The eighth episode of the drama series "Chihayafuru: Meguri" (NTV, Wednesdays at 10 PM), starring actress Ami Touma, aired on August 27th. Towards the end of the episode, Mizusawa High School alumnus Mashima Taichi, played by Nomura Shuhei, who also appeared in the film series, made an appearance, sparking a stir on social media.
◇The following contains spoilers.
Episode 8 is the first round of the Tokyo preliminaries. Meguru (Touma) and the rest of Umezono face off against the champion Mizusawa. Kusata (Soma Santoki) reads the order perfectly, and there's a slight chance they could beat Umezono, but the match takes a turn for the worst. Their only hope, Yakumo (Sakamoto Manato), crumbles under the pressure and is on the verge of self-destruction. Fuki (Jun Saito) has a recurrence of an old injury and has to withdraw. Fighting as a four-person team, Umezono is completely defeated by Mizusawa 5-0, and moves on to the losers' bracket.
Meanwhile, Yakumo, feeling responsible, runs away from the venue. The first round of the losers' bracket begins, but Meguru takes advantage of the memorization time to go outside the venue to look for Yakumo. After persuading Yakumo, who was talking to Nagi (Nanoka Hara) during the break, Meguru returns to the venue with Yakumo. After that, Meguru makes a furious comeback and wins in a comeback. Riding on their momentum, Umezono continues to win, and is guaranteed a spot in the final qualifying round three weeks later. However, a major upset is occurring behind the scenes, and the first representative from Tokyo is decided to be not Mizusawa or Kitao, but an unheralded high school. Then, Fuki, who has withdrawn, is told by his doctor to stop playing... and so the story unfolds.
Later in the episode, Mizusawa's ace Kenshin (Fujiwara Daisuke), who missed out on being the first representative, visits the master Arata (Mackenyu) and bows, saying, "Please teach me more about karuta, Sensei!" Meanwhile, Fuki tells Meguru that he plays karuta with his left hand because he can't use his right, and says, "Aizawa's left-handed, right? So he asked me to be his practice partner..." Fuki, who received this advice from his doctor who examined his right hand, goes to see the doctor with Meguru. Waiting for him is Taichi, an alumnus of the Mizusawa Karuta Club, who introduces him to Meguru by saying, "Mr. Majima is currently a quasi-master," to which Meguru is surprised, saying, "A quasi-master!?"
On social media, the appearance of Taichi, played by Nomura, sparked a stream of excited comments such as "It's Taichi," "It's Taichi, he's so cool," "Taichi is so cool I yelled out loud," and "He became a semi-master while working as a doctor!?". Furthermore, the composition of Taichi supporting Fuki and Arata mentoring Kenshin drew comments such as "Isn't this too hot?!", "It's essentially a showdown between Arata and Taichi's disciples," "So it's Arata vs. Taichi again after 10 years!?", "They're rivals no matter what," "What is this super exciting development..." and "Too emotional," attracting a lot of attention.
