Chihayafuru Episode 6--Suddenly, Yuri

Okay, not really, but if you turn your head just right...




So after the OMG DRAMA of last episode, this week is slowing it down a little bit and getting into what I think I can safely assume is the "get more club members" arc. The first candidate is Kanade Ooe, a history otaku whose family owns a tradition clothing store (which is mostly made up of kimonos, from what we see in the episode). All she wants to do is wear traditional clothes so she joined the archery club for the hakama, but she doesn't like the work that the club entails. She shows up to karuta club thinking that she'll be able to wear the clothes that she loves in a much more relaxed setting but ends up changing her mind when she finds out that Chihaya knows nothing about the history behind the 100 poems. What results is probably the most well-handled anime episode about historical context that I've ever seen. It's interspersed with the development of the new character, so it never feels like an info dumb. And context is always helpful for fans like me on the other side of the Pacific, who are just now understanding how karuta even works. I also really liked the whole conversation about how to not just read the poems for their obvious, universal meanings but to try and figure out what it's really saying. The real meaning of the "chihaya" card focuses around love, and I'll be really surprised if this doesn't come into play at some point, since, well, it is the name of the main character and of the show itself.




And this was a beautiful episode to boot. The slightly random animation moments over the last couple of episodes were probably to compensate for this, since almost everything looked fantastic. After all, we can't skimp on showing the heroine in various beautiful kimonos, can we? And while this episode did tone down the drama, the shoujo dial was almost turned up to maximum with flowers and sparkles everywhere. Like I jokingly referred to in the title, if I didn't know what show I was watching, I might've thought that I loaded a yuri title by mistake. That library scene... Where everyone is making a big deal about how pretty Chihaya is... Anyway, context is everything! I found it pretty interesting how this episode showed, yet again, that the only thing that seems to have changed about Chihaya since high school is her looks. She's still as much of a tomboy as she ever was, and she still becomes overly enthusiastic about things. In fact, that's the majority of her charm, but I'm hoping that once the karuta club has its members and activities start to get underway that Chihaya will begin to grow up a little. I'm not asking for a complete personality overhaul, but it would be nice if there was at least some hint of a character development arc for the course of the series, some problem that she has to overcome. The boys already have this: Tachi has to man up and realize that you can't be perfect at everything on the first try, and Arata needs to stop blaming himself and go back to the game that he loves. Both of these things can bring about some interesting character development. There isn't anything like that for Chihaya yet, and I'm interested in seeing what form it takes once the show gets around to it.

Images from Crunchyroll.com.