Chihayafuru

The new girl at school is HOT. And she's starting a Karuta club - it's a card game - sort of. She dresses and acts /weird/ though. "It's like a waste of hot," says one of the guys.

Chihaya Ayase is tired of track and field. She got too much unwanted attention at the meet, particularly from boys. She starts a Karuta club so that she can make friends. That's how she made her best friends in the past and she misses those days.

Thinking that way takes her back to a rainy day. She got stuck in a downpour with classmate, Arata. They went to his place to dry off, & he taught her to play Karuta. She knows now that it wasn't Karuta, it was his passion that impressed her. Along with Taichi, another classmate who went from foe to friend, they started going to the local club (run by Dr. Haruda) and joining competitions. Middle School took them in separate directions, however.

C is a 2011 release that is rated 8.18 on MAL. It is 3 seasons consisting of 75 22-minute English dubbed episodes. These directors have gotten around, while the manga writer only has this & its sequels as onscreen credits. S1 was 2011, S2 was 2013 and S3 was 2019. S4?? It could happen. Nothing has been announced yet. Chihayafuru is actually the name of one of the cards. Since it's so much like Chihaya's name, she considers it /her/ card. Chihaya caught the fever. Bad.

Back to the episode count: 75!!!! About Karuta?! There are shows that, at the outset, look like it's impossible to squeeze that many episodes out of the subject matter. Food Wars, for instance, has at least 75 episodes. After I started watching it, I realized that what they're serving up is fun. It's like a daily smile. Hunter × Hunter is a whopping 148 episodes. Did I say whopping? No! It's paltry! The author has barely scratched the surface! This writer must LUV Karuta, and love speaks volumes. It seems that once the show has its cards laid out & gets flowing, it only gets better. This isn't a binge-er for me. I watched 1 episode/day. In the beginning, truthfully, it felt like work. I know nothing of Karuta, the FL is borderline disturbed, and overall, it just seemed very... foreign. Initially, I was forcing myself to watch. Every time, when the end credits started to roll, my thoughts were: That went fast & it was /good/. At some point (late in S1/early in S2) I no longer dreaded my daily time with C, I looked forward to it like a snack. A good conversationalist can make any subject interesting, and a good writer can do the same thing. That's because good writers write about humans, human nature, and human interaction in a setting that they bring to life. 75 episodes about a card game? Heck, yeah. It's about HS, family, struggles, friendship, hardship, and love. It's about hard work, perseverance, teamwork, self discipline and improvement as well as the true nature of success.

The artwork is lovely. The anime has a signature eye style of rich detail and deep hues. Kunihiko HAMADA is the lead animator. He was involved in No Game, No Life (TV) which features unique colors and drawing. The acting and sound are excellent. (It's adorable in Anime when somebody moves to Tokyo from hickville they give h/h a Southern accent in the English dubbing). Overall, the music composed by Kousuke Yamashita & Hitomebore, by BAND HARASSMENT, are VG. One wouldn't think that an anime about a card game has a lot of action, but this one does. Karta is not a stoic game, it's active. The action-animation is brilliant, & the art budget clearly went up for S3. The opening and closing sequences are more beautiful than ever. All the art of Chihayafuru is gorgeous and is absolutely part of the appeal.

While the premise may not be what attracts people to the show, the character development is rich and detailed. That's one of the reasons that it works so well. The dialogue is smart. Even side characters have impressive depth, range, and complexity.

There's nothing complex about our FL's house. The only thing going on there is her sister's modeling career. Her parents hardly notice that Chihaya's there except to comment on what a wonderfully supportive sister she is. Looks: Our female lead is sneered upon because she's pretty. Chihaya is much more than a supportive sibling. For starters, she's the best recruiter EVER!!! She knocks 'em over with her technique. She is almost on the autism or aspergers scale: She loves the game that much. Karuta is how she connects with others; it is the only way that she can manage it. S2-ep1 provides more clarity about how very different these personalities are, and how they view the school, the club, and the future of Karuta. They also need new club members, so we'll see new characters. "Your family are the people that make things better just by being around you," one character says. As with many beloved features, this team forms a family, for most of them it's a closer one than any blood ties they have.

