Let’s get back to more Chihayafuru! I know it feels like I’ve been uncharacteristically giddy for a good dozen or so episodes now, but that’s only because I’ve definitely been uncharacteristically giddy holy crap this season has been so much fun. Chihayafuru has always been a warm and engaging show, and I’m clearly weak to many of the things it prioritizes, from its tactically grounded matches to its general love for its own cast, but the second half of this second season has just been one killer match after another, cashing in on dozens of episodes of competitive and personal growth for all our leads. And even after all these match episodes, the excitement still isn’t over – in fact, the show’s last episode was essentially all dedicated to hyping up this next tournament, where all of Chihayafuru’s stars get to demonstrate their own unique strengths.

How this whole individual tournament will shake out, I can’t possibly say – I had a hard enough time gauging where the team tournament was going, and now we’re apparently spectating around fifteen parallel matches at once. It seems easy to guess that the secondary characters’ matches will be reduced to one or two dramatic moments, and obviously Chihaya’s fights will be pretty significant, but beyond that we’ve got a wide array of potential spotlights. Shinobu’s vendetta against team karuta doesn’t seem like it could stir much conflict in an individual setting, but I’d very much enjoy watching her fight against non-Chihaya opponents, particularly if those opponents are people like Megumu or Sudo. It also feels like Nishida is overdue for a little personal drama, but given this is the first time we’ve seen Arata play in nearly forever, I’m guessing he and Taichi will probably stay in focus instead. However it shakes out, we’ve got around twenty competitors we already know well, and separate rank tracks to give a wide swathe of them a real chance at glory. Let’s get right to the Chihayafuru!

Episode 21

Opening once again with that shot of the Class A room, where we can see a dozen old rivals all ready for their match

Right, and Chihaya is paired against Megumu’s closest friend. Not much of a fight normally, but with a broken finger…

I guess in a way this is a pretty good trial by fire when it comes to improving her left-handed play. Relying on her right hand is its own sort of weakness

You can pick Shinobu out of the crowd even without her head in frame because of her ridiculous Snow Snow shirt

So this competitor’s gimmick seems to be that they just slam a bunch of cards every time, controlling the board through their imposing physical presence. We’ve had a lot of characters focus on speed, and Chihaya herself consistently emphasizes how she barely wants to touch the corner of her card, but so I guess this is the opposite strategy: be blunt and inexact, and through doing so crowd your opponent out of the game

Nice visual language giving this opponent their own identity. She seems tethered to natural browns and fiery reds, and her dramatic cutaway shots are portrayed through unusually thick linework, visually echoing her “aggressive and sturdy” play style

Chihaya tries thinking about all the muscle shifts she has to account for when playing with her left hand, and then immediately regrets it, since she knows all that stuff will just overwhelm her. Forcing her to play lefty is turning into a pretty satisfying illustration of how she’s become both generally smarter tactically and also aware of her own danger zones. She now actively dispels unproductive lines of thinking before they can overwhelm her

“Those girls are very similar. They’re both easy to read.” Yeah, this is a pretty straightforward pair

This is turning into a great demonstration for Chihaya on how left-handed players view the board, and what is made more or less easy depending on what hand you’re playing with. And apparently Shinobu’s left handed, so I guess she’s gotta master this eventually

Arata wins by twenty-seven cards in only twenty-five rounds, playing a perfect game and also drawing two faults from his opponent. Apparently time away hasn’t made Arata any less of a monster

Shinobu, you can put on that badass expression, but if you’re wearing a Snow Snow shirt you’re not gonna be fooling anyone

And Shinobu finishes next, with another perfect game

“What kind of karuta does Chihaya play?” Ah, this is so cruel. Arata finally gets to see Chihaya play for the first time, and she can’t even use her right hand

Hah, I love that he can immediately analyze the exact issue with her play. These kids and their karuta mind powers

I also appreciate that Chihaya is clearly no threat to any real contender in this state. She’s fighting, but she’s not winning this year

Chihaya finally makes the obvious adjustment, and flips all of her cards so they match her right-handed setup, but reversed. She doesn’t have time to think about the finer mechanics of adjusting for this style – she’s trained for years to play with this pattern, so she just needs to mirror it and hope her brain figures the rest out

