Markup View

Author: Rognik

Sep 6th 2012 at 4:17:03 AM

I think this is an example from {{Chihayafuru}}:

Version 1 (classic):
*Foil 1: Chihaya and Taichi. Chihaya is unquestionably TheLeader, being the prototypical shonen hero except for the fact that she's a girl. Taichi is an UnluckyChildhoodFriend, but also self-confident, popular to Chihaya's weirdness, smart to Chihaya's book dumb, and WeakButSkilled in karuta while Chihaya is a bit of a prodigy. Taichi wants to be at Chihaya's level, and feels pressure to be the best at everything he tries (or else there's no point); however, he has pretty much come to accept that he will never reach that level and instead works hard at what he can achieve. Or at least manage to get out of B class. (Also, Taichi was appointed as club president despite Chihaya being the one passionate enough to enlist all the memebers, because he was more stable than Chihaya and it allowed her to focus on getting better at the game.)
*Foil 2: "Porky" and "Desktumo". I forget both of their real names, but they are usually called by nicknames anyway. Porky is kind of TheBigGuy, being heftier and more skilled at karuta than Taichi is. Desktumo is TheSmartGuy in character, and has analyzed the play style of the other club members in order to raise their skill. While they are more supporting characters, and both have little interaction with each other, their character types cater to complete opposites.
*Mediator: Kanade. She is every bit TheChick you could expect from a mediator. She's weak, but has a determined spirit. She's cute, to the point where every other member of the club agrees that she is the best one of the club to go out with. Yes, even Chihaya. She joins the karuta club not because she likes the game, but likes all the cultural frills that come with it: the traditional Japanese garb, the poetry written on the cards, the whole "sport of emperors" aspect of it. In the end of the anime series, she decides that rather than becoming a great karuta player, she wants to become a professional karuta reader, a job very few people are even qualified to do; this deepens her position as TheChick as the reader doesn't actually play karuta, but instead acts more like the trivia host, reading out one line of poetry and the players grabbing the card with the next line on it.

Variety 2 (skill foils)*:
*Foil 1: Taichi and Porky. Both of them are B class players. Taichi is WeakButSkilled, able to beat other players through memorizing the cards rather than beat them on speed; Porky is strong and fast, but tends to be weaker on remembering where certain cards are. Their play styles are also different, as they cater to their strengths and neither gives an advantage against the other.
*Foil 2: Desktumo and Kanade. These are the two novices, but completely new to the world of competitive karuta. While both are pretty weak, they take completely opposite attitudes towards their training. Desktumo is not naturally smart; he has to study like a fiend to get good grades, and even then, he's not top of the class. He's also a bit of a defeatist, ready to give up when he finds that he's not doing well against his more skilled opponents. Kanade is quite the opposite. Being pretty much in love with every aspect of karuta, she takes her initial failures in strides and looks to make a victory. In a parallel to Chihaya's origin story, Kanade is overjoyed the first time she manages to nab a card away from her better opponents. This joy, her infectious spirit, is probably the only thing keeping Desktumo from giving up completely and leaving the club.
*Mediator: Chihaya. Now, you wouldn't think TheHero would be the one to mediate her party normally, right? Well, she doesn't mediate directly. Instead, when her fellow club members start to lose faith, to accept defeatist talk and want to give up, Chihaya will rally them together, giving a "We can do this" speech, or express how her love of karuta will drive her to achieve her goals.

*I include this version for two reasons. One is that it is very much NOT a FiveManBand format as above. Another is that during a tournament arc in the series, Foil 1 and Foil 2 all end up in the finals and, by amazing coincidence, are facing each other; Chihaya, eliminated early in the competition, is present as an observer and cheers on all her fellow club members silently.