The ninth episode of the drama series "Chihayafuru: Meguri" (NTV, Wednesdays at 10 PM), starring actress Ami Touma, aired on September 3rd. In the episode, Fuki (Saito Jun Saito), an alumnus of Mizusawa, and the words Taichi said to Fuki at that time caused a stir on social media.
◇The following contains spoilers.
In episode 9, Meguru (Touma) and the rest of the Umezono Karuta Club, who lost to Mizusawa in the first round of the Tokyo qualifiers, win the repechage tournament and advance to the final qualifiers to decide the second representative. Meanwhile, Mizusawa, the champion who missed out on the championship, also wins the repechage tournament and advances to the final qualifiers. With the big match three weeks away, the Umezono Karuta Club is making their final push.
Then, after an old injury to her right hand recurred during the preliminaries, Kazuki trains hard under Taichi, an alumnus of Mizusawa, in order to be able to play karuta with her left hand...and so the story unfolds.
When Meguru, who is accompanying him to practice, is away, Kazuki confesses his past to Taichi, "I kept pretending to be injured. I wanted to run away from boxing." He then hangs his head and says, "Maybe because I didn't face it properly then, I got injured again at such an important time..." Furthermore, Kazuki, who is conscious of Mizusawa's ace, Kenshin (Fujiwara Daisuke), says, "If you're such a liar, you'll never be able to beat him."
Taichi, who had been listening, then tells Fuki, "You can say that only after you've put your entire youth on the line." In the film series, when Taichi reveals his feelings about his rival Arata (Mackenyu Kunimura), saying, "Even if I put my entire youth on the line, I can't beat him," he is told, "You can say that only after you've put your entire youth on the line." Taichi then reveals to Fuki, "There are opponents I can't beat either. When I complained, 'I can't win even if I put my entire youth on the line,' that's what my master told me." Furthermore, Taichi recalls, "I didn't understand the true meaning of youth when my master said it." When Fuki asks, "Youth?... Isn't it like three years of high school or something?" he replies, "I thought so too. But it wasn't a word that describes time in the first place." The two then finish their practice session without revealing the true meaning of the phrase.
On social media, many people were moved by the sight of Taichi saying to Kazuki the words that he had once been told. Comments included, "I never thought Taichi would be in the position to say that!", "What a great line," "It was so good to hear Taichi say this line," "It overlapped with Taichi's past," "So cool," "Taichi is so Taichi, I'm crying," and "Harada-sensei's famous quote is going around."
