Traditionally, ladies would play it in a calm and dignified manner.  That's why Kana-chan, who loves traditional Japanese culture, was horrified at the competitive version.

Many of the poems start with the same syllables or words. As soon as there is a syllable or word that differentiates the poem, the players strike.  Often, the point is over with the first or second word.  There are those like Chihaya who have incredible hearing and can differentiate the slightest sounds--kind of like being able to tell the Th-sound in "this" from the Th-sound in "that".  Chihaya also has an obsessive personality where she dedicates all the attention and focus on one thing at a time.  I've seen people suggest that she's autistic.

Many players don't even know the poems, only the first several words or first sentence.  Others, like Kana-chan, know all the poems by heart.  

Besides "gifted" players like Chihaya, there are those like Taichi, who are good because they're smart and work hard at the fundamentals, like remembering where each and every card is placed, which poems have already been read, and the weaknesses of their opponent.  Top level professionals can keep a lot of stuff in their head at once.

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The two blondes in Harukana Receive are twins, just with different personalities.  Kind of funny that the other girl's sports anime this season (Hanebado) also has a blonde foreigner as a key character.

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Regarding the poll, I think it's highly subjective.  Original anime like Shirobako are designed to fit perfectly into their alloted production run but sometimes anime adapted from manga just doesn't line up very well.  Sometimes it has to be rushed and cut down, other times it has to be stretched out.

Double cour at the very least and multi-season ideally.

@poll

As long as is justified I don't mind the lenght much of a show that interests me, tho I do prefer them to be short, since that in an ideal world would mean a tighter and less fillery story.

Adding to the fact that twice now I have been traumatized by second seasons of shows I really liked crashing and burning.

Also what's your favorite Mao picture?

I prefer multi seasonal. I use to like endless but got tired of fillers and bad animation.

Ugh don't remind me i'm getting reminded of Darker than Black and Terra Formars .

Speaking of second seasons, Land of the Lustrous definitely has more story to tell.  The manga is freaking amazing and totally unpredictable.  There have been so many changes since the point where the anime ended, it's just mesmerising how the plot unfolds itself.  The first season was easily one of the best anime of the last few years and it's funny to think that it ended before things got really crazy.

Reminds me of a certain Claymore.

This is pretty cool! Just played around it with a bit and it seems like a neat idea.

Not sure how I can win at it yet though...maybe I'm just not creative enough to think of a use for it.

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The new Attack on TItan OP might feel out of place, but that ED is pretty great. Seems like I spoke too soon about Historia's backstory...next episode should be good. I hope.

Holmes in Kyoto was the anime I was closest to dropping, but after last episode I decided I'll keep up with it. I'm a sucker for an anime with a cute ship, and this one is checking all the boxes. Well, maybe not the blonde one but whatcha gonna do. The animation is a bit subpar but I like the Holmes/Watson chemistry. Seems like it'll introduce an actual villain though...hope this isn't too stupid.

AoT would be cool if I hadn't already forgotten what happened in the last season.