Chihayafuru Ep 17-19: Lucky!

Welcome to show Joe the podcast where I Sarah introduced my friend Joe to show Joe anime. And so showing Joe show Joe. Get it. So good. Let's see. We've got to hire for your coverage and we're excited to cover it because these are quite a good bunch of episodes we've got today. Yeah. There needs to be like a sound. We need like a sound prompt to play when the show gives me what I want. Like a little ding or something because like it's happening. The show has arrived in episode 17.

We got the list out the things and I can be like ding ding ding. I can find sound effects for free. Oh, like we're going to be like since I just want like a little like celebration like yay. Yay. The episodes are good. I could crack out my harmonica. We're doing what we want me to do. Yeah, I know. Yes. But before we get to all of that, let's catch up. It's weird because you've only been gone a few days. You're going to be back in a few days. But in that time, what's been going on?

This is the most traveling I ever do. It's like I have to do three plane rides in like two weeks. That's crazy. What's going on? We watched a movie. Oh my God. Right. Let's talk about this. We went to an anime movie, the Lord of the Rings anime movie. The War of Rakhiram or something. The War of Rakhiram. Sarah, what did you think about this anime movie we watched? Well, what I think and what you think, I mean, basically, I was like, oh, it's fine.

I guess I enjoyed watching it and I thought the characters were hot. So that's like a big strong factor for me. Caring the movie, I guess. Disappointed about certain. Basically, why put hot people in there if nothing's going to happen, man? You know, why are you doing this to me? Like they don't make out. Yeah. Yeah. OK, because they did stuff. It was too boring. OK, well, what did you think, Joe? I thought it was bad. Buckle up, people. Here we go. I thought it was pretty bad.

You know, this is like they had to make this movie for to keep the rights to like make more Lord of the Rings movies or whatever. So like it's it's clearly rushed. The animation is kind of weird because like they're like the character is in like the horses and like all that stuff is drawn in like an anime kind of style. But then the backgrounds look like they're rendered using something else.

I looked at the Wikipedia and the way they like did the modeling was like they didn't do rotoscoping, which is what they did for the Ralph Backsheet Lord of the Rings from like way back when they like film somebody and then draw over it. They did like they mocap somebody like did the rigging in Unreal Engine and then painted over the Unreal Engine things that moved around, which just seems kind of like more work, honestly. And it also doesn't like look great.

I mean, the movement looks fine, but like it doesn't mesh with the background. It looks very odd to me. Anyway, so like the animation looks kind of weird. I don't really think that's like the problem with it. I mean, like, you know, whatever, it's fine. They had to crunch it. I never I never really feel like anything's animators fault because the animation industry is a mess. The bigger problem is that this just isn't a story. There's just no story here.

This is just stuff happening for two hours and 14 minutes, which is way too long and it's crazy boring. Yeah, right. Because you mentioned like, oh, they picked Rohan like they could have picked a much more interesting origin for the characters and setting for conflict and all that. Yeah. Yeah, there could have been so much more stuff like that. Yeah, it's animated. So like you can you can animate whatever, right?

Like you have unlimited special effects budget and animation because it just costs the same as everything else, more or less, right? As long as it's not moving. But they didn't really do a lot with it. I mean, there is there are a couple cool parts where like an elephant gets eaten by like some weird monster. That's cool. But for the most part, it's like, I don't really didn't really feel like it took advantage of the animation super, super well. And also it's just like a whatever story.

I don't know why it's even in Lord of the Rings. It has nothing to do with anything that Lord of the Rings is about. Well, you think if they had wanted to like have the rights to Lord of the Rings movie, you think they would have done something already and done it with intention rather than this. This is legendary. Right. The folks who did like the Batman movies and stuff. I remember seeing their. Let me look real quick. Because what would have been the last movie they did?

Did they do the Hobbit movies? New. There's a lot of production companies on this. There's way too many production companies on this. I just remember seeing the legendary logo. New Line Cinema, Warner Brothers Animation, Sola Entertainment, Wingnut Films, Domain Entertainment, Middle Earth Enterprises. OK, maybe I'm imagining. I feel like that was on there. Anyway, there was no romance. There should have been. This should have been like.

They said it up to have romance like redemption for romance. His name is Wolf. His name is because he should have better name. He was like an he's like a little bit of like an out outcast. You know what I mean? And she's like a princess. She's like fitting because she's like headstrong or whatever. It was right there. It was right there and it was obvious and they didn't do it and said they did something way more boring and not interesting at all. I mean, I can see.

I don't know if this is even a thing. Uh, like in my mind, I'm like, oh, games like Tim Raider. Laura never has a romantic interest because she can't be strong if she's also in love kind of thing. Like, you know, like, I feel like, no, I know that's a thing. Yeah, I feel like that must be it, right? Because like, why can't they also have love but still be a strong female protagonist? You know, because every dude has a love interest, even in like stories or like it adds absolutely nothing to it.

Yeah, that's because like the like the Hollywood strong female protagonist thing is like very stupid and like people don't like it, but they don't like it because they're like, you know, weird conservative anti-woke weirdos. But the actual problem with it is that they're just really boring. Like they're not actually people, you know, like I feel like a character that would be like that probably would have some romantic interest and could have romantic interest and still be.

Yeah, because she's a bad ass. She's like, oh, she has to be Joan the maid or something. It's just like, oh yeah. Like why is this? Why is this how we're doing things in 2025 or 2024? We're still doing like girl bossification stuff. It's dumb. I guess it's not girl boss because she's not a boss. No. No, she's like, no, I'm not like other girls. Okay. But okay, the story sets her up like that. I feel like at least she doesn't like super play into it.

Like there's one there's like one line where she's like, I don't want to get married, but it's not like constantly her talking about how like, I don't want to get married and just, you know, blah, blah, blah. I want to do this or that. Yeah. Like I feel like she still I don't know, just being a good child of a, I don't know. Was he the king? Yeah. He was the king of robot or whatever. Okay. Yeah. They do set that stuff up, but then they kind of just don't really do anything with it.

It's really weird because it's all about like in the beginning part of the movie, it really seems like the king creates his own problem and like downfall, but then it's like when things go bad for him, we're supposed to feel bad for him. And then everyone's like, oh, he was such a great king. And I'm like, no, he wasn't. He sucked. Yeah. He caused this problem. And then it's like, ah, she's got to pick up the mantle and then she could become a good leader or something.

And then like, I don't know. The whole thing was just like, what are we doing and why? And then she does it, which I guess. Spoiler for the end of the movie. She's not. Oh, sorry. And said she's going to go on a quest to go seek Gandalf. Oh, that's right. Oh, he's so mad. And they anime shalamons. Yeah, anime shalamons. Yeah. The wizard. Crazy. The new guy who hangs out in the garden. Sure, that's going to go well. We could just have it be isolated story.

We, you know, like adding that on at the end of the movie isn't going to add anything for us to like make us feel like, oh, it's in the world or the rings. Now. Add it on, but they have to add it on because then it has literally nothing to do with Lord of the Rings. Like again, the idea that you would make like a Lord of the Rings side story and you'd put it in Rohan, the most normal ass place in the entire book series. Like it's not even the one with the giant throne.

No one sits in and there's like King's absent. It's just like the normal kingdom where people ride horses. That's just, that's literally anything. Like that's just game of thrones. Like what are we doing? This could be in any world. Why would you set it in the most boring place? Yeah. I mean, if I like, I feel like watching Lord of the Rings, I never like, oh, I want to be part of that world. Like it looks like a sucky world, but I wouldn't want to live in.

So like, I feel like you can only enjoy the story and like a negative, like nothing happy can happen in like that world. It says like the, the allegory for different stuff. You know what I mean? Like, oh, the elves are like this. They like represent this and the doors represent this and the hobbits represent this. Like staging stuff that doesn't engage with that in that world is just kind of weird. I don't know. Yeah. Well, this was clearly a fail on that. So this was pretty bad.

Yeah. Yeah. Say box office. Well, one, you only knew about this because I told you about it. I don't remember where I saw it. And I saw it on a Twitch ad or something, but like did a terrible job marketing it. It's only in like random ass movie theaters that like barely anyone goes to because that was like, maybe there's like two theaters it was playing in and this in the greater Austin area. And it, you know, wasn't in theaters exclusively for very long.

