There is much amazement online at the news that the first female shogi player to score a victory at a cup tournament actually learnt the game after reading about it in Naruto.
Karolina Styczynska, a 20-year-old Polish student, was invited to participate in the 2nd Ricoh shogi cup in Tokyo as a guest competitor in the women’s group, and won her first match against a 41-year-old female professional player, becoming in the process the first female non-Japanese to beat a Japanese player in a formal competition.
Her second match against another 32-year-old female veteran resulted in a loss, but the Japanese media had already caught her scent and soon she was projected to (very) minor celebrity status.
Contributing to her status as human interest story of the day was the unprecedented means by which she came to the sport – she read about it in Naruto.
According to the Japan Shogi Association, her interest in the game was sparked when she was reading a scene in a Polish language translation of the Naruto manga in which a character beats their sensei at the game (this would presumably refer to Shikamaru playing his father) – after this she learned the game online and later started to compete.
Naruto fans have much the same reputation in Japan as elsewhere – not that its inexplicably much less criticised competitor One Piece has so far produced any champions or sparked much interest in traditional Japanese culture – but that only seems to have increased the size of her nascent fan club on 2ch:
“Naruto! Now this was unexpected!”
“Naruto… seriously?”
“Nobody could have predicted this move. No wonder she’s good.”
“It was Shikamaru’s shogi games with his old man, by the looks of it. Amazing that such a minor scene caught her interest and prompted her to master the game!”
“A single scene in Naruto and she became this good!”
“Wait, Naruto’s a shogi manga?”
“I don’t even remember a shogi scene in Naruto.”
“She even looks smart.”
“Right, even her expression exudes acuity.”
“She would look gorgeous if properly made up. Her face is perfectly sculpted.”
“She’s cool. And it’s great that she took an interest in shogi of all things.”
“For her to reach that rank in only 4 years of play is really impressive.”
“She’s at the pro-level in only 4 years, and a foreigner too – definitely impressive.”
“Well, it’s similar to chess. Even for a westerner it’s not that hard a game, I imagine.”
“She must have been interested in chess before, too.”
“Kind of exciting news!”
“I bet her opponent just threw the match to make for an interesting story…”
“Her face certainly is that of a manga-loving foreign girl, but that is a good thing!”
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"Caroline" - english
"Karolina" - polish
Let's write Carolina then.
North or south ?
They are both equally filthy.
I tnought it was harry potter in disguise...
Some flat chest can be cute. This is just sad.. (My love of glasses just went down a bit)
I'd still hit that. Could be much worse imo so I don't see why you'd flip at the face. Even holding her self differently could change views of her. (not to mention have you seen some people after even a couple of years. They look like they first hit every ugly branch on the way down and then they look like god touched their face and was like...begone ugly!)
her full name is Karolina Styczynska
Karolina Styczyńska. In Poland we have specyfical letter " ń ".
"Nothing could be finah than to be in Carolina..."
Probably should be Karolinah for a good Japanese transliteration.
As far as her looks: typical geek-girl. Just like geek-guy: they look a lot better when they've cleaned-up/made-up to wider social norms.
You forgot that the rest of the north does use Karolina too. But yea, it's retarded.
is that a tranny? 'her' features are so fucking manly
What shocked me was that she's 20 yrs old
Japan loves androgynous individuals. I can see her gaining cult status like other recent gaijin.
What shocked me was that it looks like a dude.
ikr? her face don't match with the age. maybe the naruto factor has something to do with it
what's amusing is you guys constantly whine about what shallow bitches women are, and just what is it exactly you are doing?
i could almost put money on the fact that that is a man.....
Girl. Shogi. Man. Glasses.
...Wait doesn't she kinda remind you of a character in Shion no Ou?
Shion no Ou..............
Good show..
triti
Uh, no.
true that, in that last pic, 'she' looks like Freddy
its the large jawline. She kinda looks like daniel radcliff actually (harry potter)
oh no wait... IT IS daniel radcliffe!!
so he wasn't drowning in alcohol this whole time.... just reading naruto and playing shogi
Exactly what I was thinking...
09:31, I'm sure you're a paragon of attractiveness, aren't you?
Fuckhead.
@ 09:31
As he sits stuffing more Cheese Doodles into his fat zit encrusted face.
my thought exactly!
But he looks feminine.
Oh god, can't unsee.
It's Ashton Kutcher without the photoshop and editing. =)
And I'm sure you're a perfect example of what "male" should be, right?
Fuckhead.
No matter how you look at it, that person is clearly a dude. Those filthy foreigners sure love to cross-dress and get obese.
Stop looking at anime characters and try real women, some of them do look like this. Actually, she's kinda cute. If you weren't a latent homosexual, you would have noticed.
hah!! cute?! you mean handsome right?
what are you talking about? According to the 2ch fans her face is perfectly sculpted.
wasn't that "One" person who said that?
She is man. he has Adam's apple and he has no boobs
You do know the adams apple is a natural part of the human body. Even girls have one even if it doesn't stick out as much USUALLY.
Yep, I would not say a girl won that match.
I swear I have a (male) friend that haves the same face as that chick. I believe he likes Naruto too...
If she was hot those Japs would be all over this
...And so would you!
Looks worse than a bad drag queen. I think they should have done some dna testing on this 'woman' prior to allowing 'her' to compete.
No need to be so mean, seeing as she reads manga and was so interested in shogi just from one scene, i wouldn't be surprised if she was visited this site not and then. She will probably also do a google search on articals about her and stumble upon this den of criticizing morons
Women is the first female foreign player to ever win against a professional in a tournament; Sankaku spends the most comments insulting how she looks.
Yep, business as usual.
Are you an asshole? Oh, wait, the answers aren't the same there - she's not, and you are.
Hey now, not all women who excel at something have perfect looks. Women who does something good and looks good too are only the stuff of fiction.
Just look at all the shows that feature psychics supposedly helping the police in real life cases. They are ALL. OBESE.
You really think people who are smart and look good are only found in fiction...?
Have you been living under a rock?
Well, her ability to take care of her look, makeup, clothes, especially clothes are close to nonexistent. Clearly she also lacks ability to pose for picture.
One can't be expected to be skilled in everything, but if you ask me, there's A LOT of place for improvement.
Give me her, some funds and a few hours, maybe I won't make her into Cameron Diaz, but you'd surely be like "would hit"
She's not an 'idol' or a cosplayer. She came to play. Just like you came to make an idiot remark.
I'd do her. We can't be choosy. Many of us here aren't paragons of beautiful manliness.
It's a tournament, not a photoshoot. I'm pretty sure a photo-op was one of the last things on her mind.