Taichi Mashima

Taichi Mashima is one of the main characters from the Chihayafuru anime and manga.

Taichi is an all-around student, as he is gifted in both studies and sports. He is one of Chihaya Ayase's childhood friends. His mother is very strict with him, telling him he should stick to activities he can win at. He is part of the Shiranami Karuta Society and is the former president of the Mizusawa Karuta Club.

Appearance
Taichi is a handsome and attrative young man (that he is popular with the girls) with messy light brown hair and hazel eyes. He wears his school uniform which is a simple white button up shirt, a plaid tie, a brown jacket with the school crest, a black belt, grey dress pants and brown school shoes. When Taichi was younger, his hair was shorter and neater.

When he is serious playing karuta, just like Arata Wataya with his 'water' aura and assumable Chihaya Ayase with her 'fire' aura, Taichi got the 'wind' aura when he's calmly and yet seriously playing karuta.

As part of his preparations for the Meijin/Queen qualifier finals, he had his hair cut short again, to the same length he had as a boy.

Personality
Taichi is a smart, hard-working and athletic guy who was cocky at times but he was also a bit of a coward during his younger years. His mother has only allowed him to enter in competitions that he can win at. If he loses, he will be scolded by her, but despite this fact he is easy-going and fairly modest.

However, Taichi is somewhat easily disheartened: he considers giving up karuta early on in the series after becoming convinced that he could spend his entire life on the game without ever becoming better than Arata Wataya. His confidence builds, however, with his continued participation in the world of karuta, and it is shown that it is his own perception of his skill in karuta that is holding him back.

Taichi's maturity and loyalty are valuable assets to his friends, and he is adept - after a few initial stumbles - at saying to his teammates exactly what they need to hear in moments of stress. He is the "voice of reason" in whatever group he is in, and a wise and kind leader who is not averse to doling out some tough love (particularly with respect to Chihaya Ayase).

His memory is also remarkable: he can recite the Hyakunin Isshu without visual aid, and randomize verses without doubling up. He even showed he can match cards without having to see them once he's memorized their positions.

Despite being all said and done, everything he had gained was purely because of his skill, not because of his luck - more like he is not lucky in anything. Throughout the series, there are a few times where it is stated about Taichi's bad luck. Also because of this, he has had a hard time winning in luck-of-the-draw.

Karuta Style
Taichi's initial style of karuta is all brain, with little body. He makes great use of his mind in karuta matches, reasoning out probabilities and strategies completely in his head, and takes great pride in the fact that he makes few, if any, faults. He considers practicing his swing in front of others "embarrassing", which disadvantages him in the more physical aspect of karuta.

However, spurred on by his desire to compete on par with Arata and Chihaya, he vastly improves in the later part of the manga. He has been called a "monster" once he has self-confidence (by Sakurazawa-sensei, coach of Fujisaki High), and it has been noted by Hiro that Taichi becomes stronger when Chihaya is not around (Chapter 94).

Notably, when he managed to get to final of his very first Class-A official tournament beating Sudou in the top 8 and Murao in the top 4. He lost to Chihaya in final match but all that witness the match admit that both Chihaya and Taichi are both had proven to be great karuta players. *note that chihaya took a break in top 4 because her opponent forfeit the match, while taichi need to beat Murao for the final spot*. Harada-sensei who watched the match carefully said Taichi is more suited to play defensive style karuta instead of offensive style karuta which Chihaya and Harada-sensei specialized in. Also noted how good is Taichi when he played against Chihaya with an arrangement which is different from his normal one.

In chapter 150, Taichi (who had quit the school karuta club) was seen to be playing a lot of matches against Meijin Suou. Also, there's a rumor about how Taichi can hear Suou's quiet and gentle voice loud and clear, showing that he has better and sharper hearing now.

