Chihayafuru Season 2

[FireWalker]

ep2:

Not quite as tight as ep1, but decent progress.
As expected, Sumire is being drawn to find out more about the game just so she can pursue Taichi. It seemed premature for her to blurt out her crush, and a little implausible that everyone would fall over themselves to comfort her ... just a little too melodramatic for my taste.
Like "Porky's" turn when he just takes over the teaching - "do it this way, and call me sir" - that's the stuff.
I really hope they can define the new guy's personality without constantly showing him licking his lips ... it's a bit creepy.
And Desktomu seems a bit neglected so far ... isn't about time for him to start pursuing Kana?

[Bakumatsu]

Just finished the first season.

[gin]

Isn't the new guy just a younger version of Sadist-kun from the first season?

[FireWalker]

He reminded me more of the socially-inept second stringer from a rival school ... I've forgotten his name.

I'm sure that maladjusted sadists are much more common in actual karuta play than the series leads us to expect - with a very implausible ratio of pretty faces.

[Bakumatsu]

Reminds me of "Haruo Niijima" from "History's Strongest Disciple."

[gin]

Originally Posted by FireWalker

He reminded me more of the socially-inept second stringer from a rival school ... I've forgotten his name.

Hmm...I think it turns out you were right.
Anyway, was nice to see the first years stepping it up and it was especially nice to

see the queen...

[NarkyOtic]

Whoa, totally missed the ball on this one. I always felt uneasy about the ending of the first season, as I outlined in my review.
Interested to see if this saves the languishing potential of the storyline built so far... Because frankly, they have to MOVE on something, here, with the stagnating dynamic between Chihaya, Arata and Taichi, or it'll just unravel the weave and let a serious factor flap in the wind, obscuring whatever else might be going on.

Will watch soon!

[Remedy]

Only gripe with this episode is that how did Shinobu lose so much weight so fast?
Surely she should still be slightly porky, she was massive and it's not even been a year from the sounds of it.

I wonder if she'll become Chihaya's rival for Arata.

[FireWalker]

Yeah, "Retro-kun" is the first season character that the new guy on the team reminds me of ... side by side Retro is uglier, but at least he doesn't lick his lips.

Anyway, ep 3 was good:

They're back to revealing characters through the game play, and not spending too much time on the mechanics. I'm glad that they gave Desktomu a moment to shine - moral leadership to salvage the chances of the new kids. I like that they fleshed out the lip-licking braggart - he's used to being the hero for his brothers, and all in this episode they (a) let him play to save face and get a shot at redemption (b) gave him a lesson in humility by having him smashed by the class A opponent (c) gave him a sliver of hope by using his Jedi mind tricks to take a couple of cards (d) set his motivation on fire by having his little brothers go fanboy on Chihaya.
With Sumire, they moved right on from the romance by having her play, and realize that she wants to excel like Chihaya, to be respected for her ability and not her feminine charms ... I think they may have woken a sleeping giant.
Interesting sidelines on Arata coming in second, and his hopes to play Chihaya...

All in all, an excellent episode IMO.

[Rastamepas]

It feels like they got a pretty big increase in animation budget than the first season.

Episode 1

Not to thrilled about the first episode. Was pretty bland and just didn't feel like it had a good hook to draw people in. I think the new girl is a pretty meh addition as well. WTB Arata for some interesting events for 100 Alex.