Buckle in folks, it’s time for more Chihayafuru! We return in the midst of another tense tournament sequence, as both Taichi and Arata separately battle for the right to challenge the current karuta Master. However, claiming that karuta crown might be the least of Taichi’s worries at the moment, or at least, just one potential solution to his current anxieties. As Taichi faces his toughest opponents ever, with Harada too burnt out to support him and only Hanano defending him from his mother’s rage, he seems to also be at last facing down the emotional conflicts that have consistently haunted his relationship with both Chihaya and karuta. With only this tournament remaining before he must dedicate himself fully to a pre-med career track, Taichi is finally asking himself what he truly wants, and who he wants to be.

These are difficult questions for any teenager to answer, and in Taichi’s case, his inability to articulate and pursue what he truly wants has been Chihayafuru’s most intractable emotional conflict for the majority of its run.  Whether he truly loves Chihaya or is simply infatuated with her, whether he’s genuinely passionate about karuta, whether there’s even a path he can follow if he wants to continue the sport at the highest level – these questions have been percolating for three seasons now, and it’s both gratifying to see Taichi at last acknowledging he needs to answer these questions, and thrilling to wonder at where he’ll move from his current stasis.

It’s also a little worrying, to be honest, largely because of Chihayafuru’s overarching strengths and weaknesses, as well as its specific genre-melding compromises. The Chihaya-Taichi-Arata love triangle has consistently been Chihayafuru’s weakest element, and has hung on a certain style of fantastical “destined love” inevitability that feels dramatically and emotionally unconvincing, particularly in the context of the show’s far stronger reflections on personal anxiety and identity. On top of that, the question of whether Arata truly loves karuta is complicated by the fact that Chihayafuru has one foot in classic sports dramas, where total obsession with some sport is a base dramatic assumption, and one foot in coming-of-age character dramas, where “hyper-obsession over one pastime to the exclusion of all else” isn’t actually a healthy attitude. How the show will navigate both the base dramatic/emotional complexity of this situation, as well as how it intersects with the show’s traditional weaknesses, is a question that has me equally thrilled and nervous for whatever’s next. Either way, I love Chihayafuru, I’m happy to see Taichi engaging with these questions, and I’m eager to see where we go from here. LET’S GET TO IT!

Episode 9

“I recall how my own efforts were in vain.” A very Taichi episode title

We open on Arata, who’s unsurprisingly rattled by Suo’s declarations that “you won’t be the next Master” and “your karuta doesn’t excite me.” I do wonder how they’re going to use Suo in general. When characters speak in narrative pronouncements like this, their presumed nearness to breaking the breaking the fourth wall and understanding the author’s intent can make it difficult to later recharacterize them as fully human within their own world. You can’t be the wise sage who’s always right and also demonstrate uncertainty and vulnerability, things which are necessary for sympathetic characters

Shinobu’s absurd mushroom dress/leggings deal never gets any less ridiculous

Suo moves exclusively in slow, dramatic panning turns. How does he ever get anything done

Suo claims there is nothing that motivates him and keeps him going, but Shinobu doesn’t believe it. She is far prouder and more inflexible than any of Chihayafuru’s other perspective characters, which always makes it interesting to get in her head

I’m starting to feel pretty badly for Chihayafuru’s friend Michiru. She’s taken every step she can to make sure Chihaya has the best time she can on this trip, and makes up for all of the other classic high school activities she’s missed, but Chihaya’s too hung up on Taichi to notice or appreciate it. Chihaya’s the kind of person who’s very fun to follow in a story, but who would likely be pretty exhausting as an actual friend; her oblivious nature can easily scan as funny or cute in fiction, but would feel inconsiderate in real life

In character arc terms, being trapped in Kyoto while Arata and Taichi compete might actually force Chihaya to reconsider what the two of them mean to her. I wouldn’t count on it, though – see the issues I noted above, which not-so-coincidentally also make her a natural love triangle participant, since she doesn’t even know she’s in a love triangle

Okay good, Michiru is actually calling her out

And Chihaya rightly apologizes. She’s not an intentionally selfish person, she’s just single-minded in pursuit of her own interests, and totally lacking in emotional intelligence

Kana is actually crying at the beauty of the museum’s displays, because Kana is extremely good

Excellent Kana faces in general here

I love how confident Kana gets when she’s in her element, regaling others with stories of classic poetry

It’s also just wild to me to imagine a society that genuinely appreciates art, given the relentlessly anti-intellectual, anti-art bend of our current cultural conversations

This season once again employs this neat trick of framing Chihaya within a card frame as she reflects on recent events. It’s a small choice, but I feel it adds a welcome sense of visual structure, with the added symmetry echoing the narrative intent of “putting the pieces together”

HOLY SHIT, DID SHE FIGURE IT OUT? It seems like Chihaya may have actually, for the first time ever, realized that Taichi plays karuta because he’s hopelessly in love with her

