Let’s get right back to Chihayafuru! Last episode put us halfway through the first duel between Chihaya and young Queen Shinobu, which already feels like the most dynamic and dramatically effective karuta match of the show to date. Chihaya has been against the ropes for basically the entire match, but the show still managed to make her slow defeat feel fresh and tense all the way through. After a long period of simply being overwhelmed by Shinobu’s ridiculous arm speed, Chihaya has at last managed to snag a couple cards, including one of her best single syllable cards and her signature Chihaya card. There’s pretty much no way she’ll actually win this battle (even if her opponent hadn’t been clearly framed as a far better player, there’s just no way Chihaya can beat the Queen at episode fifteen and still sustain a show afterwards), but if her slow losing stays this exciting, I’ll have no complaints. Let’s get right to it!
Category Archives: Episode Writeup
Just Because! – Episode 4
Just Because! went through a bit of a lull episode this week, biding its time until the twin confrontations of its final act. The show is pretty darn good at time-biding though, and I was happy to see Ena get a lot more material this time. In a sea of sullen or anxiety-prone protagonists, Ena is by far the most energetic and active member of this crew, and sometimes it feels like her prodding is the only thing pushing any of these people together. It sure is hard to be a teenager.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below.
Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 21
After the elegiac and atmospheric frozen world of episode twenty, Penguindrum’s twenty-first episode sees the show’s narrative shifting into high gear. The episode opens with Ringo being confronted by a tabloid journalist, who claims he has an important scoop regarding the Takakura family. Ringo pushes this man away, but his fundamental presence implies that the Takakuras’ fragile equilibrium is about to fall apart. Times have been desperate before, but the siblings have always had their home and each other to rely on. Now it seems like even that sanctuary may be crumbling down.
Wandering Son – Episode 10
Things do not go well for Nitori.
Wandering Son’s tenth episode opens with us looking down on Nitori, Maho, and their parents, seated at a table that’s framed like some kind of interrogation room. Top-down lighting enhances the sense of drama, while a ticking clock replaces last episode’s urgent cicadas. Nitori’s mom jumps swiftly from “are you being bullied?” to “Maho, you used to dress him as a girl. You’re a bad influence on him.” Nitori’s trip to school ends in the worst possible way.
March comes in like a lion – Episode 24
This episode of March comes in like a lion seemed in large part dedicated to humanizing Gotou, which was an inherently fraught and not terribly successful exercise. We didn’t really learn anything that substantively shifted our understanding of his character, and downplaying Kyouko’s depressed, dependent status through wacky visual comedy just felt like a terribly misguided call. Based on everything we know, Gotou is just a plain shitty dude, and this episode’s sympathetic framing made it just that bit harder to buy into the reality of its world.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below.
Just Because! – Episode 3
Hey guys, it turns out Just Because! is a really, really, really good show. After two excellent opening episodes, the show continued with… an almost equally excellent third episode. The character acting has dipped a bit, but that’s to be expected of a mortal show, and everything else about the production remains absolutely stellar. We rarely get a show that so completely surprises me, but at the moment, Just Because! is on track to conclude near the top of my year’s rankings. Good times!
You can check out my full episode review over at ANN, or my notes below.
Chihayafuru – Episode 14
Let’s get back to Chihayafuru! Last episode saw the team competing in the team portion of the national tournament, where a sudden fever by Chihaya was contrasted against Arata’s journey to the tournament itself. Arata’s material there was both critical and very well-executed, simultaneously selling his complex relationship with his grandfather and his own multifaceted personality. The episode more or less shifted Arata from being a mythic, fated goal for Chihaya to being an actual breathing person the audience can truly invest in. Even a sports trope as hoary as “my passion for this sport killed someone I loved, thus I can never play again” can feel believable and emotionally charged with the right execution, and last episode’s mixture of warm memories and well-observed trauma fit the bill. Let’s see how Arata actually fits in to Chihaya’s present-day life!
March comes in like a lion – Episode 23
March comes in like a lion returns more with a whimper than a bang, dutifully walking us through two low-key chapters at the newly founded shogi/science club. This material was charming enough, and was certainly executed with plenty of visual flair, but felt totally misplaced as the first episode of a new season. It’s unfortunate that the show’s grand return is kinda undercut by its long-term structural issues, but as far as execution goes, these were definitely some nicely animated chapters. I’m sure the show’s production will fall apart again soon, but I’ll savor this while it lasts!
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below.
Just Because! – Episodes 1-2
The first two episodes of Just Because! were straight-up phenomenal, and I’m very excited to be writing about the show. As per usual for a first post, I focused this writeup more on sketching the overall style and goals of the show, rather than prioritizing an examination of the actual narrative events, and I’m pretty happy with the results. I hope you enjoy the piece!
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode two notes below.
Chihayafuru – Episode 13
Let’s get right the heck back to Chihayafuru! Last episode covered pretty much the entire transition from the end of the club’s first tournament to the beginning of the second one, bringing the whole gang closer together and proving their dedication to their faculty advisor along the way. Chihaya’s breakneck pacing is certainly one of its greatest strengths, and I’m actually even more excited for this tournament than the last one. The club’s first tournament was largely dedicated to actually proving their ability to function as a team – with that soundly accomplished, I’m guessing this next tournament will be the first one that hews to a more traditional sports structure, full of ominous opponents and thrilling faceoffs.
The thing I’m most looking forward to seeing is the show demonstrate that karuta really can support a sports narrative’s dramatic weight. I know that’s an odd thing to question twelve episodes in, but the show so far has leaned heavily on personal drama over sports drama, and in spite of that, has still burned through a worrying number of easy tactical setups. The show’s done a great job keeping karuta interesting so far, but I’m still worried the sport just doesn’t have the complexity to offer fresh-feeling conflicts all the way through. But everybody loves Chihayafuru, so I’m excited to see just how it solves that problem. Let’s get to it!