Mashima Taichi or Arata

_Ridley_ said:
I would die for either one of my karuta nerd sons, but the idea of a Chihaya x Taichi romance turns me ice cold. He and his mother would walk all over her and she wouldn't even notice. I want a girl for Taichi who can read a room and run interference with mama yandere. Chihaya and Arata are more on the same nerdy ass wavelength.

shanimebib said:
But Taichi doesn't love Sumire. This is not how it works.

Kipo0007 said:
Taichi i think still doesn't know sumire likes him but definitely knows looks she out for him and cares for him in a special way.

shanimebib said:


No, he is aware of Sumire liking him. But he has become immune to other girls falling for him. The thing is deep down, he has only ever wanted it to be Chihaya and that has resulted in him never going out seriously with other guys.

Unfortunately for Sumire, she put herself in the same bracket by falling for Taichi because of his looks like every girl before her. But she has changed and keeps on changing. I doubt Taichi will ever return her feelings although out of every character in the manga, the one who understands him the most is her.

I used to think her as an annoying girl but now that I know her more, and seeing her going through all the phases of growing up, I do not only like her, but admire her. It depends how things get transferred really.

The manga that I absolutely adored ended today (ah God, that title drop at the end ;_;) so I can assure you that pickle was part of the romance and that was not the first time and it won't be the last, probably! Haha!

Kipo0007 said:


Ahh well. Its true she did like him for his looks at and mostly for materialistic desires and taichi was immune to other girls affections.

But ya sumire definitely grew up and had good character development to the point she understands and cares for taichi the most i feel especially she is not afraid to take on taichis mom.
and i know it might be difficult or near impossible to taichi to lover her back, i still think she has a chance maybe in the future.

On a side note i have been wanting to read that manga you mentioned, kept it on plan to read for a while. Might be a good time to start. Both mc kinda look and remind me of Arata and chihaya for some reason xD

taupecity said:
I will prefer Taichi forever Chihaya x Taichi, Arata was a great supporting character though

Kipo0007 said:


But arata is not a supporting character? He is the main character with the other two.
The journey started with the three of them, especially with arata and chihaya starting karuta in that room.

shanimebib said:


You cannot help it as quite a few actually consider him as a side character because of his lack of presence in the overall story. However, it changes from the current season and later in the manga.

I have been reading some of the later chapters with Arata as the focus and wow, they frustrate me to no ends. >>Arata's sweetness is borderline annoying! He always seem to keep Taichi in his thoughts. He is always like: "I hope Chihaya and Taichi are doing alright", "I want to give back even if it's little in return for what Chihaya and Taichi have done for me", "Why can I not be next to Chihaya and Taichi when they are troubled by something?", "Why am I so far away from Chihaya and Taichi?". He seems to always add "and Taichi" in his thoughts. There were moments when he started to stray and consider Taichi as a hindrance in his Karuta, but never as a person or friend. The way he cherishes Taichi makes me think if he would do the same knowing how Taichi feels about him. I feel like if he ever knew, it would hurt him to the point he might even stop playing karuta.<<

Meusnier said:
Taichi for the simple reason that he is much more relatable in any possible sense. He is not a genius, but a successful hard-worker, he is in love of a girl who does not notice him for years and is loving someone else he is feeling superior to him (it would work too if he considered his rival inferior; a rival is never considered equal anyway...), he and Chihaya compete and he is feeling inferior to her, he does consider himself lucky (end of S2 with the incredible "Koi! Koi! Koi! Dero! Dero! Dero!), but he uses all his intellectual abilities to outcome the odds. Although he was influenced by his mother philosophy ("Don't compete if you cannot become the best", "I could bet my childhood on playing karuta and stay inferior to Arata"), in the end he actually did his youth to become a great player by devoting a huge amount of time to karuta while maintaining his academic performances. This forces admiration, and I can easily relate to dedicated people.

Furthermore, he is not a false modest and realizes that he should have moved to A-kyuu long ago. In the first episodes of S1, I hated him but he has proven to be a great character.

On the other end, Arata is some kind of noble (karuta nobility) genius, and since his depression was seen from a far viewpoint and due to a considerable lack of screen-time in the first two seasons, I find him somewhat inferior and for sure I feel much less empathy towards him. In my opinion he recovered too fast in S2 and should not have been able to defeat Shinobu after his karuta hiatus, so he appears as some karuta god. As such, I can only hope for the victory of his opponents. By the way, when he is forbidden from watching Chihaya playing, he does not want to break the rule because and is referring to a divine punishment (tenbatsu), and this reference emphasises his kami status (kami, not kamisama...).

