#taichihaya

[1halfvanilla]

pls watch(+read!) Chihayafuru... i love this series to death  _(:3」∠)_

[akkalafuru]

Happy taichihaya week!!!!!

[colleensmangarecs]

tried my hand at this

[mokkemusic]

[exiledpotato]

Since Chihaya was never good at putting her feelings into words, her thoughts during her confession were sort of left as a small puzzle, for the readers to solve on their own.

I feel that we have to break it out panel-by-panel, to better understand her in that scene. We will start after Chihaya's conversation with Desk-kun, where we have these 2 panels of Chihaya (these 2 pages were added in the volume):

As far as I'm aware, there were only 2 times in the manga, when the author drew Chihaya in that "blurry" way, where we see 2-3 "layers of Chihaya" overlapping with one another, indicating a shocking realization. The second one was in the last chapter, and the first one was when Taichi confessed to her:

In chapter 138, Taichi's confession finally connected the dots for Chihaya, and gave her the answers to those questions she was asking herself: "Why does Taichi always seem so stressed?", "Why does he look like he's suffering so much?", "Why is he always alone?"...Because he was in love with her. In chapter 247, Chihaya finally connected the dots, and gotten an answer to why Taichi was always in her heart. Why was she so hurt when Taichi seemed to be suffering, and why she wanted Taichi to laugh (ch135), why she felt his presence in the nationals (ch154), why she imagined him at the Omi Jingu temple before the queen match (ch216)...Because she was in love with him. Suetsugu drew both realizations in the same style.

Chihaya then goes to find Taichi, and they first talk about the picture they all took after Chihaya became the queen. Chihaya tried to cover for Hanano by saying that it was her stomach that growled, however Taichi was aware that she was covering for her:

In the 3rd panel above, we see Chihaya being surprised that Taichi knew that it was Hanano's stomach that growled. She proceeds to gaze at Taichi in awe, as she realizes that:

1. Taichi's hearing improved so much that he's now able to even distinguish Chihaya's stomach growling from other people (even though he was the farthest from them when the picture was taken). 2. By now, he knows Chihaya so well, that he can even recognize the sound of her stomach growling from all the time they've played karuta together.

It was kind of an indication that it's pointless at this stage for the two of them to lie to each other about anything, even little things, because they know each other too well for the lie to work. Which leads us to the next page:

Chihaya starts off with "Ta............", slightly blushing with a shaded face... but cuts herself short, and asks Taichi about which university he was going. Chihaya was about to tell him how she felt right then and there, but changed her mind at the last moment. And the reason is simple - She wasn't sure whether Taichi was still in love with her, since she overheard what Taichi said to Kana in ch207 about how his feelings for Chihaya may be fading away, and it's been about 3 months since then. Furthermore, Taichi leaving Tokyo (and thus leaving her) was an indication to Chihaya that he may no longer feel the same way about her, which is why she cut herself short of confessing to him.

If she were to confess to him, while Taichi's feelings weren't the same anymore, it would only put a burden on him. Just like in ch142, when she didn't want Taichi to find out that she'd also quit the karuta club, because she thought it would put a burden on him.

However, it is the panels at the bottom of that page that gave Chihaya the answer, on whether Taichi still holds those feelings for her.

4th panel: When Taichi said that he felt like he had to change his surroundings, he couldn't bring himself to look Chihaya in the eyes. Whenever Taichi is hiding something, he can't look the other person in the eyes. This has happened several times in the manga by now. For example, in ch134, Taichi couldn't bring himself to look Arata in the eyes when they were about to play for the first time, because the real reason why he stayed behind to play against Arata, wasn't something he could tell him. And in ch247, the real reason why he was leaving Tokyo, wasn't something he could tell Chihaya, so he couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes. 5th panel: Chihaya sees that Taichi's body language holds more to it than what he said. As I mentioned, the two of them know each other way too good to effectively hide things/emotions from one another. She sees that Taichi seems stressed, and that he's trying to hide his pain.