They immediately threw it on streaming like two weeks after launch. So as a movie and financially flopping. Yeah, it's just, I don't know. You know, this has just become the way of everything now. Like I feel like nothing gets advertised. I feel like everything just gets thrown into like streaming slop and it all is kind of bad. Yeah. So that's unfortunate. I did watch another thing. I finally finished Gundam wing after watching that for a long time. Yes. Finished it.

It did not end particularly well. No, definitely a show that like sets up a lot of stuff and you're like, ooh, there's a lot of interesting ways this could go. And then I guess they had like huge production issues when they were making it in 1994 or whatever. And like they had to get a new director and clearly whatever they had like set up just like didn't make sense. Cause at the end of it, things were just off the rails. People were just doing stuff at a character.

People were just saying things that just didn't seem to matter or make a lot of sense. It was just a huge mess. And then it ends and I'm like, all right. Well, I guess that's the end of that. Yeah. So not that good. Normally like the arc of like they start off well, the middle part, like weird stuff happens and you're like, okay, this was kind of like, you know, this is because it's a 50 episode show or whatever. So like the middle parts are weird.

But then there's like a middle finale and that's usually pretty good. And then it drags again. And then the ending is really good. So you're like, okay, cool. This was just like beginnings. Great. The middle part's pretty good. The second half of the middle part is like, I don't know what's happening. And then the end is just like, I don't know why any of this stuff happened. So very sad that the second to last episode was like flying into confusion or something.

Yeah. The second episode is called take off into confusion. And the thumbnail is a picture of one of the characters named trays just like pinching the bridge of his nose like he thinks this sucks. And I'm just like, wow, it's incredible. It's like they know that this is a huge problem. They're trying to tell you. Maybe it's trouble. I'm going to win. Not great. I've heard that endless waltz. The kind of sequel thing is pretty good though. So I'm looking forward to that.

But the next thing I'm going to watch is Oh, wait, the mess team. So and my names are crazy. The waltz endless waltz. It's called a mobile suit Gundam wing endless waltz. That's a good name. Okay. If you say so. Okay. Anything else with me? I was just squeezing any like horror stories from flying like the Austin airport sucks now or anything like that. The airport was fine. I didn't have any problems coming back. Going there.

I had huge problems because I just like sat on a plane for like three hours extra. But coming back was totally fine. Good. Well, he was hoping your flight in two days is good too. Yeah. I saw an ad for that one random airline that we saw on the at the terminal that was like, what the hell is that? I saw an ad for it on Disney Plus. So. Oh, wow. Okay. I don't know. It is real. Yeah. I mean, airlines was over. Arthur like, I do not keep up with the news.

Is there like issues with some airlines reputations? Like some bad things have happened. Okay. Let me, this is like the chance to get in and try and be a new. They tried that and a lot of them failed a couple years ago. So I don't know. But that's just, did you watch anything? Have you watched anything?

Okay. So. Watched. I, I today I was watching a little bit of Star Wars and New Hope because I wanted to rewatch the first three movies since Star Wars Outlaws, which I started playing is set between episodes five and six, I think. And I was like, you know, just get in the mindset of even though I'm already like 35 hours into this game. And watching it, I was like, damn, they did a good job at recreating because I'm, I'm at, oh God, S. Oh, the Tatooine city. Yes. Most Isley.

And so seeing that in the movie, like they did such a good job. But maybe it's like, oh, all they had to do is recreate existing things. So like, they didn't even have to think that hard about it. But I'm really enjoying this game. Also, Luke, I feel like his actor, not that I feel like he's not very good at acting in the first movie at least, like he's a little. Well, he's playing. Mark Hamill is. That's true. Acting Mark Hamill.

It's like Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, though, like they're both doing a very good job. Hello, Harrison Ford in particular is doing a very good job. But yeah. He was a much more established actor at the time. Yes. Yeah. It's crazy because it is so 70s looking with Luke's hair. But some of the CG, I guess they were using CGI back then. And it's just like a re-release. So this is like a re-release of old. I think I rather see the old one.

Like huge on remastering stuff and adding CGI to it later and everybody thinks it looks bad. It looks really bad. He just does it anyway and everybody hates it. Okay. So is there no right? I've heard of this. Is there no it's hard. You can look them up. You have to like find them, but there are. That's like there's like a scene where Java falls off something. It just looks like this like 20 clump of brown. It looks so bad. Yeah. Like it looks so bad. Just leave it be.

Yeah. We all know it's like the CGI guy. The prequels trilogy is kind of just an ad for like that. Yeah. They're doing, which is why like there's a lot of it in there. It like doesn't look that great. And like the story is crazy. I mean, it looks fine for like the time it came out. I mean, but when it came out, it was like cutting edge, right? So like look better than everything else in retrospect. It doesn't look that good. That's the problem. He's always doing that. Right.

Yeah. Like when I watched stuff about Star Wars, it's like, oh, people are hesitant. To use CGI because things like a few years previous that it was cutting edge technology already is aged like two years later. So people were very hesitant to use it at all because they didn't want their movies to be aged by the effects. Yeah. Which I get out of this. But Star Wars holds up. It's so good still. Let's see. But yeah, it's so bad.

And yeah, the first three episodes, like I can't remember the story because it was boring because it was politics. Like the trade federation opening the opening of episode one. Horrible negotiation. Yeah, it's bad about who has like shipping lane rights. Yeah. Stupid. Awesome. Actually, no, it's stupid. You would open on that. It's so wild. No, terrible. Four children who had to sit through that. I think I was one of those children. I remember seeing episode one in theaters.

That's OK because Jar Jar Big shows up and you're in pain. It's our favorite little race. My I think my favorite Star Wars character from the movies is. C3 Pio. He's always funny and entertaining. And then it's like you could just be making up whatever R2-D2 saying and making him look bad by just making up. But anyway, so yeah, I've been playing a lot of Star Wars outlaws like so much like Saturday I played 13 hours. So I have I have issues. I think most normal people don't put that much time.

Straight in a game. No, that's like not what I do not do that, for example. Oh, I do not do that. For example. Strongly. Yeah, I don't. I'm glad you like it. It's a fun game. Yeah, I like it. The speeder. The speeder is my only issue with the game. It's annoying because it's like you like press this button to recall and then it like one takes forever to get to you, but also won't like the behavior won't change to just come to wherever you are.

It just goes past you to go to wherever you originally pressed that button, which is stupid and I hate it. It's the biggest complaint in the game so far. That's pretty funny. The next little guy, Mark, Markle, I think the species that he's so cute and can get outfits for him. And he's doing a lot for me. And case, I keep thinking like K is such a lame name. Give her a better name. Like best cool ass name.

K, like K best sounds good together, but like you give her such a more interesting first name because then it's like you just rip it off like, oh, instead of Ray, we'll do K. And that's lame. But other than that, also so many aliens. I'm like you hoping for like a hot person to join our crew, but I don't think it's happening at this point. I mean, they're hot and to other aliens, but they're not doing it for me. Aliens. No. It's a romance game. Like is there anything?

No. I need something to fabricate in my mind. Okay. I fantasize that there's some kind of lingering tension between K and someone. But there's not so far. Yeah. I do that. Like even to raise the tomb raider. I was like, oh yeah, this guy is basically like it turns out is like hundreds of years old or something. But I didn't know at the time. I was like, he's kind of cute. They get along. Let me just imagine. You know, kind of into. Yeah. I guess I do that. A lot. Or just makeup.

You're not interesting. Yeah. Well, like what does it mean to be a shipper outside of what I just described? Like are you doing action wise? Like I'm not going to illustrate or something. You're like writing little fanfics. No, I don't really draw. I don't draw very much anymore. And whenever I did draw, I wouldn't draw things I knew. I just like basically just doodle cute anime girls and. With no nothing specific in mind. But yeah, so Star Wars, not like Mastik, Mastik, hot aliens.

Star Wars. Not so what do you do? Because we also watch a little bit of high Q. Did we talk about this last week? No. What do you do? Are you like, are you like, oh, there's no romance. No, because a lot of times in those, it's like, I don't even like sometimes like the characters that much, but it's just like the action and like the goal they're trying to work towards. That's exciting. Okay. It's like the characters alone maybe aren't that good and they're only good together or something.

