Hello everyone and welcome back to Shoujo, your favorite anime recap and discussion series. This week we continue our coverage of Chihayafuru, but first let's catch up. What has the great, wonderful Joe been up to in the last week? Oh, I should probably be like, I'm Sarah, you're Joe. Sorry. I'm Joe. Again, I feel like nobody is starting on episode 13. Yeah, I hope not. Or whatever. Like, I feel like that's not a good, not a good game. I don't know if there's a series
you could be more lost in by jumping into. That would be pretty bad. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. That's not a great maneuver. I have finally finished After War Gundam X. I did it. I finished Gundam X. This is a Gundam that got cancelled. So instead of having like a run that is in the like 40 something episodes, it was only 39, which means they had to compress the end, which helped it a lot because the pace was much better at the end. And also,
I liked it. I thought this was good. This is a Gundam nobody watched and I thought it was great. I had a good time. It's fun. I like, um, I like the kid whose name escapes me. Uh, what's his name? You're liking so much. You don't remember his name. Listen, there's a lot of characters. A lot of there's Tifa. I like Tifa. She's great. And Final Fantasy. No, from Gundam X. Uh, whatever. I can't, I can't believe I just can't remember
that kid's name. What's his name? Like, I just, I'm just remembering all the other Gundam protagonists. Anyway, I liked him. It was nice. It talks about how, uh, new types. Which are the best part of Gundam, by the way. I don't think I've mentioned this, but new types are the best part of Gundam. New robots? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You might think Gundam is about robots, right? You might think it's about. Well, what's a new type? It's like a new type of guy. So just a new series,
new protagonist. No, no, no, no, no, no. Isn't that a given? Some people, when you go into space. and you get a different perspective on the world. You become free of Earth's gravity in a metaphorical sense, and you become a new type of person, which means sometimes you have psychic powers. But mostly it just means you're able to connect with people in different ways, and you're also not
beholden to like old styles of thinking. There isn't ever a Gundam where it's like the Gundam ability is like radiating and like killing or like hazardous to. Except for the freaking ones in Witch, Witch from Mercury, right? Because something, or those early models were doing something to people to operate. I mean, like the Gundam in like, you know, first off, the Gundam is kind of evil. Like it's kind of, it's supposed to show up and it's like the harbinger of war, basically.
And also being in the, like piloting the gun for too long. I thought it was like friendship. With the. Oh, no. Gundam is not about friendship. It is absolutely not about friendship. You're thinking of. Yeah, you're thinking of like Voltron or something. Yeah. No, people are combining, but they are not. This is not a show about friendship. This is a show about like. Are they combining like they combine and darling in the Franks, if you know what I mean. They're not doing anything
like darling in the Franks. Thank you very much. Garret, his name's Garret. That's the kid. I like Garret. OK. Yeah. So anyway. Gundam is good. I'm about to watch the the the Gundam Wing movie after this. So that'll be fun. And then we're into turn a, which people also like. So I got I got a couple of good Gundam things coming up. So I watched that. I also finished a thousand times resist that game, finished that video game. Do you know anything about that one? No. You
play. So it's in a facility. Uh huh. And like they're all clones of this one chick who's the all mother. And they're like, and all of these clones are aspiring to be in one of five kind of elevated positions. There's a a healer, a knower who's in charge of knowledge, a fixer that fixes stuff, a bang bang fire who is the security detail. And you play as a watcher who is supposed to observe things. And you learn
the history of why you all are here. And you know, about like the all mother's parents and like the diaspora and they and the issues going on in like Hong Kong and stuff like that. And it's like a very narrative heavy game. It's really cool. There's a lot of really cool stuff. I think there's one like awards and things like that. And I think it deserved it. It's like 12 hours. It's not that bad. Lots of really good voice acting in it. Very nice. Yeah. So we're full
in it. We're back in. We're back in it. Well, this is not Gundam, but. Okay, whatever. It's sci -fi. Oh, sorry, the game. Sorry. Yeah. It's like sci -fi fantasy stuff. Yeah, we're back in it. Yeah, you're really into... We're back in it. It's like, right? You played Halo and all that in high school, but... I did. Was there like, were you just like, ugh, this is all that's coming out right now? Because I feel like you are very drawn to science fiction and like magic
-themed things. Yeah, like, I like science fiction in terms of, like, that's the genre that likes to speculate about, like, how the future can work and different types of ideologies and stuff like that. But I'm not a hard science guy. Like, I don't want to be like, oh, here's this world building and here's exactly how it works and all this other stuff. So it's like if you just start throwing magic stuff in, I'm like, cool, that's cool. What's the best, like, magic? The
best magic thing ever. Or what's your favorite magical like world or with magic in it? Yeah, I don't know. That's kind of where it acknowledges that it's magic and not that it's some other thing, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Like magic and I mean, I was reading the Earthsea books for a while. I kind of like that one where it's all based on like names and like the first one. I like the first one and I like the second one.
and then I didn't like the third one and then I haven't read the fourth one because I am dragging my heels through everything. Gotcha. Yeah, that one's pretty fun because it's all about like naming and names and stuff like that. Hmm. But yeah, I don't know. I'm not like a huge like if I'm doing fantasy, I want fantasy to be about like an interesting like story and characters and stuff. I'm not huge on like world building. I feel like. Your name should be Wizard of Cool
rather than Mafia. Oh, because I'm a wizard. I'm watching the Sopranos. I'm sorry. I picked up my Sopranos watch. I'm back in it. All I know about that show. Is that right? Like it begins like the franchise begins and ends with the same scene, kind of. Is that right? Like the. I don't know. Oh, never mind, J .K. I don't know. It might. I haven't watched it. I don't know anything. I don't think so, because I know what the ending scene is, because it's like famous or whatever.
