"Chihayafuru -Meguri-" "Meguru"Ami Touma"awakens"! Viewers are moved by her furious catch-up

The eighth episode of the drama series "Chihayafuru: Meguri" (NTV, Wednesdays at 10 PM), starring actress Ami Touma, aired on August 27th. The episode depicted a scene in which Meguru (Touma) of the Umezono Karuta Club, who had advanced to the losers' bracket after the Tokyo preliminaries, made a comeback in the match, drawing a lot of attention on social media.

◇The following contains spoilers.

Episode 8 is the first round of the Tokyo preliminaries. Meguru and Umezono go head-to-head with the reigning champion, Mizusawa. Mizusawa should have an overwhelming advantage, but Kusata (Soma Santoki)'s reading of the order works well, and there's a slight chance that they can win against Umezono. Meguru, who is up against Mizusawa's ace, Kenshin (Fujiwara Daisuke), also challenges him head-on, saying, "I'm not going to lose that easily."

However, the match takes a turn for the worst. Yakumo (Aito Sakamoto), their only hope, is crushed by the pressure and goes into a panic. Her opponent Nagi (Nanoka Hara) keeps taking her cards, bringing her to the brink of self-destruction. Then, Fuki (Jun Saito) suffers a relapse of an old injury and has to withdraw. Fighting as a four-person team, Umezono is completely defeated by Mizusawa 5-0, and they are forced to play in a losers' bracket.

Meguru and the others are determined to win for Kazuki's sake, but Yakumo, feeling responsible, runs away from the venue. The first round of the losers' bracket begins, but Meguru uses the 15 minutes of memorization time to go look for Yakumo. Meanwhile, Yakumo bumps into Nagi during a break. As Nagi talks about Meguru's unfathomable power, saying, "Mizusawa won this time, but if Meguru-chan shows her true potential, who knows what will happen in the next match," Meguru appears, embraces Yakumo, and tries to persuade her. Then Meguru and Yakumo return to the venue... and the story unfolds.

In the same episode, Meguru tells Yakumo, "Watch here. We'll win," before returning to the match and putting on the headband Yakumo had made for her. As time passed since the start of the match, Meguru's opponent's cards had been significantly reduced, but Meguru muttered, "I wonder how far I can go," and Souta, who was next to her, memorized the cards with surprising concentration. Meguru then made a furious comeback from a disadvantageous position, and finally reached the decisive match. In the decisive match, Meguru overtook the enemy team and achieved an unexpected comeback victory.

On social media, many people expressed their excitement at Meguru's "awakening." Comments included, "Meguru is so cool!", "Meguru's awakening is amazing...", "It's amazing that she made it to the fateful battle", "Her concentration is incredible", "Meguru is so intense!", and "I cried when I saw Meguru's true potential."