Arata is still much stronger than I expected. I wanted him to struggle, because that makes shoujo-lovers root for the character making him more likely to win against the struggling Taichi. However, the Taichi Arata meeting showed his cute side, making up for his lack of pitiful struggling.
The ace of Taichi's club barely beat Arata, and by luck at that. It is almost amazing how good he is at this point.
Peace.
According to my experience, in shoujo only girls struggle visibly. The prime guys hardly struggle at all or if they do, they do it internally never losing their coolness to outsiders. Secondary guys might struggle to make the primary ones look all the more cool. However, this show is more like a sports one than a shoujo romance, so anybody could struggle.Originally Posted by shinta|hikari
Yeah. Despite the explosive reactions he was the concentrated, externally stoic type already back when he was a kid, so such development looks natural. It was already said earlier in the show, but looking at such a face must be quite distressing for the opponent. The Queen certainly employed it as well (although she's a robot, so I doubt she had a choice in the matter).
The cool collected types generally do not get the girl if there is a dedicated passionate rival (one that is not there for comic relief), except for some rare exceptions in shoujo. However, Taichi and Arata are not clear cut in those categories. Taichi struggles, but is actually the 'perfect' guy, smart, handsome and athletic. On the other hand, Arata seems cool and collected, but is actually hot blooded, naive, and is only good at Karuta.
Peace.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
This series is starting to get loaded with a lot of great seiyuu cameo roles. I recognized Ririka's voice but couldn't place her actress (I want to say it was Ootani Ikue, but I'm not 100% sure), and Murao was definitely Ueda Yuuji. Obviously Kana's mother is Hisakawa Aya, with Shitaya Noriko (FSN Sakura) sneaking in, Kanai Mika as Sakura-san a few episodes ago, and those are just the really obvious ones.
Ririka was an interesting display actually. It was like Chihaya playing against herself. Until Chihaya was allowed to unleash her own abilities, she got a taste of how she is viewed by her opponents. Blindingly fast, but prone to errors. It was pleasing to see how far (and how quickly) Chihaya has really come since she began learning from her friends, teammates and opponents. What was better is that Chihaya defended Ririka. She didn't want the girl to get discouraged after she failed to meet expectations, and like Ririka's mother, wanted her to find something she enjoyed. Chihaya certainly wanted Ririka to be another Chihaya rather than another Young Taichi. Hopefully, she's accomplished that goal, and now Ririka has gained a role model.
Ririka is also young, so her hearing is more exceptional than just being the owner of large ears. Chihaya was also quick to point out that her diminutive size removes a lot of the weight an adult competitor has to move around at speed. Ririka lost a little reach, but she didn't tire herself out at all.
Yeah, this felt like a really meaningful match. It's not like Chihaya wouldn't have seen the weaknesses of her old style by losing to stronger opponents, especially the lucky one, but now she saw it from the second person angle. I was worried for a time that Chihaya would start to sympathise with Ririka too much, and while she indeed did, fortunately it didn't affect her own playing at all. In fact it turned out very warm. Like you said, Ryll, I don't think this ended up demoralising Ririka at all, after Chihaya herself almost crying and then defending her, especially since (I guess) Ririka likes karuta itself and not only the praise it gains her. Losing teaches more than winning anyway, so if she can take it, it'll serve her well. She has her prime years in front of her, after all.
Looks like Arata's club isn't too hot at the moment.
Ririka didn't seem to like karuta the way Chihaya likes karuta, so I didn't feel that Chihaya was empathizing with her that way. Ririka's mother pointed it out very simply to the audience. Ririka gets bullied about her large ears (and so did the mother apparently) and was trying to hide them. In karuta, Ririka found an activity where those are a huge benefit, and she finds it fun, which is all Ririka's mother really hoped for. Karuta gives Ririka something that she can be proud to have large ears. No one will bully Ririka over her ear size in karuta, they wouldn't even notice it, they'd only see her resulting increased reaction speed.
But Chihaya's support (and display of skill) will certainly help Ririka continue to enjoy karuta. Just imagine if poor Ririka had to face Sudo!
I think Chihaya was moved to tears by Ririka's determination. Even when Chihaya began to overwhelm her, Ririka refused to let it get to her after her initial sniffles. That's the attitude of a future contender for Queen!
Ririka's so young that at that age she could like something one day and be totally disinterested the next day, but considering she was there to play against Chihaya in the first place, and how those people wondered if she could develop into another potential Queen, she must have shown some good results in the past. I don't think she could have achieved that without determination, that is, liking what she's doing. If it originates from turning a weakness into a strength doesn't matter; everybody has their own way of finding their best hobby.
I think Chihaya has just gotten that strong.
Peace.
I thought the last time was Taichi's last chance to be in the East qualifiers.. or were those held twice a year?
