Quote:
Originally Posted by Quadratic
Didn't Kanade associate Taichi with a poem back in season 1? I can't remember if the poem was part of a card or not, though (but then again, Taichi, himself, has not listed any cards he associates himself with).
It was the episode where Taichi got all possessive protective over Chihaya for handing over her cell number/email to some random guy.
(Kanade also called all the members nincompoop, as well  ) |
Quadratic is absolutely correct. This is the scene where Kana realizes Taichi is in love with Chihaya. Kana then is reminded of two cards: #40 & #41, two love poems.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blaat
A promo image for this season had Taichi holding a specific card, not sure if it's the same card.
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#40 is the Shinoburedo card, which already belongs to Shinobu; so, it fits that the promo image has Taichi holding #41.
Taichi does have a card or a pair of cards associated with him, after all. Thank you for the reminders! Suetsugu fits Taichi into the world of the poems, as a lover whose love cannot be hidden.
I still maintain, though, that we don't know that Taichi loves karuta. Wondering just what it means to "love" karuta in the first place, I thought Arya's comments were extremely illuminating:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arya
What Taichi solved thanks to Karuta? Nothing. He loves a girl who doesn't see him at all and he has a friend whom he can't be fully friend with. Love for chihaya was what made him play Karuta seriously (so I think), but at the same time it's like love is what stops him progressing in Karuta and his other issues. Because Karuta can't solve it like it did with his friends. But somehow it's working in the opposite direction of other people. He is not good playing Karuta, he loves a girl who doesn't love him and can't be friend with a boy because of this whole mess. He is losing on each front, game, friendship and love.
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Taichi is a divided person. Karuta, love, and friendship are all working at cross-purposes. But take by contrast Chihaya. For her, everything is in synch: her friends, her team, her goal of becoming queen, her talents--they all combine seamlessly. So, I think what it means to love karuta is to be in this state of perfect harmony, where one's nature and one's actions and goals are all in harmony and accord. When Chihaya says she loves karuta, or that she is having fun, she is saying she is experiencing this congruity between herself and what she is doing. That is why she can have fun even when she loses; the sense of harmony is there, the pain of loss notwithstanding.
As yet, Taichi is not in this state of flow, and so as yet, he does not love karuta, and as yet, he remains outside karuta.
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Blaat, Nishida expresses his love for karuta in episode 8, where he notices just how much Chihaya likes to play, and connects her feeling to what he himself had felt when he was young.
As far as I know, Nishida doesn't have a card associated with him.
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This week's title poem is #87. Here is Mostow's translation:
" While the raindrops of
the passing shower have not yet dried from
" near the leaves of the evergreens,
the mist is already rising, on
this evening in autumn.
This is a beautiful, descriptive poem, that perfectly captures the rain, the season, and the time of day in which this episode takes place.