Anime Review: Chihayafuru: As My Sleeves are Wet with Dew(1.21)

                                Chihayafuru: As My Sleeves are Wet with Dew(1.21)Review

This episode starts off with the end of exams week and it's mentioned that through out that week Chihaya had refrained from mentioning karuta but that afternoon before most of the other members of the club even arrived she was already playing a match with Tsutomu. While reading off the cards for the other four members matches Taichi recites all the cards perfectly from memory alone all the other members save Chihaya who didn't notice this where really shocked by this. After the match Nishida tells Taichi that he shouldn't relay so heavily on his memory while playing karuta because it's both a mental and physical game and Taichi relaying on memory so much ends up hurting him in matches because he's so focused on the words he can't just go for the cards as fast as he wants.

Chihaya is informed that she hasn't failed any of her exams therefore she will be able to compete in the eastern qualifier. At a karuta match for Class A Chihaya before her match meets up with Sudo again and accidently agrees to shave her head if she looses a match before him. Chihaya ends up playing a karuta prodigy named Ririka who's only in sixth grade and is known for her speed. Chihaya since she's trying not to relay on speed while playing karuta ends up not doing too well in the beginning of there match but she starts to catch up once she starts to focus more on her timing. The little girl Ririka is very focus on winning her match but it was also very nice to see that her mother wasn't pushing her but she was glad that karuta was something that made her proud of her big ears which she had been made fun of for having in the past.

Another member of Dr.Harada's society asks him why he took away Chihaya's speed from her so early on since it's her best weapon. In the end Dr. Harada tells Chihaya it's okay for her to use speed and she ends up winning the match and Dr. Harada explains that he wants Chihaya not focus too much on speed because he wants her to have as many weapons as possible at her exposure. The episode ends with Taichi texting Arata about how Chihaya has won her match and how he's going to keep working towards his goal to compete in eastern qualifier and Arata better win the western qualifier for some reason I just really like that those two where communicating.

I overall really enjoyed this episode and how it focused on how one shouldn't just relay on one skill to play the game of karuta because to become the best at the game your going to need all kinds of different skills. Please tell me your thoughts on the episode.