Yeah. It probably has like the same like set up, like the episode goes the same or something like that wouldn't surprise me. Like the same episode beats. That seems like a thing they would do. But yeah, but that's what I've been up to. What have you been up to? I still have this puppy that I'm pretty sure I will be adopting. I know last week I was like, puppies fucking suck and this and that, but. I don't know, I guess it's like she's getting better now that she's settled
in. She's not as much of a monster. And I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Okay. Yeah, she's just very cute. And I think when she's not in the, like, I want to chew on everything you own phase, it'll be better. Yeah. We did lose another cable to her though. Oh, no. In the last recording. And it's just for like the headset stand I have that has like some USB plugs. So it's not like a... is, you know, mostly just to rest my headset on, so it's fine. Uh, or I
keep saying headset. I mean my headphones. And let's see. What else? Love Island? Getting good. Um... How much is left? We're about halfway through the season. Okay. U .S. is six weeks and then U .K. is always eight weeks. Um, so that may be why U .S. is better because U .K. really drags that, like, the first... Week in the last week, Dragon, the UK version. And freaking Meg, the stallion. Did I talk about this last week at the convention? I can't remember. No, no, she
was on Love Island. Oh, she was. I'm doing Meg. The stallion's also doing a lot of it. You're so connected. Do you listen to them? Do you listen to music? No, no, you should. It's pretty good. Is it some of it is. Yeah, I haven't listened to her music. She seems like a really cool. I love how much because she like knew everything about everyone. So she's like watching it. Yeah. Yeah, she seems cool. She was promoting like a new bathing suit line she has and she was the
host for a game and blah, blah, blah. So it's fun. I got a new mattress. I'm no longer in a twin size bed. I'm a grown up again. There we go. What size? And OK, a queen. OK. Also, Joe, first time you're hearing, but OK, so I'm going to renew for another year here. OK. Just because even though I want to maybe allowed to doesn't mean I can afford to move out of state yet, but I can't afford to do anything that doesn't stop me. But still, well, it's like because I was
like, oh, I'll get like a shorter lease. But it like makes the rent per month so much more. Yeah. And so I'll just do another year, but I'm going to move into a bigger floor plan here. OK. Yeah. So there will be a bathroom for when you sleep over. Texas year. Yes. Yep. Get my sister's wedding out of the way. New supervisor. She's in town this week, so getting to know her more, which has been really cool. She's I guess she used to be apparently. Do you remember what
frag dolls were? No. It was like a Ubisoft like, I don't know, like game or like e -sports team that was all females. And I think she was like, apparently they had a little almost like intern program called like Frag Cadets or something. But because she used to work at Ubisoft. So yeah, getting to know her. I'm excited for what's to come at work now. We have a new course coming out this week. Cool. And we might be doing karaoke this week. And yeah. Yeah. That's fun. Let's
see. Well, hey. I'm like trying to think. Yeah. Not much. So update. Not update. Yes. I was talking to my mom before this. Uh huh. And she mentioned and this is a this is. Yeah. She mentioned that that that what was it the tiny zoo thing you. mentioned last time. Tiny tales to you. That's right. Tiny tales to you. Her former coworker used to work there at one of those. Oh, that's fine. Mm hmm. So she's like telling me about it and she's like, oh, she talked to Sarah about
it and I'm like, you should. Yeah. So my mom who listens, if you haven't done it yet, this is my call out on you. Yeah, get my number from Joe. We can talk. I have more Sharjo recommendations for you if you don't want to listen to. or watch these Gundam things to connect with your son, you can connect with me instead. Wow. It's OK. I like every time I post something from our podcast, I think it's your aunt is like, I've never heard Joe laugh so much. God. It's true. I never laugh
in my outside life. I am. I never make jokes or anything. I really don't. Well, I don't like laugh, like cackle like that ever. I think I did when I was younger, but I don't know, because I feel like it's just definitely like you had to be hanging out for a duration of time to where you're like, ah, don't eat my hair, puppy. Um, or chew on my chair, please. But that. Oh, she's so cute. Um, OK. No, I've lost it. I'm done. All right. Chihaya. Chihaya Furu episode 13 or
verse 13 is called in my dreams. I creep closer to you if only Anything to do with this episode for sure. There are creeps in this episode. That's true There are there sure are we open back up on our game against the weird girl Chihaya has reconnected with the spirit of poetry and is ready for the rest of the match because last show yeah Her name's Magubo. She's kind of important Yeah, I wrote her name. Her name is, I don't just call her weird girl the whole time. Okay,
okay. Anyway, I noticed at this point that like the show has really good musical cues. I haven't pointed this out yet. I feel like I don't talk enough about like how the show is constructed or whatever, but really good musical cueing in this where it's just like, oh, this person's feeling this and here we go. We're gonna hit the note. Yeah, I do like the music. Like the music is quite, what? My mom is sending me pictures
of her at Tiny Tales. Anyway, Chihaya has just taken a card close to Magumu, which is pretty aggressive for her or for this match. Everybody is impressed, including Chihaya, who gets who like is so stunned that she gets taken against twice in a row. Magumu and Chihaya both hit at a card at the same time. She remembers Nishida's advice to always contest cards, even though she's like super shy about it. She's a wuss. Megumu for her part is like, oh, yeah, that's cool.