Meanwhile, Taichi’s fallen behind in a match against a ringer known as Kosaku

Fortunately, Kosaku seems to have a tendency to double fault

“I’m still me, including my goof-ups!” I adore how Chihayafuru continues to celebrate the individuality of even its least dramatically relevant competitors, and further appreciate how this resolution dovetails with Taichi’s current quest to “become someone else, but also still be me”

Poor Kosaku looks like he was set up as the match favorite just to be demolished by the debut of Taichi’s “defensive karuta”

I like the balance of styles in this matchup – both Taichi and Kosaku are players who tend to get defeated more by their own mistakes than their opponents’ strength, and both of them are managing that by actively focusing on maintaining a clear mental focus

Ooh, nice cut of this arm receding into the frame here

Of fucking course it comes down to luck of the draw. How could any tense Taichi match ever not, at this point

Aaand… he loses. He bet it all on this tournament, and the tournament’s already over

Lush colors and soft focus as Taichi stomps away from the tournament, surrounding by all the tumbling poems, as if he’s walking through a storm of his own wasted effort

Great performance by Mamoru Miyano here, as Taichi’s voice actually chokes up in disgust as he recounts the unfairness of how poorly luck favored him in this match, and how hard he tried to remember every single relevant card and variable

I love this. I love Taichi for how accurately and sympathetically this show allows him to be bitter and petty and unhappy and desperate. He knows he’s an idiot, but he can’t help being the person he is

This feels like one of the most quintessential teenage experiences there is, too. At times, shit is just so damn unfair, and nothing turned out right, and maybe it was even your fault, but either way that does nothing to quell the burning, resentful fire you’re feeling. There are few things more universal to the teen experience than impotent rage

Meanwhile, Harada’s still in the tournament, but looking half-dead

And Hanano does likely the best thing she can to repair Taichi’s mental state – rather than going to him and trying to console him, she sends a text announcing the semifinal matchups, and thereby quietly reminding Taichi that Harada still needs his support. Sometimes the best antidote for a problem you can’t do anything actionable to resolve is to help a friend with their own problems

Harada’s victory here is framed in terms of knowing which cards will be read during a luck-of-the-draw, which is obviously not literally possible, but works well enough as a metaphor for his general dedication. Taichi believes he’s chronically unlucky, but he’s also a teenager who’s only been playing this game seriously for a couple of years. Harada has been playing for forty-five years, and he’s never lost faith in his own play, even as his body has begun to deteriorate. That’s the difference between the two of them – not that Harada is “luckier,” but that he’s more willing to persevere through unfortunate circumstances, to an almost superhuman degree

And seeing this, Taichi actually tears up at his teacher’s perseverance, and his long-deserved victory. Did Taichi actually need this victory more than Harada did? Obviously not, and seeing this reminder of how much his teacher and friend has invested in this game, and even invested in Taichi’s own improvement, should hopefully help Taichi remember that his attachment to karuta means more than winning this one tournament and impressing Chihaya

The finals are Yumin versus Haruka, and Sudo versus Harada. Man, I really wanted to see Sakurazawa versus Haruka!

They might actually be holding that matchup in reserve, for a tournament that isn’t already being framed as so Harada-focused. I hope so, at least – we didn’t get to see any of Sakurazawa’s games!

Arata’s still burning up after Suo’s words, as Shinobu notes he’s playing more aggressively than usual

Coach Iso, of the Moryo Society, asks Shinobu if she’d like to join, and ultimately gets around to mentioning that Shinobu’s grandmother was worried she doesn’t have any friends. Shinobu instantly shuts down the conversation and walks away

Shinobu only really feels comfortable communicating in the language of karuta, and is cursed by the fact that anyone who plays against her loses, and is too discouraged to play again. Chihaya is the ultimate rival for her – someone who, no matter whatever else happens, is always going to have a good time playing karuta

We’re bouncing between around half a dozen focus characters this week, but this episode is handling it quite gracefully. The procession of the matches adds some nice inherent structure to what might otherwise feel like a somewhat disorganized series of scenes

And the west qualifiers end in a showdown between Arata and Murao, who was basically the only other choice, given we don’t actually know any other male karuta players in the west

And Done

Aw jeez, poor Taichi. I feel for him, but ultimately, losing here was likely far better for him than continuing on towards the Master’s throne, and further pursuing a dream of impressing Chihaya that he himself already knew was hopeless. Failure tends to be a far more instructive teacher than success, and in this tournament’s case, failing should hopefully not just continue Taichi on his road to more balanced defensive play, but also help him move towards a healthier relationship with karuta in general.

Harada “failed” for forty-five years, but he also spent that time nurturing a persistent love of his favored sport, and developing strong bonds with peers and students all along the way. The tears Taichi shared at Harada’s victory will hopefully help him remember karuta can simply be fun, and even losing can enrich your appreciation for the game. Whether that ultimately translates into a healthier attitude towards his relationship with Chihaya, I’m somewhat less optimistic – but either way, Taichi remains Chihayafuru’s most fascinating character for me, and I loved this celebration of all his messy qualities.

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