Yeah. I don't know. I know I don't do boy. I don't default to boys love. There's nothing else. Okay. Because let me tell you, we watched the first like seven or eight episodes. Thank you. I feel like. And that show was only about volleyball and literally nothing else. I was shocked by how much it's just look at this volleyball game. They're going to form a volleyball team. Oh, this guy doesn't want to play volleyball. Let's motivate him to play volleyball.

I'm just like, bro, what people love this. People love it. Yeah. That's like she hiya is like a nice. Band out in sports anime. Like it has those outside. Well, yeah. Okay. There are some outside elements that are like real like only exist because the card that they do exist. Triangle thing going on for it. So that's something. Yeah. But like, man, I don't know. I was shocked by IQ. So you're not going to watch it anymore. I mean, people, I guess we like the drama of the sport.

Like it's really the drama of the sport. That's like, yeah. Like once we have schools or rivals with and like. Which is interesting. Back to each other. Cause like I'd rather watch a fight. I'd rather watch like an anime fight than watch like people play volleyball sport. I don't care about. No, I guess so good. Volleyball that I'm just like, this is just like, it's not like the stakes are really not that high. Like this stuff isn't that important. Y'all are kind of free.

Like hyper fixating on this so much. Only if it was professional volleyball. Yeah. I'm like, you know, serious. You guys don't hang out and aren't really friends. And I don't like most of the people on the team. I think Tanaka is your favorite. The one who likes to pretend he's a little fog. Yeah. Captain. Diety. Okay. Everybody else kind of. No, see, I'm like, Hanada. I don't like him. I don't really care for him. He's like a little. He like has the psycho eyes sometimes. And I'm like, yeah.

No, it's like us. You know, it's weird. I don't get like he has like a weird crush on there. Like assistant or whatever. And it seems like he's never around girls, but he like practiced with the girls volleyball team before. That's true. But I mean, maybe it's because he couldn't possibly be into women who stand above him. Like they're better than him. So he wouldn't be interested. It's only when like he feels like he. It's better than them that he can. Feel romantic towards them. Maybe.

She doesn't talk so it doesn't matter, but. Yeah. Yeah. No, she's a whatever character. There's absolutely nothing. It's. Yeah. I don't think I'm going to continue with it. I don't think I like sports anime. Yeah. That's fine. I don't think so. I only have watched like. To you know what blue. Lock also does the psycho eyes. It's like. Ball is life. Like. I don't know. Like a German pointer. Human form. Like they can't think of anything else with the ball. So it's bad. It's like a weird.

I don't know. I don't like it when they give them crazy eyes and it's like, oh, they're not normal. Like that's how into soccer they are. What you know is too much. They're not real humans. Other interests or hobbies or anything. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I've talked about this with you a lot when I was like. Yeah. I mean, I've been in sports. Animes because like. I used to do a band in high school and like.

Marching band was a thing you had to do when I hated it and like it's sucked and everyone was like, oh yeah, you know, it's really rough when you do it, but then after it's done, you're just like, oh, I can't wait for next year. And I like. The first year and it ended. And I didn't feel like that. I just felt like it sucked. I was like, what the fuck this was just terrible the whole time. And now it's over. Glad it's over. Yeah.

and play some music. No, I had to always be trying to be the best and giving it all, giving my all to everything or people would get mad at me. And that just sucks. So I quit. And I'm like, now I'm watching these shows where like it's just full of all of those people. I'm just like, you guys would be a mess. Like I would hate hanging out with you in real life. Parable. Yeah. Yeah. When I think about my time across country, I'm just like, why would I do that?

Why did I do that for like, you know, six years or whatever? It's insanity. We're all doing stuff. It's fun. We don't have the the critical thinking skills when we're young. I just suffered through it for some reason. Yeah. So. Yeah. That's my official stance. I think just need more. They need more that like explore like, well, that badminton, whatever, was that one seems like it. Right. Yeah, I got that. That's like using sports as like the setting, but not the story. Yeah, I'm sorry.

So that seems like a better method. So you get to see some sports stuff, but it's like there's things outside of that that exists. Yeah. And it's not so much about the sport. It's about like what the sport represents and how it like embodies their like different problems or struggles they're having. You know, it's like it's like that. And I think that's better because I don't care about badminton. Yeah, I know. Watch, I know badminton seems like a lame sport, but people have to be in.

It's like a super lame sport. I know it's in the Olympics and it's real, but also it's just so goofy. Yes. Oh, man. OK, well, all right. Well, the sports anime we're watching, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, OK. Let's start with the voice actor because I forgot to do it last time. The voice actor for Nishita is Toru Nara. They have done voices for a various number of characters in Black Lagoon. There are 21 episodes, but they're just a bunch of names I don't recognize, like soldier and triad member.

Hmm, OK, that's a older issue in like early 2000s anime. So maybe that's just him getting started. He's also the voice of T. Hawk in Super Street Fighter or I don't know who that is. I don't know. Me either. He is the voice of Satou in My Hero Academia, who's the guy who eats sugar and wears yellow. OK, I watch it in dub. Oh, and I'm a bus is here. Name is sorry. Keep going. He is the voice of current delicious in Dungeon. It's a good shit.

I was going to say people have watched it, but like I. I'm so afraid to try new anime like new current anime. Why? Why? You say it's good. I like it a lot. Yeah. I didn't like free run, though, so I only watch one episode. But what I slow, I don't think you like slow things. Is it lemon? Cute. Oh, does she miss her? Sorry. There's a lot of other stuff. It's like not always the voice of Larry Butts in Phoenix Wright. I've never played those games. Oh, show series.

OK. And why don't they have voice acting in the games, right? I don't know. I haven't played it. Yeah, that's pretty much it. There's some stuff, but I don't recognize any of it. So OK, so there we go. Major major role here. Stap cast. Oh, yeah. Now I was kind of thinking we run into like a lots of like regular people who do a lot of different stuff. But so far we haven't. So that's interesting. I think I see is probably the most prominent voice actor we've had. Yeah. What about Arita?

Because he is a good voice actor. He he was probably one that was awesome. A few things. Uh, he does have a headshot on IMDb, which is a good sign. Oh, yeah. He was the voice of Reiner. That's right. OK. Anyway, nice. You see that we like him here. I'm here. Yes. Yes, they are so good. I actually bothered to take notes. It's crazy. We have so much. There's so much to talk about. Normally, I'm just like, there's nothing to say in this episode. This thing happens. It ends. OK.

Now it's just like there's so much stuff. OK, here we go. OK, here we go. 17 is called World Offers No Escape. That's exactly. OK, they are cars. I'm starting to recognize some of them. They are just Thomas friend, the 100 poem. So I'm confirmed. We open on a sports festival at school. It's like the finals of some track event in which all the clubs that like qualify have to run a five by 100. I know what is that? Which is like a fake event. But there's five people in the car in a club.

So they get to do it. All the clubs are like traditional sports clubs like like soccer or tennis. One of them is just the track team, which is crazy. Yeah, that's rigged. Except for Carter. They have also qualified because they like run in the mornings and stuff. Chihaya is like the opening leg of the race and pulls ahead because she's good at track. Yes, she did track like some odd.

It's like some of them are so not like when you know, like they're just going to get in the way and people be dropping batons in a real relay. You're out. That's it. If you don't be baton game over, you can't continue. They have like, you know, like a soccer ball, like a basketball. It's crazy. Yeah. The credit club is just hard. So it's actually pretty easy to pass some of these other things.

Yes. Tye, she takes it from Chihaya and he does a pretty good job running because I guess he's also pretty good at running. Then it's kind of who does like OK, but not really. Poor kind of. Yeah, she does not see. Well, no, here we because right tight, he's running. It's like, I want to come to my she was. Good. That was you. And then what is right is like a bunch of perverted dudes. Watch her boop move as she runs. Yeah, she needs for a car. No, it's just right with her eyes closed.

Keep your eyes open, girl. That's not safe. Oh, man, this is Tomu, who does pretty bad. He's bad running. But then fortunately, Nishita is the anchor and he's like really good at running because he was a tenancy. Never stop being an athlete and he gets the same. Because the track team drops their baton, which is crazy because they're the track team. It's a. Yes, they can't even do it. It happens, man. They suck. We see that on his shirt. It says they're recruiting new members as the OP plays.