Kipo0007 said:


Just to clarify he is not a genius or a god, clearly show in this season when he is defeated multiple times. Also when he beat the queen he practiced hard after his hiatus and his inbuilt talent hadn't gone away that he will forget karuta just like that. He worked for it and before the queen did beat tough opponents.
Also Shinobu had a fever that day and wasn't at her best as well.

The divine punishment is his way of showing his respect towards karuta and the rules. He broke them and he considers karuta and its value to be a really high level because of his teachings from his grandfather. that's why he considered befitting for him to be punished.
He never emphasized, related or considered his status to that of a divine being or god/kami. you are interpreting it all wrong. He is literally one of the most lovable humble down to earth characters, who thinks greatly of his elders, teachers and friends and doesn't underestimate his opponents during the match.

Ofc the lack of screen time might have made you feel that way but you should try seeing his character closely now and with a fresh perspective. Might change your mind about him.

shanimebib said:
The manga that I absolutely adored ended today (ah God, that title drop at the end ;_;) so I can assure you that pickle was part of the romance and that was not the first time and it won't be the last, probably! Haha!

Mayuka said:
I prefer Taichi but I think it's pretty obvious that Arata will be end game for her.

Are you reading it raw? It ends in 6 volumes?

shanimebib said:


Yes. I have been reading it raw for a while before I stopped my subscription of Dessert (and few other magazines) due to the incident with Kyoto Animation. All my manga/novels I own so far are in Japanese. It helps me learn and improve my Japanese (having had Japanese coworkers helped as well).

The manga ended with the 7th volume. The final volume will come out in February 2020, I think. But I could be wrong on the release date. Not sure when the English ones (6th and 7th) will be available.

Meusnier said:


That I perceive a somewhat divine aspect from the character's way of playing Karuta does not mean that he considers himself almighty, or that he is not a humble or respectful person. These are two very different things. I know that Arata is a very loving person with his family and surroundings, especially with his deceased grandfather who was the cause of his depression. The genius part is always subject to debate since it is mostly a social construction; he started practicing very young and was raised in a karuta favorable environment, but remains however one of the best players of his generation (he has a superior game sense, and one of the spectators of his match with Shinobu says that he moves as his grand-father the card at the worse possible timing for his opponent).

Drawing the line between inner talent, genius and hard-work is challenging, but if we compare to Taichi, it becomes clear that he seems to have simply more raw talent, i.e. genius (in the ancient meaning, this word mainly referred to talent), although he is clearly working hard. Actually, it is a quite trivial thing that geniuses must start to be hard-working at some point if they want to achieve their potential; to take the example of a very very very famous mathematician who got his PhD at 20, he claims himself that his thesis advisor was not extremely satisfied with his performance at some grad school exam and advised him to work harder...

With talent comes pride to success and will to work harder. For me, it is clear that the author wanted to build on this duality talent/hard-working with these two characters by making each a representative of each aspect. Thanks for the spoiler of Arata's defeats by the way. The Shinobu point is doubtful since she even won the Queen match while being overweight which may be more incapacitated for something like karuta that having just a fever.

In a word, I did not contradict your second paragraph so there is no need for me to change my analysis. Please ignore me in the future or try to read more carefully next time.

Kipo0007 said:


Yea he is considered a divine form in karuta sense, because of his abilities and skills.
Created and perceived by the characters and viewers as well, but its not the case at all.
if you watched this season. He is a human in terms of karuta as well.

In general terms yes Taichi has talent but pursues karuta where he lacks it while working hard, which is commendable and
respectable. But yea even geniuses or prodigies be it in general terms or for that matter in their particular field of expertise
face problems and work hard to strive for success, not everything can come to them naturally. In same sense, Arata has both talent
and Hardwork (in karuta) which makes his victories sensible. Taichi has talent in general and harwork (in karuta) thats why its a
its a little tough on him for achieving his goals in karuta.

Defintely agreeing that the author is presenting different aspects of characters with different traits pursuing the same field and trying
to achieve success.But both are working hard and one has a upper hand because of the particular field thats all.

Since you are commenting on the s3 discussion forums, i naturally assumed that you have watched it. Still my bad for spoiling.Sorry.