You can just have it. And Chihaya feels so bad that she totally misses next round. Everyone else on Chihaya's team feels like she might lose, so they need to step it up. Satomu in particular is trying to step it up. He thinks about Sumire's notes. She pointed out that her opponent is a super fan of a singer who sings about broken hearts, and he figures that his opponent wants all of the poems that are also about broken hearts. And then he takes one and tries to inspire everybody.
And Sumire also feels like she contributed, even though I don't know how she knew he was thinking that. But she did. Everyone's here. And doing something. Except for Tsukuba, who sucks. Despite Chihaya's poor performance, the rest of the team is gaining momentum. Taichi sees that Chihaya is losing decently at this point and thinks that maybe, uh, tasking her to win? against probably the second best person here was maybe not the best move of all time. He's like, oh, maybe I
shouldn't have laid on the pressure. We get a bit where Magumu's headband falls off and everybody speculates as to why she made headbands for the whole team. But then we learn it was just so she wouldn't look stupid wearing one alone. This was kind of funny, I guess. No, it was supposed to be so that it's like, look, we're all together. Yeah, it's supposed to be like, oh, we're like doing this thing as a team. But at the end, she's just like, I would look dumb if it was just me.
Which is so true. Well, you. Well, you know how like earlier the their advisor had like made the little things for their kimono sleeves. It would have made sense if they had embroidered into those things the way that, you know, because she's like, here, I prepared these for you. And we were like, what did you do? They're just now she's not dedicated enough, you know. No. Yeah. And that kind of gets pointed out. Yeah. this
round of episodes. Chihaya unexpectedly takes a card faster than Magumu and that rattles her a little bit. She begins to doubt if her team can really pull through. Chihaya sends Magumu a one syllable card. Then she takes a card from Magumu that she was guarding, which was impressive. This really gets to Magumu and we learn that she doesn't actually care about becoming queen even though she is going to say the opposite
of this in about three minutes. We get a flashback of everybody on the team helping Chihaya get better at taking multi -syllable cards. Meanwhile Magumu has no peers to help her get better and she starts to get bitter about it. In the next round, everyone on Chihaya's team takes except for Chihaya. Magumu however is so focused on her match that she can't rally her own team. There are no slouches, though, and every game
remains competitive. Chihaya's game is very back and forth, and Chihaya thinks that Magumu is like her if she had just gone all out on speed and not done any of the other stuff. Chihaya starts playing more strategically and is able to take three consecutive cards. One of Magumu's teammates. What? I was going to say, what a bummer that everyone except Chihaya got that one card. They're like, ah, come on. She's so unreliable that everyone else is just thinking about her
match while they're playing theirs. One of Magumu's teammates tries to step up and provide some spoken support to the rest of her team. This scares Nishida because how could a girl be so loud and scary? Magumu and Chihaya both hit a card again, but this time they both try and contest it. Chihaya backs down because she's non -confrontational and Magumu starts to get hype as we cut to credits. Is that the shortest recap we've ever had for
an episode? This one's really short. I felt despair knowing that this one match is going to go three episodes. Yeah. Oh, Nishida, stop it. Nishida sucks these episodes, dude. He's terrible. Oh, my God, man. What was happening? Yeah. So we're going to learn more about Magumu's team and Magumu, a character. Oh, we thought we were... We got the out last time. We were like, OK, cool. We kind of learned. Yes. Damn it. Oh, it's mostly just about one. And she's the cool one. The one
that Nishida thinks is like manly. Yeah. I'm like, I like her. She seems cool. See, she's like lower effort to draw, but still like distinct and has actual real eyes, unlike Nishida or Satomu. Can we get a little more effort, please, from our author? No, only some characters get full definition. Like, retro. Retro's your lazy character. You can't be doing this to main characters, man. I don't think she's a main character. It's fine. No, I mean, Nishida and Satomi. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Well, we don't know what to do with Nishida this season, which has never been clearer in these episodes. Do you want to go to the next one? Yeah, let's do it. All right. Episode 14 is called People Would Ask If I Was Pining For Someone. We get a recap of last episode as the OP plays. We return on Shinobu shuffling through the card at cards, reciting the poems to herself, because
these are all her friends. Arata is still writing his essay, but the other guy is like, wow, this is so amazing, Arata, you're so good at writing, you should be an author. But he's like, whatever, man. Finally, the last Fukumi guy and the coach show up because they were stuck in traffic this whole time and the guy is like, oh my god, Shinobu is here. That's crazy. Why are you skinny now? But then their coach scolds him for saying that
to her, even though it was very funny. They're just talking about her right in front of her. Well, he was saying it to her. She's like, whoa, you got super skinny. What happened? The coach changes the subject to tell Shinobu that her school lost to Mizuzawa and Arata is like, Mizuzawa is still in? And the coach is like, yeah, they're
in the semifinals. Shinobu talks shit about Team Karta and says it's relaxing to watch, and then she challenges Arata to a match to quote, kill some time, but Arata refuses, saying that it's a day for team matches, so he's not gonna play individual matches. Well, everything Shinobu says is like a backhanded compliment. She's so sarcastic. Yes. You're trying to be too cool, girl. It's it's it's showing a little. I feel like I don't even know if she's trying to be
cool. It just genuinely seems like she doesn't want to be here. Well you tried too hard to not care. Yes. If you didn't care, you wouldn't say anything. Yeah, because I feel like you're trying to make up for something. And she's so alone because she's so unpleasant to be around. I feel like she's fine outside of Carda. We need some time with her outside of Carda. But I don't think there is. I don't think there's a Shinobu outside of Cardo is the thing. Like, I don't think there