After the OP, we open on Chihaya being sad that no new members wanted to join the club, even though they won the track competition. Nishita and Taichi come in and announce a bunch of upcoming tournaments and qualifiers that they should try to go to. We learn that the Eastern qualifier to play against the Queen is next January. So Chihaya is already qualified for that. If the boys need to qualify, they need to make class A before then. It's class A and higher. What is higher than class A?

I guess it's just King and Queen, but they're not going to compete in these qualifiers because they're the like defending champion. That's weird. I don't know. It's confusing. Taichi knows that he and Nishita are trying to make class A before winning the tournament and Kana and Satomu should try to win a class D tournament to make it to class C. Then Taichi gets a phone call. He takes it in the hallway and they all hear him say, quote, OK, fine, let's break up unquote.

And then he comes back like nothing happened and the whole club is like astonished. Yeah, the girl from episode one. We haven't seen her in six, you know, 15 episodes really. It's crazy. We haven't seen her in so long. She has like, oh, my God, it was that girl in episode one. Yeah. So he has been dating her this entire time, which is insane. Insane. Surely he's not seen her since. He's so busy. Oh, my God. I'm surprised it took so long. At all.

No, he's been for half the huts, but she had the whole time. Why was it even Dain's girl in the first place? I don't know. It was like, what's he day her? Is he like what did he like just day her to fool around or just to like get his mind off to hire or just because she asked? Dude, I don't know. He was just bored and he was just like, I want to go on dates. I guess I don't have to be so serious. They're in fricking elementary slash. Well, they're in high school.

It's not even going on dates, so no point. Oh, he comes back like nothing. Oh, yeah, he answers no questions and instead thinks about if Arata has made it to the Western qualifiers or not. Me breaking up with my girlfriend and it's really going is my rival going to be at this tournament. Am I going to see my rival? Well, no, it won't be the same tournament because it's like different region qualifiers. So like he's just wondering if he can beat.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got to get the class A first, dude. Yeah, they practice and we learn that Tai Chi needs to make it to class A before October so he can go to the Eastern qualifier with Chiaya. So he has an even shorter timeline to make it. It must be like August. Because they talk about September as a thing coming up. So they must be in August. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, so not a lot of time.

They take a break in Satoma, thanks to himself that despite how much like running he does in the mornings and training, he hasn't been able to put on any muscle or get any more athletic. And I'm telling you, dude, it's because you're not eating right. You need to eat more protein. I don't think he is. I'm going to be honest. No rice. So how you do it, man? You look crazy. Cotton calls him just Tomu, too. Yeah, I don't know how nice she is. You would think she wouldn't use that nickname.

And nicknames. I feel like she doesn't call. I feel like she doesn't call the sheet of porky. So why is it just him that she's calling that? I don't know. She hates him. She hates him. Although she does say that T'ai Chi is the only person who calls him by his name. OK, so maybe she does. I just don't pay attention when she talks to him that much. Be better. Yeah. Well, we get to the end of this and we learn that it's not going to get better. They take a little he can't put on muscle.

Chi Hai comes over to Kana and tries to help her fix her posture. Then Satomu talks to Kana and we learn that she thinks of Kata more as an art than a sport because men and women can compete against each other, which is an interesting. Well, it's nice because like paintball is like that. There's no gendered division, because technically anyone could be good at it. Like you don't necessarily have an advantage. That's not overcome. That's true. Yeah. I don't know why that makes it an art, though.

I feel like sports can just be like no. Well, that's just kind of art for the PS. Yeah. Satomu listens to this and vows to keep trying. Chi Hai and Tai Chi go home while doing an exercise that each time Tai Chi claps, Chi Hai has to like practice swiping a card on the train. Tai Chi tells Chi Hai that he's going to go to a tournament in Kanazawa. And she's like, oh, yeah, that's great. I want to go to. But then she's like, oh, wait, isn't that super far away? How much is that going to cost?

And Tai Chi says it's going to cost like an $80 for a ticket there. And then the registration fee for the tournament is $200. So only Tai Chi can afford it. Carter is expensive. I mean, I guess it's not like super expensive. That's kind of expensive. I guess it's a qualifier. Chi Hai thinks about how Kazahaya is so close. No, not Kazahaya. I don't know. I said that Kanazawa, the place where he's going. He's close to Fukui, where Arata lives. And then falls asleep on Tai Chi's shoulder.

Just what? What is Kazahaya? Because he is from Hoshido, right? Or so he would be like in the same region as Arata. So he could he could be there. God, they could be friends. They could both be sad boys. They could both be terrible with women. And so I love it when I love it when I think about the guy who's far away from me and then I rest my head on the guy who's right next to me. She's tormenting him. He's doing it on purpose. It's no. It's so awful.

Yeah. Tai Chi, now recently single, looks over at a sleeping Chi Hai. As the music matters. And we see his hand move a little closer to her. But then he claps to get her to swipe. And it's pretty funny. That's a good bit. Get her ass, Tai Chi. We get a voiceover where Tai Chi tells us that he feels bad for sneakily going to tournaments without the rest of the team, just so he can be at the same level as Chi Hai.

Before parting with Chi Hai, he tells her that he's going to make class A. We cut to the Kanazawa tournament where Tai Chi is there. They start the first round only for Tai Chi to notice that Nishida is like right behind him. It's so good friend of the card of society. And also we learn that retro is there. So, you know, despite the expense, everyone's here. Whatever. Yeah, it's funny because then they're like they start yelling and then they get scolded.

So then they're just like talking under their breath at each other. And Nishida is always complaining about how rich Tai Chi is. Like he did not take a plane to get there. No, he did. Tai Chi flew there. Yes, crazy. I thought I was so expensive to get there. Yeah, Tai Chi plays his best physically slower than his opponent. Sorry, you're going to say something else? Oh, I was just going to say with all that New Year's money, he is like a drop in the bucket.

Nothing. Tai Chi. He kind of paid for Chi Hai. Yeah. Tai Chi plays and he's physically slower than his opponent. Elsewhere, Chi Hai plays against Hiroshi at the card to society. She's gotten faster, but also faults a lot. And Dr. Harada is not impressed. She loses to Hiroshi and he tells her that she might be fast, but he doesn't or she doesn't scare him. And she's like, that's weird. Dr. Harada tells her to stop taking cards with speed.

He's like, you need to you need to focus on something else. We cut back to school. Chi Hai has to list some career choices and she writes queen in the top box. And her teacher is like, try again at the card to club. Chi Hai is feeling down and so and so are Nishida and Tai Chi, who both lost their tournament. They're like, damn, make a class A. Sure is tough. Nishida tries to challenge Chi Hai, but she's still confused as to why Dr. Harada said that she should stop taking cards with speed.

We get the rest of the flashback where like he finishes his thought and he tells he tries to point out that even if she can take one syllable cards quickly, that's not enough to like win because it's only like wide, like 10 cards or something. Um, so she needs to stop concentrating on only on speed and start like coming up with a strategy for something else. Nishida knows that without speed, she has no other strategies or like advantages. Nishida spent in facts. Chi Hai is at a loss.

So Sato Mu challenges Chi Hai to a match. They play their match and Chi Hai wins by 15 cards. We see him writing in a notebook because he's calculated the distribution across all of the games he's played with Chi Hai on which zones he's able to take cards from her. Chi Hai is dominant with her right hand, with her right hand side diagonal, but weak on her left diagonal.

So Tomo notes that his strategy against her would be to reposition all of his cards off of her strong diagonal and into her weak one. And that like better opponents she plays are probably going to do that. So she should be prepared for that. Kana also notes that Chi Hai a faults a lot on multi-syllable cards. And Chi Hai is like, yeah, but that's normal. But then Kana notes that some of the poems are written like hundreds of years apart and basically have nothing to do with each other.

Even they even like mean different things like contextually. She tries to relate to what I was going to say. Well, she's like, basically, this is her being like, what? They're nothing alike. How could you, you know, like there's so much history and that's how you should be identifying them stuff. Yeah. I like that they're sitting on Chi Hai. Like, OK, now that we're talking about it, let me let me time in with what I think you're doing wrong. Yeah. So good.