6th panel: This is her realization - “Oh, it's because of me.” A year ago, when she was asking herself why Taichi looked stressed, and is suffering, she was thinking “it's because of karuta”. But now she's able to put two and two together. She realizes that Taichi is still in pain because of her, that he's still in love with her, that he's still suffering when he's close to her, and that the real reason why he felt that he "had to change his surroundings" was because of her.

Most likely, what solidified Taichi's decision to leave Tokyo, was when he saw Chihaya and Arata together after becoming queen/master, and couldn't hide his pain seeing them together on those stairs:

His feelings never faded away of course. Back in ch207, Taichi knew that Chihaya would overhear whatever he was gonna say, so he chose an answer that wouldn't put a burden on Chihaya. But, I'll leave that scene to dissect panel-by-panel in some other post.

Back to the topic, Taichi tries to hide his pain from Chihaya the best he can, but ineffectively.

When Taichi saw her dumbfounded reaction, he tried to put even more effort by forcing a smile while saying to her the same words Chihaya said in ch6 when whey were little. How do we know it's a forced smile? Because it's the same smile as in ch138, which happened just 2 pages after Chihaya's rejection:

Suetsugu improved her art drastically since then, but nevertheless, it's evident that it was a forced smile. Maybe not as forced and painful as the one from ch138, but forced nevertheless:

Taichi was trying his best to make Chihaya feel better about him leaving, and Chihaya could see that. Again, Taichi couldn't bring himself to look Chihaya in the eyes, and in the 3rd panel, we can see him diverting eye-contact completely, by looking down, trying to hide what his eyes would tell her.

Chihaya observes him, as she realizes what he truly feels from his body language alone. How can we be sure that that's the case? Because Tsuetsugu already drew Taichi in this way before. All we need to do is compare the panel of Taichi above, where Chihaya is silently looking at him, from the scene in ch135, when Chihaya crumbled over Taichi's suffering. It's the same body language. The answer couldn't be more clear:

Chihaya realizes that Taichi is still in pain because of her, his pain never stopped, ever since his confession from last spring, which is where her mind goes next:

As she remembers Taichi's confession, she ends her thoughts by thinking that it was a poem. To Chihaya, Taichi's love for her, was a poem. All those years of fun and joy that happened to her, was mainly because of Taichi. From starting the Mizusawa club, to forming a team, to going to the nationals, to winning the nationals, the friendships that she made on this journey, the love for karuta that grew on Chihaya that led her to becoming a queen... None of it would have happened if Taichi wasn't by her side. None of it would have happened if Taichi didn't love her. And the thought of losing this, losing Taichi's love, is what finally made her collapse.

In order to better understand Chihaya collapsing, we need to take a break here, and go back to the beginning of the story. In fact, we already had two times, when Chihaya almost collapsed because of Taichi leaving her. First, in chapter 4, Chihaya started wobbling, and hit the desk, after finding out that Taichi is going to a far-away middle school, so he wouldn't be able to play karuta with her anymore:

Chihaya actually did collapse in chapter 5, but back then, the impression was that she collapsed because both Taichi and Arata were leaving her:

Afterwards, Taichi and Arata argued over whose fault it was that Chihaya quit karuta, and the story didn't give us a concrete answer at the time:

However, the story eventually gave us many hints to piece the pieces together, and help us make a conclusion that Arata leaving to Fukui, was simply adding salt to the wound that was created by Taichi. But, it would take too long to analyze that conclusion in detail.

Instead, we will focus on something more simple, and easier to understand - Chihaya's forced smile:

In chapter 4, when she gave us this smile, as she was worried over Taichi quitting karuta, we didn't understand Chihaya well enough to fully comprehend the emotions behind such an innocent smile. But what's interesting is that we get almost the exact same forced smile from her, including the finger gesture, in ch135, right before Chihaya started crying over Taichi:

We get Chihaya's forced smile in ch138 as well, right after Chihaya found out that Taichi quit karuta, and right before she broke during her speech. And we also get it in ch184, right after Sudo agreed to Taichi's “loser quits karuta” bet, indicating that she was on the verge of a mental breakdown over Taichi, right before her match with Rion started (which is why she couldn't play her best in that match, and only after Taichi had won against Sudo, Chihaya saw the cards about to be read - floating):

To wrap it all up, we finally get back to ch247, to the scene when Chihaya found out that Taichi wasn't staying in Tokyo... It was such a big shock to her, that she started wobbling just like in ch4 (noticed the same “wobbling effect”), and Michiru, who noticed it, grabbed her arm so she wouldn't fall.

