#i would tag tchy bc i am talking about their relationship in depth here

[formashimataichi]

What happens outside the manga does not matter in the sense that it can never resonate emotionally the way things do when you experience them along with the characters as you read the story.

Imagine instead of going through losses and failures and getting better with a certain character all of that was alluded to but never shown and now you're just reading the story of them winning the title match and being on top. Which would you think carry more emotional resonance, going through those experiences with the character or simply being told about it? Obviously the former.

Same goes for Taichi. If all you're witnessing reading the story is his failure and shortcomings but told at the end of the manga that he goes on to be a master (or even worse, you just have to imagine it yourself) would that cary any emotional weight and be satisfying to the readers who relate to him? Probably not.

Again though, I'm not saying it would be best for Taichi's arc for him to win against chihaya and arata in the story, I'm just trying to explain why saying things like "his story just begun" doesn't mean anything to those who have that complaint in the first place.

As for the current queen yeah she'll lose but she was on top since the beginning so it's perfectly reasonable. As for Arata I don't think he'll lose, but if he does it'd be kinda disappointing but not the same in their eyes because he'd still end up with Chihaya.

I mean (and I apologize sincerely for being blunt here), of course it’s not going to mean anything to people who have that complaint, because their complaint is still centered on the idea that a satisfying character arc for him has to be equitable to success at the final level. The story has never been about any of these characters achieving final success, even though some of them do inevitably reach it. It’s about developing healthy, community-based love for sport, and how that in turn helps you grow and mature as a person. I completely agree that there would be no point to a flash forward that shows Taichi having become Meijin, but that’s not what the conclusion to his arc even requires to begin with. Like anyone else, he just needs to decide if he wants to keep playing and whether his reasons for wanting to continue playing are true to himself. I find it kind of concerning that people look at his story and all they potentially see is “failure and shortcomings”, because doesn’t that just ascribe to what his mother has been telling him from the beginning? The only thing she ever saw in what her son pursued for a long time is whether he won or he lost, and if he lost, she pulled the plug and emphasized that his efforts weren’t worth anything because of the immediate results. That’s a mindset that in the latter half of the manga she’s actively worked to acknowledge and change, so it surprises me that readers overlook that and don’t similarly follow suit. If losses really were the only thing to define a person’s efforts, she could have easily begged Taichi to give up after he lost at the Qualifiers, especially as it was at that point the biggest loss he’d ever experienced. But she doesn’t tell him to quit at all; that moment at the end that he shares with Arata is as emotional for her as it is for anyone else in the room, and we realize from her conversation with Suou that she’s gained a better understanding of just how much worth there is in her son’s efforts and persistence to continue against all odds (even if he chooses to quit himself at the time, though as you already know I feel pretty strongly that that’s only temporary). I don’t think people realize how much they’re falling into his mom’s old mindset when they say that Taichi’s story is only about failure; his entire arc is about breaking away from the idea that temporary failure implies a necessity to quit and the insecurities that she instilled in him by way of that thinking. If he decides to continue playing especially after such a huge loss, it’s incredibly significant for him in terms of finally leaving those insecurities behind for good. 

As for Arata, I guess that’s a point of difference between us with regards to how the match will ultimately pan out, but I don’t see why him potentially being the one to end up with Chihaya somehow diminishes the worth of Taichi’s arc. Neither of their arcs requires a satisfactory conclusion by way of getting the girl. That’s secondary to their individual journeys as people, and even if you have a love for someone that’s not reciprocated in the same way, it doesn’t render those feelings worthless or a waste of time. We see Taichi indirectly address that in his conversation with Chitose, when he questions if Chihaya’s feelings and support for her sister are a waste. Obviously, the relationship here is different, but the implied point is that even if Chitose is sometimes loath to recognize Chihaya’s support for her, it doesn’t mean anything less of the love that Chihaya has. It’s true that there’s a lot of love and labor that Taichi poured into his relationship with Chihaya, and sometimes he had to suffer immensely for it, but her not reciprocating doesn’t mean that any of his efforts or feelings weren’t worth anything. They’re something she still incredibly values and keeps as a close reminder of how she hurt him even if unintentionally. His longtime support still means the world to her, and I think it’s incredibly significant that the first game she wins against Shinobu is not only with his card, but also after encouragement Arata has given her because he thought of Taichi’s words and presence first. I don’t think any of that is meaningless and I don’t think their importance to each other would be diminished just because they ended up being friends. Friendships are deep and filled with intense feelings and support, too, and we’ve been shown on more than one occasion just how strong and everlasting the impact of their friendship is even when they’re apart from one another. None of that is going to suddenly disappear just because he might not get the girl in the end. 

#mashima taichi #chihayafuru #*meta #i would tag tchy bc i am talking about their relationship in depth here #but the way i'm talking about it would probably anger people. so #also i just don't think readers are going to gain anything by constantly comparing arata and taichi's arcs tbh #there's lots of parallels between them that i constantly love to point out #but ultimately they're still different characters who require different emotional resolutions #and i don't see the worth in claiming one person's success undeniably implies the other person's loss #and i think readers are only going to doom themselves to disappoint if that's all they focus on #each character is their own person with their own problems and dilemmas #and looking at them outside of strictly the rivalries they're engaged in helps to understand that they still have different needs #not all of their personal fulfillment relies on the one big game they play against each other #there's still outside factors to their character development that are important