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Originally Posted by Triple_R
If Chihaya feels happy and fulfilled by Karuta (and that certainly seems to be the case), then it's fine if she channels her libido through it.
However, I do think that Chihaya needs to mature as a sexual being at least to the point where she can recognize when another person is hitting on her and is interested in her, so that she can effectively respond to that one way or another. Taichi admittedly hasn't been totally clear here, but he has given out some hints.
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It's not clear to me how these two different aspects of life can be reconciled. It certainly can be done within karuta: Arata's grandfather raises his family within the tradition, and plays into his old age. But the earlier episodes raise a different possibility: that one cannot play karuta forever, so that karuta would be a stage in life, left behind when one goes on to devote oneself to relationships and family. Either Arata, or Taichi.
Chihaya does pick up on Taichi's hints: as when he restrains her from going up to his room, and when he holds her hand to guide the fork to his mouth stun her with a sexual apprehension. The animation draws out the moments, focusing on the ballet of his grasp and his release of her hand, the closeness of their faces and bodies. The amazed look on Chihaya's face lets us know she is on the very cusp of sexual discovery.
But what will happen to Chihaya should she go over the edge? Would she still be able to play karuta with the same intensity? or would she transfer that energy elsewhere, and become a different person? One perhaps more mature and happier in different ways that Taichi offers, but one for whom the dream of karuta would be impossible?
That is why I said Taichi is selfish: his love threatens to impose upon Chihaya a direction away from everything she has clearly expressed her own passion for, for the sake of satisfying his own desire. In so doing, he could conceivably lose in Chihaya just what makes her interesting to him. The "invigorating world of hope and sincerity, the very opposite of cynicism and superficiality" you speak of is none other than the life Chihaya has made in karuta, and what his love threatens to displace.
Your analysis brings home to me just how lonely Taichi truly is. His love rather separates him from Chihaya, does it not? It puts him in a place categorically outside of her own naive passion for karuta. So you get in this episode the painful contrast between Chihaya's happiness, overflowing from her manifest sense of connection with others ("I am not alone!"), and Taichi's solitary misery.
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Originally Posted by Kazu-kun
This is understandable of him. She has always been talking about becoming queen. For her, the most effective way to do it is by participating on individual competitions. That's why both Taichi AND Nishida were pretty surprised when she said she wanted them to compete on "team" competitions. It's going to be harder for her to achieve her goal of becoming queen this way, and that's why Taichi asked her if she was sure of what she was doing. Still, after Chihaya explained why she chose that particular route Taichi supported her decision. So again, I don't understand what you're complaining about. You seems to expect Taichi to know what the hell Chihaya is thinking and why she does the things she does from the get go, and that's just unreasonable IMO. In any case, their relationship is just beginning to develop.
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Thanks. I guess what I am getting at is that for there to be a relationship, there has to be shared feelings, values, goals, perspectives, something! The two people have to be in each others' hearts, if only a little bit, even at the beginning. All I am saying is that for Taichi and Chihaya there is just no sign of this. Or at least I don't see it. You've been an eloquent proponent of this particular ship--I'll be glad to be corrected by you. Tell me--in what way are they in each others' hearts? What makes this "relationship" other than a one-sided affair on Taichi's part?
Incidentally, Nishida understands Chihaya's passion for karuta immediately, and in deeper sense than Taichi has so far expressed, so I disagree that is unreasonable to expect Taichi to understand her implicitly.
Dawnstorm, I'll try to get to an actual response tomorrow. Must sleep now.