Note to self: never be concerned when this show reaches the end of a plot arc, because what comes next is always better than before.
At first this episode seemed like it was going to be the start of a training arc for the rookies, since most of the first half dealt with getting Tsutomu and Kanade used to the flow of the game, even when going up against Chihaya. It's when they decide to meet up at Tachi's house for a stamina camp that things start to get different. At the very end of the previous episode (after the credits), Chihaya internally celebrates that she's "not alone anymore." This gets repeated at the beginning of the episode, only this time it's mentally directed at Arata. Up until that point, it seems like Chihaya wanted the club mainly as an extension of her love of the game and to be able to share it with others. Those statements starts to show that it goes a bit deeper than that. I think that the show has finally hit on the hurdle that Chihaya needs to overcome over the course of this series. Myself and others have already pointed out that Chihaya is not that different from her elementary school self. This, along with her statement about not being alone as well as her actions in this episode (going too far in training the new members) shows that her over-excitement may be covering up a hidden fear. Chihaya was by herself for a while. She refused to contact Arata until she got A rank. She even forgets her own birthday in favor of training for the national championships that they may or may not make. I'm not going to deny that she genuinely loves karuta, but she seems to be holding onto an idea that she'll only have friends as long as she keeps getting better at it. I don't know how accurate my assumption is, but I'm going with it until the show says otherwise.
And then there's Tachi. I was under the impression that he was finally getting over his mom's misguided views on the importance of winning, but it seems like that's just one of many issues Tachi has with his family. His mom must be pretty intimidating when she'd mad if not even Chihaya wants to stand up to her. And I don't remember the show ever mentioning that he had a little sister, but she seems to be similar to Chihaya's sister from the flashbacks. In just one line, she immediately established herself as a spoiled brat in my mind. This scene brings up another slight problem; the way that his sister was talking, it sounded as if they were going on a trip for her. Didn't Tachi say that his parents were out of town for a wedding? I may be reading too much into this, but if I'm right, then why would he lie to his friends? Did his parents give up on him and decide that his sister was going to be the new perfect child? Who knows. And then there's the extremely obvious fact that he likes Chihaya. We haven't seen his girlfriend for a while, have we? Hopefully he's already broken up with her, since I don't think that he's planning midnight birthday parties for her. While I've already stated my support for Arata, the whole scene surrounding the text message and the cake was amazing and sad. The camera angles, when the shot was close up and when it pulled away, when it showed the character's expressions and when it didn't... You can really feel Tachi's heartbreak in that scene. No matter what he does, he's still losing to Arata, even though he's the one standing in front of Chihaya. Just through one text message, suddenly Tachi's the one who's alone. As awesome as this scene was though, he needs to step up his game if he's going to compete with Arata in Chihaya's eyes.
Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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