When she finally collapses on the tatami mats in front of Taichi, there was no table, and no Michiru to stop her from falling. As we had observed, Chihaya collapsing over Taichi was a reoccurring thing since the beginning of the manga. And Chihaya always thought that she was hurt because “Taichi was leaving karuta”, because ever since she fell in love with karuta, she was seeing the world through “karuta goggles”.

But Taichi wasn't leaving karuta in ch247. He even said that he'll be back to challenge Arata for the Meijin title. And yet, Chihaya collapsed. Because, in reality, her mental breakdowns and worries over “Taichi leaving karuta”, were all this time really a curtain for “Taichi leaving her”, which is something that she only realized in the final chapter.

And since Chihaya is too much of a karuta-idiot to put her feelings for Taichi into complex words, what spoke more than a 1000 words during her confession, was her body language:

The way that she gently held Taichi's hand with both of hers, as her body language shows repentance for hurting Taichi so much, and complete and utter gratitude for everything that he did for her, for helping her dreams come true, for being by her side, for loving her in the past, and for still loving her in the present.

Just prior to this, she was thinking how as soon as she hears the first syllable, she can recognize the card, but she can't compose the rest of the poem from it. She proceeded to think how Taichi's confession to her was a poem, but that she isn't capable of composing one. So she simply says to Taichi "I love you", or in Japanese "Suki da yo". But the great part in that scene is that 4 bubbles are used in Japanese, 1 bubble for every syllable: "su", "ki", "da", "yo". So she said her confession in syllables.

That was a throwback to chapter 49, when Chihaya was saying only the first 5 syllables of each card. Even though that sounded like mumbo-jumbo to others, to Kana, it sounded like a poetry, because of the way Chihaya was saying it:

So even though Chihaya was thinking that her confession was far from being a poem, it was definitely a poem to Taichi. The most beautiful poem he ever heard.

[rainbowreflects]

Here are some thoughts about how Sensei built up the paired card theory for Taichihaya:

The first hint we get that Chihaya herself sees Tachi and Chiha as paired cards is here

When she lays out her placement, she looks for her card and automatically looks for Tachi because it's her paired card, but not only. Chihaya feels like Tachi = Taichi is the other half of her pair

She refers to this moment with the word "futari" that literally means "a couple", "pair" in Japanese. The fact that she started the club with Taichi together, made her feel like he was a part of it all. Her happiest moments are in the Mizusawa clubroom.

When Taichi leaves it's like a part of her is amputated. Her teacher tells her to study

Chihaya finally truly "feels" in her skin and bones the emotions described in the Kaze poem....she feels like she broke Taichi and is falling apart herself. She directly connected to the poem and the emotions of the Poet for the first time. Beforehand she probably understood some poems but it never hit her deep in the heart as the moment Taichi left.

This is when we see her starting to miss Chiha but Taichi seems to always come around at moments she is at loss, like in the third year nationals, him helping out the karuta club at the karaoke and Chihaya with her mother.

By the time of the qualifiers we get the subtle hint that she looks for Tachi/Taichi after looking for Chiha (don't you look for the card of the person you love most? Like Taichi always looks for Chiha). At the challenger we are more and more confronted with Chihaya's feelings overflowing for Taichi. Her heart probably chose but her brain still needed to process and put a word on those feelings

When the finals begin, Chihaya looks for Taichi again...what is interesting is that in this moment we could actually chant poem 16

Chihaya needs him there, she wants him to come. That is what she wanted to ask him most at the New Year's shrine. "Please come Taichi"

Taichi on his side is struggling with his own painful feelings. Again here we could almost chant the Chiha poem, the hidden feelings of Narihara being represented by Taichi. Taichi has no idea how much Chihaya longs for him and still thinks she's meant to be with Arata. He is his worst enemy.

