Chihayafuru 2 - 6

"To Set the Tatsuta River Ablaze"

"The winners in this world are the ones who have had the most fun."

Normally I'd be incredulous if someone told me that there was any anime capable of being as intense as Shinsekai was this week, but Chihayafuru stepped up to the challenge and performed admirably. Watching the final match was incredibly intense, though in a different way than Shinsekai, and the superb soundtrack was just as emotional, powerful, and influential as I remember it being. There's so much personal investment at stake in these matches that I have occasionally yelled at my screen or cried outright at the outcome (whether happy or otherwise). I know I said last week that I wanted Hokuo to win just as much as I wanted Mizusawa to win and I wasn't lying. However, even though I wanted to cheer when Hokuo won, I also wanted to cry at seeing Mizusawa, particularly Chihaya, lose by such a tiny margin. It all comes down to the fact that everyone is a real person in this series; we all want to win, but if we do, it means someone else has lost.

Amakasu finally realizes just how much winning means to him this match. Having been barred from playing most sports because of his diminutive size, he suddenly found himself the ace of the Hokuo team when Sudo graduated, and the pressure caused him to lose interest in working hard. Yet even though he professes to want to sock Hyoro for manipulating the match to be this difficult, he himself has reawakened his pride and desire to win. The fact that he won his match by default rather than by his own power, and that Chihaya was noble enough to lose by insisting they touched the card at the same time (noble because she would have lost either way) really stains his victory and forces him to admit that Mizusawa is the better team. In a way, Hokuo lost this match because, as Komano says and Sumire finally realizes, Misuzawa were the ones who had the most fun playing.

Then there's Taichi, the man of the hour, who finally overcame his accursed bad luck through sheer determination. I can't even begin to describe my emotions at this moment; while winning by default was painful for Amakasu, Taichi's case was so much more gratifying to watch. Luck is the only thing that has consistently led to Taichi's various losses, but what's so great about this match is that it wasn't chance that caused Hyoro to make his mistake. While it was technically a "luck of the draw", Taichi shaped his own victory by projecting his willpower as strongly as possible and unnerving his opponent. Hyoro committed a fault because Taichi's sudden emphasis on offensive tactics scared him, not because luck called out the right card. It was a triumph as great as any Chihayafuru has ever given us, and though the team lost, hopefully this helps Taichi overcome the complex about his skills.

However, the fact that the whole match came out to not one, but four games that ended on a "luck of the draw" was truly bad luck in and of itself, and one of the few places where Chihayafuru introduced unnecessary drama for drama's sake. As Nishida correctly observed, Misuzawa isn't used to playing as a team, so they're not as sensitive to techniques like the one Hokuo used to split their cards. While Harada-sensei called this move "borderline illegal", I think it was brilliant. They worked seamlessly as a team to ensure their victory by lessening the odds against them, and had Hyoro not messed it up by making his mistake, the tactic would have worked. Misuzawa wasn't even aware that they were being baited until after they were trapped, and Chihaya, with her amazing focus, realized it last. It's a fatal weakness that Chihaya and the others are so individually focused; perhaps now they'll have the initiative to work on their teamwork.

As such, it was a truly bittersweet ending to regionals. Chihaya has always loved playing Karuta whether she wins or loses, but losing to such a ridiculously small detail would make anyone feel disheartened. Chihaya was unquestioningly the better player in her match against Amakasu; she's the one who instinctively heard Sudo's words before he even enunciated them and the one with the better reflexes to match. Karuta has always been a natural thing for her, like breathing, and her pride depended on everyone knowing that she touched the card at the same time as Amakasu did, even if he was protecting it. She lost the match but won the game, and though her tears may be partially happy ones, they're also reflective of the regret and pain at not quite being able to overcome her limitations. Arata, as otherworldly as he always is, knows exactly what to say to get her to express that pain, but I think the greater effect is on Taichi than Chihaya herself. She is naturally an inwardly focused person, and Taichi has never been able to bring out the kinds of emotions Arata coaxes out of her. In a sense, he's fighting a steadily losing battle against the Karuta god himself for her affections.