The third episode of the TV drama "Chihayafuru -Meguri-" (Nippon TV, Wednesdays at 10pm), starring actress Ami Touma, was broadcast on July 23rd. Towards the end of the episode, a silent exchange was depicted between Oe Kanade (Mone Kamishiraishi), the advisor of the Umezono High School competitive karuta club, and "Nikuman-kun" Nishida Yusei (Yamoto Yuma), who appeared in the film series, which caused a stir on social media.
◇The following contains spoilers.
In the third episode, Meguru (Touma) retracts her decision to quit, and the Umezono High School Competitive Karuta Club, now with five members, is now able to participate in team matches and aims to compete in the national karuta tournament. However, Meguru is not physically strong, and Chieri (Arashi Rina) is struggling to remember the songs, so it is unclear whether they will be able to make it to the Tokyo qualifying tournament at their current pace. The anxious group decides to join a "Karuta Club," which can be considered a karuta club team, in order to improve their level.
With Kanade's help, the Umezono members knock on the door of the local karuta club, "Fuchu Yugiri-kai." The president of "Yugiri-kai" is Nishida (Yamoto), also known as "Nikuman-kun," an alumnus of the Mizusawa High School karuta club. Nishida presents an entrance test, saying, "The condition for admission is to take three cards from me." Meguru and Chieri challenge Nishida together, but fail without taking a single card... and so the story unfolds.
After that, Megumi and Chieri trained hard, and with the Umezono members watching, they passed Nishida's retest two weeks later. When Nishida shouted, "You both passed the Yugiri-kai!", Megumi and Chieri high-fived the Karuta Club members in joy. Kanade was watching the two with a smile, and when her eyes met with Nishida's, she silently mouthed what seemed to be a "thank you." Seeing this, Nishida closed his eyes, shook his head, and returned the smile to Kanade.
On social media, many were touched by the silent exchange between Kanade and Nishida. Comments such as "Aren't Kana-chan and Nikuman-kun the best?", "Their exchange was great", "Thank you for the silent exchange", "It was emotional when he secretly said thank you to Nikuman-kun", "I cried a little when they made eye contact and said 'thank you'", and "It's heartwarming..." were lined up.
