Chihayafuru volume 8 begins where 7 ended — with Chihaya absolutely dominating Yumi, who falls deeper into despair. But just one thing that occurred made Yumi recognize her issues, and that eventually leads to her coming back against Chihaya. And thus, in her words, begins Chihaya’s year of losing as she tries to get better at karuta. But before all of that begins, we get to see someone ask Chihaya on a date! She even gave the hopeful boy her number.
…Only to get promptly blocked by Taichi.
While the romance starts to pick up with those two (well, really one), other events take place in volume 8. Arata lost in his tournament, so now he’s trying to make up for lost time since he quit. However, the one member at his club who has master potential has quit — with desiring to get better in his head, Arata tries to get him to reconsider. Shinobu’s past is explored as she takes on Yumi in the Queen match, while packing far more pounds than usual. The volume then ends with a tease of the current King, Hisashi Suou, about to thoroughly dominate his opponent.
With a lot happening all over the place, Chihayafuru volume 8 still manages to keep a steady energy that makes it great to read. In this volume we cover a ton of different people, but the main hook is Suetsugu covering Chihaya’s opponents. It’s obviously a thing this series has done, but it devoted time to building up Yumi, who was a Queen herself but was trounced by Shinobu. Since then she’s simply lost her confidence, and that shows in her match with Chihaya. But sometimes doing the unexpected (like her karuta teacher opening the window in what was a hot room) can do wonders. And it even continues after that as she faces off against Shinobu later on in the manga.
But before we get into Shinobu, Chihaya’s current character arc is one to watch. Naturally she wants to get better, but after starting out of the gate well, she’s picked up some losses that ultimately weigh on her conscience. Now whether it’s bad enough to hide in the closet for about an hour, who knows! But, as she analyses who were chosen to represent their region, she can only think about what she’s missing. Maybe she figures it out by watching Shinobu.
For Shinobu, we get into her backstory in the second half of volume 8. It’s very much in stark contrast to her present, where she’s gotten fat and has lost her style of karuta. The moments where the characters get a chance to look within themselves are usually very good, and seeing her as a child was quite interesting. In a way it just showed how karuta was perceived — not helpful, useless, etc. This very much aligns with Taichi, whose mom isn’t pleased at what he’s doing. The only difference, however, is Taichi’s given the freedom to do what he wants because he’s old. Shinobu, however, had to get some help as nothing else stuck to her except karuta.
Anyways, with it ending the way it does, the King will get his time to shine next volume. We’ve seen Suou a few times so far in the series, but now we get to see him in a match. What exactly is he like? And what’s up with his past? This, and the aftermath of the matches, are definitely a must see. And combine all of that with the classic Chihayafuru humor, and yeah, this is another strong volume.