What They Say:
“I feel as though my body is on fire with Ibuki mugwort”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the playoffs progress, the show starts to move a bit into the concern mode about who will be playing for the team as they go up against some of the unknowns. Aided by the general atmosphere of the rain going on in the background, the group gets tense early on as Porky is frustrated with Desktomu since he’s been slotted to play but doesn’t have the fire in him to really go at it since there are so many unknowns. There’s the good nod given here that the team has benefited well from having the first years playing, taking some of the pressure off, but there’s just a tension that’s at play here simply because the group really hasn’t had time to come together well enough to understand each other with the new dynamic. But what helps is that it is left to Chihaya to make some real decisions about who will play.
Setting Porky as the player to be a part of the team to go into the playoffs certainly makes sense since Chihaya wants a known quantity there and someone that has some experience in the more competitive environments. But Porky is dealing with an under the surface amount of frustration when it comes to the situation, especially when he gets suggestions on how to deal with his opponent from the person who should be playing him. But it’s something that does help in a way but more becomes an issue for him simply because the Kyoto players they’re going up against aren’t just unknowns, they’re very, very good unknowns. Enough to get under his skin and cause some problems with how well he can mentally handle the situation.
The match does prove to be a pretty decent bit of character growth overall and the end result of it gives us a bit more to deal with in terms of the group dynamic, which is welcome as it helps to bond them more. We also get to catch up with Arata a bit as we find out what he’s had to deal with after the problems from his team match and what he needs to do in order to get into the individual matches, which is fairly appropriate overall as a penalty. This is a small part of things, but it figures a bit into what Chihaya’s team is dealing with themselves as they prepare for the next events themselves. The really good stuff here for me involved the brief but welcome dialogue between Chihaya and Porky as he thanks her for what she did in the playoffs and how much it means to her, which helps set things up for the semifinals as they get ready for their next opponent.
In Summary:
Not surprisingly, based on what we saw in the first season, events move quickly in the second season of Chihayafuru. The playoffs shift to the semifinals relatively quickly and there’s a good bit of tension and anxiety amongst the players, from choosing the team that will go at it to the way they all have to deal with each others personalities. For the older players, there’s memories of the previous year that’s haunting them, but they’re also feeling the support of the first years who come into it fresh, tense and nervous but also plying to the best of their ability. The Mizusawa team continues to change and grow with each other under these moments of duress and it’s something that’s been part of the series since the start, so seeing more of it here is pretty natural and welcome.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
