Folks, it is undoubtedly time for more Chihayafuru. We return to the ongoing drama in the midst of a tumultuous transition period, as both Taichi and Arata are grappling with their true reasons for playing karuta. The unsustainability of Taichi’s simultaneous deference to his mother’s wishes and dedication to karuta came to a head at the Masters qualifier, where Taichi bet everything on winning the Master’s crown, and lost everything in one more tragic luck of the draw. That loss forced Taichi to at last honestly grapple with the hopelessness of his current situation, but his joy at watching Harada ascend to the finals seems to imply he may find a way out of this emotional swamp yet. Taichi really does like karuta, and he is also extremely good at it – if he can somehow divorce his healthy passion for karuta from his unhealthy infatuation with Chihaya, he might actually be able to convince his mother to let karuta be a part of his life.

Elsewhere, Arata seems to finally be engaging with his own feelings regarding Chihaya, while Chihaya herself seems to be grasping the nature of Taichi’s own feelings. And at the same time, Harada is still locked in desperate battle, about to face Sudo for a chance at fighting the Master himself. We’ve got a whole bunch of urgent, paradigm-threatening balls hanging in the air, and I’m eager to see where they all land. Let’s get back to Chihayafuru!

Episode 10

Jeez, even just listing all that out reminded me how good Chihayafuru is at providing a steady stream of genuinely enticing cliffhangers, and weaving its narratives so that we’re invested in about half a dozen active threads at the same time. There’s a reason this show possesses that seemingly ineffable “can’t put down” quality, and the mechanics of it are at least a little effable

We open with the show trying its best to hype up the Arata-Murao match. Murao’s journey has been an entirely emotional one, and mostly as an accessory to Arata’s journey – it’s difficult to now make him seem dangerous in a tactical sense, and clear in a structural sense that he’s only the opponent because Arata has had less time to develop a rogue’s gallery than Taichi and Chihaya

Even the commenters acknowledge Arata is the real threat, as the colors shift to his signature underwater aesthetic

Tight dramatic focus this time – every scene has taken place in this match room, and the episode proper opens with an illustration of the memorization time. Textual focus can create a sense of tension or urgency all by itself; the more thoroughly the episode conveys the context for this match, and the longer it refuses to jump to another story, the more seriously we’ll take it

They better not be seriously framing this match around friggin’ indigestion

Granted, March comes in like a lion sort of did that once, and managed it very well

“Why did knowing Taichi lost make me feel relieved?” Goddamnit Arata, you’re apparently as bad as Chihaya

Oh shit, now I get it. Arata’s encroaching awareness of his own romantic feelings for Chihaya are now poisoning the source of his strength – his ability to always return to that room with his friends where he was happiest, and thus play with tranquil focus at all times. Nice visual effect here, as the familiar image of the three of them playing is distorted by harsh static, timed to Murao’s first attack

Arata and Murao’s matching black and white costumes naturally lend themselves to visual compositions that complement Arata’s dire mood; the entire scene shifts to almost black and white as he finds himself preoccupied with memories and jealousy

“Maybe I never took Taichi seriously in karuta.” Taichi was clearly the worst of the three of them as a child, but now Arata can’t help but see him as a threat

Arata’s competitive aura is being actively tainted by his preoccupation. The normally cool blue waters that surround him are turning to inky black

Murao realizes that Arata’s weakness is his chance – but then he’s reminded of Arata’s grandfather’s funeral, and further realizes he can’t take advantage of Arata’s pain. WHAT A GOOD DUDE MURAO IS, I’M SORRY I SAID YOU WEREN’T AN INTERESTING COMPETITOR

(Even if the way this match is turning out is still validating my earlier point – that Murao is ultimately an accessory to Arata’s journey)

“Come back to us, Arata”

The visual illustration of Arata’s return to active presence is wonderful. The black ink melts from the cards, leaving the rich pastel pinks and blues that often connote the beauty of the poems themselves

Oh, jeez, this is so brutal. Arata’s stomach means he has to go to the bathroom again, but the match doesn’t stop. Not only does he lose whatever active cards were read during that time, he also doesn’t know what dead cards were read, meaning his ability to narrow down potential cards like Taichi does is severely limited, since he doesn’t actually know what’s left

He’s regained his cool though, and can even laugh while considering Suo’s eccentricities

Goddamn this is cool. Taichi notices that Murao jumps at the first syllable of a certain two-syllable card, meaning he can confirm the other two-syllable card that starts with the same first syllable is a dead card, lowering his overall level of missing information, and making future guesses that much safer. That bathroom break turned out to be a marvelous tactical innovation, adding a new element of hidden information to the match. In addition to playing the board, Taichi needs to play against Murao’s hidden “hand” of the cards he knows have been read, and slowly discover them

Oh hey, the other match here features Megumu. Good to see you, Megumu

The commentators point out another interesting quirk of this very strange match – the fact that Murao’s profound, unusual lead in the first half meant he ran out of cards he’s used to sending to the opponent’s side, and thus actually compromised his own board state by sending cards Arata can easily defend

Man, Chihayafuru is something special. I can’t think of another sports property that has established the rules and eccentricities of its chosen sport with such incredible thoroughness, to the extent that a single complicating variable like “Arata spends about five minutes missing the match” can populate an entire episode with interesting and totally understandable new strategic quirks

I think it helps that karuta itself relies on a specific balance of strategy and physical execution. Unlike something like shogi or chess, where understanding what makes a good player good requires a complete and practiced understanding of an infinitely complex board game, karuta is just simple enough in its tactical variables for any audience to parse, while also allowing room for opponents who are uniquely strong at specific physical elements of the game

And so Arata continues to close the gap, dropping it down to four cards

This match might also be helping teach Arata to play more aggressively, which seems to be one of his weaknesses – his fundamental play is so good that he doesn’t often need to actually play with the intent to take every card

OH SHIT HARADA WON. Oh my god, I can’t believe they just conveyed this incidentally, through an aside during this match. I’m frankly happy, though – watching Harada compete is really stressful, I don’t mind just learning he won after the fact

Murao takes “impassionate,” but it’s a Pyrrhic victory – by taking that card so quickly, he reveals “impassioned” was already read, confirming the last dead card, and leaving Arata open to play as fast as possible

And in the end, hard work can only do so much against the demons of this game

What a bittersweet victory. Arata wins, but only because Murao actually coached him through it, thereby giving up his own chance to prove the power of hard work to triumph over natural talent

And so Arata carries both their hopes towards Suo, after Murao thoroughly demonstrates he is the ultimate bro

Ah good, Chihaya’s actually enjoying her class trip now, and Michiru is happy to see it

Chihaya steps out into the hall just in time to see Taichi arriving in disgrace

He wants to avoid her and just sulk, but Chihaya’s not having any of that

“Which one are you going to root for in the play-off?” Goddamnit Taichi. I mean, I guess it makes sense that he’d be sulking at this of all times, but his way of dancing around his feelings while still burdening Chihaya with them can certainly get tiring

And Tsutomu expresses the frustration that Taichi himself is bottling up

And Done

Oof, that sure was a brutal conclusion. But mopey Taichi ending aside, hot damn that was an exciting episode! I wasn’t expecting the Arata-Murao match to be a highlight, or even receive that much screen focus, since Murao doesn’t really feel like a particularly threatening competitor. Instead, Arata’s early preoccupation, and then his five minute handicap, made this into one of the most tactically accessible and exciting matches of the season. I’m happy to see that even in the midst of its most consequential emotional conflicts so far, Chihayafuru can still pull off some of the most thrilling battles in sports anime!

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