is a Shinobu hanging out and chilling. Birdman rally. She could have gone to Birdman rally. It's true. You probably just watch this by yourself. Anyway, back to semifinals. The retro team has lost, so all attention is on Mizuzawa's match. Mizuzawa is basically an unknown at this point, so everyone is shocked that they're still in it. Nishida is afraid of his opponent, who is like the second in command of her team. Nishida screws up and loses, and he's like, damn, I lost
again. And Magumu is all mad that her teammate won before she did. We're being competitive. Yeah, she's definitely got like an ego. Yeah. With her hierarchy in the little team. Seven cards remain, and Chihaya takes one of Magumu's best cards from her. Suddenly, Kana wins her game, so it's 1 -1. There are six cards left. Taichi is winning by two cards, but notes that there are still 18 dead cards in the deck. His opponent falls. That is so many. Yeah. His opponent
falls, so he is probably going to win. Magumu and Chihaya's game is tied 3 -3. The next card is the Chihaya -Furu card, and both Satomu and Taichi takes it. This wins to Taichi his match, so now it's 2 -1. in the score. Chihaya, however, didn't take and lost her best card and the rest of Mizuzawa is shocked. Shocked! How could she lost her best card? Her name's in it. We learned that the final score of Retro's team game was
one to four, meaning they got crushed. Chihaya thinks that both her and Megumu should work hard so Shinobu isn't alone in her own tier anymore. Elsewhere, Shinobu's like, hmm, did someone just say something to me? I don't know. Chihaya loses her match, leaving only Satomu's game left, because it's now 2 -2. Chihaya is about to pass out, but Taichi and Kana grab her shoulders to keep her up. Satomu's game is down to the last card,
again somehow. Two of the four dead cards are red in a row, so Satomu takes a brief break. Sumire remembers how Satomu said that games can be scary. Two more dead cards are red, so the next card will have to be one of theirs. Satomu thinks card is scary, but he also thinks himself that he'll always have, but then he stops thinking, as he takes the card from his opponent's side of the field, winning the game and the match, it's incredible. Okay, everybody is shocked at
the upset. At the end of the match, Megumu asks the photo club boys for the data so that she can review it later instead of deleting it like she normally does. And I realize this whole thing has been a setup for this moment for her to be like, I just don't, I don't want to just forget all my matches. I want to actually review them for once. After the match, Satomu's like, all right, good game, everyone. Anyway, here are
my notes about our next opponents. But the rest of the team is like, wait, hold on, Satomu, how the hell did you take that last card? And he's like, oh, yeah, I just guessed. Most of the time, the cards starting with that syllable have gotten drawn first when it's down to the end, so I just went with that. And Taichi's like, that's still just a 50 -50 chance, but then Nishida thinks about how pros have all sorts of superstitions when playing, so I guess Satomu does too now.
Satomu finishes his thought from before saying that he will always have his data to help him. There we go. Chihaya tries to think about how she could have won her match while tightening her fist. Suddenly Tai Chi grabs her hand and stops her fingers from digging into her hand. And she's like, wow, I didn't know I needed to relax. Thanks, Tai Chi. Won't read into that much. Well, she doesn't actually think that, though, but hopefully she goddamn noticed that
he noticed when she did it. I don't think she did. I doubt it. I don't think so. The Mizuzawa coach gets an update that the concert band has lost their regional prelims. Tsukuba asked the coach to order. them all to replace Kana with him, and she's like, what the hell's wrong with you? And Kana is like, come on, Tsukuba, do I look tired? I can play one more match. But then she stops and is like, that's not true. I'm beat.
Please sub in for me as we cut to credits. Depending how long we take to recap, this might be the shortest episode ever. I mean, this episode rule, this is just like, Satomu is the best this season. He's hard carrying them through everything. He wins this match and it's awesome. It's like the first cool thing that happens this season, I feel like. Yeah, well rightly seen in the past where like the luck of the draw is like there's not much you can do about it, but he went for
it. And again, someone higher ranked than him, too. So anyone he goes against is going to be underestimating him solely based off his rank. Yeah, be or classy. Yeah, but just like the the the sequence So he matches did he watch where even became luck of the draw to build it? Right all the time, and I just don't understand it
dude He should start his own low card. I like blog or something like yeah I guess if it's just like you watch I guess you know I guess if you're like watching a whole room of people playing at least one person will get down to the end Because it's basically like you're just as good as the other person, right? So if you mostly just take your own, and you don't really take the other person. Yeah, all of these matches were pretty close, right? It wasn't like a huge.
They're all so close all the time. Except for Nishida, who got crushed immediately because he sucks. I know, he keeps being the first one to lose. Yeah, dude, you're gonna get written off the show if you keep this up. Yeah, it's so funny that like... Nishida was the one worrying about Satomu a couple episodes ago, where he's like, oh, he's falling behind, and then this episode he just simply falls behind, and Satomu flushes at the end. That's right. Mm -hmm. Wild.
Yep, yep, yep. Anyway, that was awesome. See, another round where basically we only watched Shihaya. What is her takeaway from hers? Pinch! Because it's like, she says the thing where it's like, oh. That they're evenly matched? Well, but she says the thing where it's like, oh. Magumu is like me if I had just went all in on speed, but then she loses. So it's like, maybe you should have gone all in on speed. But it's not like speed is the only thing Magumu has, right? Like
the guys who watch her. camera pervs give their own commentary about how she's gotten faster. So that's something she's been working on, which means she wasn't relying on speed up to this point. I kind of took it as like she has like a Maguma would be me if I hadn't made if I hadn't learned all these new things in the previous year, which is like pretty cocky to say when she's the one who went off in the qualifiers
when you didn't. Yeah. But you feel I feel like she would win off of that comment, but then she loses. So I'm like, OK, well. Yeah. I mean, I do like the notion of like, let's let's keep getting better so that Shinobu has some competition rivals. My God. Yeah. Is the is the high school one gender separated the individuals? Yeah. I don't think so, because right. Kana and Satomi went against each other. Right. A little thing. Right. OK. So no, I don't think so. Right. Cool.
