Taichi Tuesdays: 3/13/12

Chihayafuru Ep. 23: The Night is Nearly Past

Episode 23 of Chihyafuru finally takes the series back to its roots of being a young love title. I enjoy this format more because I like the whole teenage romance anime scene. But when I think about it, I don’t think Chihayafuru would have been as good if it was centered around the romance and emotional elements. The karuta episodes helped to spread the story apart, although I would have preferred if the series had a few more teenage romance episodes to develop Arata’s character a bit more.

Taichi was there to comfort Chihaya after she lost her match with Yumi, and he reveals to himself that he truly loves her. Such is the expression on his face in the image above. A bit later in the episode we return to the school setting and learn that Chihaya has a boy who likes her and is trying to get her attention. Taichi takes the initiative to block the boy on her cell phone and Kanade finally realizes that he has feelings for Chihaya. It’s comical for her to point out the rest of the karuta club are just a bunch of nincompoops.


Arata also lost his qualifying match to play against the current Master, and he’s now trying to get his former mentor to play at the karuta society again. I believe Arata is learning that some people lose interest in hobbies and passions, and karuta is no different. Arata will likely eventually find someone worth playing in his karuta society, and if not, maybe he will turn to Taichi or Nishida?


Going into the end of the episode provides a look on the different Christmas parties that are happening for Chihaya, Taichi, Tsutomo, Kanade, and Nishida. Chihaya is gawked at because of her natural beauty, Taichi is tricked into being the only boy invited to a karaoke party, Nishida goes bowling, Kanade goes to a restaurant, and Tsutomu attends the same event Chihaya does. The ending is special because Chihaya wants to be with the rest of the group that night instead of at the party with her class. When Tsutomu points out that he feelings resemble an acknowledgement of family, she calls Arata. It’s difficult to tell whether she called him because she has true feelings for him or if she called because she is so close to him as a friend. It’s kind of tough to tell, but the very last moments signify that she has confidence in the result of her phone call. You can tell by her facial expression and the stride in her walk. At the same time she may be thinking of Taichi, finally realizing how much he loves her. Who knows, I mean it is Chihaya we are talking about!

I believe there are only two more episodes of this wonderful series left to air. I wish there was more, but all good things must come to an end. Hey, that’s two more episodes where you never know what could happen! In seven days we’ll know more!

-Jared Cyhowski

Taichi Tuesdays: 3/6/12

Chihayafuru Ep. 22: Just As My Beauty Has Faded

The most recent episodes of Chihayafuru were fun and exciting, but they don’t necessarily show a lead in to the final episodes and that is where we are now. Actually, taking a step back and looking at the series as a whole details a unique structure for the series. Near the beginning we were given a large amount of karuta based around the characters while now it’s characters based around karuta. This is fine because of the high quality in storytelling, but I do ultimately miss the relationship building and casual slice of life feel to the series. What this means, as pointed out by someone on RandomC.net, is that the series can basically only go two ways from here. The first being a more karuta-based ending with the characters rooting for Arata in the finals and the second being a story that concludes with relationships examined and set for the finale. That means we learn if Chihaya has feelings for any of the two guys and if Tsutomo and Kanade learn of their feelings for one another. Somewhere in the backdrop would be Arata playing karuta and learning his own feelings, while in parallel dealing more with his past. I would like to see the latter but I feel like we will get a combination of these elements in the next final episodes.

Episode 22 takes a look at Chihaya’s match against the former Queen of karuta, a Yamamoto Yumi. We learn that Yumi isn’t very passionate anymore for karuta due to the fact that she lost her title to Wakamiya Shinobu. Thus her attitude is dry and boring for a high-level karuta player, as compared to Chihaya’s bursting confidence in the match.


But that’s what becomes Chihaya’s ultimate downfall. Her confidence in that Yumi has “given up” gives her a slight advantage in the match, grabbing a lead in the number of cards she has taken. Not only is the tension high because of the match, but the heat in the room they are playing in is so hot that it’s uncomfortable to even watch. Taichi, Tsutomu, Kanade, and Nishida are all watching outside where it’s warm, but not as hot as inside the room. Because Nishida, Tsutomu, and Kanade each became members of the karuta society that Yumi is from, they feel conflicted for who to root for. In my opinion it’s clear that deep down they are rooting for Chihaya.