Coming to Shinobu point, being overweight and having a fever are really two different conditions.

Fever hits you suddenly and not only affects your body but also your mind, so its hard to focus and coordinate your mind and body together.
You are not used to playing in that condition.It weakens your body while hampering your thinking abilities.

Being overweight mostly affects the physical condition, while your mind is working in a good condition and you are able to compromise by making out
strategies and plans to compensate for your obese condition and focus properly on the match. Plus Shinobu didnt get obese overnight, it was for quite
a period of time, so she was still practicing karuta in that physical state, so she was kinda used to it even though she had trouble playing.
Plus the fact like you said Aratas game sense and movements like his grandfather, plus the fact that Shinobu has never won against him goes to prove how he managed to capitalize on the match and won it at the end.

I am not gonna try to force change your analysis or perspective, mostly i get it because of his lack of screen time which i understand. But really suggest looking closely on aratas character especially in s3 since you have not watched it. Because there his more to his character than what it looks on the surface.
Dont worry not gonna bother you with replies again and sorry for spoiling again, but you have to be careful while commenting in s3 discussions. there will be spoilers of already released episodes which is obvious.
Anyways Good day.

Meusnier said:


Thank you for your reply. This is really not much of a big spoiler so you do not need to apologize. I actually had experience to do some sports competition with a small fever and it was not much different. But since in karuta people seem to be using a lot of stamina when practicing, I felt that being overweight was more of an issue. But since she only had to play a Queen match compared to a full tournament, the two events were not really comparable. Sorry for my quite harsh reply, it was my fault too to judge a character from only two seasons while a third one was airing.

roppuri said:
@shanimebib thanks for suggestion! are they finished tho? i kinda don't want to read the on-going story

Azazin said:
Arata and Shinobu would be a way better couple.

Johnny-Jay said:
Does no one care about Chihaya? I don't understand how anyone would want to see her and Taichi end together considering how disrespectful he has been to her all this time. He lied to her, he did a lot of things behind her back and he's fighting Arata over Chihaya like she's a trophy. He's your typical "nice guy" full of insecurities who thinks he's gonna be rewarded if he stays close enough to his target. Don't get me wrong, Taichi is a very well-written and believable character, but that doesn't make him less of an ass. I mean for Christ's sake, the guy pretended to be Chihaya's boyfriend so Suo would stay away from her, that's just awful, he had no right to do that.

Personally I just want Chihaya to find someone to play karuta with, this is her passion and I don't think she needs more than that right now. It's kinda annoying how love is always supposed to be the ultimate goal for an anime character, especially female ones.

That aside, I am shipping Arata with Shinobu myself. Their first ever interaction in the series got me so invested in their relationship, and then you have that very special moment when they battled each other and Arata felt something wrong with Shinobu. Haven't started season 3 yet but I hope there's more Arata x Shinobu moments, unlikely but I won't lose hope!

ToG25thBaam said:
Amen to that. It's part of the reason I am not so infatuated with the idea of Taichi ending up with Chihaya, as well as Taichi's character in general. Perhaps he's a really well developed character, maybe even the best in the series, still don't really make me root for him though. I get loving someone so much you just want to force things through sometimes to speed up the process, but when he does that he never considered Chihaya's feelings but his own, that makes him human, but don't get my support though.

That aside, I am shipping Arata with Shinobu myself. Their first ever interaction in the series got me so invested in their relationship, and then you have that very special moment when they battled each other and Arata felt something wrong with Shinobu. Haven't started season 3 yet but I hope there's more Arata x Shinobu moments, unlikely but I won't lose hope!

chiakimagoto said:
I only recently started shipping them when he started training with her, she going to his house, visa versa. So damn cute!!!! I feel Arata is very much himself with Shinobu....and Shinobu with him. Funny how he sees right through her little arrogant ways, snickering when he sees her do that.

There is another thing going through n in the manga and it has to do with physical contact....well these 2 easily touch eachother in the cutest way!!!

Funny how he sees right through her little arrogant ways, snickering when he sees her do that.

Kipo0007 said:
To be Honest Shinobu and Arata have more rivalry friendly relationship. I mean most from Shinobus side, since arata has been the only she has never been able to beat in her life.
and Arata just respects her as a fellow karuta player.friennd and as the queen. They have their fun moments as friends but thats about it nothing special from either perspective.