Chihayafuru

I really hope this time Chihaya can keep up her promise! Another great scene. I'll keep on hoping to see this animated someday.

Actually... we know that she will play queen match this year. It's in the first chapter. Then there is time skip 6 years back in time when she met Arata and so on. Now we are nearly at the time of first chapter.

My God. What an excellent chapter.

 

Such a great scene!

GOD! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS CHAPTER!

Losing this match doesn't mean she loses the Queen title. I could see it serving as a powerful catalyst to diversify her playing or accept other styles though. It could further her drive toward being the number one pro player. 

 

In other words, GO CHIHAYA GO.

There aren't any pro karuta players. Shinobu is aspiring to be the first ever, you know?

Of course, I'm not implying she would lose the title. And perhaps she does lose and gets stronger for it- a lot of times losses cause athletes to do soul searching and find answers that make them better, etc, and all other sorts of cliche tropes. I worry that Shinobu's family, especially her grandmother, would take this VERY poorly, and risk pulling the support she's been recently giving her, and that would be rather sad. All that said, I tend to agree that it would probably be BEST from a skill/ability/social awareness and growth perspective that Shinobu actually lose- and that chihaya faces arata in the end (only to lose? dunno, it's so hard to predict at this point)
 

ooooooooooh, bout to get serious! Ise san's analysis of Shinobu is quite sharp. Even more interesting, the Meiou himself sees the merits of Shinobu's sad relationship to the cards, even trying it out a little on his own =D Still, sad to see how he regrets his inability to help her develop social awareness and how it actually has negatively affected her karuta. Don't think shinobu will lose, but I won't completely rule it out. She will probably have a bit of a breakthru and learn to adapt on the fly, and will acknowledge chihaya's skill and improvement. As exciting as a Chihaya win would be, it would be so cruel to Shinobu after all the backstory and build up- she has so much more at stake from a future professional standpoint.

 

Losing this match doesn't mean she loses the Queen title. I could see it serving as a powerful catalyst to diversify her playing or accept other styles though. It could further her drive toward being the number one pro player. 

 

In other words, GO CHIHAYA GO.

..... As exciting as a Chihaya win would be, it would be so cruel to Shinobu after all the backstory and build up- she has so much more at stake from a future professional standpoint.

 

Um, she could still be a professional even after taking a 2nd place. I mean, no one's perfect all the time, and there are many professionals that vie for 1st against each other compitition after compitition. I think "so much more at stake" isn't a very good reason unless the other person is absolutely disinterested. Which Chihaya isn't. I've been thinking ever since the idea was introduced that Chihaya should be a professional too, since she doesn't seem to have excellent grades or anything else she's passionate about. Who'd watch a professional play against themself? They'd need more anyway....

ooooooooooh, bout to get serious! Ise san's analysis of Shinobu is quite sharp. Even more interesting, the Meiou himself sees the merits of Shinobu's sad relationship to the cards, even trying it out a little on his own =D Still, sad to see how he regrets his inability to help her develop social awareness and how it actually has negatively affected her karuta. Don't think shinobu will lose, but I won't completely rule it out. She will probably have a bit of a breakthru and learn to adapt on the fly, and will acknowledge chihaya's skill and improvement. As exciting as a Chihaya win would be, it would be so cruel to Shinobu after all the backstory and build up- she has so much more at stake from a future professional standpoint.

Why is there a gap between episode 49 and 87?!?!?!

There just is. Lazy Ass Scans picked up Chihaya probably because of the success of the anime in 2011. In 2012, TDX also started scanalating Chihayafuru- starting with chapter 91. This was while Lazy Ass Scans was scanalating from the beginning of Chihaya.

 

My guess is that TDX was aiming for the chapters around the end of the second season (season 2 ends on chapter 93) and that Lazy Ass Scans moved on. It looks like there were some attempts to fill the gap left by those two groups, but why bother when people could just want the anime?

All I can say is that it is about time for her to show her real strength against the ice gueen. :-) 

Spoiler

Also, Shinobu's character being the way it is, I don't know if her wanting to avenge Arata is born out of love for him, or out of pride in herself. Kind of like "Who do you think you are, defeating the one who defeated me when you were so much weaker than me before!?"

I have a feeling that is probably the case. Shinobu's connection to Karuta is a very personal one for her, not all that different from Wataya in some respects. Both are top individual players (Shinobu exclusively so). So to Shinobu, Wataya is comrade-in-arms or some such; an equal.

If anything, Shinobu's attitude regarding Chihaya now is probably a combination of both pride and fear. Pride in that someone so much like her had a poor showing. Fear in that someone she's dealt with before could now possibly be on par with her. (Of course, tehre's seems to be some awkward mild misunderstanding in the Chihaya/Shinobu relationship.)

