It is absolutely time for more Chihayafuru! We return to the show on the heels of one of its most thrilling episodes of all time, a team tournament finale that saw Chihaya, Taichi, and Nishida all pushing themselves to the absolute breaking point. Quite literally, in Chihaya’s case – her determination to succeed alongside her friends meant she kept playing with either a sprained or genuinely broken finger, compounding her injury and ultimately passing out the moment she won. Granted, Chihaya always passes out when she wins, but an injury is an injury. If this is anything more than a sprain, she likely won’t be able to compete in tomorrow’s singles tournament.

That said, it seems unlikely to me that the show will actually go in that direction. Not only would it be dramatically unsatisfying, as well as a repeat of Arata’s conflict from a few episodes ago, but it feels like the show has been building Shinobu’s situation up with the intent of paying off her character growth during the singles tournament. In order to follow through on the evolving perspective she demonstrated during the team finals, I’m guessing her eventual match against Chihaya will be something of a breakthrough, and possibly even the moment she realizes karuta doesn’t have to be a lonely activity.

Then again, Chihayafuru is nothing if not methodical, so that character turn might have to wait for a future tournament. But as I’ve said before, the nature of professional karuta tournaments means these characters only have so many opportunities to interact, and last episode left Shinobu dangling in a kind of personal arc limbo. I hope you’re okay Chihaya, and I promise that’s not entirely because I just want to see more Shinobu material. Let’s get to the karuta!

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Today we’re continuing our journey through Chihayafuru, as the team tournament finals draw towards an end! With all the establishing work Chihayafuru has recently done, this battle has felt like a validation of nearly every major character’s personal journeys, be it in a small way or a completely worldview-shaking one. While Tsutomu and Tsukuba have already fallen, our remaining three competitors each have their own fire driving them forward, whether it’s Taichi coming to terms with Arata’s presence or Chihaya finally internalizing Kana’s emotive approach to card reading. And of course, this is the last team match of the year – the last chance to shine as a group, and demonstrate their dedication to team karuta.

That “value of team karuta” point reflects what seems to be this match’s most unexpected dramatic focus, its impact on Shinobu. We learned at the end of the first season how karuta had essentially been Shinobu’s only friend, and thus she’d established a close emotional bond with the cards over time. Last episode, that knowledge was given context through learning that the adults in her life had intentionally isolated her from any peers her own age in order to foster that talent, actively forcing her to see karuta as a lonely activity. Given that history, it made perfect sense that Shinobu would have come to resent and eventually disdain team karuta, validating her own unhappy experiences by embracing the idea that team karuta is a fundamentally frivolous activity. If team karuta is bad, Shinobu wasn’t missing out, and her loneliness is just a necessary consequence of her excellence.

Of course, as it turns out, team karuta kicks ass, even if it’s not quite as serious and competitive as solo karuta. Arata framed the value of team karuta as its ability to draw new people into the sport they love, underlining the fact that even Shinobu’s lonely road demands other players – but for Shinobu, the more convincing argument seems to be Chihaya and Rion’s desperate match, a match as high-level and furious as the most competitive singles battles. Chihaya is reaching out to Shinobu without even realizing it, communicating a desire for friendship in the only language Shinobu has ever known. However this battle turns out, I hope Shinobu learns something from this day, and starts to escape her unhappy shell.

Alright, that’s probably more than enough preamble. Let’s dive right into Chihayafuru!

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