Let’s trample through another Chihayafuru! Our last episode was one of my favorites of the show to date, a terrific tournament episode that married an excellent team battle to some resonant emotional drama for Taichi. The conflict was essentially “Taichi as team general versus Taichi as individual player,” and he shined in both those roles, giving the audience some real payoff for his overarching role as leader. The balance of setup and payoff can feel a little more prominently visible in sports dramas than many other genres; the show essentially pays in emotional explication and tactical exposition, and then that work eventually pays off through the conflicts that grow out of our understanding of those variables. Last episode was basically all payoff for Taichi’s journey so far, and it was some glorious payoff indeed.

With the semifinals match having been totally consumed by Taichi’s struggles, I’m guessing that means we’ve saved a Chihaya episode for the last match. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Chihaya actually compete – her last defeat was to Yumin back in the first season, and since then we’ve been spectating Shinobu fights and building up the new recruits. This team tournament is essentially the only time in a year that the club gets to fight as a group, so I’m guessing they won’t lose to Retro and company in the regionals, but am interested in seeing what emotional spin they put on this match. And hey, if they for some reason want to give us two General Taichi Addresses His Troops matches in a row, I certainly wouldn’t complain. Let’s get right to it!

Episode 5

Ah right, I forgot that both of the top two teams get to make it to Nationals. In that case, it seems pretty likely the team will actually lose here, and be forced to reckon with their own lopsided talents in order to shine at nationals

It’s kinda interesting how things like this reflect the compromise between coherent tournament structure and satisfying emotional journey that sports dramas have to find. If only victory could get Chihaya’s team to nationals, they’d probably have to win – the team only gets so many opportunities to work together, and sacrificing all the potential matches they’d go through at nationals for the sake of “realism” or whatnot would be silly. But because they don’t need to win here, their results in this particular match can essentially be burned as fuel for their emotional journeys, establishing a fall right now that the team can then build their way out of the next time

They keep building up Retro’s player order predictions, so I guess this is the moment he flubs it

Incidentally, I often talk about how some certain narrative choice makes a subsequent narrative choice predictable, but I should reiterate that I don’t mean that as a bad thing. Drama is like music – there are certain narrative choices that will create a hanging tension, and certain ways to resolve that tension that will result in a satisfying sense of finality for the audience. Contradicting the inherent melody of narrative purely for the sake of surprise or novelty will result in emotional dissonance for the audience with no positive end. Harnessing that dissonance can result in its own satisfying results, but you have to do it knowingly and with purpose, and there’s nothing wrong with playing old jazz standards

They’re really putting a lot of dramatic emphasis on Retro flipping his tarot cards, and including none of the comedy framing of their last match. Is this actually a Retro episode?

Considering several of Chihaya’s opponents have already received focus episodes, I suppose Retro is due. But Retro is just not that compelling of a character – he was basically conceived as an antagonist who’s simplistic enough to be clearly illustrated in a brief flashback, and he hasn’t really grown from there

While Nishida is relieved they’re already in Nationals, Chihaya is even more fired up for this match. Not surprising

Retro-kun is now dating Nishida’s sister, who looks exactly like Nishida in a frilly pink dress. I do not see this ending well

Hanano’s opponent research comes in handy! They’re now aware of the mercenary, matchup-based strategy they’ll be running into

“No starting your sentences with ‘but.’ I’ve been following that rule since the third grade.” I really like this bit. Taichi’s mom is largely framed as an antagonistic force, but not only does this demonstrate a more positive side of her, it does that without really demonstrating a new “side” at all. Taichi’s mom’s commanding, overbearing nature makes her frustrating to deal with, but it also means she understands stuff like this

“Schools with actual coaches have so much more depth.” So you can get paid to coach it, but not really to play it. The ultimate frisbee of card-based agility games

“After we win with a minimal amount of energy, the coach will treat us to dinner!” So is that the conflict, then? Retro doesn’t actually want to use his unfair powers?

Yep. Retro wants them to face Chihaya’s team head on, and so he matches all of his own teammates against their closest parallels in Chihaya’s crew

Sudo arrives. Right, forgot, he’d graduated from this team

And it turns out he’s going to be the reader

So this episode is focusing a bit more on Amakasu, Hokuo’s current ace. Apparently his weakness is that he’s just complacent – he’s accepted he’ll never be the best in Class A, and now simply wants to take the path of least resistance. Placing him against Chihaya’s continuous fire sounds like the right call in an emotional sense

Even the empress gets a nice little moment, tying back all of their hakumas. This is a pretty solid “odds and ends” episode, offering sprinklings of character work for a variety of side players

Oh right, they actually have been seeding this Taichi-Retro showdown through Taichi’s solo trips. Are we actually getting two Taichi matches in a row? Be still my heart

Nah, looks like we’re ultimately following Chihaya and Amakasu, which does make more sense. This is looking to be a high-level matchup based on very small variances in play skill

Harada establishes Amakasu’s strengths as natural ones – he has the body type for this game. Underlining how he doesn’t really work for his ability

“You’re pretty good. I thought the boobies would weigh you down.” Goddamnit Hokuo dude, step off

And now we get some focus on Kana, who’s dealing with a very different struggle. Well actually, she’s not struggling at all – this sequence is mostly just illustrating her own style of karuta, where the tempo of the reader’s voice is critical, and her ability to trust that the reader will stick to the melody strongly impacts her ability. I like how the show is able to illustrate a “relationship with the card reader” style that is so different from Chihaya’s, who is more attuned to the sound of the reader’s voice, and thus is probably less affected by a reader who doesn’t stick to the conventional tempo

Sudo’s desire to become a reader was prompted by the Master – watching the Master made him realize how important it is to understand other readers. He basically saw Chihaya’s skill in action, and wanted to train to acquire it for himself

“It’s odd, but the ones who have the most pride are the ones who work the hardest.” That really doesn’t sound odd at all to me. Pride and ego can almost be seen as an overt lack of contentment with how the world treats you – a desire to prove that you’re greater than your circumstances. People who are happy with their self-image regardless of how others see them aren’t generally as driven to prove they’re the absolute best

“I thought she was faster, but I guess I was wrong.” Uh oh Amakasu, no one warned you Chihaya is a second-half player

Yep, Amakasu and Chihaya are playing out as expected. Amakasu realizes that even as Chihaya loses, she still has her eyes fixed on Shinobu, the distant mountain

“You probably wouldn’t know this, but a kimono is designed perfectly to let a boobie girl move around.” HECK ‘EM UP KANA

Nishida loses. This just wasn’t a focus match for him, so he’s sacrificed to create more tension for the others

And Done

Alright! This wasn’t quite the episode I was expecting, but I’m not sure I could really have predicted “a quasi-utility match that bounces between focus characters in order to shore up a variety of ongoing character arcs.” Extending the match with Hokuo into two episodes allowed this to be more of a role player than a dramatic standout, offering reasonable material for the two main Hokuo players while also pushing Taichi, Chihaya, and even Kana just a little bit forward. Not a highlight, but still a very sturdy episode, and I’m excited by that final reveal. Seeing Chihaya attempt to merge the strengths of the Master and Queen is gonna be a real thrill!

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