I'm cheering for Taichi the most here. He's taking his strength as far as it'll take him, and now's learning about the aspects he's missing. Development-wise towards maturation he's not too far behind Chihaya, though her talent gives her a much bigger boost than his memorisation currently is. Maybe that'll change when he has all the cards and their positions memorised.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
Nothing at all in all this spoke of strength particularly. Chihaya is still very much in the process of trying to develop a style that would let her be both fast and avoid mistakes. She wasn't even sympathising with Ririka out of her own strength, quite the contrary, she was feeling for her because Ririka was walking the same path that had ultimately led Chihaya to a deadend. No doubt she was remembering her own earlier times and how much stuff mattered to her back then plus simply how painful it is to lose against a superior opponent.
I find myself cheering for him during some of his games, like those against Nishida, but otherwise his non-game actions bother me too much for me to cheer for him in general. He had a girlfriend whom he obviously neglected with Chihaya in the back of his mind all the time, yet he pretty much did nothing at all before Arata reappeared. Then he quickly dumped the other girl and is now constantly hanging between using his proximity to Chihaya to his advantage or being a gentleman (or whatever you'd call it) and trying to wait until Chihaya makes any sort of proclamation of her own feelings, just like Arata seemed to be waiting. Although we just learned Arata was holding back because he thought Taichi and Chihaya were already a pair, so it's anybody's guess if his behavior is going to change. He doesn't seem like an overly amorous fellow, though.
What I meant was Ririka is probably pretty great at karuta. The more ignorant watchers were disappointed because they did not know how good Chihaya, the one beating the genius up, is (has gotten).
Peace.
Ririka would have to be. She's rank A, same as Chihaya and Sudo.
But as Kraco said, Ririka relies only on speed and her hearing reaction time, same as Chihaya used to. It works, but Ririka too needed to see how easily that style can be bested, as well as how far she can go. It's a lot better that she was beaten by someone using the same style instead of how Chihaya was beaten by Sakura. It's easier for Ririka to understand how much stronger their shared style can become with minor changes and experience.
I was expecting some words of encouragement/wisdom from Chihaya to Ririka about how she used to go through that stage, or how she got better from sheer speed by observing others - but in reality I guess that would never work.
Winners giving advice/comforting words to the loser only works if they had a good relationship such that the advice is known to be given with good intent rather than a show of superiority or a bad attempt at comforting.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
I don't think Chihaya is in any position to give Ririka solid advice. She hasn't yet finished developing a wholesome style to replace her old speed-only style. Ririka might be still too young to deduct the reasons for her lost without anybody saying anything, but nevertheless Chihaya is not the one to say anything, other than to silently support the kid, just like she did. Ririka must have a club of her own, including an instructor who will explain the situation carefully. Chihaya suddenly using all ten seconds to tell Ririka not to rely only on speed would ruin Ririka's games, should she heed the haphazard advice.
Episode 22 - HS
- - - - - - ---
What an annoying episode. I have nothing against tough fights when both the players are honourable and human, but when one isn't, it's bloody annoying. It was like that with the current Queen, who was a robot, not a person, and now we have a dirty player intimidating younger, well-behaving opponents into giving her free cards, and not just using valid psychological warfare of setting the pace for the game. I'd have grudgingly accepted if she only did it once, but she did it at least twice - that we saw, so it could have been more times. What a complete scumbag. If this didn't leave such a bad taste, it would have been a good lesson for Chihaya to learn that there are such cheap and miserable failures of players in the karuta world and she should be ready for them as well and harden her nature to tell them to shut up if they start to whine.
I didn't like this episode at all, even if it's realistic that karuta would also have evil, cheating players like that.
I'm not sure how "evil" it is really. Sure it's annoying as hell, and unless you had a camera it really comes down to whoever is more persistent. We'll have to give the previous queen the benefit of doubt that when she argues that it's her win, it is (weird as that may sound). Karuta is, after all, about whoever touches the card first - not who removes it from the field.
As for intimidating, that's what aggressive karuta that Dr Harata teaches is all about anyway.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
Well just be faster and make it so that your opponent won't be able to contest who got it first. Simple as that. I believe Chihaya is much stronger than what we saw this episode but she is so simple minded that she easily chokes in unfamiliar situation like this one.
Thanks shinta|hikari for the sig.
I'm 100% sure Chihaya touched first both the cards that we saw contested. But the bitch simply had seen earlier Chihaya's mood swings and how easily affected she is, to the point of changing her playing style entirely a couple of times during the game. So, she decided to capitalize on that to get free cards simply because she judged, unfortunately correctly, that someone like Chihaya would never argue against the former queen. I'd say that's past the acceptable line of aggressive playing. It's a different thing to suppress the opponent mentally like the sadist guy does and to outright steal cards that the other one already won.
People like that are easily ruining the enjoyment of the game for others. Just think how some kid, like the one Chihaya played with earlier, would feel if her opponent claimed her wins one after another. She would start to hate the game and quit the club. This bitch doesn't give a shit about karuta as a sport anymore, she simply is pissed off she was the queen only for a year and now she wants the title back, no matter how dirty tricks she needs to employ.
Are you sure? Yamamoto-Yumin-sure?
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
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