CHIHAYAFURU

DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME DramaChihayafuru 2
MANGA DramaChihayafuru
MANGA DramaChihayafuru: Chuugakusei-hen
ONA Slice of LifeChiyuki no Fashion Check

REVIEWS

• 

  backstroke4gays

  100/100
  Why you should watch Chihayafuru: the sports anime for sports anime fans and non-fans alike

  Karuta (かるた) , a card game unheard of outside of Japan. Competitive Karuta, an even rarer version of Karuta, is unheard of even for many Japanese people. Chihayafuru, however, changed all of this. At its core, Chihayafuru is a series about a girl’s love for Competitive Karuta. Her love for Karuta inspires others to grow as she seeks to spread the joy Karuta brings on her journey to become the next Karuta “Queen”.

  Karuta?
  In 13th century Japan, Fujiwara no Teika commissioned and compiled a series of 100 poems by 100 different renowned poets. This anthology of 100 poems is known as the 百人一首 (Hyakunin Isshu) translated into English as “One Hundred Poems by 100 Poets”. Centuries later after the Portuguese introduce card games to Japan (Karuta comes from the Portuguese word for card “carta”), the poems were then printed onto playing cards. Karuta is frequently played by Japanese people on New Years for fun and is then quickly forgotten the next day. Japanese students in elementary and middle school learn about the hyakunin isshu in school akin to how many English speakers learn about Shakespeare in their literature classes.

  Competitive Karuta takes Karuta to the next level. Players must memorize all 100 poems if they want a chance to win. They lay their cards down on the floor where they then race to see who can recall the poem and pick up the corresponding card the fastest. Think of it like a mix of chess and karate. It’s highly intellectual: you need to be strategic with how you place your cards, you need to memorize the position of 50 cards that are frequently moving around. It’s athletic as well: to take a card you need to be faster than your opponent. You need to swipe, slap, and block to win. Audience members watch matches in silence, but don’t be fooled. The tensions are high between players as they strain to listen to the next sound in hopes of being even a millisecond faster. And just like that, the silence is broken as you hear a bunch of people slapping the floor fill the room. You’d better watch out for those flying cards. Playing Karuta is no easy feat.

  The Characters
  The cast of Chihayafuru are by far the highlight of the show. Chihayafuru spends a lot of time developing its characters, giving us reason to cheer for them, to cry for them, or to laugh with them. While the story follows the Karuta club of Mizusawa high school, the first few episodes are dedicated to the origins of our main trio: Chihaya, Arata, and Taichi. We see how Arata got Chihaya to play a round of Karuta, who in turn got Taichi to play Karuta. Karuta actually ties the 3 together and lets them bond even when they eventually separate. Chihaya’s first match with Arata is one she replays in her head years later. Her unbridled passion for Karuta stems from that very first match.

  Years later we see that passion return, stronger than ever before, as Chihaya tries to create a Karuta club at her high school. As she tries to recruit new members to the club, we see how these new members tick. Kana-chan is a lover of all traditional Japanese things, especially traditional clothing. Her vast knowledge on Japanese poetry gives her a good reason to switch to the Karuta club. Karuta scratches that itch she couldn’t get from any other club. Tsutomu is competing with Taichi for the best grades in school. He always seems to get 2nd place but figures that joining the club will help with his studies to give him that edge over Taichi.

  The 2 new recruits show us how personal of a game Karuta is. Their playing style directly reflects their personalities. Kana-chan comes not only having memorized all 100 poems in their entirety, but their histories as well. This lets her separate tricky, similar sounding cards which gives her a slight edge over everyone else. She can easily imagine the poetry in her head which lets her visualize the cards even better. She knows what cards are in play and what cards have been called by connecting the poems to their authors. For Kana-chan, each poem is unique and special and all the cards should be treated as such. Tsutomu on the other hand, is incredibly studious. The memorization aspect of Karuta which helps further his studies is a plus for him. He also loves to analyze and analyzing is his biggest weapon. Analyzing his opponents gives him the edge: he knows how his opponents play. He knows their strengths and weaknesses, he knows their secret tricks which lets him adjust his playing style accordingly.

  Characters and Karuta matches
  While we could talk forever about the characters in Chihayafuru, another strong point is using the matches to develop character. Chihayafuru does a great job at giving all its opponents a personality and unique playing style. We see men and women play each other, we see old and young people play against each other. This further attests to the accessibility of Karuta and its uniqueness that separates it from other sports. Intellect means nothing if you don’t move fast enough and speed means nothing if you can’t come up with a plan. We see a plethora of playing styles: aggressive, speedy, reserved, cunning, sadistic, methodical, unfaltering, and even psychic-like styles. We learn more about our own protagonists through what they learn in matches. As Chihaya plays against tough opponents, she learns new aspects of Karuta she never considered, which in turn, deepens her love for the game. As Tsutomu gains more experience, we slowly see him develop into a player with potential. As someone who once felt worthless, he soon realizes what it means to be on a team.

