Sweet Victory

In most stories, they usually follow a structured way of laying out the flow of events that leads to its conclusion. It always feels good to see a character reach the goal he or she has been working toward, for the length of the series, but because that goal has been reacted, it still spells the end of the series. Not to get too into series ending, what I want to focus more on is that victory, and why it feels so great to see characters finally take that step into completing what they set out to do.

In Chihayafuru 2, Mizusawa had won the championship for team matches in high school karuta. For those who have followed the series since season one, this is pretty exciting -- especially after the tension expressed in the last few episodes, before Mizusawa victory. However, for people that haven't watched or even dropped the series, it is of no importance and that comes as a surprise to no one.

But why so much excitement over something that can be seen as unimportant very easily? It can be answered a simply as, it is what people find interesting, and choose to react on these small -- yet important -- events. Fortunately, I like to go into these issues in a bit more detail than that, and first reason I want to touch on, is investment to the series.

Overall Investment

As I stated previously, Chihayafuru is in its second season, and as such, there isn't much else to introduce -- because we already have something establish, from the previous season. We know the characters well enough and the history of Mizusawa's Karuta Club. So there isn't much needed to kick start the series, and we can jump right where the series left off and if the series had a decent story and character -- which is something Chihayafuru quite clearly has -- it make the time invested in this series worthwhile.

Investing in anything, can have it's own effects, but most likely people will grow emotionally attach to the series and the characters, making these kind of big victories worth the wait. With the full journey and the many struggles laid out for each character, these highs and lows are felt even more so, because of what the viewer has experience before the characters have even reached their goals.

Through the Struggle

One anime that you can clearly see the beautiful battle fought all the way to their goal, is the mangaka duo Moritaka and Akito from Bakuman. From middle school, all the way past college, both mangaka have had many successful, and failing series they created for the both experience, as well as, for their goal of getting an anime adoption of one of their manga. Even if the ending itself is predictable, the journey was well worth the watch, making the ending that much more satisfying.

Struggle is probably the main reason people find victories, reacting a goal, accomplishing a dream, etc. so pleasing to watch and of course, want to experience for themselves. If it was so easy, there wouldn't be much joy taken from it, and would essentially be worthless.

So Sweet

Whether it is through a sport or it is just some goal you want to see if you can reach it, victory is exciting and worth the work you put into it. Also anime wise, these kinds of events really do show how well put together an anime series is. If you have something that is long running, like Bakuman or Chihayafuru, and continues to be entertaining -- as well as getting the viewer excited for the characters conquests -- it is a good sign of a good series. And that is what is so sweet about victories, despite some might not finding important to them. It might not matter to them, but it is still something great to have in pretty much anything.