Chihayafuru 3 Episode 10 Discussion

Kipo0007 said:


Arata is one of the main characters, why wouldnt they show his match? It didnt not only looked beautiful they also amazing displayed the turmoil inside arata how serious it was and the depth of his character for the first time in all these seasons. He never gets enough screen time.

And just because they belong from the same society and look similar because of the glasses doesnt mean they have similarities or it was boring. Also it was not expected, Arata has lost countless times to murao and as his mentor and senpai ,murao performed the role of bringing arata back to his senses from the dark karuta and the internal struggle which he was going through, and he did all this inspite of being the opponent, which shows character value of a non-main character.
Everyone were looking at them because how the tension in the room rose with such grace with that slap and lightened the atmosphere. Even the Reader smiled as she could understand as well.
Then the humorous Arata's bathroom problems came in and later how it transitioned back to a serious match.
Plus Arata's win wasnt ridiculous, they literally show how he calclulated all the ghost cards and the cards that were read from the future plays that happened and slowly was reducing the lead without murao noticing. Thats why murao says its not just talent, Arata has hard work too and it ended on a happy note.
You are just looking at the surface value, while there is so much depth and value to the scenes depicted in the episode with that match.

I can understand it was disappointing to not see Harada and suo's match which i was looking forward to as well & also other qualifier matches, but just because of that you cant take away the beautiful and intense display of karuta & the relationship between murao and arata.

You need to look more beyond the usual exciting matches and see what it means to the characters and their development and what they try to portray with their games & conversations. Thats what makes this series is so amazing.
But its your perspective at the end. So whatever makes you happy .

cchigu said:
They did mate. In the previous episode.

Linaeris said:
@Fionavar , @Kipo0007
He was one of the main characters for like first 3 episodes of season 1 and last 3 episodes of season 2 which is 10% of the whole show thus far.
He was/is the main character in Chihaya's and Taichi's head (and viewers' by proxy) from time to time and that's it. The problem with Arata being the main character in Taichi's and Chihaya's head began in last tournament where Arata should definitely stop being the main character in their heads (the image of Arata - being some sort of god of karuta in Chihaya's head, and the image of Arata - being Chihaya's god by being god of karuta in Taichi's head). Same should be for viewers.

By this point Arata should only remain as Shinobu's personal rival to beat and maybe his parent's account potential nemesis depending on circumstances.

The only turmoil inside Arata that was believable and kinda realisticly shown and dealt with was his diarrhea.

Murao's behaviour was indeed great (not his performance during the latter half of their match) if we look at it from the perspective of him being Arata's senior but that is also exactly what made this match boring from the sheer sport's emotion perspective. Why should a spectator care who wins if contestants don't. Unless spectator is a hard MuraoxArata fan.

If Murao had let Arata take those 11 cards back after him coming back from the toilet because he would want to beat Arata while he is playing his best and the only reason of Arata's poor performance in the begining was his stomach problems. That would be perfectly acceptable and understandable for a viewer. Great sportsmanship. Why? Beacuse things like diarrhea are or can easily be considered (although in this case arguable) as accidents which couldn't have been dealt with earlier or later. Arata's head/heart/howeveryoucallthem issues most definitely could.

Similar yet very different situation was in the last tournament where Hiroshi forfeit his match with Chihaya but it was perfectly understandable since they were from the same society and a winner from their match could have met Murao in the final.
Here we have a competition for basically being a world champion. Totally individual matter.

Fionavar said:


Summarized my thoughts perfectly. Honestly people are never satisfied, first they complain about how Arata doesnt have enough screentime and development. Now we finally got both, and they still complain. This episode so far has to be the best of the season yet, and it only gets better and better with each episode.