Chihaya is ahead until her karuta coach opens a window and tells her to find her own style of karuta. This pushes her to play with a new and annoying style of questioning every single card that Chihaya tries to take. Say if Yumi’s finger touches the card first but Chihaya swipes it away, it’s still Yumi’s card and she would argue for it. This really took Chihaya off guard and it seems she didn’t know what to do about it.


Yumi’s stubbornness distracted Chihaya until she cracked, and Yumi eventually became the underdog winner of the match. At the end of each karuta match the players usually thank one another for playing, but Chihaya was silent in her loss. I think she was shocked that she lost so easily after losing her own confidence. She may have realized during the match that she should have been more sensible to the fact she was playing against a former Queen, but it didn’t save her from losing.

Now that Chihaya is out of the qualifiers for playing with Shinobu there’s no telling what the meaning behind her character will be in the final episodes. Taichi didn’t make it either so he can’t face Arata. It goes to show the story in Chihayafuru could have really taken a different direction with what we would expect, but because it didn’t do those things we are left guessing what will happen. It’s a commendable effort on the series’ writers, and it’s so rare to constantly be off guard with what to expect next. Either way it’s been a fun ride.

-Jared Cyhowski

Taichi Tuesdays: 2/28/12

It’s been a busy week and I wasn’t able to get my response from last week’s episode up in time, and so I will just briefly touch on it. Afterwards I will cover the newest episode of Chihayafuru. Enjoy!

Chihayafuru Ep. 21: As My Sleeves Are Wet With Dew

It’s been a week since I saw ep. 21, but there are a few elements of the episode that I remember quite well. First it’s the fact that Chihaya passed her exams, meaning she doesn’t need to stay back in school. It also means that Chihaya was able to balance the importance of schoolwork with her passion for Karuta. The image above is the expression on her face when she learned she had passed, and just how thankful she was for Tsutomu’s help as a tutor.


Then we have the small 6^th grader Ririka who was Chihaya’s opponent in a qualifying match to play against the Queen of karuta. Chihaya sat back in the match and played the game at a pace where Ririka was able to stay in the game. Eventually Chihaya’s sensei pointed out that she could attack the cards with speed, thus putting her at an advantage. Throughout the match Ririka’s mother was watching as her daughter became upset and frustrated with the fact that Chihaya was winning. There was a true element of magic to this, as we learn that Ririka plays karuta because she doesn’t fit in with her classmates. They pick on her because of her large ears and whatever other reasons there may be, but it’s mentioned that her ears give her an advantage in hearing the cards before they are even called. It was heartbreaking, and heartwarming, to encourage her daughter to do whatever she wanted to do just so she could be happy. As her mother points out, she is supportive for “something that will help you like yourself”, and it’s just great that Ririka has actually found that something.

The rest of the episode focused on Chihaya sticking up for Ririka’s loss and Taichi challenging Arata to winning his qualifying match. Arata also had to deal with the fact that his mentor wasn’t into karuta as much as he used to be, which shows that people can lose interest in the sport. I believe Taichi’s text will encourage Arata into placing well in the tournament.

-Jared Cyhowski

Review: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was hailed as Nintendo’s last great game to be released on the Wii in North America. Well that was until Xenoblade and The Last Story were announced, but that’s another story. Regardless, Skyward Sword is indeed one of the last good games to be released on the Wii, and dare I say one of the few. The Wii has had its championing days in Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but it never had a true and proper Zelda title released to the system. Say what you may of Twilight Princess, but there is no denying its Gamecube roots. And so we have the one and only true Zelda title for the Wii, completely catering to the system’s core gameplay aesthetic of motion control. Nintendo of America’s President Reggie Fils-Aime stated that he didn’t know if “there’s going to be a video game in history that’s going to be able to compare to Skyward Sword," clearly pushing the title to be one of the greatest of all time. Hmm… let’s take a look and see.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword features the main characters we are used to in every Zelda game: Link and Zelda. Link is training to become a knight of Skyloft, a rather large and floating island in the sky. Zelda has been chosen to be a part of a ritual for the Goddess of Skyloft, and so it is her duty to sing and sew a blanket. Okay just kidding! On the day of the ceremony Link must prove himself to be a knight to Zelda, or rather pass a few challenges to be worthy of the ceremony. In these events Zelda falls through the clouds to the land below and it is your job as Link to save her.


