2012-03-07, 15:30 | Link #1321 |
Seishu's Ace
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Kobe, Japan
|
Taichi and Arata are both what might be called "old souls" - especially Taichi. He's responsible, neurotic and relfective. Chihaya by contrast is the virtual embodiment of youth both inside the ring and out - self-centered, innocent, not very self-aware, athletic and impetuous.
While both Yumin and Sakura are older women (and both defeated Chihaya) I think they're at very different places in their Karuta journey. Sakura is clearly well past her prime, a "ceremonial" player playing for the love of the game and what might have been. Yumin is only one year removed from being Queen, and at a crossroads - will Karuta continue to be an important part of her adult life, or will she go the way of Sakura? She's still young and athletic enough (and free of responsibilities enough, presumably) to rededicate herself to being elite, if she so chooses.
__________________
|
2012-03-07, 16:59 | Link #1325 | |
Kana Hanazawa ♥
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: France
Age: 37
|
Quote:
Of course, everything would be easily solved if they added referees. What happens when players can't agree on who should get a card anyway?
__________________
|
|
2012-03-07, 17:57 | Link #1326 | |||
I disagree with you all.
Join Date: Dec 2005
|
Quote:
Quote:
I'm no karuta player, but I don't think I'd mind getting trounced by Shinobu. She's just plain better than everyone else. Fine. But I don't think I'd want to even play in the same room as Yumin. She's not just annoying - the thought that she's getting by on dishonesty is just shameful. Quote:
|
|||
2012-03-07, 20:17 | Link #1327 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
|
First card
With the pinky, like she said. Second card It's unclear whose hand it is until next frame where we see that Chihaya's hand is the one that was late. So it seems despite being annoying, the old lady was honest on both accounts. I'm glad that at least Chihaya lost fair and square, it would have sucked to lose to a cheater. |
2012-03-07, 20:35 | Link #1328 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
|
Can we stop calling Yumin an old lady. Didn't she just graduate college? Maybe she is old compared to the high school kids but she isn't that old.
Gosh this thread is making me feel old and I am older than Yumin. But thanks very much for the screen caps Byakou, those were very helpful in clearing up that Yumin did not cheat. She knew it was her card and she fought for it.
__________________
|
2012-03-07, 22:27 | Link #1329 |
.
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Lost in a delusional world.
|
So she regained her passion and managed to come back. I like how this show is progressing, honestly this probably could've happened realistically speaking.
Ayase choked in the middle of the match and lost despite the lead she had, that happens in pretty much anything competitive. Now the problem is, she doesn't love karuta, but loves competitive karuta. The notable difference is that they both lead you down two entirely separate roads. One being the road of her former victor, Sakura, or the road everyone else tries to follow, becoming queen/master. But her speed and sharp reflex's prove otherwise, she has the talent but doesn't have the mental build. Unfortunately not a lot of people have the mental build, and those that do don't necessarily need talent. This is what I think Harada tried to teach her by telling her to stop relying on her speed, and focus on overcoming the barrier that made her lose important matches. Combine the two and your good, remove the mental strength and no matter how much talent you have you'll always lose. I see Arata as the complete opposite of Chihaya, he's mentally prepared but doesn't rely on talent. And by that I mean, the mental block that clouds Chihaya as she plays, doesn't happen to Arata since he doesn't care about the outcome. He obviously wants to win but he doesn't put as much pressure to what happens if he doesn't, as Chihaya tries so hard not to lose that it has the opposite effect. And at the moment I could definitely see Arata holding more than just his weight against Hisashi. The show feels like their trying to view a modern karuta players perspective and the mental struggles that occur through their daily matches. And I find it's really well thought out, I'd prefer such an outcome rather than an unrealistic scenario where Chihaya becomes queen, and the mains succeed against overwhelming odds. |
2012-03-08, 09:40 | Link #1333 |
Lost at Sea
Join Date: Mar 2010
|
Thinking on Guardian Enzo's comment about Yumin and Sakura being at different points of a career in karuta, I noticed that the female characters in Chihayafuru comprise a trajectory of age, starting with Chihaya as a child, and then going on to Chihaya as a teen, to Shinobu, to Yumin, and finally to Sakura.
No one wins forever--not even Shinobu. So human life is imperfectly characterized by victories in karuta. Loss, rather, is the true universal. Experiencing, facing, and dealing with loss is the place where human victories are found. That is why the anime is closing on such an ambivalent note, with defeats of the principal characters on the tatami. Suetsugu-sama pursues the deeper, more difficult victories, the quiet greatness of Taichi's words to Harada-sensei. In the end everyone loses, everything is taken away--yet for all this people still refuse to run away. Defeated, they become noble; by tragedy, they become great. At its heart Chihayafuru carries a wisdom too deep for tears.
__________________
Last edited by hyperborealis; 2012-03-15 at 13:17. |
2012-03-08, 15:52 | Link #1334 |
cho~ kakkoii
Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: 3rd Planet
|
As the say, you can learn about a person about his/her true self in adversity. She should be a better player if she can keep her self together and come out of it well enough to move on. There is one thing Chihaya has done consistently is that all her opponent come alive when they play against her. She is special, but we already know that!
