Anime Review: Chihayafuru: But I Cannot Hide(1.09)

                                 Chihayafuru: But I Cannot Hide(1.09)Review

In this episode the karuta club becomes an official club but the advisor says that someone other than Chihaya should be the president the rest of club members decides that Taichi should be the president which is fine with Chihaya as long as she gets to be captain although no one is quite sure what that means. Chihaya decides that she should play against Kana and Tsutomu even though they are beginners and that everyone should play the best that they can this method seems like a bad idea at first since Chihaya is so out of Kana and Tsutomu's league but she explains that she started off playing with someone much better than her and it's what helped her love the game. Soon Taichi and the rest of the club members understand Chihaya's method and everyone decides to paly to the best of their ability and it actually does seem to help Kana and Tsutomu.

After club practice one day the club discusses how they don't think that their getting enough practice time because they only have time to play two matches a day so Chihaya suggests the idea of a camp. Over a long weekend the club decides to have their camp at Taichi's house when his parents are out of town. While at the house Chihaya shows the other club members a room full of Taichi trophies which embarrasses Taichi and Chihaya also mentions that she dislikes Taichi's mom and has nicknamed her Mrs. Pressure.

Through out the day the club members play various matches and while Chihaya seemed to have planned for the club to play all night Taichi tells Chihaya that they need to take a break because Kana and Tsutomu are exhausted and she shouldn't push people past their breaking point who are doing their best. A little later on that night Taichi's mom returns early and Chihaya makes sure that her and Kana are out of the house before they are seen but at this point she notices that Kana has fallen asleep so she carries her back to her home.

That night Chihaya worries that she's pushing everyone too hard and that she doesn't notice anything other than karuta. Kana wakes up suddenly after a phone call and drags her out to a park where the rest of the club greets her with a birthday tart and when she tells them her worries about being too pushy they assure her that she wasn't pushing them to hard and that it's one of the things like about her.

The episode ends with Taichi showing Chihaya a text from Arata in which he says sorry for his behavior last time they met and to wish Chihaya happy birthday. I overall loved this episode it did a really good job of showing how Chihaya's determination when it comes to karuta can be both a good and bad thing and it showed how the club will operate. Please tell me your thoughts on the episode.