[karice67]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Nothing is stopping them from doing that, except the size of their hands lol. It's pretty much what the girl in this episode was trying to do (she hit seven out of thirteen cards...). Why is this allowed? I don't know. Maybe Karuta isn't as much about precision as it is about speed.

Originally Posted by Repelsteeltju

Though, really, if there isn't one there should be a rule against what Arata's doing.

Originally Posted by Kanon

Yeah, I can't believe this is legal... I guess this really means Karuta favors speed over precision.

It's a completely legal technique known as "watari-te", i.e., the cross-hand (the translator completely ignored the name of the technique itself ).

Refer back to episode 8 of season one, when Taichi is explaining and demonstrating the rules of karuta. As Sol notes:

Originally Posted by Sol Falling

However, I am indeed somewhat confused as to the legality of it. From what I understand, touching incorrect cards on the same side as the indicated card is legal, meaning you can attack indiscriminately if you are confident that the card being read is on the targeted side.

Hence, when two cards that are similar up to a certain point, e.g. chigiriki & chigirio, are on the same player's half of the field (in which case the are usually split one to each side so that players can't easily sweep them both away), then they can both be taken via the cross-hand before the unique syllable is read. And if the chihayafuru card were again on that same half, then all three could be taken upon hearing just "chi".

Originally Posted by Sol Falling

However, I definitely thought that touching cards on both your own and your opponent's side would be illegal/result in a fault, as Arata is shown doing in the gif on the last page. Is the result allowed to stand because Arata nevertheless manages to touch the correct card in his cases, or is this a mistake on the part of the mangaka or animators? Hopefully someone would be able to clarify the rules a bit here.

Arata is only ever touching cards on the same side - either his own, or Nishida's.

@Kanon
If you watch again carefully, you'll also note that Arata is being very precise. Most of the time, he only takes that one card from each place. Speed is never enough, as Harada-sensei has taught Chihaya. And from Arata's proficiency at this technique, it would appear that it is one of the techniques he has honed the most.