Kana tries to relate to of the cards as like images so that Chi Hai can picture them as different colors because she pictures some of them as a red. So she's like, oh, like you could think of this one as like green. Chi Hai realizes that card is not just about speed, but also about strategy. You can use strategy in this game. We cut to after school where her teacher, who's named Mia Uchi, sees Chi Hai in the library. She's surprised that she would read and goes to tell her to fill in her career

survey. She sees that Chi Hai is reading a book about the interpretations of the poems and cards as we cut to credits. OK, one. This is this is their advisor, the teacher. Spring and smacked Chi Hai earlier, reporter hit her with a book. Well, so it's like to hire you've been like obsessed with card for years and like what you've just been doing the exact same thing and not actually developing anything else than speed on like only certain cards.

Like it's wild that she's only just now researching about this thing that she's supposedly all consumed by. You know, I would think she'd be like looking into everything. Oh, yes, sorry. I played an online video game. Chi Hai is doing is playing a bunch of overwatch where she doesn't learn any other strategies. Just the same thing forever and being like, how come I can't ladder climb? She's going to collapse. That's what she's whatever that means.

I feel like it's a normal thing to just be like, oh, I'm just like, I thought you just get faster and get better. But no, it turns out you like I can see like wanting to double down on what your strength is, but like that doesn't mean you have to like neglect any other advantages. Well, she has. Yeah. Well, yeah, somehow she made it class A. Now I'm like, how the hell does she suck it up every time we see her playing?

Well, I think I mean, this is the thing with like what Hiroshi is saying, right? He's like, you're fast, but you don't scare me, which makes me think that like she really just got into everybody else's head with how fast she was. Like she's probably just psyching them out. Yeah. But like Hiroshi is like a high level. He's just like, whatever. Yeah, you're really fast, but like only sometimes. And you also mess up a lot. So it's really not that hard. Not that much of a threat, honestly.

And she's really aggressive because like they all play kind of like offensive card, right? Well, like everyone probably thinks she's easy in the beginning because she's only good in the later half of the matches, too. So like, I wonder if she's like trying as hard the whole time or if she's like conserving strength until then. And then like her opponent is more tired and then she like plus out the fast moves. I don't think that sounds like too much strategy for her.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. I think she's more stamina from doing tracks or she could just be better for longer. Well, it's high tea in this episode is like, oh, wow, she's really thinking about what Dr. Hirata said to where he could normally like under 10 seconds is all it takes for her to like give up on a math question or something. And she's learning how to study. She's this. How many other books do you think we she's right up to this point? This is like number five.

Like not since she was a child reading children's books, maybe. Yeah. Yeah, I don't I don't know. Not many. She's a dud this one. But let's see how it's done me. In verse 18. Or do you want to go to the next one? Do you have anything else to say? Let's go. Verse 18 is the plum blossoms still smell the same. We open on the card team at another individual tournament.

They're getting their Haka was fitted as she thinks about how this is going to be their her her first official class A tournament and she's nervous. I had like weird hiccups there for a second. What's happening? I'm like, what's happening? Well, right? To see like the first tournament we see her in when she's still trying to get tied to you to join is her getting into class A and then everything is just being in high school tournament.

So this is the first like outside school class A. So this is like for real because like a lot of others. I think a lot of high schoolers aren't class A. So there wasn't as many people on that level to compete against. But yeah, let's go. Yeah, they're all hyped to try to class up. She has first matches against an older lady wearing a pink outfit. Her name is Conn I. She has a she's cute and she's like, yeah, I know. It's just pretty funny.

Yes. She thinks about how she needs to not move too fast as the match starts. Match starts as she takes a card by moving too fast. Conn I is like, wow, you young kids sure are fast. I just can't keep up. But then she high a faults and Conn I is like, yep, there it is. Young people react too quick and constantly make mistakes. Okay. I feel like it's annoying that she keeps bringing up her age. But also I feel like I talk like that. Like I feel like I talk the same way probably.

I'm like, come on, girl, how's something else other than AIDS to talk about? I feel like if I was playing a 16 year old every comment I would be like, wow, 16. Yes. Yes, that I know. It's like I went on a date with someone like four years younger than me. I was talking to them like they were child. So I definitely am. I was like, oh, wow, you play the game cube. Oh man. That's yeah. Wow. Oh my God. Was that it? That was it. I felt I felt like I was going to be like, that was it.

I felt like I can't do this. Anyways. Yeah. Play continues and every time can I take the card she says lucky, which is super annoying. Oh my God. It's so annoying. Shut up. I can't believe just sat through that. I would have been like, can you shut the hell up please? The tactic I guess be annoying is to distract them. I can't believe trash talking hasn't been brought up yet. Conn I taunts are saying that she's lucky. Her opponent only has speed. So like, I guess. No, it's seed being thrown.

Insane. This lady is something else. Yeah, it's a lot. They get set dead cards in a row, which is, you know, they read out a card that isn't in play, which makes she high a very antsy and she swipes out a card. And the next read, but it's a seventh dead card. That's crazy. The Chi Hai Fu card, which like messes with her. She's so easy to read. What? She's so easy to read. That one she's just met already knows what's up with the card.

This is the first time when like all those times before that tight, she's like, she hire you're too easy to read actually has consequences. Because before she just keeps saying that and it doesn't matter. But yeah, she's just going to send you your best card because obviously you're going to be good at one syllable cards. So here you go. Mm hmm. Chi Hai keeps screwing up. Conn I comments that the game isn't fun because it feels like Chi Hai is playing against the cards and not her.

Which is like kind of a nice thing to say. Chi Hai realizes that Conn I has intentionally been sending her the single syllable cards since those are the ones she hi is her best at making it hard for her to like take from her opponent. Because Conn I is using strategy and she hi.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, she already like right with that first card, she's like scolding herself immediately like, come on, I just told myself I was going to not take cards of speed and then immediately does so and she makes a lot of goofy faces. These episodes are good. Yeah, it's pretty. It's like a South Park character when she stood up and picked up that first card. So good. Chi Hai tries to come up with a strategy.

She decides to sit back from the line so it takes her longer to tap cards to correct for her reflexes. So she has like more distance to travel. It's just enough space for it to work. Conn I notices this and starts positioning her cards to mess with Chi Hai. So she's like moving them around into the quadrants she's bad at. Chi Hai realizes that she's waited too long to get a read on her opponent and basically doesn't really know how Conn I plays.

They tie on a card as both of them use the same three syllable timing strategy. So she's finally not just rushing to take cards. She's finally using like the proper syllable timing. She realized that she's her mind is blown. Yeah, she realized that there's more to Carter than just speed, which is like, dude, Dr. Harada told you that yesterday. Very funny. Chi Hai loses by six cards. Afterward, she sees Conn I and her family, both her and her daughters are all dressed the same.

Chi Hai thanks her for the match and says that her dream is to become queen and Conn I was like, oh, cool. So is mine. She's like, I've been playing for 35 years, but I still think I could do it even against more youthful players. And then she tells Chi Hai, I see you at the Eastern qualifiers and then leaves. That was nice, I guess. Well, where is she going? How much time do you have? No, she won the match. Where is she going? I don't know. Maybe it was like a half.

I have a 30. No, it can't be because we got we cut to more rounds next episode, but I mean, round two or something. Maybe. Yeah, which I didn't even think about. Yeah. Imagine you just like, well, like destroyed a 16 year old. I'm out. Yeah. Yeah, maybe she doesn't counter high schoolers in class A tournaments very much. Probably not. No. So this one is much more is more card base, but at least it was like she has the dawning on her. Outright. Sorry. Continue the worst moment of her life.

We coming up in class B. It's Tai Chi versus Nishida and in class D. It's kind of versus Satomu. She has like, well, shit. Who am I supposed to cheer for? One of my life. Yeah. Is there watching? Whoever wins the class B game will class up for the Eastern qualifier. So the pressure is on. Satomu thinks about Kana as a player. She's a defensive player who rarely faults. Play starts.

Chi Hai is unable to watch both games at once and decides to watch Kana versus Satomu after she realizes that Kana's posture is different when she's wearing a Hakama because it has a sash that can support your lower back. I guess it's like a OB. Well, also she's like, I'm wearing, well, she's the Hakama, the Kimono chick. So she's like more conscious of her posture while she's wearing that stuff because that, you know, it's all about posture. As you'll see.

