“Remember to breath,” Taichi thinks to himself, demonstrating more self control arguably than anyone else watching this week’s episode. And we are not even playing.
Of course, in true Chihayafuru teasing fashion, we do not know the outcome between the Hokuo and Akashi match. Chihaya’s status for the individual tournament is unclear. For the time being, none of that matters however.
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Kana-chan’s display of love and respect for karuta astounds more than any English word can convey. At least rate, she’s going to steal my heart from Chihaya.
I am impressed with Fujisaki’s coach’s admission of fault. She made a keen observation that I agree highly with. A quagmire of skilled players does not compute to teamwork. Skill is certainly necessary in any endeavor and its importance rises with the level of play. The trick lies in calculating the point of diminishing returns especially as a function of teamwork.
What happens with skill if we take time to infinity? Teamwork? Will both increase indefinitely? It would be an incredibly groovy feat to derive an equation to determine these variables because this is as much art as it is mathematics. Somehow, I get the feeling that skill is much more finite than teamwork. The synergy of the latter holds limitless possibilities. Afterall, Mizusawa was not favored to win.
Sometimes skill and teamwork are still not enough. I don’t remember if it was Macross or Lupin that said, “For some of us, luck is a skill.” I do remember the Dean of the school claiming that luck is the one thing he always hoped to have more than anything else. It makes sense. For those of us that play poker, we have all experienced the frustration and disbelief even though we made the correct play.
Skill, teamwork and luck. The triforce of karuta!
This episode was truly majestic. Until the last verse is read, the game is still not over yet. That is really cool! So ritualistic, and that is rei (respect ritual), begins with rei and ends with rei. Kana-chan is the true Nadeshiko (Japanese beauty). Teamwork, or wa (harmony) is the most respectful – Prince Shotoku.