sweetangie said:
OMG, THIS EPISODE IS TOTALLY AWESOME: Arata is really focused just the way I love it <3: his match against Murao carried a lot of affections and tense attention of winning really brought Arata a huge challenge he never expected and yes I'm so happy he came through it: THAT'S OUR BOY!!!! Seeing Arata inner thoughts of guilt during the match brought into a field of darkness that reflects Arata's insecurity: for Arata feelings bad looking down of Taichi affected him so much that for a moment he lost focus of the game where he was going through a moment of crisis and brought back his most painful memory of his grandpa's funeral. I'm sure through the time where Arata stopped playing karuta after his grandpa passing that was the image in how he saw the karuta cards throughout the whole time, poor Arata... he must have suffered a lot;_; I can't stand seeing my boy suffering and I hope he doesn't have to go see that phrase again. -_- I'm so grateful that Murao was his opponent who snaps Arata out of it and brought him into the present seeing the light and a beautiful cherry blossom scenery into the field: OMG that scene really brought me into tears. and even after the match where Arata was crying and Musao told Arata to smile: THAT'S SO CUTE: Musao surely is like Arata's big brother he could of have: their bond is so sweet and true. Now the moment is here, Arata will be challenging against Harada at the Meijin challenger match: THE MOST EPIC MATCH OF THE SEASON JUST AWAITS: OMG I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!! XD

chiakimagoto said:
This episode made me appreciate the chapter of the manga more. It didn't have the same effect while reading it. It was better and funnier animated but definitely not the best episode of all. At least for me. Kudos to Madhouse for the whole adaptation up till now, following the manga in a very accurate way with some miss outs. Like the first time we see Suou San in the manga is when he speaks to Taichi whearas in the anime that is out....

Of course if you're an Arata fan, it was an episode focused on him on a more personal level. He finally was having some inner struggles pictured,saying "Taichi, you are in my way!". He is as jealous as Taichi, only he is far away and doesn't go through the constant torture Taichi does....

After 2 seasons and especially all those team matches, and stuff they go through....I can't help but loving the team, Chihaya and Taichi most.
The fact that Arata is far away and didn't go through all that stuff these last 2 years in manga time just makes him feel distant......which he literally is. It's just too late for me to let him into my heart, even if he's nice or whatever......my focus is already elsewhere.

Kipo0007 said:


His level of jealousy cant be compared to taichis. Taichis jealousy goes as far as to try keep Arata and Chihaya away from each other and even when Arata politely asks him as a friend on how to make a karuta team, his insecurity just peaks and he brushes him off. Arata did look down on taichi in terms of karuta but never treated him that way and always considered him as a friend.

Arata has had his share of troubles, his grandfather dying and him suffering alone with his favorite passion karuta dead to him. Plus he didnt have people to support him and cheer him on like taichi does. All his club members, Harada sensei, the society members. Taichi suffers worst sure, but its not like arata didnt go through tough times.

Its never too late to understand a character just because he was kept in the distance for the starting two seasons. Theres a reason people love him because he has that much impact even with less screen time. Just need to have a open mind and give time for the character development. I didnt like taichi at the start for being a selfish bratty kid who bullied arata and wanted to keep chihaya away from him, but he is slowly growing to be a great character and maturing as well, which i am looking forward to.

But then again its your choice whom you like, cant force you. :)

Linaeris said:
@Kipo0007

Only Shinobu's rival because like you mentioned she has never beaten him yet and it clearly irks her with who has the most connection to cards.

From what we have seen so far from Chihaya and Shinobu encounters Shinobu has beaten her mercilessly each time and considers her a player who doesn't give up and doesn't want Shinobu to go easy on her. That is something which most of the players who go against Shinobu don't have and which in Shinobu's mind is enough to consider Chihaya as an interesting player who has skills but is still quite far behind her to treat her as a threat. She sees her as someone who is similarly passionate about karuta as she is and someone who could have been her friend because of karuta, daddy bear.

I am not denying that Murao didn't see that something was wrong with Arata but like I mentioned this should not have place in a serious competition (and there aren't many more serious matches than the one when you are 2 steps from being the best on the planet no matter how niche the game/sport might be) - I mean that Murao should have played against Arata as he always does and not concern himself with opponents inner struggle. After the match was over he could/should, as his mentor/senpai/friend, ask him what was wrong with him and help him as much as he could... but only after the match.

Letting him take back those 11 card would be like saying - ok I understand, you had some serious stomach problems, it can happen to anyone. Everyone could have seen that, everyone would understand especially considering that we are from the same society. From now on lets both do our best and see who is better. That would be perfectly fine in my opinion.