For the uninitiated, the level of detail and strategy is quite surprising. They have to narrate match after match after match, and they keep the viewer keeping score until the last card is read. Each Karuta card is a poem. (Karuta. Arata. Dr. Haruda. The show even rhymes). The reader selects the next card and recites its poem to the room. The first player to identify the correct card & knock it away from the layout wins the round. The goal is to knock away all one's cards. Go ahead and beat your opponent to one of their cards. If you knock it away first, you get to give them one of your cards. It gets pretty rowdy. We see slam-Karuta before the end. Players must have quick reflexes, good memories, and great ears. One player sends a card flying based on mere process of elimination, good guessing, and the way the reader drew in her breath for the first syllable. It gets that into the weeds.

Chihaya hadn't thought much about the poems and what they mean until they got a new team member with an old soul, Kaede. The episode where she starts learning about the poems is wonderful. Once Chihaya learns the poems, each card is more memorable. She says it's like they have colors now. The Chihayafuru card is a poem about a love that burns the deepest red. Nice touch.

This isn't a comedy, but it contains plenty of smiles, a few chuckles, and even more eye-rolling chuckles, thanks to our obsessive FL. Each season has a throwaway "fun" episode. They involve interviews, flashbacks, or maybe a mock poll. One of them is about which girl they would want to date. Tai Chi gets a little bit of an attitude because the other guys chose Kaede. They point out that the only thing that they'd be able to do on a date with Chihaya is play Karata. A LOL moment in S2 is when they have to face off with a team of foreigners in a competition. They're so taken aback that they can't even function, at first. It's surprising to see foreigners play a traditional Japanese game! They don't have any idea how good this foreign team will be, and they work themselves up and out of sorts. One of the foreigners happens to be a lovely milk chocolate color with the speed and grace to match. When he swipes a card out from under one player's fingertips, that team member practically breaks out in tears of despair. As for Chihaya, when she sees that Karuta has gone international, she breaks into tears.

I love the scene in which Arata is battling jealousy and thinking about Taichi. He realizes: "Maybe I've just always looked down on Taichi in Karuta... looked down on my own friend... the anime goes to scratchy b&w, then mostly black art. It's easy to become a legend in our own minds. Some of us look down on others, even those we love, without realizing it. They feel it, though.

They show a disconnect between what one of the competitors actually thinks and what her fans project onto her. If they knew the real her they wouldn't like her as much. The objects of our affection might be partially fictitious constructions of our own minds and based on what we've projected onto them, not what they really are. Take a red pill: No human is worthy of worship. Admiration - sure - but keep it in check.

We see personal journeys and a team journey. In S2 they are told "The team round is an individual round; the individual round is a team round." In a team round, believe in your teammates and play your own game! In an individual round, you lift your team with your play. A retired player tries to make a comeback: "...every time I lost, I thought: I can be even better next time... By losing, you can change. You can become stronger."

Love grows and becomes increasingly important as the episodes are dealt. Poor Taichi. Mom did a whammo on him. By S3 it is a main focus, as well as showing how several players try to balance family, love, and friendship while maintaining a high level of play. Taichi likes a girl like mom - competitive, intense, driven... Chihaya may find Taichi's mother intimidating, but they have alot in common. Both are ruthlessly focused and competitive. Neither has much understanding of human emotion. Mom is cold, while Chihaya is oblivious. They slowly build the romance. By S3 it feels more pressurized... though Chihaya is painfully stunted and in-the-dark as to her own feelings, let alone anyone else's. In a S4, will we finally see some lovey-dovey? Maybe by episode 💯 we'll see some hand holding... But maybe, just maybe, Taichi will make an even bolder move. Let's keep this game afoot!

QUOTE📢

Impolite guys aren't scary. They'll always get careless, but people who behave politely are much more difficult to deal with. A show of respect is also a show of fear.

〰🖍 IMHO

🎬83 📝83 🎭 83 💓65 🦋65 🌞75 🎨83 ⚡66 🎵/🔊71 😅35 😭25 😱0 😯35 🤢0 🤔65 💤15 🔚?

Age 13+ it's mostly clean. There's 1 f💣 in the dubbing that's translated "freaking" in the captioning. Other teams may make comments about a girl's breast size.

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.

This show makes me feel things that no other show does. There is a level of wholesomeness that will have you smiling from ear to ear nearly every episode. The accompanying score is fantastic and meshes very well with the tone of the show. The main characters each have distinct, lovable personalities that make you root for each of them in their own ways. The romance plot and subplots are wonderfully orchestrated to that middle ground of not-too-cheesy, not-too-bland. This show will make you fall in love with the characters and feel that you're truly invested in their stories. I would label this a must-watch for all fans of anime, even if slice of life isn't your thing. You just may be surprised with how much you get drawn into this show.

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.

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.