Kana is very elegant wearing a Hakama since you have to have perfect posture while wearing it. It also helps her play too. So she can like lean forward in that position she couldn't do without it. Kana's mom notes that a girl like Chi Hai is beautiful in anything, but a girl like Kana is only especially pretty while wearing a Kimono and is very proud. She basically says Kana is not beautiful, but she knows how to wear. I'm like, damn. I get what she's saying. Not pretty.

That's not what she's saying. She's saying, but like she says, she literally says like Kana may not be beautiful, but so she says she's not beautiful. She said it. Okay. All right. Oh my God. This is a perfectly fine sentiment. Oh God. What did you say? Like Kana, you know, her terms really come out when she's wearing a Kana rather than saying not beautiful, whatever. It's not like she's saying this to her. She's terrible. Oh my God. I don't know.

My mom always tells me, I thought maybe not all parents are delusional like my mom saying things like, oh, I don't have favorites and stuff when it's like, you totally do. You just can't admit it even to yourself. You have favorites. You have favorites. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Anyways. So Tomu notices that she's also better while wearing a Hakama.

He also knows which cards he's better at taking at or taking than her because she doesn't think about the cards in terms of syllables, but in terms of the actual poems, so she'll like be drawn to look at cards that are related to the poems, not the actual words on the card. And he like knows this. He's like, oh yeah, she looks at that one because like that one is written by like a relative of the person who wrote that one. He's like, got it.

This is like an advantage for him because he knows her, but like this would be a, I feel like something other players would be thrown off by going to Kana. Like, oh yeah, she probably won't be expecting it. Yeah. Let's see. However, since Tomu falls and Kana is able to give him one of her better cards, which she then takes, she high decides to keep watching them as we cut to credits. Yeah. Poor Tai Chi man. He'll never have Chi Hai as attention. No, even when he's in the platform. It's crazy.

She just doesn't care. Oh, it's brutal. It's so crazy. This is the better game to watch. It seems like. Yeah. Well, that's because we don't get to see the other one at all. So we don't know. I want to cut up an interesting, which we'll never know. Yeah. Okay. Do you want to know the next episode? Yes, I did have one last thing. Even Kana's mom calls the Tomu desk Tomu. I just want to point that out. They're so mean to him.

And like by the end of this next episode, he's the best character in the show. Oh, no, Joe is because we got square glasses like you. No, you relate to him. Okay. Because like the way he plays the game, like he, when he plays, he thinks about stuff in like terms I can understand as like an audience member. And it's the most entertaining the games have ever been when he's like, we're in his mind. Like we're in Tai Chi's mind. It's like, he's just saying shit. I don't know.

It's so hard to follow because he's like, okay, this one's been read and this one's been read. And those two share syllables and this one over here. And here's all the dead cards. It's not fun to watch. And when she Haya plays, it's just like she's doing whatever. Cause this is like the first time we're seeing like dust tomo where we're hearing his inner dialogue really. And it's like against people he knows. So he has a lot to say about his opponent and like their strategy and his strategy.

So this is like a good situation. Yeah. Yeah. This next episode, very good. Yeah. This next episode is very good. So verse 19 is called as the years pass. We open on the games going on. Tai Chi Nishita are locked in, but Tai Chi no longer has a lock in, but Tai Chi notices that she Haya isn't even watching them. She's watching the class D game. That Satomu faults a lot and Kana doesn't. This is a problem because faulting is actually like really bad.

So it's not only do they gain a card, but it also screws up your like momentum. They like mess up. Satomu takes a card against Kana, but accidentally sends her a one syllable card, which will be super easy for her to take because Satomu's main problem is that when he's losing, he spirals and makes a lot of like stupid mistakes. So he like has a loses his core. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He like death spirals. Satomu is currently losing two to 10 with 12 cards left.

He thinks he might be toast, but then looks over at Tai Chi Nishita playing and decides to keep on trying to the end. He repositions all 10 of his cards to be on his left side. He notes that his cards have a higher probability of being read. So his strategy is just to hit all of his cards every single time because he's a champion. This is so funny. Everyone watching hates him now. It's so good. I mean, it is frustrating, but it isn't the rules. So, um, yeah, I'll leave in the rules.

I've been like, it would be so frustrating as the opponent. Like everybody disapproves, but I bet Dr. Harada would approve. I bet he would be like, you absolutely should. Whatever it takes. Yeah. Yeah. This is exactly what you should be doing. Yeah. He gets the next two cards using that strategy and Kana is like fine. I'll just like all of his cards are just there too. So I'll just hit all of them as well.

But then the one syllable card he sent to her gets read and she is so focused on his cards that he's able to take it to her or take it from her, making it two to seven. So he's like recovered a little bit. Kana decides that she just needs to be super accurate. She misses the next one, but is able to take the Chi-HAi Fu card on his side, making it six to one or one to six. one card left. Yeah, I like that they just describe as like, this is like one of my friends

best cards. So now it's becoming my best card because I'm like a friend and pay attention to my friends. She got the good that gives her an advantage. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if they really hang out all that often. So Tomu takes two more of his cards, but then Connors card is read and she takes it winning the match. So Tomu congratulates her on winning as she cries. She hi is touched by the moment and also cries. But then she

looks over at Titus and she does game and sees it going on. And not only is it going on, it's going down. She sees that they are tied one to one, which means it's basically up to the luck to like luck of whose card is read next because like it's going to be impossible to take the card because it's been the level lower right hand corner. So it's like right next to their hand and you just can't reach across. Well, they probably

both moved it to be so this is close to their dominant hand. But yeah. Yes. Oh, what a crappy situation. Retro notes that this sucks. Tai Chi assesses the situation with his good memory. There's eight unread cards, six of which are dead. His card is a one syllable card. So if that's what is read, he could just take it while Nishida has a card that shares a first syllable with two other dead cards that haven't been read yet, which means he has a chance. He decides to go on the attack.

He swipes it. Nishida's cards instead of protecting his own, which surprises everyone. Nishida tries to figure out why Tai Chi would do that and realizes that there must be some dead cards with the same first syllable as his. But he hasn't memorized all of them. So he's just like, well, I guess I'll just have to keep protecting it. I guess it's because it's inhuman to remember all the cards that haven't been read. Three more dead cards

are read. Then one of the dead cards with the same syllable as Nishida's card is read and Nishida's like, okay, finally he blocks it. Now it's like a 50 50, right? Like there's nothing else. But then Tai Chi looks intense and he's like, oh shit, there's another one. Is it there? It's so that's like Tai Chi, you know, practice what you preach. You're telling to Haya, like, don't give it away. You're giving it away with your intense stare

that there must be another one coming up. I don't think he can do anything about it, regardless. But the next card is read. Nishida's card, she is able to take it before Tai Chi can reach and he wins. Everybody feels bad about it. I feel like it's just impossible. I feel like you just can't win in that situation if you're Tai Chi. No, you just have to make sure it never gets to that point. You have to do better throughout the game so that you

never get to a situation where your entire victory is based on luck. And this is where I just want to say something that's weird about the way cards I was played in this. You only play one game. That seems weird. Yeah. What do you mean? Against a person? Yeah, like in the finals, it's only a one game. It's one game. Normally it's like best of three or something, right? Like in a lot of other stuff, it would be like a best of three

or a best of five or something. But it's just a one game. Maybe. Especially if it goes down like this, right? Like, can you really say you're here? Yeah, I mean, because I guess they're while they're doing so many and it is a thing we have to memorize. So like, like how do you do that over and over again? I can see being like difficult, especially if you're going against the same opponent to like memorize a new layout for like a same

person can be difficult or the right out time. They just don't they just only do one round. I wonder like how long a match tapes like is that enough time to like hit your groove and like be at your best for this last round? Yeah, it just feels like you'd play more than one, especially for like a final. Like you think you at least do a two out of three, right? It's like really chess. It's always multiple out of multiple like tennis. I mean,

it's like multiple games, you know what I mean? Even like though, like the yeah, it's like multiple games, you know what I mean? Like it's just so common to do multiple series of a thing like all eSports do this, but like fighting tournaments, League of Legends, that's because they're getting money for sponsors and stuff. And this has nothing like that. It just seems like you'd want to do that for something that's this important. I don't know.