Because I was going to be like, you know, she asked Arada to play, but if it's separate, he's never going to play her. Yeah, I think it's only separated when it comes to the title of emperor and queen. Mm hmm. Yeah, because she's all alone and has no friends and is also not that fun to be around because she's just catty all the time. It's like a little pet. They're not going to hang out. We're not. We're only like five. No, we're 10 episodes from the end. They're not going
to go hang out. It's all going to be Fujisaki, isn't it? Oh my god. We haven't even got it. We should jump to the next episode and finish that before we speculate. Episode 15 is called No Matter Where I Stand. We open on where we ended. Chihaya examines Kana's hand and we see that her middle finger is swollen because she jammed her finger last game. She's like, well, at least it was me and not like Chihaya, our ace or something. And Chihaya is like, what?
But Kana is like, this is the reason we have subs for this exact purpose. Just sub me out. It's fine. Tsukuba feels bad because he just thought that she'd be tired because she's a girl. But actually, she got hurt and he didn't notice because he sucks. Kana gets some first aid as the OP plays. We return. That's the best. What? I was going to say name one redeeming thing about Tsukuba. Fucking nothing. It's terrible. He spends
times with his younger siblings. I'm going to have things to say about the gender dynamics of the show at the end of this episode. Remind me to talk about that. Oh, my God. Boy, oh, boy, there's a new entry into worse gamma. We just recommend we introduce the worst guys you've ever met. Anyway. Yeah. We return on Retro's
team, who's hiding from Sudo. The coach that knew Arata finds them and asks them if they know who Arata is, and Retro's like, I know that guy, he's my rival back in 6th grade when I played him, and he was annoying. And the coach is like, oh, okay, cool. Well, I wanted to tell you guys that he was here to cheer you on, but because of certain circumstances, he couldn't be here in person. You should go visit him, he's on the other floor, right over there. And Retro's like,
um, what? And then he looks over at Mizuzawa and he's like, Well, this has got this doesn't have anything to do with me and then pseudo shows up and half jeers slash has motivates them I don't really know what was going on here. He like shows up He's like you guys suck but also I'm wearing the team shirt and I'm like, well, they play but they're playing I didn't realize at the moment at the moment. So I'm like, why is this happening? The next opponent is Fujisaki.
They got to figure out their lineup because they have like a lot of members. They have like a lot of members in Fujisaki. They have so many. It's like too many. Their coach is like a stern hot lady. She cuts one of the guys that was starting and subs in a pink haired chick instead who was named is Yamashiro Rion. Rion, one of the Fujisaki guys is like, oh, she's super scary. She's only a second year and all the third years love her. And also she's totally stealing my haircut because
he's the guy who said that thing earlier. Like little Bob thing. Yeah, the blonde guy. She comes to tell him that she watched Mizuzawa's match last game and could tell them how they play. But he snaps at her saying not to give advice to third years. The other guys are like, man, you should chill out. But he's like, dude, she never shows any emotion and it's freaky. And Rion flatly states that if they they'll win if she plays. Besides, it was the coach's call to
change the lineup. You tell him. In the break room. This guy's so whiny. In the break room, the Fujisaki coach thinks about how her roster is top heavy with only good third years and few good first years. Ritros comes in or comes in
and talks to her about. Subbing that one guy in because he's he won his last match really handedly The snubbed guy is taking it hard or the subbed out guy has taken it hard and the rest of the team is like I don't know man Maybe you could try to appeal to the coach But he doesn't think that she'd consider it because she's very calculating. We spend a lot of time on this We spend so much time on this. I'm like what is happening? Retro is still wondering if he should
tell Chihaya and Taichi about Arata. Kana looks at the moon and thinks about poems about the moon I love Kana. Yes. Oh my gosh. She has a good time this episode. Satombu tells the team that he can 100 % guess the lineup. They're all great players, which means they don't really care about their lineup all that much. And typically just put people based on like what they want, which means they're mostly in the same spot.
Also, they're probably going to sub someone out for that one girl because the weird guy from like five episodes ago told him that the girls are scarier than the guys. So we should expect that. Taichi looks over at the Fuji - Which is a - That's a bad statement if only a one girl was worth. Yeah, it's just what we're gonna find out this dude is obsessed with this girl Yes, oh wait. What? Okay, picking up the puppy you good. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I'm fine. It's fine.
