Okay, with the previous episodes I complained about the second season not looking as crisp as the first… and here this episode comes and it really looks amazing again, without the distorted animation that stood out. The thing with animation is that with every series, a different kind of animation is appropriate: some series can get away with distorted faces because they either have the character-designs for it, or they put in a lot of movements in their frames. Chihayafuru however was always amazing in how every shot looked great. The previous episode abandoned that a bit, butthis episode acted like nothing happened.
Speaking of acing like nothing happened, this show just continues to develop its characters like nothing happened. This episode was focused on Tsukuba, but at the same time it also found time to push Hamano’s character and Tsutomu’s character forward. Nishida is developing to be a dependable senior and the rest of the cast also had some nice moments. One of the big strengths in this series is its consistency in just about everything it does.
Nice little twist at the end: the queen has a history with Arata. It had it coming: they must have run into each other when they were young. But didn’t she gain a few pounds?
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)
Some time has passed and she did decide after the Queen match that she’d shed her weight for the upcoming tournament, and only reason she gained weight was for that prize with the ice cream (LOL). Good thing that Snowmaru mascot didn’t have any other promos to tempt her.
One thing that is very subtle in this episode is the time skip. Right in the begining someone says that it’s already June, which means a few months have passed since the previous episode. We can pick that up later in the episode, but from now on I’m paying more attention to these kinds of information in this series.
This show has done something extremely difficult in this first 3 episodes in my opinion. It managed to change the focus from the protagonists without compromising their devolopment. What we got were small glimpses from the the supporting characters point of view, so even in the background for a little bit we still develop the main cast. Amazing way of avoiding a pacing problem and effectively introducing new characters.
ps: Chihaya’s hakama is just too beautiful.