HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS THEY APPROVED A SEASON THREE WE GOT MORE CHIHAYAFURU COMING WOOOOO. After a five year break for some live action adaptations, it is somehow miraculously time for more animated Chihayafuru. Having already passed the halfway point of the existing material, I was already getting a little misty-eyed about my upcoming goodbyes; but now there’s a new season coming, everything is wonderful forever, and Chihayafuru will continue to brighten our days for many seasons to come.

No need to thank me, incidentally. I’m well aware of all the buzz these writeups have been generating, but it’d be a little gauche of me to take all the credit for getting this one greenlit. It’s just something that comes with the territory, after all.

Anyway. Marvelous news about Chihayafuru The Franchise aside, right here in Chihayafuru The Show we are currently in the midst of a heated battle with Chihaya’s first rival Retro-kun and his merry men. Our last episode didn’t have any one clear focus, and instead dabbled in some bouncing around the board, offering some unexpected character development for the key Hokuo rivals while also progressing Chihaya, Taichi, and Kana’s ongoing narratives. There was a lot of setup, but not so much payoff, and I’m guessing that means this episode will hone itself into a tighter showdown between Chihaya and Amakasu. Frankly, there are just only so many opportunities for these characters to clash – if they’re spending all this time building up Amakasu’s weaknesses as a player, I have to assume they’re also going to cash in on those weaknesses for character development here, and not keep following him as a parallel thread through nationals. That means this is likely to be a Chihaya-focused match episode, and those are always a treat. Let’s get right to it!

Episode 6

“To set the Tatsuta River ablaze.” A dramatic title choice for a bout that’s essentially an exhibition match at this point. Though I guess no match starring Chihaya is ever really “just” an exhibition match

Opening with a brief refresher focusing on Nishida’s defeat. We need to start this episode with tensions high, and that means reminding us that our team is already on the ropes

And a reminder that Chihaya’s attempting to combine the strengths of the Master and Queen, to give us some tactical grounding for the theatrics to come

I miss the energy and absurd catchiness of Chihayafuru’s first OP, but this actually does feel like a very appropriate second OP for a longer-running series. It’s got that warm, gentle “time to spend some time with familiar friends” tone to it. Upbeat, nostalgic, and fairly simple

We now focus on Amakasu’s perspective, as he tries to figure out how Chihaya moved that fast. This show is very graceful in how it balances and adjusts its dramatic focus; Chihaya’s new technique makes her the clear favorite here, and she doesn’t have any emotional arc tied to this particular match, so the show is comfortable using her as an imposing, unreachable monolith to push Amakasu down his own path

“I want to know what it is my voice is telling her.” Sudo provides a new vantage point for our perspective this match, as we hear the thoughts of a reader for the first time. Neither Sudo, Chihaya, nor even Kana’s journeys can really progress without us starting to prioritize the tactical mechanics of card readers – Sudo became a reader specifically to improve his play, Chihaya’s play is based in mastering different readers’ approaches, and Kana sees her summit as being a reader who brings the beauty of the cards to life. The mechanics of players versus readers seems like a maddeningly intangible and miniscule thing to hang a great deal of dramatic baggage on, but Chihayafuru can’t really avoid doing it. I’ll be interested in seeing how it makes the mechanics of Chihaya’s talent exciting!

Hah, I guess the answer is “the best it can.” A cute smash cut here, as a zoom in on Sudo’s face jumps to Chihaya slamming some cards, implying some kind of dance between the two of them

Amakasu realizes he’s playing against the Master’s talent. So perhaps this will be the motivation he needs to commit to play. Amakasu’s hurdle is his assumption that there are monsters out there he could never beat, but if he handles playing against Chihaya without totally losing ground, he might believe he has the talent to spar with any of them, since she’s got the same secret skill as the best player in the world

“You’re giving yourself more weapons!” Concepts like “special attacks” always feel a little absurd in the context of sports shows, but they serve a clear and important purpose. We as human beings cannot invest the “correct” emotional weight in each tactical option available to sports drama contestants – we need a simplified, codified approximation of these sports bouts with clear weapons and counter-weapons for us to parse and appreciate. No piece of fiction can possibly convey the full complexity of any real sport, so “special attacks” refine the infinitely complex tapestry of a sport into the coherent, engaging contrast of clear, specific variables