Okay, yeah damn dog Tai Chi looks over at the Fujisaki captain and is like that guy kind of looks like a rata man I sure have forgotten that he's supposed to be here everyone piles in for the final Kana is sad that she's not playing now because they have a guest reader Yamashiro Kyoko, grade 7. She's one of the best in the biz and Kana's like, dang, I'm so mad I can't
play with her reading. This sucks. Chihaya hypes up the team saying that it's much harder to be the best team in the world than the best individual player. The lineup is red. Rion is against Chihaya. We also learn that she's the reader's granddaughter. Rigged. What? Yeah, rigged. Conflict of interest, she's gonna read different. Nishida is up against a guy who's mad that his buddy was swapped out. Taichi is against their captain, which he requested specifically because he wants to beat up fake
Arata. Tsukuba is matched against a guy who also has fox -like eyes, and Satomu is against the blonde guy who was made to re -own earlier. He's like, hey, you're that guy who asked me those questions earlier. Wow, I can't believe you made it to the finals. Wild. But you know, you guys are going to lose, right? And Satomu counters by saying he should stop blowing his bangs when he's losing, which is extremely funny because Satomu was funny. I like him. That's right. He
knows this guy's weaknesses. He's like, I've been watching you and you're super lame. Apparently, Retro's team is going to play for third place, but Retro isn't there. He's gone to see Arata. Arata is like, hey, that's Retro. And he and Retro asks Arata why he isn't going to cheer on Chihaya and Tai Chi. They're in the final. And then he leaves, and Shinobu's like, come on, it's just a high school match, like, whatever,
who cares, right, Arata? Then Arata rushes to the door, but then stops because if he goes, he'll be disqualified. His fake teammate is like, I mean, you could probably go, Arata, like, there's a lot of people, they probably won't notice, but Arata says that he's not going to tempt fate. Yeah, doesn't want to be cursed tomorrow during the individual matches. True. Shinobu changes in front of everyone, but she's wearing, like, some no -Maru -themed long underclothes, like
it's 1950s or something. So instead of being scandalous, it's just extremely goofy. She sarcastically says that she's gonna go Because she's worried about tomorrow like ooh, I'm getting so scared. I got to go home But Murata asks her to watch the match because it might motivate everybody else to play better But she knows who's like, I don't think that's true man. The decks are dealt and there's only one single There's only
a single one syllable card in play. Everybody is like, well that sucks, but Rion seems pretty happy about it The clock starts to memorize the cards, because it's the first part of the game, I always forget, where you get to memorize the cards for like 20 minutes. And the Fujisaki third years all stand up and leave. PSP kid is like, they always do this, don't get faked out. But Satomo already know they always do this, so everybody's cool about it. In the hallway, Fujisaki is stretching
while the blonde guy talks shit about Rion. He's like, all you other third years are just in love with her. when they defend her and two of the guys are like, dude, we have girlfriends, except it turns out that the girlfriends are a first year, which is gross, kind of. Yeah. Yeah. And an anime character, which is extremely funny. Yeah. Then the team captain is like, I'm not into Rion because she's flat as hell. I'd be, I mean, be some big boobs in my life and everybody
hates it. F cups. Yeah. Oh my God. Anyway. They they turn it back on the blonde guy and are like, are you the one who's in love with her? You talk about her all the time, dude. Just then, Shinobu passes by and thinks about how stupid team games are. Yeah, listening to these guys, I can see why she draw that conclusion. Oh, yeah. No, it totally makes sense. Team Fujisaki comes back into the room and Taichi thinks about how his
opponents. is similar to errata and he's like if i can beat him it's kind of like me beating errata which like i don't know man i don't think it's that similar uh there their team captain is like oh hey you're tai chi i remember you you played against one of our guys in the individual finals last year that's weird man you're still class b and this pisses tai chi off and then we get an intermodel talk about how his opponent uh fantasizes about feeling up his coach he's
like oh man i yeah Aw, Kanna! I was like, I couldn't play Kanna. I feel like I gotta play against this guy. I guess I'll just imagine feeling up my coach instead. Her injury was a blessing in disguise. How have I liked pseudo war? What's with this author? Maybe this author hates men or something. I don't know. I don't understand what's happening here. Blonde guy is just... is just thinking about how he's totally not in love with Rion as the other guys think about
some other random stuff. Kana is like, it doesn't seem like the other team is taking this seriously at all. The reader starts reading and everyone is like, holy shit, she's so good at reading. And then we pan over to Shinobu, who showed up after all. The game starts as we come to credits. We can only hope Shinobu. Well, right, because Shinobu has to remember who Chihaya is because
when she beat her, but she lost one card. to Chihaya, she had like rushed out and looked at the the sheet to see who her opponent had been. I doubt she remembers which school she was from. Yeah. I'm assuming she'll be like, this is this is she's only grown this much since we last played or blah, blah, blah, something like that, because obviously Chihaya is going to struggle every single match. She'll never just have it easy. Like, look how good I am. I just crush these
people. Yeah. I'm going to be, because yeah, this is really, she's going to be like, oh, this is the team that Arada wanted to be to cheer for. What's up with these people? And he's like, hey, it's that one chick. Yeah, yeah, something, something along those lines. Oh, man. So predictions. I predict that this is going to take three more episodes. I predict that we're going to spend
three more episodes on this match. and it's gonna be exhausting and we're not I think it's we're just gonna we're gonna finish the individuals and that's gonna be the end of season two yeah that seems about right awful can't expect anything more from well at least season two isn't well then season two isn't a whole year like the first season so less being progressed in season two than season one we're three -fifths of the way through season two and chihaya and errata haven't
been in the same room yeah How is this happening? And yet somehow, Tai Chi is still losing to him in terms of boyfriend points. What is going on? He has just got to let it go. He's just got to give it up. He's so toast. Or maybe he can't give it up until he reaches rank A, where he can at least be like, OK, so it's not the fact that I bet a card that she doesn't like. He's so cooked. It's over. He's dead. Poor Tai Chi. He's so dead. Our best character. My favorite.
