Chihayafuru

Great, traditional and compelling story. Good animation and voice acting. Addictive to watch. Raises the bar for anime, which is badly needed. It's not loaded with the usual annoying anime cliches. It reminds me of the works of Hayao Miyazaki; simple yet brilliantly done.

Who would have thought that one of the most engrossing recent anime titles would have been a josei (for women) series about high school students playing an obscure Japanese card game that would be a challenge to play even if you spoke fluent Japanese? I certainly didn't; I initially watched the opening episode out of curiosity but was soon engrossed. The opening episodes are shown in flashback and show us how protagonist Chihaya Ayase gets interested in the game of Competitive Karuta*; we then see her struggling to recruit enough members to form a club when she starts high school. As the series progresses the members improve at the game and learn their strengths and weaknesses as they practise and take part in various tournaments. The series ended after twenty five episodes however it was open ended with several plot threads still open; I for one would love to hear that there will be more episodes one day although at the moment I have no reason to think there will be.

This was a surprisingly engrossing series and each week I looked forward to the next episode becoming available. The series is animated in such a way that the games are exciting to watch and it doesn't matter if the viewer has no knowledge of the game as it the characters' passion for it that is so engrossing. Each member of the team is distinctive both in looks and character with each playing for different reasons. The character designs and animation were both pleasant to look at and their voices sounded right although, not speaking Japanese, I had to rely on the subtitles to understand what they were saying.

* I haven't attempted to describe the rules of the game; if you want to know more look up 'Competitive Karuta' on Wikipedia.

There's something about this anime- every episode brings a new set of emotions. There are times when I find myself smiling for no reason (it has a warmth and innocence to it that just makes me happy). There are times when I'm yelling out at the characters- I'm that engrossed in the storyline! It's just a beautiful story that brings you deep into the psyche of each character- you feel their joys, sadness, stress and mental anguish as they try to win this insanely difficult game. Never have I been so engrossed in an anime about a game! I look forward to each episode.

I gotta admit that when I started watching Chihayafuru I had no idea what "karuta" even was. It did not really matter though because the show does a good job introducing you into the topic so you will always have a good idea what's going on. It accompanies the main characters over a period of several years, growing and developing their bonds while preparing from one tournament to the next. The competitive setting remains a focal point throughout the show, while the played matches and tournaments are of course very methaphoric in terms of what's happening between the people, their relationships and their lives. The 100 poems which are the baseline for the karuta games the characters compete in serve as a very powerful tool to put emphasis on thought processes, emotions and aspirations - which is used to a certain extent, but not overused to an extent where it becomes cheesy. Not easy to balance, but the show does a good job.

The cast is diverse, with each of the main characters having their unique quirks. The side characters differ a lot in terms of how fleshed out they are - some more than others - so that I remembered some but just as easily forgot about others very fast. The female lead as the air-headed goofball and part-time comic relief did a good job carrying most of the show and its story, although she remains painfully oblivious to the most important things happening around her. Although that might be one of her unique personality traits after all, who knows.

Either way, this is a great show (with three completed seasons to date of this review). Only season two seemed a bit stretched from time to time, with unnecessary flashbacks, review episodes and some obvious 'filling' material that could have been omitted. Fortunately season three focuses more on the show's strenghts and progresses the story in a meaningful pace.

Chihayafuru is captivating, you're cheering for the characters, it has a number of heart-warming moments. Certain episodes feel a little repetitive and dragged out, but eventually it is still a clear recommendation from my end. I enjoyed it so far and hope that once the manga is finished we will get at least one more season that will drive the story to a conclusion.

I didn't even knew about the existence of karuta before this anime and the anime did a fantastic job in introducing karuta. The anime got me hooked from beginning to end. This anime is so underrated that it's physically hurt, I have watched anime's like haikyu, slam dunk, Aaoshi and still chihayafuru remains on top.

I was dying to know who chihaya would end up with so I read the manga in just 2 days only and the manga didn't disappoint. The ending was brilliant, I loved it. It definitely deserves an anime adaptation, I would love to watch it.

I would highly recommend everyone to watch this anime and this is my first time writing a review because I was really shocked to see how brutally underrated this anime is.