I’ve spent the last few months keeping the Chihayafuru shipping talk to a minimum, as I feel the show has a lot more to offer than a high school love triangle. For one thing, it has a cast that spans generations, which has been emphasized more than ever this season. For another, the series trades heavily in themes like self-improvement and finding purpose – personal quests which can easily get lost in the haze of adolescent romance. That goes for critics of the show as well as the characters within it. I’ve read reviews of Chihayafuru that are obviously colored by the writer’s preferred pairing. They view Boy A as the hero, and Boy B as the villain. They evaluate plot developments based on how favorably they seem to affect their favorite guy. Ironically, there wasn’t a strong basis for their bias, as the show only busted out the love triangle teasing in small doses… until this week.
The moment that Arata confesses his love to Chihaya is huge. Though she hasn’t yet processed her feelings about his sudden admission, it’s going to have a definite impact on their relationship. For Chihaya, there’s no more talking to, thinking about, or wanting to play karuta with Arata without the knowledge that he loves her. Even her passion for karuta itself is rooted in her friendship with the guy, dating back to their elementary school days, where he was impressed by her potential. It’s that last point that makes his confession so appropriate in my eyes. Arata has always been inspired by Chihaya – by her skill at their shared hobby, by her kind heart, and by her straightforward nature. And he’s clearly inspired by her once more in the moments just before he utters those three little words.
In the wake of his loss to Harada-sensei, Arata asks Chihaya how she would have approached the endgame, and listens as she describes her strategy: she sends her desired cards to her opponent’s side of the field, then “goes in determined to take them.” In other words, if there’s something she wants, she goes for it. What does Arata do after hearing this, if not the very same thing? If you watch the visual accompaniment to this conversation, you can see maple leaves drifting between the two, starting on Chihaya’s side of the frame and moving towards Arata. It seems to me that they represent her passionate philosophy (they’re the same color as the “burning autumn red” mentioned in Chihaya’s signature poem), compelling him to take action in the same way. The show seems to be making the point that Arata’s love for Chihaya is grounded in her own influence on him, which I like a lot.
Of course, this episode wasn’t a 22 minute confession scene. There was also an ongoing karuta match, and quite an important one at that, that concluded during the first half. To be honest, though, I found it to be an underwhelming finish. When was the last time Chihayafuru got down to the final five cards of a match and showed us each one being taken? I don’t think that sort of detail has been paid to any game this season, and I can understand the show being pressed for time, but if any match deserved that kind of nail-biter finish, it was this one. Ending on a fault after a dead card can be really exciting with the right atmosphere, but that’s one thing that was lacking here, in my opinion. Harada’s lunges and subsequent falls weren’t animated with much care, probably because they’d be difficult as hell to draw (plus, it would be hard to watch a 57 year old man hit the dirt like that). I’m glad we’ll be getting the Suou/Harada matchup that was foreshadowed last week, but I wish the doc’s match against Arata had gotten the royal treatment.
Then there’s Taichi’s contribution to the episode. He’s not eliminated from the Chihaya Bowl just yet, though posing as her boyfriend in order to undercut the Meijin’s interest is a far cry from saying “I love you.” Twice during this episode, Taichi flashed back to Harada’s advice that he dedicate himself to karuta, and both times he was clearly substituting Chihaya in its place. That’s a mindset that will need to be broken before his character can grow, which is something I’m eager to see. Even though Taichi has been mostly sidelined since the Yoshino Tournament, the show checks in with him semi-regularly, so we know that he’s possessed by a desire to move forward. After the events of this episode, I’m pretty sure that forward progress won’t be romantic – the show wouldn’t push both male leads toward Chihaya with a year’s worth of story left to tell. The way forward for Taichi, I think, is to mentally separate his crush from their shared hobby. If he does that, he’ll gain clarity about his feelings for her, at which point he can make an honest bid for her heart.
MY MAIN MAN HARADA DID IT WOOOOOO. God I love this old man, i’m so happy he won. I feared it would give it to Arata, and keep him a perpetual “Im better than everyone” sort of ephemeral goal. But I loved Harada’s whole thing with age, new ways to fight, passion, etc. Good stuff.
Meanwhile, Arata (my personal favorite for Chihaya bowl cause Taichi sucks Nyeh) took a massive leap. You pretty much summed it up perfectly with Chihaya’s influence on him and him responding to that influence. It felt really natural for him to up and say it right there, and I loved everyones reactions to it. Oe knows whats up afterall, she knows how big it is.
You lookin forward to the double feature next week? I know I am.