It's just kind of weird. Well, is it that important to the organizer? This is just another tournament like maybe for the qualifying or against the actual Queen and King or Master. So it's like Master and then Queen. I feel like it should be like King and Queen. Yeah, it should be Emperor and Empress or something. It will actually be gendered, right? Like it's yes. Yeah. Anyways, it's better than Master. Like I cannot stress this enough. There could be multiple Masters

of a thing, but there's only one Queen. What are we doing? Yeah. Anyway, I just thought that was weird. Yeah. In the locker room, Tai Chi asks Nishida if he knew which dead cards were left. He didn't put Satomu did. So someone else is memorizing everything. Tai Chi tersely comments that Nishida got lucky and then leaves while waiting at the entrance. Yeah. Tai Chi scolds himself for getting snippy with Nishida since he could have just won by taking more

cards earlier in the match and he had lots of ways he could improve. So like it's not Nishida's fault that he won by luck. Nishida walks out and sits next to him and Tai Chi apologizes. Chi Hai walks out and sees them talking and she listens in. Nishida tells Tai Chi that he's glad that Tai Chi is club president because otherwise it'd be Chi Hai and she keeps giving everybody weird nicknames and they just let her get away with it because

she's an airhead and Chi Hai hears this and is destroyed. It's extremely. So good. It's so good. Oh man. Yes. She needs to hear it. She does. This is true. Yes. Nishida is correct. Saying that Tai Chi is the only one who calls him Nishida and that he wants to keep playing with him. Tai Chi agrees and they all go except this is something that the rest also need

to hear because they also still call him that. Yep. Yep. Yeah. The only one who calls people by their names which is why everybody likes him even though he's like feels very distant from everybody. No. He's in it now. He was in it like he wasn't fazed by his girlfriend dumping him at all. He's just like OK moving forward. I know. But like he's excited now. I feel like he's more into it now. He's into it now. Like he got sad about losing because

he didn't care. You know. Yeah. Let's see. Kata's mom drives them home. She congratulates the team on three members classing up and Satoma was like three and they tell him that the top three people from class D get to rank up because like otherwise the pyramid wouldn't work if it was that hard. There's a lot more. Yeah. I guess it's like top. It's probably like top one top two top three top placing. Yeah. Class D C and D I guess class class

D is the lowest. Yeah. Right. Now we have no one in class D in the club on the team. Yep. We're A B and C now. She's she tries to make a point to call everybody by their actual names instead of their nicknames. Kana says she was playing her best because she was playing against Satomu which was familiar enough that the pressure didn't get to her. T'aiji falls asleep with his head bobbing against the door. So she reaches over and

lays his head on her shoulder. Just a normal thing to do. I feel like an anime it is. I don't know. I would just be like wake up. I think I would it. Yeah. Just just continue to torment him by not being interested in giving signals. Watching this happen. This is insane. Well you think they all realize how into her he is or no. Well he doesn't but like they also don't fully know the backstory of Arda and all that. So I feel like

most of the time he's probably just talking to her like a child like T'aiji. Come on. This is a problem where like I imagine with all these time skips that they've been like hanging out and talking to people or whatever. But like I'm sure there's going to be a conversation where they're just like you guys were childhood friends. You know what I mean. Like they're

not going to have basic information about each other later on. And I like dread that moment where I'm like oh these people haven't been like hanging out and being friends in the meantime. They've just been doing nothing. Yeah. We'll see I guess. T'aiji tells them that they should all play as a team again. She does like all right. Why are you being weird. Did you hear what I said about you with the nicknames. You can keep using the

nicknames because you're supposed to be an airhead. I have no expectations of you anyway and they all laugh. Tolerance. Let's just not encourage. So close to getting away from the nicknames and they brought it back. She does like. Oh it's fine. I don't think you're dumb. So it's cute when you say it. Oh man. Like you have. No she needs to learn. We had

it. Because they. Because it happened on the episode when they had the camp where she was like going to apologize for being insane and like pushing them too far and then they're all like no it's fine. And now here we are again. So she'll never learn from her mistakes because everyone's like it's fine. Nothing. All she's learned about not to be. It's her only character thing. What is happening here. Why is this happening. Why. Why. Why are you

doing this. They're putting it in and then they're taking it away from me. They're like oh you see this scene where Nishida actually admits that it feels bad to be called names by people and he doesn't like it. Well don't worry about it because he thinks she hides dumb so it's fine. Whatever. Yeah but her doing it everyone else falling suit. It's not just her doing it. Rest of them are too. He should be mad at everyone else too. Oh my god. Trash

they're so bad. They were good for a second. They're bad again. Oh man. We cut to Arata at his local car to club. He sees the results of the tournament and that Nishida has classed up. He says he's going to be ready for the Western finals as we cut to credits. He's going to be back in the story maybe. We just barely get glimpses at him for being a major character. We have so little time with them because Satomu is the champion and makes the

game sound fun and interesting. By thinking about. Well that's because he's like a new player so he's thinking of it in like normal approachable ways versus someone who's been doing it for years isn't going to be like thinking about all the. Well yeah. Things we need to know to understand. I'm also a normal viewer and I don't want to hear about Tai Chi's weird mind palace about where he's memorized all these components I've never heard of. I want

to hear. I mean I think it's a question. I'm good at this. Here's what I'm going to do to counter what she's doing. That's what I want to hear. I don't want to hear. Yeah. Whatever the fuck Tai Chi's thinking. She doesn't think at all. So she her batch is really just aren't that interesting. I don't know. No. Yeah. Wait. There's other strategies besides just being fast. There's more to this game besides that. What has she been doing all

these years. Yeah. I can't imagine Dr. Herata is super fast. But like he. You know what I mean. Well right. I'm guessing. This is like the thing that you complain about where like if you if you. Hit your peak. Should you keep trying or not. And I guess she is hitting that where it's like what she's done up to this point isn't working. And so yeah. Not giving up but finding a new way forward. I mean she has things that she can obviously

improve on. This isn't quite the same. She just can't do it. She just hasn't tried doing it yet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The thing that bothers me or like the thing I want more is like I don't really understand what Tai Chi's problem is. Like I saw a really like this is a really good episode to learn about what Satomu and Kana are like. Right. Like we know that Satomu is like some mental problems. He also like you know hasn't been able to put on muscle

or any of that stuff. So he like struggles kind of developmentally with some of this stuff like in a broad sense of like getting better at card stuff. But he is smart. He is using strategy. He's trying to compensate for that. And I think that's really interesting. And Kana is like she thinks about the game like fundamentally different than everybody else. Right. Yes. Yes. The poems. But she also is very good at like you know because

she's being like a proper lady. She isn't faulting. She's being very proper. Which I think is I think she does is with intention. Right. It's not none of it's willy nilly. It's all. So she doesn't make mistakes because like Satomu accidentally sent her a card that he shouldn't that wouldn't have been smart to do. And like so she keeps a cool head. So that's OK. Can we talk about we kind of mentioned it when we watch this together.

But she like goes to pick up a card and she like does the whole like let me get down on my knees and talk my my a column of pants in and then grab the card and then get up. And I'm like this is too much effort. Like right with the head every time you get up. So. Oh my God. It sounds like a nightmare. She's winning. So she's had to do that. But oh yeah. I mean she's into it though. She lives for this stuff. She loves doing that.

I guess. I guess. So this is why like this is probably like you know people are like then and they complain about like doing tea ceremonies or whatever. This is probably why it sucks because it's just like that for like an hour. Yes. Yeah. I well I didn't do it when I went because I kind of afford to. But also I feel like a lot of people said that's kind of boring. Yeah. Because it's just like so it's proper. Exactly. Yes. A bunch of things.

I know. I could never with this posture of mine. Just to serve tea. Okay. I'll say how can she hire everyone from the side. See what cards are being played before they're read like they're far away. Parts are on the ground like are they able to read them from that far. Like I'm dang. I think it's not expected. It's not a science spectators for. Well I know but like when Satoma sent that card and she hired was like oh why did he send that card.

