I am rooting for Shinobu in the fifth Queen match for the exact same reason I am rooting for Suou in the fifth Meijin match and Arata back in the West-East Challengers. The reason being they don’t have anything left if they lose that specific match.
For Arata, he had been in the West-East Challengers last year too. Everyone expects him to be there this year too, so it has to be him. When compared to Taichi, Arata even tries to get to college with karuta while Taichi has been top of the year (and when his grade drops its still in the top group) for all his high school life. Not saying that because Taichi is good at everything so Arata should always win at karuta, but the West-East Challengers is directly connecting to Arata’s lifelong goal to be the Meijin. Had it been a Class A tournament like Yoshino or High School Championship, where it’s an official match but not directly connected to being the Meijin, I might root for Taichi for fun since he likes to change his play style and so far most of his impromptu styles are interesting. So Arata vs Taichi, in being the challenger this year? An easy win for Arata for me. Taichi had a recurring “the cards don’t matter to me, I don’t necessarily like karuta, I just want to mess with everyone” theme this year too, somewhat filthy karuta he adopted from Suou and even if he became the challenger, him switching from adapting to Suou’s karuta to making a play style that can surpass Suou in such a short amount of time isn’t possible with the amount of effort he also puts in studying. And in order to show that Arata has a chance with Suou, he needed to beat Taichi with a big gap. Had Arata won with a 1 card difference then it won’t be as impressive. It would mean it doesn’t matter who challenges Suou, their ability is equal. That’s why I’m okay with Arata winning with a slide. It doesn’t necessarily have to mean Taichi isn’t good, since he gave good performance in the first two matches. But it needs to end with something that would make it convincing that he stands a chance with Suou, so that the Meijin matches will be something to look forward to.
For Suou in the fifth Meijin match. Yukiko-san and his cousins are watching, and the reader from the fourth game was his favoured reader too, and if the next reader is Kuzuryuu-san then he has a big advantage against Arata since he has all the seven readers recording for a long time already. From Suou’s narrative in chapter 235, it looks like either he’d love karuta for real or he would keep his word and leave the karuta world, but as the strongest. Also it would be funny for the Karuta Association. They believed Arata can eliminate the big headache that Suou is since even before Arata played the Queen in the second year, but it turns out Suou will also be a big headache even when leaving karuta. Suou has a timer, time he can still be “something”, make use of himself in karuta, until his eyes get way worse. And what better timing would it be, than the first Meijin match Yukiko-san is able to see up close? Awaiting the break where possibly they will talk again. Suou wanted to visit his hometown, but didn’t. Now the reason he wanted to visit has come to his own match, where he is still the Meijin, I don’t see any reason he should lose to Arata, who’s still in his peak and whose first time being a challenger is now. Arata has managed to win the first two matches, both of which Suou somehow didn’t have a drive for. I don’t see him winning against Suou with his drive to win, in his first try being a challenger. Suou was a genius who made it so fast to class A and then being the Meijin, without trying to even care about karuta as the game itself.
For Shinobu in the fifth Meijin match. There are many “she will be friends with Chihaya once she loses to her” theories, and it’s true, but also she lost already. Twice, in the third and fourth game. It’s also Chihaya’s first time being an East representative, then a challenger. Chihaya is gifted and greedy, but Shinobu is skilled and hardworking. I don’t think Shinobu can even be defined by “hardworking”, she sacrificed her whole childhood to find something she was good at and it happened that the thing was karuta. She tried to make a profession out of karuta. Chihaya just jumped in, not wanting to leave her alone. Chihaya doesn’t want to be a professional karuta player. She wants to be a teacher (karuta club advisor/coach as a side job that comes with being a teacher). Shinobu’s title in karuta when she’s still active is determining her whole future plan as a professional karuta player that she aims to be. If Shinobu was to lose, I would hope it happens when Shinobu finds new things to confide in or new people. So far after she lost to Arata again in the third nationals, she has made friends/ally with Kokoro-chan, Momo-chan, and the blunderer. She even made time to practice together with Arata, sometimes in his house and sometimes in hers, and she even won against Arata. She couldn’t visualise winning against Arata for years, but she could now. Chihaya is at her peak, but Shinobu has always been in her peak. If Chihaya loses, she can confide to Mizusawa members and Shiranami members and her family. She would be told to focus on entrance exam for college. Shinobu? Her grandmother’s words were the ones that made her want to create a profession. How would she come back when she lost the title? Also wasn’t Shinobu also planning to move out of her grandmother’s house starting fall? I don’t want her to leave brokenhearted.
Also somehow a parallel to chapter 164 with Arata/Taichi/Chihaya. Shinobu holding Arata by the collar, paralleling Arata holding Taichi by the collar. Then the tasuki scene. Shinobu spreading out her tasuki and pushing it onto Arata’s chest, paralleling Chihaya freeing her headband and putting it on Taichi’s neck. |
