Anime Review: Chihayafuru: As Though Pearls Have Been Strung Across the Autumn Plain(1.15)

     Chihayafuru: As Though Pearls Have Been Strung Across the Autumn Plain(1.15)Review

This episode starts off with Chihaya having just got her second card from Shinubo and the people who are watching the match are really impressed by Chihaya's drive to win even though she was already down by so much. In the end Chihaya is only able to take five cards from Shinubo which to Chihaya means that there's much that she still needs to improve on. Shinubo recognizes that Chihaya being able to take those cards from her is something that leads her to seeing Chihaya as a rival. Chihaya I think is trying to make sure that she sees Shinubo as a person rather so she would seem less intimidating this shows when she says Shinubo's shirt is cute and that she refers to her as Shinubo-chan.

After the class A tournament which Shinubo wins is ending Kana comes and finds Chihaya to tell her that Taichi has made it to the final match in class B's tournament. The whole Karuta club ends up sitting on the sidelines nervously watching and supporting Taichi. Taichi is worrying about whether he can real keep pushing himself to keep on playing if he's going to loose if he can handle a defeat and use it to make him a better player like Chihaya has.

Taichi ends up accidently hitting the wrong card because he was probably remembering the position of the card from another match since he's played six matches already that day. Taichi messing up ends up leading to him freaking out a bit in his head and than he tries to rememorize all the cards again but his brain can't seem to hold more information than just the cards in front of him but then he realizes that should be enough. Taichi simply just doesn't have the speed to match his opponent so he ends up loosing his match.

After loosing his match even though Taichi is so clearly upset by the loss he tries to convince himself that he shouldn't be because he hasn't put the time into karuta that his opponent has and second place is perfectly fine so resolves himself into putting on a fake smile. When Taichi turns around he sees how upset the rest of the team is for him and Nishida tells him how second place hurts the worse so this allows Taichi to feel like he can be openly upset about his defeat. After their losses at the tournament the karuta club becomes more determined than ever to keep on improving their game and aiming for winning their class in the future.

I really loved this episode I thought it did a good job of dealing with how people can take loosing and I also just generally kind of love that Taichi seems to always feel the need to hide that he gets upset by a loose. Please tell me your thoughts on this episode.