Jeez, this sure does seem like a serious level-up for Chihaya. Apparently this is the moment where she’s finally graduated to controlling her power, and playing off the intake of breath before the actual word noise

Of course, her power is totally dependent on her familiarity with whatever speaker she’s listening to, which is terrific – it means the show can essentially “fill up her experience bar” every single tournament, resulting in a more macro-conflict version of her existing “heating up in the second half” nature. Chihaya herself is perfectly designed to facilitate sports drama

Great shots of Chihaya’s eyes for her new powers

Sudo wants Amakasu to do something in order to break Chihaya’s concentration. Kinda fun seeing him vouch for his predatory playstyle from the sidelines – there’s no malice involved, that’s just how he sees his routes to victory

Amakasu starts to get genuinely invested in his match, and feel the weight of being the team ace

Even Tsutomu gets a nice moment here, though it’s mostly just a reminder of how much he’s grown over the past year. He certainly has grown a lot, though – his conflict at the last group tournament was “I wanna go home, the team doesn’t even need me,” whereas now he’s one of the key pillars of their group

“My hand got beneath your hand.” The fact that players just straight-up argue about who got what card will never feel less strange to me. Though this certainly wouldn’t be an easy sport to have official judges for, funding issues aside

“If all four of you are put in luck-of-the-draw situations without realizing it, we’ll lose!” The show is trying very hard to instill this showdown with some drama, laying on dramatic colors, Nishida’s melodramatic narration, and frantic strings. But ultimately, it was the right choice to use this match to illustrate general character growth – there just aren’t any stakes here, and so focusing on character arc house cleaning feels like the best option

“Four simultaneous luck-of-the-draws!” So basically, each player in each of four games has one card left to their name, and whether the card goes to them or their opponent just depends on which card is read

“Hokuo successfully split their cards.” Oh, that’s friggin’ brilliant. I actually love this dramatic setup, and it’s a setup that could only occur in a five-person team game with one loss already on the books. No matter which card is read, Hokuo should grab two and Chihaya’s team should grab two, since that card will be closest to two members of each team. Meaning that without Chihaya’s team somehow snagging one of the enemy’s close cards, they’re destined to draw this exchange and lose the match

“You can tell Hokuo are used to team matches.” Outside of Taichi stressing about his leadership and the positioning of the players, this seems to be the first piece of genuine team match strategy we’ve witnessed

“They waited to see what card Chihaya sent before making their split.” So could Chihaya theoretically have waited as well? Revealing your choice here is a seriously impactful piece of information, after all

“It’s a strategy that’s borderline against the rules.” Yeah, it seems that way. It relies on abusing the natural assumption that sending cards is an individual choice, and gaining advantage off other people making that choice first

All this buildup and I’m pretty sure Chihaya is just gonna grab her opponent’s card while totally oblivious to this whole scenario

Nope, she figured it out, lol

And now both Chihaya and Taichi prepare to steal a card in their own ways

I love the panic in Taichi’s eyes as he prepares. That kid is gonna die of a heart attack by thirty

Ooh, that’s awesome. Taichi’s absurd intensity actually shakes Retro, prompting him to commit a fault. A great showdown between the two of them

“Luck doesn’t decide a match!” Accompanied by a shot of Taichi’s face, this line undercuts the narrative of two episodes ago, where Taichi’s ostensible unluckiness was highlighted

And Amakasu earns his character turn as well, now fully invested in the outcome of this match. It’s a nicely understated way of expressing that turn, too – he’s still kind of a self-centered prick, so his turn comes in the form of “damn Retro-kun for jeopardizing this win!”

Amakasu earns his win. A good match all around, and a fine result

Amakasu admits he only moved in response to Chihaya, and would have faulted if it had been the wrong card. Chihaya strong

Hanano joins Harada’s karuta society!

And Done

Alright, Hokuo battle concluded! That episode was an interesting grab bag of many diverse sub-conflicts, with Taichi attempting to rally in difficult circumstances, small sprinklings of anxiety courtesy of Nishida, some validation of Tsutomu’s journey, and significant emphasis on Amakasu’s arc. The episode had an uphill battle in terms of audience investment, since we had little reason to care about its focus character Amakasu, but I think it did a fine job of simultaneously selling him as a recurring character while also reveling in the dramatic opportunities of a five-on-five match. Chihaya’s team is ready for nationals!

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