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Apr 2 2012 10:08 AM
I finished watching this one earlier this weekend, and think id put it down as my favorite series of the season. I have a problem with a lot of sports animes because they tend to be about baseball or soccer, and i think this followed the sports anime style but was a breath of fresh air to it. A mix of slice of life, sports, and a little drama. All of the characters were enjoyable unique people who didnt feel like archetypal rehashes and their interactions and troubles were great too. I didnt think id ever enjoy watching a series about a game id never play or experience, but i was wrong.

Now for the knocks, there wasnt much personal character progression as it focused more on competitive karuta and their advancements there, as well as the friendships. Also the show moved at quite the slow pace and little progress was really made between eps 10 and 25 other thsn their karuta progressions. The ending also left a lot to be desired, but id hope there will be a second season given how good this one was.

Overall, an 8/10 from me. An interesting story that stood on its own and had a lot to enjoy. Would recommend and dont regret the watch one bit.

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Apr 1 2012 05:40 PM
So its over. The last ep was really great, especially the music was really fitting.

Overall this show hada great beginning, got really bad in the middle and better at the end again. But still it was a bit disappointing since after the first ep I thought it would be more drama instead of slice-of-life.

Characterwise this show was really good. The only character which was unlikeable was Chihayas sister, but gladly she didnt appear often. The rest of the cast were pretty good, especially the karuta club was a nice watch since they all were completely different but still had a good atmosphere together. Ok Chihaya was quite unbearable in the middle since she was only moping around after losing again and again, but except for this she was an interesting lead.

Animation style was strange sometimes, especially the faces looked weird a lot of times.

Overall a enjoyable series which should get a second season since its quite disappointing not seeing an actual end to everything.
8/10 from me.

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Mar 21 2012 12:23 PM
Ep 24 did start really good with showing Taichis hot mother again, but when fatty-Shinobu appeared I had to quit the show and work up resolve again to watch further since it was almost unbearable.

Seems like we never get to see Chihaya becoming the queen or fighting Arata since theres only one ep left. Maybe we get a second season for that since it seems to be quite popular.

Thanks for the video Barbobot. Never thought karuta really exists since it sounds so stupid ^^

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Mar 4 2012 05:02 AM
Finally Taichi wrote what he wanted to, but isnt that useless? Correct me if Im wrong but isnt it that they cant play against each other? After all Arata is Rank A and Taichi only Rank B without the chance to advance further until the tournament.

Shinobu might be a prodigy but that doesnt mean that she is the queen because of that. Even if you are a prodigy if you dont learn and practice you still wont be good. Im sure she trained a lot to be were she is now since she doesnt strike me to be a person whos resting on her laurels.

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Feb 24 2012 02:15 PM

Haha, Arata's got a Fukui dialect that's why he sounds different. Don't you remember when he was a kid he was teased by his classmates because of his accent (and that he was poor)? Personally, I just love how it sounds.
Harada sensei's reaction at the end is spectacular! One of the best reaction faces I've seen in anime for awhile. I love the writing in this show too, how Taichi said he's focused on becoming somebody who doesn't run away....
ohhh I want him to win Chihaya's heart in the end!

Thanks for the video Barbo, interesting to see how they play karuta in real life.

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Feb 22 2012 05:21 PM
Just something interesting that was posted on the Stream article on ANN I thought people might want to see. Actual footage of Meijin/Queen level playing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUSWwEB2T6U&feature=related

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Feb 22 2012 11:10 AM
Good morning,

Got to watch this one last night and was dissapointed that they had taichi lose early like that solely due to aratas appearance. I figured the series would at least give us a match between those two in the next tournament, but it doesn't look like that's going to be the case. While its nice that the gang may be back together (surely a bittersweet moment for taichi) I was kinda happy the way the show was developing without arata. Here's to hoping they don't royally screw it up by rushing something into the last few eps that they didn't spend much time developing.

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Feb 22 2012 04:45 AM
I totally believe you just wasted five minutes of my life typing your post
In my eyes Chihaya is only admiring Arata, nothing more. Sure that could turn in love but I highly doubt it. The only love she has is Karuta and to be honest, all the people in the show are only steppingstones for her. Or at least get treated by her like that, she just doesnt realize it.

When Arata appeared I knew that Taichi will lose since that shock was just too great to not be influenced by it.

Since this was a qualifier tournament does that mean that none of them except maybe Arata) are allowed to play in the master-/queen-tournament oO Or did I get something wrong here?

Is it just me or did Arata really sound totally korean?

Oh and btw, what should I think of that face?
(user posted image)

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Feb 22 2012 02:31 AM
Could it possibly be that our naive fun-loving Chihaya-chan is starting to *gulps* take notice of Arata?! This may not be good news Taichi at all. First, Arata (he made an appearance! ) gives Taichi his digits to give to Chihaya (let's not pretend that it was for Taichi also) but to what end??? Taichi found out that he was trying to be considerate just in case they were girlfriend and boyfriend. I gotta say Arata looked mighthly and suspiciously relieved when Taichi revealed he's just been playing w/himself for the last several years. Frankly if she gets stolen right from under him he'll have only himself to blame. He needs to apply the full court press right now or there won't be any more warm and fuzzy shoulder action moments for him like last episode. Chihaya was actually talking about love or romance with Kanna all be it somewhat karuta related but nonetheless... The seeds are being sewn... and I've got my eye on Taichi better make that move! Chihaya could be falling and fast... Or this could end up going completely nowhere and I just wasted five minutes of my life typing this post. Oh yeah other stuff happened this episode like Chihaya learning the value of studying and Desktomu giving her one hell of a lecture on responsibility. I'm still hoping the queen will make her long awaited return to the show soon.

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Feb 15 2012 03:21 PM

In some ways it's infuriating for me that Chihaya doesn't realize how great of a catch Taichi is, and he's next to her all the time. You're right that he hasn't been forward about his feelings though, and to her he's nothing more than a dear childhood friend.

I'm speculating that he's waiting to beat Arata before he makes any declaration of love. Since he wants to date the future queen of karuta, he must be skilled enough to beat his rival in love and karuta.

Chihaya's reaction Nishida calling her an airhead was priceless indeed. I like how she tried to rectify her habit by awkwardly attempting to call them by their actual names.

And I loved, loved, loved when Chihaya took the sleeping Taichi's head and let him rest on her shoulder.

(user posted image)