaya’s career aspirations

“I have to be the hero!” While Hanano could get away with just an emotional turn, Tsukuba is trying to impress his family, and already knows how to play the game. This might be an actual match

Tsukuba’s playing their only A class opponent. That’s unfortunate

Nice shot of Tsukuba’s feelings tumbling like wooden karuta cards

And more nice shots, this time using Tsukuba’s profile to emphasize we’re in his headspace while the space before and after his head fills with advice from his club seniors

Tsukuba is essentially experiencing a whole condensed training arc in this match, going from totally overwhelmed, to determined to succeed, to training with his teammates, to putting that training into practice. Confidence can be useful that way – by having Tsukuba start at a position of total insecurity and build up from there, the show can turn him into a much better competitor even over the course of one match, purely through him calming down and remembering his training

Oh god, is Tsukuba’s motif gonna be his creepy little tongue-out face? Please don’t

Aw, his brothers stick up for him when he loses

Oh snap, Shinobu has some relationship with Arata. Dun dun dun

And Done

Whew, that was an excellent episode! As I expected, the show pretty much considered Hanano and Tsukuba’s integration into the team a done deal at this point, and so we were able to sprint into the next team competition. This episode was mostly dedicated to setting those two on their various competitive routes, and the show certainly didn’t disappoint there; Hanano got the tactical focus she needed, while Tsukuba was given the emotional context he was lacking. The new two aren’t quite full team members yet, but the show already feels more comfortable placing them in more karuta-focused conflicts than it did getting them on the team in the first place. And with day two approaching, I’m guessing we’ll be seeing the original five fighting their hearts out soon!

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