Chihayafuru S2 03 ~ the one thing I was confident about

The Misuzawa High Karuta team return to defend their title at the Tokyo Regional championship.

Chihayafuru season 2 episode 3 covers the start of the Tokyo Regional high school championship. We also get to see glimpses of Arata Wataya and Shinobu Wakamiya, indicating that a real showdown is not far off.

(L-R) Kanade Ooe, Sumire Hanano, and Chihaya Ayase are surprised by a last minute change to the team’s composition.

Again, much of the episode’s drama revolved around the first years. The returning characters however, each had moments to demonstrate their growth by acting as sempai: Kana dressing Sumire up in a hakama, Tsutomu making the last minute changes to the schedule to give the first years a chance to play, and the flashback of Yuusei teaching Akihiro.

Chihaya looks like some evil ghost taking the children away.

Although both of the first years lost their matches, they seemed to learn valuable lessons. I will enjoy seeing the rehabilitation, and hopefully a sweet moment of success for Sumire and Akihiro, but there was a much more exciting development in this episode. Both Arata and Shinobu are confirmed to be participating in the high school tournament. Further, there seems to be some history between Arata and Shinobu. I have been looking forward to seeing the inevitable rematch between Shinobu and Chihaya, and Arata was the shadow that was cast over the entire first season, so it will be very interesting to see how they use him now that he has returned to the world of Karuta.