Chihayafuru 2 Episode 1: Setting Priorities [First Impression]

It’s time for the team to go all out in hopes to successfully recruit five new members to their team so that they can keep their club room. It is certainly a big success thanks to Kanade’s strategy to prevent the first years from being scared off, however 99% of those who decided to “join” the club are girls who are only there because Taichi is a member. The team faces a brief rift as each of them have their own priorities in mind.

Eva’s First Impression:
/SCREAMING
/DROWNING IN A SEA OF FEELS
IT’S FINALLY HERE! OUR BELOVED CHIHAYAFURU IS BACK WITH SEASON 2!
It was pretty cool how they actually continued directly where they left off in the first season. Just man, there were so many FEELS. I am so happy that I did a marathon and finished it earlier this morning. It’s all fresh in my mind now.
Poor Sumire is really going to have a hard time since Taichi is pretty set on Chihaya and his first and foremost priority right now is to get into the A Class. Well… not that I particularly care about whether she has a hard time since I don’t particularly like her character. She’s a bit annoying right now.
Whether Chihaya realizes it or not, by saying that it’s a priority for Taichi to join the A Class had dramatically helped push and motivate Taichi towards his goals. He doesn’t want to be left behind while both Arata and Chihaya run ahead of him.
Speaking of the group, during the OP man- pretty intense. The love triangle between the three of them is only growing more and more intense. Chihaya oblivious to Love, though she has shown potential signs that she is starting to grasp it through the poems last season. Arata x Chihaya x Taichi are my first ever and most loved OT3 since my heart is torn between the two ships.
The fact the club was invaded by a bunch of fan girls was not a surprise. I was however, shocked that despite Chihaya’s fumble with “I want over 100 members”, that there was only one boy of all the first years who came to check out/apply for the club.
Chihaya may be greedy, but honestly at this point- to prevent their team from being torn apart, they need to compromise or be greedy like Chihaya and make it work somehow. On top of that the club’s goals are a bit off. Tsutomu priority was club members so that they won’t lose their room. However it would be pointless to have noisy members who don’t care for the sport as it’d make no difference to being stuck in a classroom. Then Kanade wanted to set manners. While she isn’t entirely wrong with that priority since it can help weed out those who aren’t genuinely interested, she needs to draw herself a line (because we all know how passionate she is about proper etiquette). Then we have Nishida who wants to aim for the highschool tournament and win. The only thing that bugged me is how he runs his mouth about Taichi’s loss. And Taichi of course- before Chihaya revealed that it is one of her priorities for Taichi to get into the A Class- was thinking and prioritizing Chihaya’s training for the Queen’s match. Then finally, Chihaya’s wish to preserve the Karuta club has to do with her goals in the future. She wants to come back to their school and serve as a coach, in other words her career goal is to become a teacher (my guess would be classic literature or physical education).
It’s safe to say both Sumire and the “Phantom Guy” (as I call him for now) will be joining the club. Due to Sumire’s current circumstances, she is already feeling connected with the cards. I think her interest will continue to grow as she learns more about the poems’ historical back story (especially the Love Stories). For now and god knows for how long it’ll be; her aim to win Taichi’s heart. Good luck with that.
The “Phantom Guy” was hardly noticeable (only seen twice) within the pack of first years seems to be similar character to Kuroko (Kuroko no Basuke) by the lack of presence. Even though he is silent and hardly been noticeable throughout this episode, it’s pretty clear that he is interested in Karuta and may potentially have experience already.
Possibility of Blogging: GUARANTEED.
Vantage’s Impression
It’s been a while hasn’t it? I’ve always thought of Chihayafuru as that really awesome karuta show with lots of feels – but it really is a different experience watching it up front, and I found myself thinking: ah, I’d forgotten what watching Chihayafuru was like. Circumstances have changed too – no longer are we getting episodes on Tuesday to tide us through the week, but instead as a short stint into the weekend – a pat on the back for getting through another week of your daily routines. And of course, for our karuta club members, they’re second-years in high school now!

I admit, it’s so strange thinking that everyone’s a year older now, and will all be acting as a senpai towards the younger first-years who just entered the school – and I was right in suspecting that Chihaya wouldn’t fall into a senpai role at all. Beautiful but slightly derpy – even your juniors have that impression of you, Chihaya-senpai! Of course, Taichi fits into that role admirably, and the entire first-year female population seems to be head-over-heels for their gorgeous senpai who they would love to be in a club with. As Chihaya herself said, this whole recruiting issue has raised a rift between the group over their own personal goals, something we’ve kinda taken for granted thus far. Taichi cares about Chihaya’s Queen match, while Porky cares about winning the high school tourney. Kana-chan is willing to teach the first-years to behave, while Komano wants a relaxed environment to play in.
This is actually all just much ado about nothing, because let’s face it – the majority of the 100 fangirls (and one silent guy) are there just for Taichi. Chihaya hoping that they all fall in love with karuta too is futile effort, as you’ve got to have that passion and desire to learn to play something as intricately beautiful as karuta is – if you’re there for the shallow reason of hanging around Taichi in the hope that he might go out with you in the future, you might as well just leave now and save Kana-chan the trouble of teaching you. Taichi himself is going to make it hard for them, as he’s still not feeling great over missing out on that A Class spot last season – and is focusing on his matches in the Shiranami Society.
Of course, none of this is going to deter Hanano Sumire, whose focus in this episode almost guarantees her plot armour for whatever comes next to be initiated as a proper member of the Mizusawa Karuta-bu. After recently getting dumped, she’s also looking for a boyfriend in the form of Taichi, though she’s much more predatory and straightforward than the other fangirls – and so Taichi responds to her with an answer just as blunt – that he wants to choose someone he can devote himself to. Sumire will probably be following Taichi to the Shiranami Society and experience first hand from Harada-sensei just what real karuta is like, and proceed from there – after all, she’s already building an emotional relationship to the cards, which is always a good sign. Finally, a short check-list on my hopes for the season!