In chapter 234 Taichi finally comes to the venue. We sort of get the first teaser about "paired cards"....(although there already was a mention of Tachi and Chiha being a pair when Nishida spoke with Chihaya about having crutches to remember poems) and Chihaya's flustered thoughts that lead to the realisation that Taichi had always been with her, even if he wasn't there physically, he was her biggest support mentally. It's the thought of Taichi that gives her strength.

By the time we get here, it's clear. Tachi was the one paired up with Chiha. Not only in the Hyakunin Isshu but Chihaya's own pov confirms what she always felt from the moment she started the club with Taichi: he was the one always by her side, literally and metaphorically, 16 & 17 together since over 1000 years and more.

Chihaya finally ends up being able to express her own deep feelings she had hidden in her heart for the longest time, finally realising all her feelings for Taichi were simply love, confessing in their special place, their safe haven, their happiest unforgettable memories which bound them together for the future to come. An amazing way of writing romance and coming of age.

[maci-brainrot]

Reunion

For Taichihaya Week 2023

(yes, I am super late)

[swimduckling]

[enemyfelled]

𝑹𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒘, 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒑𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆.

[animepoint]

“I wonder when we will see each other again”

A little bit more of crumbs of Taichihaya 💖

[arirna]

[1halfvanilla]

taichi/chihaya  ♡ (இ﹏இ`｡)

[akkalafuru]

SPICE!!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[otaku-shipper]

Chihaya was listening to Tare when Taichi found her in high school. It was the same poem that secured her first win against Shinobu. Taichi's love was described as Shinoburedo and Koi su cho by Kana-chan--poems that talk about a strong love that cannot be hidden. Yura was the last poem read in their 2nd-year nationals competition, the card that Taichi offered to the gods and staked all his good fortune into while wishing for Chihaya to wake up and witness his fate. The Kaze wo poem provided the words of allegory for the heartbreak Chihaya experienced at Taichi's departure. Se was the poem Chihaya sent to Taichi on their 3rd-year regionals, a poem about asking fate for a chance to meet again. It was only when Chihayaburu was recited when Chihaya noticed Taichi's arrival in their 3rd-year nationals. Despite its disappearance, she thought it was okay as long as Taichi was with her. The same poem also helped Taichi win against Sudo despite disassociating himself from it; and against Arata's strong defense, leading to his first win against him. Fu was Taichi's second-best take from Arata, moving Chihaya to tears. It was also Chihaya's first card she took like a real karuta player and what Taichi admired ever since. Kimi ga tame described Taichi's secret support for Chihaya in the Queen match, collecting the 7 green herbs that symbolize luck for her. Chihaya took Su, a poem she described as "romantic", during her first realization that Taichi has always been with her, which happened after she recalled the memory of Taichi saying his feelings for her might fade away someday. Su was also the poem Taichi used to communicate with her during the Qualifier, motivating her not to give up despite having trouble with Makino-san’s reading. Tachi was the card Chihaya voluntarily kept and was the card of fate, winning her the Queen title. On the fusuma, Tachi is a poem that has always been a pair for Chiha for a thousand years. Tachi, the poem that reaffirmed Chihaya’s belief that Taichi is constantly with her from the very beginning. Chihaya described Taichi’s confession to her as a poem until it was her turn to recite her own poem to him with the simple words of “I love you”. 

Can Taichihaya get any more poetic than this???!!!

[mokkemusic]

TAICHIHAYA IN EVERY CHIHAYAFURU CHAPTER 1-247✨

Well almost I hope you enjoy! Open it up to fully see cause it's LONG (Notes at the end of the edit)

Want to add: Yes, I made some creative choices with this and I know that the omake doesn’t count but let me have the little bit that Sensei showed us when they are dating ok!😭 We won’t get anything else so let me have this. I am really glad to be done with this project even though I am proud of it cause I really have no eyes left it took so much work. But it was worth it and I really wanted to do something like this. Eventually I want to see if I can even print it (cause the file is way too big I would have to go somewhere to get it made like a banner lol. But I'll work on it we shall see! ❤️

[frostfires-blog]

#16 TaiChihaya

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