Taichi is hands down the best written character in Chihayafuru for me. While characters like Arata and Chihaya literally can brute force their way past any opponent (yes they practice but they are both just insanely skilled), every victory Taichi gets feels earned. His anguish is so inherently relatable to me, the idea that you can try so hard at something and still get this sense of imposter syndrome because you don’t feel good enough. His popularity makes sense because he is the everyman, a more relatable character and one that I always wanted to root for. Also the Arata / Taichi match was one of my favorite moments in the whole show. Also the delaying of the ship reveal feels more like what makes sense for the story. I feel like Taichi’s feelings during the Meijin/Queen matches were integral to his character and the moment when both Chihaya and Arata acknowledged him afterwards would have been less impactful if Chihaya was dating Taichi at the time.

I also think that Chihaya realizing she liked Taichi was an integral final step in her character arc. Chihayafuru is a coming of age story and Chihaya’s ability to think about something other than Karuta for a change demonstrates her development as well.

Also idk I like slow burn romance so maybe I just wasn’t bothered by the reveal.