__________________
|
2012-03-08, 23:56 | Link #1335 |
残念美人
Join Date: Oct 2004
|
That guy's character sketch, released by the anime magazine, convinced me the show will end with the whim. At first, I didn't believe it. It's too soon. Without rushing it, the pace actually reach this point. blah blah balh
Seriously, I feel sorry for the former queen. She has low self esteem. She knows she's too average, and she's the one who gets ignored. She somehow does well in karuta. She continues to play karuta because she knows someone will care about her. Her teacher will care about her, as long as she continue to play karuta. Although he has the bad personality, he is a good teacher. So, she works hard. The public view is that she becomes a office lady, so she loses the precious time for practice. She knows it's not the case. Besides, students are busy with their work, too. She is overwhelmed by Shinobu and loses the confidence. Chihaya has the high respect for the former queen, although she's dethroned. Chihaya notices her victory is the result of the hard work. However, Chihaya still can't believe it. The victory at her grasp is overturned later. It raises an interesting question. Chihaya witness her success to win the title, but Chihaya misses the lossing title match. Because Chihaya didn't recognize Shinobu, it meant she did not watch the national TV from previous year. How can a kaurta mania as Chihaya will miss the most important event of the year? I also notice this manga has covered emotions for many players, for winning and losing. It's more than sports anime.
__________________
|
2012-03-12, 14:35 | Link #1336 |
Lost at Sea
Join Date: Mar 2010
|
The episode takes its title from the 9th waka of the Hyakunin Isshu. Mostow translates the poem as follows:
The color of the flowers has faded indeed in vain have I passed through the world while gazing at the falling rains. The Crunchyroll translation "Just as My Beauty has Faded" presumably alludes to Yumin's age, since the episode portrays her to a degree as someone whose interest in karuta has faded since her loss to Shinobu. But the poem might refer better to Chihaya, and to the situation she finds herself in with her loss. All her effort at karuta has been focused on becoming queen, and now that dream has been suddenly and unexpectedly derailed. So it may be she who finds that "in vain / have I passed through the world." More, Chihaya's stunned and sightless stare echoes the senseless "gazing at the falling rains" of the final line. The despair the poem articulates is the challenge that Chihaya's defeat leaves her at the close of the episode. In a sense, the episode ends on a cliffhanger: how will Chihaya respond to her loss? How will her friends react? All of that is left for the next episode. ------ I confess Chihaya's defeat has left me with a certain listlessness, so I will forgo more analysis of the cards this week. The significance of Yumin's win for the overall story arc escapes me. The narrative begins to take on the depressing character of real life, where life is just "one damned thing after another."
__________________
|
2012-03-13, 10:10 | Link #1337 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: United States of America
Age: 32
|
Well, that was an interesting episode in that we got to see it from the PoV of someone who hasn't been in the main cast at all.
But I loved Yumin so it was all cool. She is actually my idol among the women in this show now. I could care less about deified talented players or youthful dreamers or people full of confidence and with a plan of action all the time. I sympathize much more with tenacious workers who aren't exactly brimming with confidence all the time but manage to hang on nonetheless. They are just that much more real, real as in seeing the flaws with the world and themselves but coping with it nonetheless. They will have to battle all their life with the possibility of eventually giving in to despair, of becoming nothing but a whiner, but so long as they don't do it, they are awesome. I severely disagree with those posters who think contesting every close call is dishonest. Contesting every close call is what separates the passionate and the sincere from the weak-willed and the insincere. Sportsmanship includes being serious about the sports and that means contesting what you believe should have been yours. There are many things wrong with claiming that Yumin is cheating just because she contests all close calls, the first of them being the assumption that she contests even when she knows for sure that the card wasn't hers. I say it is the duty of every player who respects the sports to contest a call if they are either sure that they deserved the point or if they are unsure as to who should get it. The only time it'd be dishonest, cheating and disruptive would be if you contested something you know for sure that you didn't win. And that is a thing nobody can do with as much confidence and with as much detail as Yumin did with her calls. Besides, Chihaya wasn't anywhere near as confident as Yumin that she touched the cards first and yet she tried to take them. Why isn't she being harped on for being dishonest instead? It's kind of redundant to try and defend her point here when she couldn't manage to make a case for it herself, don't you think?
__________________
|
2012-03-13, 15:21 | Link #1339 |
❙❙❙❙❙❙❙❥
|
That ending ... reminded me of what a softie I am
D'aww! I'm a little let down that there wasn't a match shown in detail, but was still a nice episode. You can really see how close everyone is now. Taichi keeping an eye on the depressed Chihaya and what followed was simply lovely. Why, why do they all have to be so adorable? I'll be so sad once the anime ends |
2012-03-13, 16:04 | Link #1340 | |||
I disagree with you all.
Join Date: Dec 2005
|
Quote:
You could say - and I'd agree - that he acted like a pro. He brought victory to his team, and there's a whole lot of money at stake, so we're talking about something that matters. But would you say he exhibited sportsmanship? That he was "passionate and sincere"? Of course not. And the thing is, there's no money in karuta. Without sportsmanship, all you're left with is two weirdoes slapping cards and having "did so! did not!" arguments - I'd as soon watch kids rule lawyering about Yu-Gi-Oh. If really all that happens is that Yumin contests the cards she sincerely thinks are hers - then ok, it's normal. But because it's normal, why is that remarked upon? Why is she unusual? And how come there never are any close cards that she thinks go to her opponent? Quote:
Quote:
Spoiler for 23:
Last edited by Anh_Minh; 2012-03-13 at 17:49. |
|||
Tags |
josei, karuta, madhouse |
|
|