Techniques & Talents

 * Perfect Memorization - As the name implies, it's the perfect memorization of all the cards' positions, the cards that have been read, and those that haven't been read yet. Other karuta players may have this skill, but their memory is still not as perfect as Taichi's, considering Taichi's memorization is 100% while the others' only up to 80-90%. However, due to this skill, Taichi tends to make silly mistakes since he can still remember the arrangement of his previous matches. Another application to this skill of his is that he can use any other card arrangement and still fight normally. Other players can't memorize as well as Taichi so they tend to use a fixed card arrangement and let their body remember where the cards in that arrangement are. They would commit lots of faults if they used other arrangements, unlike Taichi.
 * Cross-Sweeping Move Neutralizer - So far, Taichi has only used this move once against Arata. Obviously, this move was created purposely to negate Arata's fast sweeping technique. This move uses covering and sweeping, in which Taichi would first cover the card that would be read; therefore 'kill' the opponent's speed and momentum, making him hesitate for a while; then sweep the correct card.
 * Katana Slash Backswing - This is actually Sudo's specialty in which the player would go for the opponent's field. Depending on which card that would be read, the player can either go ahead and attack the card or go back to touch the correct card on player side. This is different from normal kinds of backswings because the player need to be slightly away from the side of his hand. As in Taichi case, it would be his right side. By doing so, the player can attack the opponent field and if the correct card is in his side of the field, he can make his hand into a knife-like shape and use a backswing to defend the card. By distancing himself from the his defending side, he can touch the card comfortably and by making his hand into a more streamlined stance, reduce the air resistance and make the backswing faster.
 * Counter Data Analysis - Using the data he or Tsutomu collected from his opponent, he would then analyze and think of a way to counter his opponent's play. Taichi used this against Chihaya in the Yoshino Society Class A match where he used a different card arrangement from what he usually used. It proved to be working well although he lost to Chihaya in that match with just a 2 cards difference with an exhausted condition. In that match, many can see that a lot of mind tricks involved. He also made and used the sweeping move canceler against Arata, who is known for his fast sweeping ability.
 * Peculiar Defense - A copy from Emuro's specialty. This technique is used to defense a card even if the swing is delayed or slower. Taichi used this technique against Murao in Yoshino Society Tournament's semi-final. This move is used to sweep cards out of the field. The difference between sweeping move and this move is sweeping move used whole hand to sweep a bunch of cards out, but this move only used 1 finger to sweep the correct card and send it out. The difference would be sweeping bunch of cards will consume more time but sweep just 1 particular card with just 1 finger will reduce the time taken to sweep the card.
 * Enhanced Hearing - This refers to the recent chapter of 150 where Taichi managed to hear Suo's quiet voice which is hardly heard by other people with normal hearing sense.

Trivia

 * The name Taichi means "thick, big" (ta) and "one" (ichi).
 * Taichi's surname Mashima means "real, genuine" (ma) and "island" (shima).
 * Taichi is good at all subjects.
 * When Taichi was 13, he was jealous of Arata Wataya because Chihaya Ayase was bonding with him.
 * Taichi made flash cards to help him memorize the 100 poems.
 * Taichi has recited the 100 poems in random order during a practice karuta match as the reader for it.
 * Rika Mashima once asked him if he was a narcissist.
 * Taichi somewhat dreams of becoming a doctor one day, but isn't sure yet.
 * Taichi is more focused on being someone who doesn't run away rather than being in class A.
 * Taichi once thought that karuta is scary while watching Chihaya play against Yumi Yamamoto, an ex-queen.
 * Taichi put Arata in charge of taking care of Chihaya after she fainted in episode 13.
 * Hideo Harada calls him "eyelashes" (matsuge-kun) because of his long eyelashes, though the English subtitles always seem to mistake this for "eyebrows".
 * Many girls in the anime think Taichi is cute, even Rieko Oe (Kanade Oe's mother).
 * Taichi's favorite poem from the Hyakkunin Isshu is Poem #16: "Note that though we may be apart, if I am to hear that you pine for me as the Inaba mountain pines, I shall return to you. "
 * In chapter 119, he lied about Chihaya being his girlfriend to Suo (the Meijin), but told him the truth in chapter 122.
 * In the light novel 1, it is stated that Taichi quit karuta after winning a class C tournament and advancing to class B and beat Chihaya in a luck of the draw in the previous match, thus somewhat messed of some of his statements in the manga and the anime that he'd never once won against Chihaya properly in a match before.
 * Taichi won second place in his first official class A tournament, and note that he's had class A skill approximately one year before actually being class A (by placing second in two class B tournaments).
 * Taichi's age is officially 18 years as of Chapter 193.