“It’s bad manners to move that many cards at once.” Wait, wasn’t moving all their cards all the time that quiz show team’s entire strategy? I guess nobody really gives a shit about the team matches, huh

Also, “bad manners?” Look, I know karuta is pretty loosey-goosey in terms of its rulings in general, but actions in a sport should probably just be legal or illegal, not “frowned upon” or “encouraged”

“Don’t think. Do what I usually do, except with my left hand.” Exactly. I think this is a smart gamble by Chihaya – it might not work, but basically all of her defensive play is muscle memory at this point, and so she can either try to tap into that or struggle until she loses anyway

This is a very novel way of challenging an “instinct-based” player like Chihaya. Someone who’s more analytical in their approach to the board, like Taichi, would be less screwed up by a shift like this

And the gamble pays off. Her mind is able to parse “like usual, but reversed” much more quickly than a bunch of awkward new lefty-focused plays

Yuube takes a moment to reset. She’s gone from playing a spirited opponent who has no real chance of winning to playing friggin’ Chihaya, close rival of Megumu, and she needs to adjust

The Empress actually protests against how Yuube’s style can occasionally bat the opponent’s hand away. So many vague lines of etiquette in this sport

Arata: “now that I think of it, Chihaya took her first card from me with her left hand.” AT LAST, WE COME FULL CIRCLE

Alright, Chihaya takes the win. A very close fight, but she learned how to actually play left-handed halfway through, so that should probably help in the future

Yuube keeps making stern rival-y declarations and Chihaya is absolutely loving it

Arata praises her, at last! We get a cut back to their childhood bond, and then… that’s it. Pairings are up for round two

That’s kinda the issue with this show’s romantic pretensions in a nutshell. We’re supposed to see Arata and Chihaya as “fated companions” in some way, but we haven’t actually seen them carry on a real conversation since childhood. They have no chemistry, and no real relationship at all. This sort of thing is common in shoujo romance, but it’s, well, bad. It’s the same as how many isekai shows expect you to like their teen boy protagonists because they’re powerful – yes, that is indeed appealing to an audience of teen boys who want to feel powerful, but no one else has any reason to immediately invest in that situation. An audience of young teens who see romance in any two people sharing eye contact for any period of time might find this relationship compelling, but I sure don’t. HARUMPH!

Oh hey, at least one of my predictions was correct – Arata’s matched up against Nishida for round two, and now we’re getting some Nishida focus

Hanano won! But we don’t get to see it. Cowards, show us Hanano!

Arata’s parents are desperately praying against his victory, because he asked to attend school at an expensive Tokyo college if he won. Heh

I like how Nishida’s play is all compromises. He makes tactical guesses to control the flow of the match, which correlates to his overarching lukewarm investment in the game in general

“Why is he so much better than me?” This isn’t really fair for Nishida. Arata’s being presented as essentially Master-tier already, and Nishida is barely Class A, and almost certainly a worse player than the Class B Taichi at this point

Nishida once again reflects on how he feels like he can’t really match up to the drive of his teammates. If “I can at least lose with dignity against Arata” is his consolation prize, that’s pretty cold

Oh man, that’s so perfect. Nishida loses, but Arata follows that with “are all the Mizusawa players like this? You played five matches yesterday, but still played your heart out today.” Thank god. Nishida really, really needed a win, and while he obviously couldn’t beat Arata, being so respected as a player by Arata is a fine consolation prize

I also really like this coda, where Nishida’s frustration and commitment to self-improvement are contrasted through two overlapping internal voices. He’s bitter and frustrated, and simultaneously trying his hardest to internalize everything he just learned

The pairings go up. Chihaya is paired against Shinobu. Saying nothing, she slowly unwinds the bandage on her right hand. IT’S TIME TO USE “THAT”

And Done

Two rounds down! Instead of scattering us across all the competitors, we essentially got a focused two match special this time, offering a variety of small developments in all sorts of directions. The first match essentially built Yuube into a genuine competitor, while also letting Chihaya learn some new lessons specific to lefty play. And in the second, we got that long-awaited catharsis Nishida has been due for, while also bringing Arata back into play as an active competitor. And now that we’re in the final eight, it’s basically all heavyweights from here on out. Chihaya isn’t beating Shinobu with a broken finger, but I’m ready to see her try!

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