Alright folks, let’s settle in for one more episode of Chihayafuru! When last we left off, Chihayafuru and Taichi had each fought their way through the preliminary rounds of the pre-Masters qualifier tournament, securing two spots in the quarterfinals. For each of them, their route to this moment has involved stepping up their pro karuta game in major, demonstrable ways. On Chihaya’s side, her time spent focusing on her left arm, and increasing awareness of her own tactical choices, has led to her mastering a style somewhat near to Shinobu’s “silent karuta.” In contrast with her dramatic swings early in the series, she’s now embracing precision to use only just as much force is necessary. As a result, she was able to overcome last year’s Master challenger, who was admittedly out of practice, but still far from a pushover of an opponent.

On Taichi’s side, his often painful self-awareness seems to actually be reaping some positive dividends, as he now seems far better able to acknowledge his unproductive mental cycles, and attempt to rise above them. Of course, telling yourself not to be anxious isn’t necessarily a sure-fire way to end your own anxiety; fortunately, Taichi is also benefiting from the emotional support of his many trainers and teammates. As a result, Taichi has bolted to the top eight of his first-ever Class A tournament, a ridiculous feat that only underlines how long he’s actually belonged at this tier. And with Arata, Harada, and various other heavyweights in the mix, I’m sure we’ve got a pile of thrilling matches ahead of us. Let’s get back to Chihayafuru!

Episode 4

Now that I’m looking for her, Haruka actually occupies a pretty substantial amount of space in the OP. She even dominates the last shot before the final transition to Chihaya at the shrine gate

Harada is fighting against Murao, Arata’s long-suffering training partner. I guess Arata really did convince him to get back into competitive karuta

Wait, Taichi’s against Sudo? I thought Sudo was knocked out in his match against Rion, but I guess I was mistaken

I suppose this makes more sense given the wager they made, though. This match will test not just Taichi’s current progress, but his dedication to karuta on the whole, since whether he wins here or not dictates whether he might skip the school trip to attend the Masters qualifier

Nishida knows Haruka is a former Queen, and is rightfully nervous, but Chihaya doesn’t seem to care. For someone so invested in karuta, her knowledge of the sport outside of her own play is extremely lacking. Of course, that actually works for a sports drama like this – having your main character be talented but oblivious means you have an easy excuse for other characters to teach things to the audience through instructing the protagonist

Is it just me, or has Kana somehow gotten even cuter this season

“She’s kinda like Wakamiya Shinobu, but with better game sense.” Dear lord

Sudo actually seems like a pretty bad matchup for Taichi. Taichi’s weakness is his tendency to overthink things and get lost in his own head; meanwhile, Sudo delights in preying on his opponents’ psychological weaknesses

Harada attempts to turn the momentum in their favor, by loudly congratulating his teammates for occupying half of the quarterfinal spots

The fact that this is a solo tournament has resulted in an interesting shift in perspective, where rather than throwing schools against each other, the larger team dynamics are more about karuta societies. In practical effect, this gives a lot of these matches the same dramatic tension as something like a boxing match, featuring constant communication between the corner men (the society leaders) and their students

Haruka’s eyes always make her smile seem a little distant. Like she’s always actively thinking about something else

“Full time reader Hirota Koichiro, Grade 6.” So even though you can’t really be a full time karuta player, there are full time karuta readers. Interesting

They’re bouncing pretty gracefully between the matches for this setup period. That seems easier now that basically every remaining competitor is a heavyweight, thus all of the competitors have opinions on all of the other competitors

Chihaya actually takes the first two cards, impressing the spectators. A beautiful cut illustrating her internalization of Rion’s offhand advice, as she strains to recognize the difference in pitches between high and low opening syllables

They keep hyping up Chihaya’s debut as a star, and meanwhile, Haruka’s barely had a line this episode. They’re clearly slow rolling the reveal of her actual power

Alright, here we go. Haruka’s comeback begins with her reflecting on Chihaya’s attempts, and how there are far more qualities to a sound than its relative pitch

