akkalafuru

[akkalafuru]

SPICE!!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

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Happy taichihaya week!!!!!

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[akkalafuru]

there seems to be this perception floating around– now that the manga has ended for a good while now–that chihaya was in love with both boys, just at different times. arata, in the early parts of the manga and taichi as the story develops. i used to think so, but upon re-read i now firmly put myself in the camp that chihaya’s feelings towards arata were never exactly platonic but they were also not romantic in nature either. 

Keep reading

[akkalafuru]

Medieval fantasy Chihayafuru

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[akkalafuru]

In the spring of their senior year, Chihaya ran after Taichi who was leaving their club. She begged him to stay; he told her he can't play karuta anymore. In the next spring, Chihaya ran after Taichi who was staying in the club. He told her he can keep on playing karuta so they can always meet again. This time, she didn't beg him to stay but told him a poem. 🌸🌸🌸

In both springs, Taichihaya's relationship evolved so as did their feelings. "Spring, the season of progress, when everything advances a stage."

[akkalafuru]

chihayafuru teaches that dedicating yourself to something and allowing yourself to dream regardless of the result will always amount to something that even if you think you know the outcome nothing is ever set in stone ! how you win some cards but lose the game how there’s always more to be learned and how winning by yourself is a small victory and you relish in it but losing as a team and still motivating each other to continue yeah it’s definitely about the friends we make along the way the rush of playing with your friends and spending all your time developing these skills and at times it feels like it’s going nowhere but it’s worth something it is something ! aaaah

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“Look at you plopped on the ground like that.

It’s no wonder they call you a beauty in vain.”

“Chihaya!”

“Taichi?!”

Verse 1 - Verse 154

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ramblings about taichihaya

I’ve finally read the last chapter of the manga, and it was just, it was beautiful.

Incoherent ramblings abound. I felt a bit sad when I read someone post sorry to chihayafuru fans because they were put through an ichiruki situation, because i have always thought there was no such thing as a fated love in Chihayafuru. (Also this is ironic, because while I slightly preferred ichiruki, no way would I say that ichihime was farfetched, in the same way that there is absolutely no way taichihaya was farfetched considering the development, and again ironic because both chihaya and taichi have the sun and moon motif so they actually healed my heartbroken ichiruki heart, but I digress -)

Anyway, I need to process my words. When I say there was no such thing as fated love, I mean that as much as I loved taichihaya, if Chihaya and Arata ended up together, I wouldn’t say that there was no basis. There was such a thing as fated friendship between our trio, but unlike other shoujo manga I’ve read, I wouldn’t consider either Taichi or Arata as Chihaya’s soul mate (I consider the three of them soul mates). Other people have shed insights about how Chihayafuru is a story of transience and youth, and I think the finale maintained that theme until the end (like Arata’s joke for example about wanting to be with Chihaya at 28, as he said the future isn’t set in stone). 

What I loved about the ending is how it was a culmination of everything they were passionate about and fighting against. For Arata and Chihaya who were passionate about Karuta, and for Arata fighting against or for what his Grandfather means in the Karuta he plays now, for Chihaya growing up to be more sensitive to the world outside of Karuta (her wonderful conversation with Retro comes to mind, as well as her gaining a new dream in becoming a teacher). In the same way that this story was all about passion, and for Arata and Chihaya for that passion to be directed towards Karuta, I find that there’s nothing wrong with Taichi’s passion to have been directed at another person - specifically - Chihaya, even as he was fighting against himself.

I loved the finale, because it showed how much the people around Arata and Chihaya, specifically the people who had nothing to do with Karuta, like Arata’s childhood friend and Chihaya’s older sister impacted them and meant so much to them winning. 

As a taichihaya shipper, I really loved the finale because it shows that it’s not just Taichi’s nearness that caused Chihaya to love him back, but at the same time it was him going far away that really puts things into perspective for her. It was just so Chihaya to confess even when she thought that Taichi had already lost his feelings for her. In others words, even if Taichi no longer loved her romantically, his confession impacted her that much that she had to answer it with a poem of her own. 

I love taichihaya not because I was sure it would be canon, but because I just really preferred it, and these are just some of the reasons. 

1. the parallels with harada sensei and his wife, as well as kana-chan and komano

I love parallels, ok? The parallel with harada sensei and his wife actually works two ways, harada sensei paralleling Taichi with the latter also becoming a doctor in the future, and both Chihaya and harada sensei’s wife saying all they wanted was to see their important person smile. It also works the other way around in that both harada sensei’s wife and taichi steadfastly supported their loved one’s drive to become the meijin and queen respectively. 

kana-chan, our beloved taichihaya ship captain. I still remember how she compared chihaya and taichi’s match with her match with komano, and how they were each pair’s best matches precisely because of how well they knew the person they were facing. the irony and not of how it was these two who finally managed to push chihaya and taichi to get together. 