Oh, I didn’t know we’d get two episodes next week! Nice.
Episode 16 was a recap in both the first and second seasons, so there’s a pretty good chance we get another one in S3. Might explain why we’re getting that double feature next week. Hopefully we get the little omake segments as before, if 16 ends up being a recap.
“the show wouldn’t push both male leads toward Chihaya with a year’s worth of story left to tell”
I think it definitely will, to be honest. Taichi is always one step behind Arata: in karuta, he was soundly beaten by him as a child, but he has been relentlessly pursuing him ever since and isn’t that far behind now; in his crush on Chihaya, he has been held back by constant feelings of self-doubt, but once he learns of Arata’s confession I expect he will be pushed towards a confession as well. Arata is a rival to Taichi, but also an inspiration, and I think this will help him move forward as well. For me Arata and Taichi are equals in the love triangle, and I expect things will stay that way until nearly the end of the story.
(As for where I stand in the shipping wars, I personally don’t really have a favorite between the two of them: Arata and Chihaya have more natural chemistry – Taichi’s interactions with her are always colored by his low self-esteem – and Arata is much more likable than Taichi, but Taichi has a far more interesting character arc imo. So I’d be fine with either of them winning, so long as their victory feels earned and the loser is treated with respect.)
I also don’t agree that the way forward for Taichi is to separate karuta from his love for Chihaya. I do agree that he needs to start loving karuta for its own sake, and I think he has been slowly moving in that direction: his desire to devote himself to something he isn’t sure he’ll be able to win at is at the very center of his character arc, after all, and being passionate about an activity is arguably essential to that. But the show has been very adamant that players can draw strength from their love for others (Inokuma was at her best after her son supported her, for example), and I think that’s how it’ll be for Taichi too: instead of separating love and passion, those two motivations should complement each other – instead of competing, they should flow in the same direction.
Anyway, this was a good post! I don’t always agree with everything you say, but I like how opinionated your episode discussions tend to be: that makes them much more fun to read than a simple recap of events. I agree Harada’s victory could have been done better – it worked for me on a thematic level, but it missed the tension and excitement of the best matches – but I’m still happy he won. He’ll no doubt be crushed by Suo, though. But maybe he can put up a fight.
Here’s my reason for doubting the double confession scenario. If Taichi gets wind of what Arata said and decides to follow suit, the series runs the risk of cornering itself. The question of “Who’s Chihaya gonna choose?” will hang over every episode, even if she gives non-committal answers or the show isolates all three characters. As an author, you’d have to be crazy to saddle yourself with that set of expectations so far before your conclusion. I expect the manga has progressed far beyond this point, though, so perhaps all of the romantic stuff has already been resolved.
Re: Opinionated Posts – Yeah, my thoughts, opinions, predictions, interpretations, etc. always make it into my writing. Straight-up recaps don’t hold much value in my eyes, but every reader is looking for something a little different. Happy to hear my personal voice is at least tolerable. 🙂
I see your point, but isn’t it pretty much par for the course for shoujo/josei series to take love triangles with them all the way to the end? Like it or not, but for many readers the shipping wars are one of Chihayafuru’s central attractions, so moving one of its central participants out of the equation so long before its ending (apparently this episode adapted up to chapter 119 of the manga and it is now at chapter 222 and still ongoing) would upset a large part of its fanbase. And it also seems rather unlikely to me that Taichi would suddenly abandon his pursuit after hearing about Arata’s confession: this episode again reaffirmed just how smitten he is with Chihaya, and as I said above, racing to his goals from behind is kind of his thing.
As for romance hanging over every episode, I don’t quite agree. It will always be there in the background, of course, but there’s no need for it to always be at the forefront. Love is just one of many motivations the characters have, and although this will no doubt force a romantic awakening of Chihaya (she has giving little indication of giving romance much thought up to this point, so I don’t expect an answer from her in the foreseeable future: this will just force her to start thinking about it – start thinking about Arata and Taichi as possible love interests), and she will no longer be able to see Arata and Taichi (if he also confesses) as *just* friends, (i) I’m pretty sure she will still interact with them in their old roles as good friends, competitors and sources of inspiration, and (ii) all characters will still have other goals to pursue on their own, from Arata’s desire to open himself up to, and draw strength from, others, and Taichi’s goal to overcome his parents-instilled obsession with certain victory, to Chihaya’s relentless pursuit of the Queen title. So even if romance would become a more central aspect of the series after a double confession, there’s no need for it to always be at its forefront.