Awful. And that's my prediction. My prediction that this is going to take a really long time. I think they're going to lose because all of their lineup team is class A, right? Like all of their starters. Yes. Which means that like I love Satomu. We know this. He's the best character by far this season. He's carrying the team. I don't think he can pull it out. It's a class A. Yeah. No way. Well, the guy he's against is
kind of a spaz, so who knows. That's true. And he's played a lot of matches, but I don't know. That's going to be tough. Tsukuba is 1000 % losing. So it's going to have to be a Taichi, Chihaya, and Nishida win. But Nishida sucks now and isn't going to win. No, unless he's good. Unless... I just hope we get matches. Other than she hires. Oh, no, dude the amount of time they spent setting
up Rion. It's gonna be all that match It's gonna be that match and we're gonna get cutaways to Tai Chi being like I'm gonna beat Arada I'm finally gonna do it through like this guy. No, that's not right. Am I guys nothing like it's just some guy who sucks Let's talk about that. Hey, what's going on with all of the characters in this show? Why is like every guy? It's like every like creep Guy is just like a sexist asshole who thinks like all the girls are weak, even if they're
clearly better than you. And also, they're all horny for them. Well, I mean, from what I've seen just in dating in Japan, it's like the men are very forward. So, I mean, maybe this is like not that far off from reality. Like they're just... Oh, but they're like, creepy about it, too. Like we have the camera guys. I know. Well, right. Because this is like a thing where it's like, oh, this is the humor of anime. We and I hate that. Like, it's not funny. I didn't mention
this. It's not. Yeah, I didn't mention this, but Quiz Bowl guy keeps showing up. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And talking about Chiaya. Uh huh. In a way that's totally boring. It's bad. Yeah. Oh, yeah, we don't have any, like, lingering characters that Chiaya has played that are female. It's just like the crowd. It's either someone on the team, which would be Anna and Sumire, but Sumire is not thinking about the game. Like, no, I don't know, like the only female opponent
of notes that we've seen have been. That older lady kept saying lucky me. Oh my god. Yeah, choke her out and then the small prodigy child, right? They're not coming back. I mean, she didn't play her, but what's her face? The one who played in the Queen and lost. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got a lot about her. Yeah, but like none of them are super like pseudo for some reason. It's just going to be around forever. I like him more because at least he's not like a like a gross pervert,
but. Yeah, he's just good. I mean, he's giving interesting like common Perry on you know, cuz he's someone who played against she hired like a year ago exactly almost so he is able to like see the difference Between then and now in her. Yeah, I guess cuz he lost her he's invested in
her progress. I just It's weird how like it doesn't make it seem like if you play Carter, you're gonna meet a bunch of fun people It sounds like you're going to meet a bunch of generally unpleasant guys and then some other girls who are just like whatever that are just like normal girls. You know what I mean? Like this is not this is not I mean, this is probably the true like going to like tournament experience of just like you meet a bunch of people who suck. There's like
10 cool people. But I guess it's like a very unpopular sport or like hobby. So maybe it's just like people who have not. had the opportunity to develop social skills. So they're like kind of weird. Are the only people playing this game? I guess so. I know. Yeah. Something about poetry makes the crazy guys come out of the walls. And it's bad. Yeah. Yeah. We're talking about Connors. So often this shit this season. I feel like we never. I guess that's her whole purpose of existing
is that big boots for people. She's supposed to be the real poetry girl. What happened? She gets one poem on it. But I just and that guy is saying f cups. F cups are enormous. Those are so not common. That's so like you got to order online. Like you can't find your bra in the store. Yeah. Big. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't think you're encountering that too much in Japan, my guy. I don't think so. Maybe that's why you're so into it when he's a hot teacher. She has f
cups. Yeah. Well, I. It also sounds generally unpleasant. I know how good, I don't know. He's some kind of baited or. A Fujisaki has the worst vibes of like any team we've met thus far. It seems like the least fun team to be on. Yeah. Like ever. Yeah. I mean, I like trying to think of what would motivate like the school doesn't like win any money from having a win. I'm trying to think of like why you would put so many resources into having such a big team. or why it would
be so poor. Where is Fujisaki located? Maybe there's just nothing to do where they're from. I don't know. They're not from Tokyo. We know that. This seems like a miserable club. It's like their coach isn't fun. She's like all business. And then like, you know, all of the 30 year guys are like whatever bro -y bro types or they're the blonde guy who gets mad. And then like Rihon is like just, well, she's super flat because she like is delivering everything. Emotionalists.
What are they? What did you call her? The iron mask? Yeah. The vibes are bad. Apparently she's related to this famous reader. There's like a bunch of first years holding signs and stuff like that. Like this club would I would not go to this club a second year. I'd be like this. I mean, I can see the allure for girls because it's like, look at this cool older lady who's run in the show. Like that would be kind of cool to be around because you probably don't see that
very much. I guess so. And I guess, like... And then I guess some guys are just into, like, women being mean to them, maybe. I guess, I mean... But you shouldn't be feeling that way towards your freaking teacher! Some of the guys aren't that bad. I guess, like, the 30 -year guy who's just mad his buddy got cut. He seems fairly normal, I guess. They're a twin, Joe! It's his brother. It's like... It's his brother? Minata and Kanata or something. Yeah, they're twins. Maybe they're
cool. Maybe people like them. And that's why he's like, why me? There's two of us. Why was I the one? Yeah. Um, so that's fine. Maybe he's cool. Maybe they're fun. The other guy, the guy Satomi was playing just seems like a weird guy. He wasn't like, you know, he's the guy who made an anime chick. Oh yeah, the other guy was dating a first year. Yeah, it's not good. Maybe the guy who got cut is the fun one. We don't learn anything about him. I'm sure they have some weird
twin thing or some. Yeah, vibes are bad. I'm sorry. These vibes are, these vibes are terrible. I need them to win so I don't have to think about Fujisaki ever again, but it's gonna be like five episodes, I swear. Well, I'm sure they'll reappear in the individual rounds. I just can't wait for Shinobu to just be really mean watching these episodes. I want Shinobu to just be a huge chunk before the next time. Oh, yes, we will get to see more Shinobu. It's great. I love Shinobu
being mean. I mean, yeah. I guess I'll mostly be interested to see a Shinobu because, right, all we've seen heard from her part of related is like belittling other people or saying that they're her friends. But it'd be interesting to hear her thoughts on like specific moves and stuff happening within a game and within a match. Yeah. Like, oh, that girl's so slow or like, yeah, idiot came and remember the cards or, yeah. No, it's good. I want some POV Shinobu. Yeah.