I'm like how could you tell a card he sent. Oh yeah. That wasn't verbal at all. You know it sounds like a bad. You need cameras. They need overhead cameras and to project them on screen. That's what they need. It needs to be housing these in temples and stuff and like old rustic places. You need TVs guys. You need the jumbo Tron up there so I could see that like what's going on with Tai Chi and Ashita. Then she could watch multiple

games at once. She can't because I guess as long as the players can't see them. Yeah. I get right. Like it would have been nice if someone who knew them was also watching not just retro who gave us nothing on their math like anything about the way Nishita or Tai Chi plays. We just know that they're basically. No. But I still like I don't know. Well it's interesting because when Nishita joined the club it's like OK good. She hired me so in

stronger to practice against which imply that he is better than Tai Chi. So I guess it makes sense that he well but this but if that was the case it wouldn't have come to lack of the draw for him to win. So Tai Chi must have improved a lot. Since he joined clear. This is the problem. It's like it's not clear to me if Tai Chi is better or not. Well I got to because we don't write a bit more at the last tournament both of them. But this tournament

they made it to the finals because the opponents are just weaker. I'm assuming it was just the opponents. Yeah. Maybe I don't know. Part of it I guess just being lucky on who you go against. Right. For ranking up purposes. I don't I don't know. This is the thing. This is like this is the information I want to know to get more invested in like what's going on with them in terms of like how they play. So far we haven't really seen them play. So

it's really not that big. Yeah. So surely it's coming since we just got it with Satome and kind of but I'm glad we're in this mode in the show now that we're going to start exploring how people play and what that reflects about their personalities and like who they are as people because that's the thing that I want. As opposed to before this which is just like you want to watch a card a game which is like no I don't actually. Yeah. Yeah.

So this is best episodes yet. The best episodes yet. Watch it immediately go back to not doing anything like this. The problem is that she high up being the main character is a little bit of a does not work. Yeah. I don't think she's going to do this which means we need to have somebody watch her game and do this for her. Yes. We have to this point. It's only really been tight. She sometimes but site. She doesn't really do it either. We

need to tell me I need to tell me to narrate every game for me. I need to tell me to be like oh here's she highest stat spread because he has those. He's been keeping track of everything. That's oh I like that and she's like show me mine. He's like not for nothing like hell. Yeah. Was he got to do to get his info. I need to tell me to to officiate every man be

the main character. Watch every match and tell me what's happening. Maybe it just would have been better that because like most sports anime I feel like a lot of it is like a newcomer and then through the protagonist we're like seeing everything from the eyes of a beginner versus this being our protagonist already proficient in it. We didn't join her along the entire journey. So like we didn't learn along with her. So it's like kind of a weird

setup for like a sports. Yeah. Anime. It's also weird because it's like knowing that the game works like this. I'm just like she high up played against Coni. I don't know how Coni plays at all. We didn't learn anything about the way she played because like she high just isn't paying attention. But like I haven't learned anything about it. Yes. But like how does pseudo play. I don't know. What does he do. He what's he bad at. I don't

know. Taunts and intimidates by standing up. Yeah. But it doesn't work and saying weird stuff. Yeah. I mean he was good enough to. Yeah. The queen. He's going. Yeah. What he's good at. No. Like this is the stuff I wish we were getting earlier on so we could learn something. Yes. Something with the. Yes. Aside from the fact that he's the guy who stands up. You know what I mean. Well luckily this is just we're coming to the end of the first

season but there's two more seasons. So there is more time to be exploring those things. Yeah. But the stakes may be higher by then taking forever. It wasn't. You know what I mean. Like in high Q. We watch that. At least he would be like this is the team that serves the ball and he could put it anywhere because he's a great server. That's at least like a stake. I understand what the problem is. Right. Uh huh. She loses to kind. I don't really know why other than that she keeps messing

up which is like OK but like. I'm sorry Joe. So I'm one of my favorite enemies ever. You just. I'm just saying I wish they did this earlier. They're doing it now. Which is something to keep doing it. You know what I mean. Yeah. I feel like we just evolved. What happened. I just like it. I just like this show. The show is good. And like I'm sure as it gets more to the drama part like the love triangle thing. Like I want that. Ever happened.

It's just slow. It's slow startup. It's been a slow time. Yes. Expecting the next episode will also be good. Yeah. All right. Well I guess that's enough to hide a talk for now. Now that you've declared that I hate this show. You know that I'm devastated that you hate it. This is what I'm talking about. So much of it. I like this show. I would make us watch a different show. I don't know. Maybe I don't think you would. I don't think you would.

Bad. Like when I say that the matches that she had earlier on like because they aren't giving characterization are just like not that interesting. I'm not saying they're like totally boring. Like it still has the like drama of easy to watch but not to comment on. Yeah. Totally fine. Like they've been totally fine. But it's like not giving me what I want. Which is this added layer of like. God she hired trying to make a podcast here. Give us some more to talk about.

I just want to add a bit and these gave it to me. Why these are. Yes. This is good stuff. I hope the show doesn't disappoint you moving forward. I don't exactly remember what happened. I think it will because it's like moving because like now she highest thinking about strategy to think about strategy. You have to think through this stuff. Right. Like I'm optimistic about it. Like if me and my sister can both follow this show and understand it. Enough to enjoy it. Anyone can. It's not the same.

Like it's like I can't follow the show. Well there I am. That's fine. OK. We're having patients. I didn't watch it anymore. Which I didn't. I didn't watch it. So you can just show a segment. Yeah. I feel like we're running long. Yeah. Sorry. 8 p.m. I got to squeeze some Star Wars outlaws in. I need to eat dinner at 9 p.m. Yeah. I got to see you. All right. So please rate us five stars on your podcast platform of choice. We're having a good time.

Despite what some of us say we're both having a good time watching this show. I was watching it and talking about it. And I think you should reward us for doing that by giving us. I think you should also tell people around you. At this show is good, especially episodes 17 through 19 and that they should watch it. It's a complete. It's a totally bingeable show because that apparently is how sports anime is watched by just doing it all in a row.

It's really good to shotgun and they can listen to all our episodes along with it. So tell them. Yeah. Did Erin already go on a road trip? I think she's doing that really right now. Listen to us on your road trips across the country. Country. Man, look, we have so many hours to listen to us talk. Yeah. So I always did. I like if I don't know people out there. I hope you enjoy listening to us and enjoy listening to podcasts a lot. Some may only all of we maybe were your only podcast.

But I feel like if they've made it to our like I'm at minute. I'm at one hour and 51 minutes because we took a break. So if they've listened this long, I think they I think they probably enjoy it. A great star. Well, yeah, please, because we're twenty twenty five. It'll be one year for us next month. And we this year now that we've kind of set up our format and all that, we want to, you know, growth is what we're looking for this year. So like growing our audience. Yeah. So help us doing that.

Yeah. And it's an email or DMs on socials. Anything. Yeah, that'll be Sarah. Give us something. So it's fun. It's fun to reach out. We're not going to be mean. Don't be mean to us. Or we're just not going to respond. I can take it. I do social media for work. I got a deal of crappy messages all the time. No, it's not too bad. But, you know, people. Don't don't be sucky. Don't be sucky. Lovely listeners. Remember, I guess we're ending, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Remember, always plot out your statistical quadrants of where you were best and worst at. Any cards in your respective fields. That can reveal a lot of information about which hand you're using. I didn't even talk about the fact that you could just win card about using both your hands, which maybe you're just not allowed to. But they should use both hands and. Hold people accountable and hold people accountable. Don't dismiss people for their bad behavior, because we'll never learn.

And then whatever they did that set you up, just do to other people and continue doing to you. So, yeah. And if your friend has a you, don't just like put their head on your shoulder. Don't. Leave them on. Yeah, don't do that. It's bad. Even though you think you're being nice, I need you to think a little bit more. I think I want you to use strategy in your real life, Jiaya, and not just in. Yeah, she could benefit from that. She's definitely not paying off the family mortgage.

OK, this is a little bit early. We should probably save this until the end. But like which protagonist of all the shows we watch is like the most love oblivious so far, a bullet love oblivious. Because they've all kind of been right. Well, I feel like technically it should be. So because it's like been much more like apparent, like a normal person would be able to tell versus like type T is kind of not super blatantly doing things that indicate that. We're saying things.

So like technically isn't put too high in a situation where he's asking for an answer or anything like that versus cause a high up being very clear. And Sawako just totally unaware that that was his intention was. I feel like it's still her. Maybe it was Kyoko because most people just straight up told her. Well, she's just close like emotionally with intention. Yeah, I guess that's different. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Not every day we hear that folks.

I'm not. Next week for the penultimate episode of Chiaya Fierro season one. Yeah, we'll be back to in person. So hopefully I get my mic fixed out by that. All right. Thanks for listening. Bye bye. Bye bye.