Actually, it's probably the fact it's Chihaya of all people that's driving Shinobu to have the attitude she has right now. Personally, I'm waiting on the day when Shinobu's can acknowledge Chihaya as an equal... And a friend (which Shinobu is sorely in need of, IMHO). Chihaya is probably one of the few characters in the series that could truly understand Shinobu. I mean, from all the Shinobu-centric content in the series combined, she comes off as just a lonely girl wanting an actual friend underneath it all (well, to me, anyway).

Arata's defeat is not mean that Chihaya is stronger than him

Team match is different from individual one.. I'm sure Arata got affected by how fast all his teammates got crushed

let's admit it.. Chihaya got morale boost by Taichi's arrival and Mizusawa's fast win so it is normal for her to win

 

as for Queen vs Chihaya.. I hope Chihaya won this time

She already lost against her too much

we even had a tv-documentary in my country about this trend xDD. some japanese collect t-shirts that they don't even know what the shirts are about (like AA t-shirts xDDD).

 

 

Not any weirder than the Chinese/Japanese tattoos that were so popular just a little while ago. Some didn't even say what they were supposed to, so that adds the randomness.

 

Just sayin'.

Is Chihaya at the center of another triangle? What shape does two intersecting triangles make LOL? 

 

Well, I don't know if Shinobu's feelings for Arata are romantic or not, so I may be jumping the gun. I mean, Arata was the only one she couldn't beat as a kid, so he was her childhood rival and probably the only karuta player she ever acknowledged, which, considering karuta is her entire world, means he's pretty darn significant. Just like how Arata introduced Chihaya to karuta, the one true love of her life, makes him pretty damn significant to her.

 

But does significance = love?

 

Why is there a gap between episode 49 and 87?!?!?!

Im miffed. Why does she keep gathering strength or being depressed depend on Taichi when she cares not for him.

Queen, so thirsty cuz she's so salty =D

I'm personally hoping that Chihaya forces the queen to take off her kimono in order to win. Then the kimono-vs-kimono queen battle will be more intense.

I'm not even sure what i'm hoping in this match...
 

Chihaya > Queen might be a nice twist, but eh... i'm not sure if it's gonna be what i'm hoping for

 

While for Queen > Chihaya.. i want that rematch between Arata and Chihaya, and this will, of course, push it through another 20 chapters++.

 

and Arata > Queen > Chihaya is just repeating last year... so probably Queen will win this one 

A little late, but well worth the wait. Thanks TDX.

Taichi's serious, newly dedicated expression page 29 is fantastic. I just reflexively threw my underwear at the monitor.

Honestly, they probably saw it on a Japanese t-shirt, in a Japanese department store, in Japan. Japanese t-shirts (printed by Japanese companies and everything) have all sorts of random foreign nonsense on them. It's arguably hilarious but also sometimes kinda creepy. I didn't buy any myself when I lived in Japan for 2 months, but you can't walk through one hall in kyoto university without seeing at least one person wearing a shirt with a singular foreign nonsense word on it. My friends from my university in the US who were in Japan around the same time *did* pick up some shirts with such words on them. They're "trendy". Or at least, they were trendy 6 years ago (wow, it's been so long). But I imagine they're still trendy.

 

we even had a tv-documentary in my country about this trend xDD. some japanese collect t-shirts that they don't even know what the shirts are about (like AA t-shirts xDDD).

Stupid anti-climax is stupid.

 

Also the words on their shirts get weirder every time. "Reichenhaller"? That is what residents of a provincial town in Bavaria are called, but how would a Japanese mangaka know of something so random?

 

Honestly, they probably saw it on a Japanese t-shirt, in a Japanese department store, in Japan. Japanese t-shirts (printed by Japanese companies and everything) have all sorts of random foreign nonsense on them. It's arguably hilarious but also sometimes kinda creepy. I didn't buy any myself when I lived in Japan for 2 months, but you can't walk through one hall in kyoto university without seeing at least one person wearing a shirt with a singular foreign nonsense word on it. My friends from my university in the US who were in Japan around the same time *did* pick up some shirts with such words on them. They're "trendy". Or at least, they were trendy 6 years ago (wow, it's been so long). But I imagine they're still trendy.

So let me see if I got this right:

 

Chihaya < Shinobu < Arata < Chihaya

 

?

 

Three things: First, and this is the only one I'm not sure is accurate, this manga has implied multiple times that some karuta styles are more effective against other karuta styles. So it wouldn't be unreasonable to have that actually be the case.

 

Second, and this is one I know is true, but _time passes_. People's skill levels change. People improve at varying rates for various reasons. Most of the point of this manga (from, you know, the shounen sports battle manga perspective) is Chihaya improving to be Queen-level. So having her lose previously and win now against an even stronger opponent isn't unreasonable.

 

Third, people have off days and good days. This is true in all sports. Tiger Woods was the best golfer ever, but he didn't win literally every tournament he ever entered. No one has perfect consistency. So again, this result isn't unreasonable.

 

In conclusion, your sarcastic emoticon is totally unjustified.