Make no mistake, this story thrives on character development and has very little going on in the plot department. And it spends so much time doting on its juvenile heroine and her flat genius romantic interest that it’s hardly worth reading.
To get it out of the way, the first chapters were well written and in no way indicative of the rest. They contain flashbacks to Chihaya’s childhood when she discovers the game of kurata and friends to last her a lifetime. It is heartfelt and significant because she gains a purpose for her own and steps out of her sister’s shadow, never mind serious implications that Chihaya has kurata because she doesn’t have anything else. Only her two new friends shortly move away, leaving Chihaya to deal with loss.
No matter though, because when the flashback ends she is reunited with both of them, and the emotional upheaval then becomes cheated. Chihaya from a ten-year-old has grown into a beautiful teen, just as unkempt and spirited and oblivious and utterly tactless. After all those years not only did she not gain any emotional maturity, but she has actually regressed when lessons learned just the other chapter turn effectively worthless. By the way, if Chihaya didn’t give a button how pretty she was, then why bother mentioning it? Hint I can be beautiful too but I don’t really care and I don’t wear fashionable clothing and make-up but if I do I would totally look hot hint.
What happens after is painfully overdone. Okay Taichi we get that you have a crush on Chihaya but must you blush while gazing at her every five panels? And did the other guy seriously quit playing kurata because his grandfather died while he competed? I have a word for people like that, but my mother tells me to substitute it with ‘self-centered egomaniacs’. That’s not guilt; that’s wallowing in your own melodrama. That kind of shit is acceptable if he wasn’t this wisdom before age type, but as earlier chapters pushed in that direction … arg.
Chihayafuru falls apart due to this completely facile approach to grief and growth. I think that it's due to the mentality of children which we accept as simple, but was treated with such care, and the mentality of teenager which are more nuanced but has been oversimplified.
Edit: Right, didn't see the reply. To awavingflag
It can be considered realistic. Does that make him likable? No. The shit he does still isn't acceptable. The fact that Chihayafuru doesn't call him out is what makes me see red--it doesn't acknowledge that its character is still wallowing in his own melodrama. It is contrived plot. It is contrived emotion, since the tension was entirely fabricated.
I felt cheated out of my own emotional reactions. There's a huge problem when the story does something to make us and the heroine cry and then undoes it a few pages later. Give her new friends. Show her that she has to move on. Anything but what it did.
So okay, my problem with the beauty thing is that it perpetuates the myth that women have to look "naturally' beautiful. News flash: no woman can look beautiful without trying to or without caring about how she looks. The myth allows men to demand women to look nice without trying, and then condemn those who puts on too much make-up or undergoes cosmetic surgery.
Re: Taichi, I have not followed it until the point that you are talking about. I don't see it in what little I did read, but then again, I had no reason to. And I don't like to compare manga like that, because that's like saying this manga is a little bit better than all those horrible manga.
Hopefully this addressed all of your points.
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