Well, I guess that's it. I don't have anything else to say. I feel like nothing happened these episodes. I got to the end and I was like, nothing happened. Again, we're running out of runway with Shinai Furu. I don't know. Yeah, I should maybe need to start cramming in another episode into these. But what if something does happen and then I'm like, ah. Let me, let me see. Let me look at the names of these. How many, do we
have an even number yet? Yeah. I mean, whatever extra time we have, we can use for recording our bonus ep. At least. Because I... I see, I see Rion in a thumbnail, so I know it goes for at least a couple more episodes. Oh gosh. Oh, I bet we'll get a whole life backflash on her probably. Oh God, we're gonna learn everything about her. Yeah. Like... Season 3 is only 25 episodes. Does it go all the way through the manga? The entire series? Yeah. Oh, no, I don't
think so. I can't, I don't know. I can't officially legally buy the English translated manga. It had 50 volumes. 50 volumes. Which is a total... Damn, that's a lot! Which was a total of... 50? 246, no, 247 chapters. In each... One episode. Is like what? Three chapters? Yeah. 247 divided by three is 82. Don't know. Well, I mean, they could have just condensed some of those. I mean, you could probably cut a couple out, right? So it seems like yes. Because it's 75 episodes of
the show. Nah. Oh, maybe. I don't know. I haven't read the manga. I don't want to read a crappy fan translated one. Oh my God, you're so, so elitist. What? I want to own. If it's a good manga, I want to own it. That's why I haven't read Kimi ni Tadoke, because I would like to purchase it to read. Okay. It's like I don't read Skippy online. I only read it as it comes out. You don't even want to just read it just
to know what happens. Like I understand like you could buy it later, but like you don't even want to. I don't know why I'm like that. That's, uh, interesting. I feel like I need to get all my money out of my purchase. Oh, they had some side manga. What is this? It's a middle school. We can read about Chi -hai's middle school life. Bah, boo! Unless it's Tai Chi, like, overcoming. God, no! I want Tai Chi after the show, not Tai Chi before, where he's still miserably hung up
on Chi -hai. There is a spinoff sequel! What is this? What? Chihaya Furu plus Kimigatame. These look like all different characters. Oh, is this like a crossover of some other manga artists? According to Reddit two years ago, set in the Mizuzawa Karta Club after Chihaya graduate following first year boy Ritsu Nagara. Oh, is she the advisor? Ritsu's a cute name. Does that mean we gotta start all over? No, we're not. There's no way. I can't read that. I'm sorry.
Well, there's no... Okay. All right. Okay. well wrap this episode up so i can put this puppy away and we kind of record our bonus please uh like and subscribe uh hit that smash that like button uh send us a or put a recording put a recording give us a review on your podcast platform of choice send us emails at chojopod at gmail
.com tell your friends to listen to the show yes please is that everything yep yep yep what did we learn um don't don't physically grasp at air imagining boobs, like just do it in your head at least, my god. If the guys in your club tell you that they're not obsessed with a girl because one of them is dating a first year. A senior wants to date you as a freshman, yeah. And the other one is married to an anime girl, and the last one thinks about groping their coach.
You should just join another club. You should just leave. Yeah, I am worried about you. You didn't tell your coach that you're quitting because you don't like your teammates and just don't just don't explain it. I don't like them. They're gross. Oh, yeah. And she'll probably be like, Oh, I will say I like the coach for the for my good news team. He was all like, Oh, the beauty of youth. And I liked him. I like their coach. Yeah. What was the school name is something something
girls school? I can't remember. What is the what was what was the the the the skip beat? Remember the the bad guys like person manager? Oh, his manager. What's what? Is this like a dark type of like what if there was a bit of a huge boobs? Cuz she's just yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. Well, I like she's like ice queen Yeah, I don't know a different kind of person interesting card at least it's nice Weird they can't help it. It's a curse, you know being well endowed Yeah,
it's just better to work. Yeah, right Oh my god, cuz I bought me undies because they were having a Jurassic Park line. Oh my god And then what my bra was too small It's so cute. I'm just I don't know. May I'll just frame it. The cute drastic. You got to be like Shinobu. And when you change all of your underwear is themed and also it's very long. So it's not scandalous. I know. Well, I did get like a set. So I've got at least one like solid set up. Oh, my God. The
dogs are going crazy. OK. Black Cricket's trying to play with her. OK, but yeah, OK. Thank you for listening to this episode and look forward to a bonus episode soon. And, yep, see y 'all later. Bye. Alligator. In a while, crocodile. Welcome back to... Damn it, Joe! Sorry. Keep it in. I'll keep it in, maybe. No, puppy, leave me alone. Leave me alone!