Anime Review: Chihayafuru 2: In my Dreams, I Creep Closer to You(2.13)

                   Chihayafuru 2: In my Dreams, I Creep Closer to You(2.13)Review

This episode starts off where the last episode ends with it looking like Chihaya is finally finding her momentum in the match but this turns out not to be the case which leads to the rest of the team vowing in their heads that they'll win their matches. Tsutomu who wasn't doing so well in his match starts to improve once he remembers some of Sumire's notes which helps him know what cards that his opponent would be most unnerved about loosing.

Chihaya continues to struggle in her match when she can't remember what momentum feels like and even when she does what she can to unnerve Megumu she sees that none of the usual strategies to unnerve an opponent seems to work on her since she's calm all through out the match. Chihaya is finally able to find her momentum by having her hand go under Megumu's and the move had so much accuracy and speed that it shocks Megumu as well as quite few audience members. Soon after that move Chihaya is able to take a card from Megumu that she was protecting.

Megumu notices with the way that Chihaya takes cards that she is someone who wants to queen which is something that Megumu herself doesn't care about but Megumu does care about fulfilling the members of her team's happiness and since they all want her to be queen she must beat Chihaya. Around this same time Chihaya realizes that with the way that Megumu plays that she is a lot like herself before she started to work on conquering her weaknesses which is something that a lot of people have noticed how Chihaya has improved while watching this match.

I really loved this episode and how it dealt with how different people are motivated by different things and how just because you want to win for reason other than your own accomplishment doesn't mean that your drive to win is any less. I also enjoyed how this episode also show how working on your weakness is something that can drastically improve one's outcome when competing against strong opponent. Please tell me your thoughts on this episode.