The game goes on to reveal that you are the hero of legend and that it is your duty to save and protect Zelda, similar to other Zelda games in the past. Overall the story is good and well worth completing to the end. That said, Skyward Sword is rightfully hailed as an origin story for the series. The ending explains what the Legend of Zelda truly means, and that alone is worth playing through. Although the story also has its weaknesses that are primarily featured in structure and not quality. Much of the game feels like you must do this to get this and to get here. You then repeat this process throughout much of the game. It’s not a terrible structure but it slopes to being repetitive and somewhat tiresome.

Thankfully the dungeon designs are well fleshed out and truly fun to experience. Although none of them are extremely challenging, some areas will have you thinking for quite a while. I will admit that I looked up what to do at least twice when I was stuck, and each time it was for a silly reason. Most of the time the game is smart in making use of the equipment you have, and as long as you don’t forget what options are available to you the game will be fluid in its challenge.

Battling a foe in Skyward Sword is different from any other Zelda because of the Wii Motion Plus sensitivity to your hand and arm movement. Whichever way you swing your hand Link’s sword will also move that way. It’s an incredible feature that can’t be taken lightly. If you plan on playing Skyward Sword by waggling the Wii-Mote around, you will soon learn that you won’t get very far. At first it’s challenging to get used to the necessity of swinging your sword in a particular direction but over time you adapt. In fact there are a handful of enemies that will block your sword if you strike a certain way. And so you have to constantly think of a new strategy to defeat such foes. Some of the more challenging boss fights in the game utilize these concepts to their fullest potential.


Aside from the main quest there are a number of mini-games and sidequests to explore. The mini-games are okay and I only dabbled in them a bit but sometimes they have good rewards. The sidequests in the game mainly originate with the people of Skyloft and the various issues they may be having. Whether it be the young love between some of Skyloft’s students or the request to clean a woman’s house, you will dabble in the many facets of life on a floating island.

A strong issue I do have with Skyward Sword is its graphical presentation. It’s entirely difficult to judge Wii games on the basis of graphics because it’s as if we need to place them in a separate category. The Wii is not an HD system, so technically the games will never be in a higher resolution. Skyward Sword has a beautiful art direction that’s entirely gorgeous, yet unfortunately the Wii holds the game back. Colors become blurred and washed out, objects aren’t sharp like you would want them to be, and playing the game on an HDTV only makes these imperfections more obvious. I started playing Skyward Sword on a standard definition TV and the game was nice to look at and everything was fluid. But in transitioning to my flatscreen a lot of the game’s atmosphere was stripped of its virtual beauty. It’s a shame, really, and I do hope the next Zelda title makes great use of the current technology at hand.

Like the majority of Zelda titles, this one shouldn’t be missed. I don’t believe that Reggie was right about Skyward Sword being one of the best games ever made, but I do believe it’s one of the finest in the series. It has an extra dash of heart that adds to the characters and the way they interact with one another. Story is a key element in an enjoyable video game, and I believe The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has mastered this art. A few tweaks to the game’s progressive structure and a warning that you’re playing a game that’s not up to snuff with the current generation of gaming consoles would have put a little more oomph into this installment of the franchise. Regardless, I believe it will sustain in being a title worth comparing to future installments and it has the aura to be a classic.

Title: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Developer: Nintendo

Genre: Adventure/Role-Playing Game

Year: 2011

Platform: Nintendo Wii

Completion: Beat the game in roughly 55 hours and erased the file to make room for Hero Mode. Collected the majority of Goddess Chests, had four bottles, and was missing one item pouch. In the treasure display I was missing two items completely. Fulfilled a number of sidequests but didn’t attempt to win any of the mini-games. Could hold 5,600 rupees at end game and was missing two full hearts.

-Jared Cyhowski