He has a good point.
Sumire’s scouting reveals that Hukou’s plan to beat Misuzawa is to pit strong players against weak ones and have an easy to win match. Retro decides to make he wants to win fairly instead of cheating, and matches equal players against each other instead. The child-like president Amakusa wonders why anyone would want to put in such effort to win. Sudo returns as reader, causing Hukou to have to keep up to not anger the s inside him. Misuzawa’s coach proves useful despite her lack of karuta knowledge. Chihaya tries to copy Shinobu’s style, while information overload gets the best of porky.
Of course they put Retro with Porky’s sister.
I’m sorry it took so long to get this post up. I was glad to see the intensive competition taking center stage this time, and the latest group tournament against retro’s group is the most suspenseful thing season 2 has had to offer us yet. It is hard to appreciate just how much skill it probably requires in order to do what Chihayafuru does all the time, like a machine. It might seem effortless, but it must, like a good karuta match, really sweat to make it happen.
Which version does she aspire to be, skinny or chubby?
More than any others so far, this episode has reminded me of what I most respected about season 1, the depth this series goes into, and the way it handles explaining all the rules is unique. It doesn’t just explain the rules, either. No two people see anything alike. No two players understand the cards or their meaning in the same way. Each person learns at their own speed, in their own special way, with their own experiences defining just what becomes important to them, and what they struggle with. The fact that it can do all this and usually end on a cliffhanger that leaves me wanting more, is freaking impressive.
There is also another talent Chihayafuru has that I didn’t really realize until now: Multi-tasking. Seriously. The ability this show has to look at karuta from every possible angle, through each player’s perceptions, filtered through each character’s personalities and playing styles while juggling everything else it has to do at the same time, is insane. All that, plus it always considers whatever the obstacles the particular person has had to overcome, and it takes it upon itself to examine even things you would never imagine being integral to the play. That level of attention to character’s emotions and thought processes is incredible and rare in any show, let alone a card game show.
One of the things that is more obvious when watching a group tournament than an individual match is that one of this series prominent strengths is multi-tasking point of view and showing us a bird’s-eye, omniscient view of everything that is going on. None of this could have been so amazing if we had only been in Chihaya’s perceptions, or it didn’t make such an elaborate effort to have each layer unfold like this, until all the myriad layers are unraveled and everyone’s strengths and weaknesses are thoroughly examined. It is such an expert at making even the smallest thing seem interesting, that I don’t even notice if a character I don’t particularly care for takes up the lime-light. This is because Chihayafuru could take a loathsome person and make them seem wonderful if it wanted to, merely because it is so skilled at creating sympathy in you for every single player in every single match no matter who they are.
I think that is why it is so successful and so brilliant. For two reasons, really. The information flow is coming from so many different places, one moment you are in Retro’s head and the next in an audience member’s head. You never get bored or tired of hearing about anything because the view is kept fresh and shuffled enough that you can feel you are being given a broad enough knowledge. Yet it is also smart enough not to be too scattered and knows when to slow down and let you simmer with one character’s thoughts too. This moderation is working in Chihayafuru’s favor.
Errant princess says,
Best episode of season 2 yet!
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