Best of the week: Chihaya Furu 17

Chihaya Furu 17: After attending their first national tournament two episodes ago, the team comes together again for another school year hoping to regear and address their individual weaknesses.

Strictly speaking, I think there were more exciting episodes this week, but this episode of Chihaya highlights why despite many challengers this season, Chihaya herself remains the most compelling new anime character so far this year; and underpinning her growth as a karuta player, Taichi continues to support her despite the fact that she only has Arata in her eyes. Big sigh.

Best of the Rest (clockwise from the top left):


Highschool DxD 05: Turns out the new guy has a secret weapon. Given really low expectations as a pervy harem battler, I think they really outdid themselves with this one. It almost makes me believe they might have a plan for this one.

Mouretsu Pirates 05: A tactical episode that was quite fun to watch. Keeping the opponent unseen and focusing purely on the bridge and our crew gave it an old school feel.

Daily Lives of High School Boys 04: The introduction of an all girls school and its rival student president arms this comedy with a whole nother dimension of jokes.

Natusume Yuujinchou S3 05: A girl from one of Natsume's past towns reminisces about their brief time together. I love these side-story episodes.