2. the heartaches of love

I love how they each exemplified the highs and lows of love. How Chihaya showed how love could be greedy, in Hanano’s words, and how their experience was reflective of Taichi’s comment about love in the beginning of the series, about how love was painful but you still wanted to be with the other person.

How it showed from the very beginning that even if Chihaya wasn’t fully conscious of it, she had always been jealous of the girls around Taichi, first with his girlfriend, and even in the last chapter when Taichi mentioned Hanano. 

I always mentioned this, even after the angsty confession and break-up (?). Chihaya relies on Taichi like no other. To be honest, they were practically co-dependent. Which is another reason why I loved why everything played out the way it did. Chihaya’s crush on Arata always seemed easy in that it didn’t seem as if she wanted it reciprocated (a happy crush mixed with admiration), meanwhile Taichi needed to confess to have Chihaya reevaluate what he meant to her and how she was supposed to relate to him. 

And yet I’m so happy they made up first, Taichi was finally at peace with himself, and even chose to go somewhere for himself, even if it meant being physically apart from Chihaya.

It shows that Chihaya’s confession was not out of fear that she had to reciprocate to keep Taichi by her side like she wanted because Taichi had reassured her that their friendship along with Arata would remain strong even if she didn’t reciprocate. In other words, their friendship would remain the same, but it was now Chihaya who realized she wanted more.

3. spending your whole youth on it

Taichi’s conversation with Harada-sensei about wasted youth was both about Karuta and Chihaya, and yet despite his fears, he still kept working hard, still kept trying to reach out for the Chiha card. 

The confession and Taichi’s behavior throughout the entire series always screamed to me about how self-sabotaging he really was. He is the one to bring Arata up during his confession. He never acts in a way to get Chihaya to like him because he was already sure that Chihaya loved Arata. 

And despite all that, despite all his fears, in the same way he was sure that he no longer had any luck in the draw, in the same way he was sure that he had no chance with Chihaya, he still loved her anyway, still supported her the best that he could. Wasted effort but one that he no longer considered wasted even if Chihaya never loved him back because he was finally at peace with himself. But of course, he was overjoyed when she said she loved him, because as he said, he would always be helplessly in love with her. 

I’ve always thought that in the same way throughout the story Taichi thought Chihaya didn’t notice him, it was also about Taichi never noticing how much Chihaya noticed him (the towel scene is really symbolic of this). It’s quite ironic how Taichi considers Chihaya dense, when he’s also a bit dense when it comes to Chihaya. 

4. how taichihaya might as well be self-fulfillment for ariwara no narihira and the empress

listen, listen, brilliant people who are more well-versed in poetry have pointed out the parallels between narihira, the empress, the emperor and taichi, chihaya, and arata. It was pretty on the nose with how narihira was even drawn to look a bit like taichi, and now chihaya and arata are the queen and meijin respectively. 

with how shinobu pointed out that the chiha and tachi cards were always paired together, nothing will now stop me from imagining chihaya and taichi as the empress and narihira who were reincarnated and can now be together.

I just really loved them, even way back in the beginning when I was just watching the anime. I was prepared for heartache, but even then, it wouldn’t diminish what they went through, so to have that last chapter is really heartwarming. I’ll probably be rambling more about Chihayafuru once I reread everything. Thank you for these past ten years Sueguetsu-sensei!

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Chihayafuru rant one more time

10 years ago, when I started Chihayafuru, I was only 13 years old. Back then I had no idea what a meaningful journey I'm attending to. Now here we are, more than 10 years have passed, I couldn't be more thankful to Suetsugu Yuki and this freaking masterpiece of art!

Chihayafuru had a true impact on my life, shaped the person I became, and even in these last recent chapters didn't refuse to gave me one more important lesson, to remind me once more about something I may have forgot in my last year. To embreace my inner child, and live my everydays with her passions.

I'm not ashamed to say, one of these passions of mine is this story. I will always remember all the tears. The happy and sad ones, even more those bitter tears I've shed over the pages. I will always be so-so greatful to have Chihayafuru in my life, not just for the assistance for my growth, but even for those small things like my english and the joy of silently being a part of an amazing fandom.

I know the leaks are out, and after all these years, there are no words for the fullfilment I feel after hearing them, it was impossible to sleep last night with such excitement, my face hurts from smiling like an idiot, my eyes are hurting from the tears, happy ones this time.

There's still a few days until offical release, and I'm sure the chapter is going to be HUGE, and there are more tears to come, so time to be prepared and celebrate when the time comes.

Thank you Suetsugu Yuki for giving us Chihayafuru. It's been a real important 10 years for me, and a story I will carry in my heart forever.

[akkalafuru]

"They say that... in the Omi Jingu Sacred Temple, the gods show you the person... you want the most"

🌸🌸🌸

Credits:

@KrSpeed_ (Twitter)