Anime Review: Chihayafuru 2: I feel As Though My Body is on Fire with Ibuki Mugwort(2.11)

    Chihayafuru 2: I feel As Though My Body is on Fire with Ibuki Mugwort(2.11)Review

In this episode Nishida calls out Tsutomu on not playing in matches recently and this upsets him because they all worked so hard together last year to get to where they are now and he's worried that Tsutomu might be loosing his drive to play karuta. Chihaya ends up deciding that Tsutomu shouldn't play in the next match because Dr. Harada had told her before that scouting a match is often times more tiring then playing one.

It shown during the match in this episode how the information that Tsutomu has gather is very important to the team and in fact may be the reason the team win their match. It's also shown that Tsutomu likes to scout because it's what he feels that will best help his team and although he finds matches a bit scary he does still want to play them and he will be playing the match the next game.

While trying to come up with their order for the next game Chihaya even though she wants to play the strongest player on the team tells the team that she is willing to play someone she has a better chance of winning against if it means that the team will end up wining and becoming the best in Japan. While Taichi is filling out the order for their next match he thinks back to their last match against Hokuo and decides that they should play the match straight meaning their best against their opponents best.

I overall really enjoyed this episode and I continue to love how much there is to playing a game of karuta and how much is effects people. Please tell me your thoughts on the next episode.