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Not to rag on Taichi, but I don't think the dispassionate/casual way he broke up with his girlfriend was very "boss" at all. The implication from the start has been that he's interested in Chihaya rather than her, and given the events of this latest episode it seems pretty clear that his life has been taken over by the karuta club (they spent the entire summer training, when that vacation period would clearly normally be essentially ideal couple time). It is completely natural to me to think that Taichi's girlfriend broke up with him out of neglect, so I do think in the end it would've been more classy to be more direct about it (and show some actual damn empathy over the fact that their relationship is ending! :P What if the girl actually had some real damn feelings for him? geez.).
I don't have trouble sympathizing with Taichi as a flawed character (he's clearly got his own problems and there's every reason for him to both be fascinated with, and preoccupied by Chihaya), but I don't think the way he handled his former relationship was very admirable at all.
Anyway, on the rest of episode 17: very interesting stuff, but unusually this episode did feel like it somehow ended without a resolution. Usually the episodes are a bit more tightly constructed in terms of the overarching storyline or thematic point it is developing.
Chihaya's match with Shinobu has made her over-emphasize on speed. Her fellow player at the karuta society did mention that she's gotten faster, so I wouldn't say that's a complete loss, but it's a good thing that's she's come back around to focusing on the meaning of the cards and learning from Kanade. Haha, actually, going back to the Kanade love-in we were having in this thread a little while ago, in this episode it actually looks like Kanade was the one guiding everyone back to the true spirit of karuta. Not only Chihaya, but Tsutomu regained his way in karuta thanks to Kanade too.
Taichi's (as well as Nishida's) complete loss at the B-class tournaments was surprising to me. I won't insist too much on my previous comments about focusing too hard on trying to win (cause that doesn't really seem like to purpose behind that scene), but I wonder if there might be some general explanation for their weaknesses and potential areas for growth too. lol, well I guess, according to Tsutomu's notebook, there actually is one. In that case, here's to hoping we'll also see how Taichi and Nishida can improve as well.
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