Chihaya Furu 14: Hail to the Queen

It's the individual tournament and Chihaya finds herself up against the reigning Queen of Karuta!

This is probably the most exciting episode of Chihaya Furu yet. Individual tournaments! But uh-oh, who's this familiar-looking girl with the "fashion sense of a rock"? It's the girl from the temple! No, wait, it's Shinobu, the current Queen -- the youngest ever in history. Chihaya has reason to be nervous and excited as the Queen wastes no time proving her status by completely demolishing her first opponent. Next up, Chihaya! But obviously, the Queen plays karuta on a whole new level and Chihaya finds herself losing card after card after card.

Meanwhile, at the tournament for Class B players, Taichi conveniently wins his match by default, so of course he heads over to the Class A players to see Chihaya play the Queen. He is in for the shock of his life as he has never seen Chihaya so utterly behind in a match. He sees immediately that it's still Chihaya who reacts first when a card is read but the Queen's reflexes are so fast, the advantage doesn't seem to matter. Having never played such a player before, Chihaya is at a complete loss; at one point, she doesn't even attack. However, an accident involving the lights in the room, shakes Chihaya up from her despair as she sees both Taichi and their team coach, rooting for her in the corner. Suddenly, Chihaya remembers the first karuta game she ever played with Arata and this gives her the strength of mind and determination to start to fight back. She takes the "Gust of wind" card, then offers up the "Chihaya" card and takes that one, too. She's all fired up now but the Queen is, as well. Who will win this match? One thing is certain, it's going to be exciting next episode!