Regardless who wins, lets just have a good match so the spectators can watch some interesting play - you can do that in friendly matches, exhibition matches, trainings etc. In a match with such high stakes you play your best to win, not to show some cool moves (ofc you can show cool moves but the priority should always be winning the match).

You are saying that in such an important game you can't forfeit. Yes, you can. Should you? In most cases - no.
What you can't do is letting your rival helping hand which was exactly what Murao did. You have to be merciless.
You can be kind person but there is no room for that in serious competition.

I do understand the beauty of karuta shown in Chihayafuru (I like to analyse which cards players send from both tactical and poetic point of view and why, how they position their cards, what meaning different cards have to different players, what style of playing suits who the best, even the way characters look). However all in all it is a competitive game which goal is to win. That is why I liked how Taichi went against Chihaya. It wasn't enough to win but he did what he could even though she was his childhood friend, club mate, love interest or whatever.

Arata lost in the quarterfinal of Yoshino tournament to Hiroshi the last time we have seen him (close match, could have gone both ways). And soon after that he beats similar level opponent despite 11-card deficit, stomach issues, psychological turmoil... the only thing missing seems to be while defusing the bomb with one hand and performing brain surgery on himself with the other.
My point is - one just not simply lose an 11-card lead at this level no matter the circumstances.

I don't see a problem with close matches ending up with a luck of a draw, but there is a border you do not cross if you want the story to be believable and this time that border has been crossed in my opinion. It doesn't matter how beautifuly it has been presented or how deep it could have been.

Sorry to say but You are missing an idea of serious competition and it seems that the beauty of the game has clouded Your common sense.

And they could have shown Inokuma vs Yumin and/or Harada vs Sudo and simply inform us that Arata won by two cards - not the other way around. Everything would have been great.

chiakimagoto said:

Yes of course obviously people love Arata; I don't hate him or anything like that but he just wasn't the person in this story that made me love it, dig into the poems, become "passionate" about Chihayafuru......it was always the team's story that pulled me in most and Chihaya and Taichi. Right from the start, even bratty Taichi already caught my attention and not Arata. Preference is inexplanable, I guess. I've tried many times to warm up and understand Arata, I do with my brain but not with my heart.

I think Taichi was already jealous as a child. He probably was already crushing on Chihaya, while Arata has just started to discover his feelings. Taichi has been conscious about them since a long time. I think Taichi has dual feelings for Arata. On one side he admires him, wants to be his friend and on the other he doesn't want him around. I totally understand him. I also read the manga so, I'll stop here....too hard to not spoil, lol.
In the end Arata isn't that different from Taichi.....but that's later

chiakimagoto said:
This review depicts my feelings so well:
https://lostinanime.com/2019/12/chihayafuru-3-10/



A happy ending for all would be the best!

chiakimagoto said:
This review depicts my feelings so well:
https://lostinanime.com/2019/12/chihayafuru-3-10/



A happy ending for all would be the best!

chiakimagoto said:


I guess we can both agree that we love this story even if our pov's differ.
:)

shayed__ said:
this season is absolutely phenomenal so far. Amazing episodes back to back. Blows season 2 away by a mile and if it manages to keep this level up it will easily surpass season 1.

Weebslayer89 said:
There was honestly no reason for Murao to wake Arata up from his mental slumber. Arata is the one who got him out of retirement,but the reason why he retired was because he lost the qualification match and Arata was gone for 18 whole months. That should atleast even it out. As for his stomach issues,that was mostly his own fault. Murao isn't the one who forced him to eat all the tuna sandwiches.

This feels more like plot armor for Arata to further his acknowledgement of Taichi as a proper opponent,which could have been done outside of Karuta considering that Taichi lost. No sane person wouldn't take advantage of such an opportunity,but people who do get painted in a bad light by the author. Just look at all the shit Yumin got for contesting every card or how chihaya the self insert didn't take advantage from the pink haired girl dismay at her causing the finger injury.

The portrayal of dedication and winning above all seems like an afterthought in this show. Don't know how much of this bullshit I can take.

Valiantlion960 said:


Your comments are so funny :D i laughing so hard when i read. How many times you called bullshit and continue watching xd

Valiantlion960 said:


Your comments are so funny :D i laughing so hard when i read. How many times you called bullshit and continue watching xd