Chihayafuru S3 – 11 [Leaving a Hovering Mist Above the Trees and Grass]

So that’s why Harada’s match was omitted last week – Sudo yielded the game before it could even begin. I suppose I ought to be happy that we were given any sort of detail about the East Japan finals, but this “reveal” felt kind of backhanded. Tying Sudo’s concession to his bet with Taichi didn’t affect me the way Chihayafuru desired, because Harada was never the focus of the past few episodes to begin with. If Taichi was indeed instrumental in Harada’s victory, wouldn’t you want to dramatize the moment when he achieved it, even if it proved anticlimactic in the short term?

Ah, forget it. The East/West tournaments are in the past now, and the all-important challenger match is just ahead. This episode was a great stage-setter, in my view, so let’s get into the details.

The Shiranami society was called to action this week, as Harada-sensei revealed its true purpose: to provide support in his quest to become Meijin. I don’t buy his grandstanding on that front (he’s been far too good a teacher to have harbored selfish motives all this time), but now that only two men stand between him and his dream, his enthusiasm is understandable. The less experienced Shiranami members have their role to play, but it’s practice against Taichi and Chihaya that constitutes the bulk of Harada’s preparation. They learn the card placements and playstyles of Arata and Meijin Suou, respectively, and Chihaya even dabbles in a bit of method acting to get into the Suou spirit. I’ll admit to being confused at her hushed tone of voice and gifting of sweets while she studied with her cousin – it took Nishida and Tsutomu spelling out her mimicry in the club room for me to catch on.

Chihaya’s assumption of Suou’s mannerisms is a good gag, but it also reflects her deep desire to reach a higher level of karuta play. The scene where she sits in front of her TV at home, hunched over a diagram of Suou’s typical card layout, is all the proof we need to make that diagnosis. Her face is darkened by concentration. She imagines her hands sinking helplessly through the floor, as though it were the surface of a bottomless lake. Her silent desperation is so much more effective than the shouts of, “I have to get stronger!” from countless past and future shounen protagonists. Tsutomu says that Chihaya’s sharp ears can identify 20 one-syllable cards, but Suou claims to have 28; even if you know nothing about karuta, Chihaya’s reaction to the difference in their abilities tells you how big a gap those eight cards form. I do appreciate this attention to her competitive journey, even though she won’t be participating for the right to challenge the Queen.

Speaking of Queen challengers, it’s Inokuma’s contribution to this episode which is far and away my favorite. She might be the best character of the season thus far, despite being a supporting player. Whether she’s baiting a much younger girl into going all out against her, weighing her responsibilities as a mother against her competitive nature, or crying with relief at a life-saving discovery (more on that in a bit), I love having her on screen. The way Chihayafuru writes Inokuma’s character is not dissimilar to what 3-gatsu did with Yanagihara nearly two years ago. While Yanagihara is older by far, both characters represent a generation, or else a stage of life, not typically explored in their respective series. Those sorts of additional perspectives go a long way in fleshing out a fictional universe, so even though I’ll never be a mother to two young boys, I appreciate that this show has found time to include one in its already-packed cast.

Previously, we’ve been encouraged to think of Inokuma as having it all together. Her old friend and rival Sakurazawa said as much in an earlier episode, and she’s capably juggled her many responsibilities in previous appearances. When she gets word that her second son Jin has come down with a fever, though, she immediately questions her commitment to karuta. The scene where she pours her freshly-pumped breast milk down the toilet really struck me – Jin won’t need so much because he’s sick, of course, but there’s something else at play, as well. Maybe the action mirrors her desire to throw away a symbol of her “old” age (relative to the teenage girls she competes against). Maybe it’s just a sign of frustration that, although she can provide milk for her son, it does no immediate good when she’s away from home, practicing to take back the Queen title.

One of the episode’s last scenes provides a resolution to her conflicted feelings, thanks to the gentle guidance of Kana-chan’s mom. The fix doesn’t come easy, though – Inokuma’s frustration at spilling her thermos of hot water, and then her deep regret as she watches her older son clean up his mother’s mess, was hard to watch. I wondered for a moment if she was going to abandon her dream right there, take her son to the park as he had requested, and relieve herself of the pressure of being both mom and karuta legend. Then came Oe-san to the rescue, though, with a demonstration of how to breastfeed while wearing her kimono. What’s so great about this moment (apart from the honest emotion it elicits from Inokuma) is the harmony it creates between her two halves. As a mother, she’s able to feed her child; as a competitor, she’s not required to take off her kimono before her match. She doesn’t have to compromise.

I’m closing in on 1000 words, so I’ll leave things here. My main hope for next week is that the Arata/Harada and Inokuma/Megumi matches will be uninterrupted. We haven’t gotten a detailed, card-by-card endgame in a karuta match for a while, so I’m looking forward to a down-to-the-wire contest in one (or both) of the games. Until then!