Chihayafuru is very good at creating energy in these exchanges through the sweeping momentum of the camera as it pans over a character’s attack. You can create the illusion of more fluid animation by moving the camera rapidly over an extended still plane

Lots of good use of color in this episode, too. A strong contrast of pinks and blues for this contest, tethered not to any specific character, but to the emotional flow of the match

Apparently Haruka doesn’t rearrange her own cards into neat groupings – she doesn’t need that crutch, and so her opponents can’t rely on sweeping whole rows of cards and hitting the right one

“I know I’m being greedy, but I want to prove to one and all that I’m just coming into my prime!” Haruka’s motivation is contrasted against her young children. I really like her drive here in a general sense, and thematically speaking, it feels appropriate for Chihaya to now face an opponent who embodies the difficulty of wholeheartedly pursuing karuta as an adult

Meanwhile, Harada’s down by ten points against Murao

As Chihaya points out, Haruka’s card placements are highly advantageous to her, who’s very used to these positions, but disastrous for her opponents, who are used to conventional, general-purpose placements. That makes me think it’d be worth it for basically any player to master unusual card placements

This quick cut of Mashima slapping a card versus Sudo feels oddly stilted, and emphasizes how important the lateral camera movement generally is to the impact of these shots. Characters sweeping for karuta cards isn’t a concept that naturally lends itself to “badass” visual execution; Chihayafuru has to work pretty hard to overcome that hurdle

Sudo prods Taichi about Chihaya. That dick

“It’s all an act, though – in reality, Sudo is at his limits too. That’s what I’m going to tell myself.” EXCELLENT, Taichi. This is an important lesson to learn – that the thoughts in your head are often just noise, and their only meaningful bearing on your active play is how they impact your emotions. Because of that, rather than getting bogged down obsessing over negative thoughts, try to overwrite them with simple, motivating mantras

“Test what I’ve practiced, and test myself.” I also like how, now that he’s actually reached Class A, Taichi can focus more on overall self-improvement than actively winning every single match

All of Harada’s students are on the backfoot, and so their leader takes things into his own hands. He offers a roaring “got there in time!” for a key victory, reminiscent of the loud “got one” cheers that Chihaya’s school team have previously used to hype each other up. Individual karuta is team karuta, etc

Harada is an awesome guy, and I’m glad this tournament is letting him really shine. Great shot here of his whole team in profile, literally “fired up” by the red and orange background as they prepare to attack

Those main Chihaya theme strings come in as Chihaya passes “impassioned” to her almost unbreakable opponent. This is the magic of sports anime – cues like this musical refrain fusing perfectly with both our understanding of Chihaya and our tactical awareness of what her choice here means, crafting urgent drama and suspense out of carefully defined base materials

Nishida points out that Haruka’s style of unpredictable, unorderly placement actually acts as an excellent stress test for Chihaya’s new focus on accuracy

Ooh, I love this cut for Chihaya focusing in here. The use of thin, sketchy lines for her face emphasizes the intensity of her focus much in the same way an impact frame might

Rapid, tumbling cuts carry us through Chihaya snatching “impassioned.” The direction is really active for this fight!

Taichi is at last in his element, freely calculating all of the cards that still remain, and adjusting his understanding of the active syllables as a result. It is both thrilling and exhausting to watch him play

“Sudo is getting really tired.” Once again, Taichi has learned to force himself into positive thought patterns

Retro makes it to the Class B finals, and both Taichi and Sudo think “I can’t be one-upped by Retro.” Ahaha, these assholes

And Done

Aw jeez, that’s all we get? The matches were just starting to heat up! Harada is single-handedly keeping his whole society’s spirits high, Sudo and Taichi are so well-matched that Taichi might even be having fun in a match, and Chihaya is soaring in the clouds, happily executing on all her latest advancements against one of her toughest enemies ever. This tournament also looks great; there’s not a huge amount of fluid animation, but the standout compositions are all dynamic and beautifully colored, and there’s an excellent sense of weight to the character movements. This episode was match drama from start to finish, and yet it still feels like the most exciting parts of these battles are yet to come. Best of luck to Taichi, Chihaya, and Harada too!

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