  Losing
  Losing is normal for Chihayafuru. They lose a lot actually. Even Chihaya, the team’s ace with the potential to become the next Karuta Queen, loses fairly frequently. While many sports anime find crazy ways to show how it’s possible to overcome any obstacle, Chihayafuru shows us the (depressing) reality that you can’t always win. You can’t always just overpower your way to victory in Karuta and in life. There will be times when you lose and there is always someone better than you. There are times when you get injured and you can’t do anything about it other than sit by and watch. All of our characters have to cope with loss at some point in the series and their losses are pivotal moments for their development. Mistakes are deadly in Karuta and can cost the entire match. It’s invigorating to watch our cast pick themselves back up and use that as constant motivation to improve.

  Animation and Music
  I have nothing special to add to this section. The animation is nice and consistent. The Karuta matches are animated amazingly and it really adds life to the matches compared to manga panels. The intro is really great and so is the ending. I’m a fan of the little motif (the five notes) they play when something good is gonna happen. (Kind of like Giorno’s theme, once you hear it play you know its over for the other person). The music is perfectly utilized and adds the right atmosphere to every scene whether it be tense or fun.

  Overall Thoughts
  Chihayafuru hasn’t gained much traction outside of Japan. It’s understandable seeing that Karuta is a complex game especially for those who don’t speak Japanese. I’m glad that I gave Chihayafuru a chance because it has become one of my favorite animes. For me, it combines the best aspects of Haikyuu with Sangatsu no Lion, hence why I called it the sports anime for sports anime fans and non-fans alike. The balance Chihayafuru achieves between the 2 is amazing and I believe this makes it an anime anyone can watch. Not only are the matches exciting and make you want to binge watch to see who wins, Karuta is an important aspect of Japanese culture and is simply fascinating to learn about. I have no complaints.

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• 

  Wilza

  76/100
  Sports Anime Done Right

  This review is spoiler free.

  ---

  The challenge of any sport anime, or TV show or film for that matter, is getting the viewer invested in the game. It’s easy for a basketball show to grab a basketball fan, but it can quickly fall apart when you’re trying to attract a wider audience than just those who know basketball inside and out. Well, Chihayafuru is about karuta.

  I’d never heard of karuta, and I’d presume the same would apply many of my fellow gaijin. It’s an odd game, a poetry and card based mix of memory, strategy and speed. And it looks bloody hard. But strange enough, Chihayafuru uses this obscurity to its advantage. By assuming a low baseline of knowledge, it can go pretty far into explaining the game without it being tiresome. The show does a really good job of on-boarding the viewers onto the game itself. After just a few episodes, one could feasibly start learning the game themselves.

  Next, then, is getting the viewers to care. And Chihayafuru really draws the viewer into karuta through a total assault on every angle one could possible be interested in the game.

  As each character plays for their own reason, you, as a viewer, can find yourself caught up in any of the plights they have. Whether it’s the desire to be the best at something, the love for the poetry, the desire to push yourself, the strategy, the beauty and formality, or the action. It’s all there for you, and it becomes impossible to not root for our players in every one of their games.

  Behind the game is a story about obsession, finding friendship and growing up. Karuta serves as a beautiful lens for this story about how people deal with the world before them. We see what draws our protagonist, Chihaya, to her passion and what keeps her going after every stumble. Every game is more important because we know that for Chihaya karuta means more than just victory.

  The production is delightfully done. The animation is beautiful, particularly so in the matches as the visual storytelling builds upon the drama of each individual game. The stakes feel so high and a big part of this is in how we see what’s going on. Seeing cards fly across the room and players leap up to chase after them. Watching the sweat drip from their brow and land before them come the nth hour of the tournament. Seeing a players perspective change as the tide of game turns in or out of their favour. And, damn, the first time the card lands in the wall…

  The soundtrack, likewise, is great. That main motif is always so uplifting. It might be a tad cliche of the genre, but the inspiring music as a character reaches their own personal movement of inspiration is a worthy staple of sports shows.

  As the first of three series, the story of Chihayafuru is far from complete. But this first entry makes a compelling start and sets up some really loveable characters. The battle has only just begun, but I am damn ready to see them keep fighting!

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• 

  flavortown

  85/100
  Incredibly funny, heartwarming, and educational to boot.

  This review contains spoilers!

  I will probably never play One Hundred Poets karuta in my life, but it's enriching just to scratch the surface of its rich cultural background and present-day strategy through the wonderful cast of Chihayafuru. Chihayafuru is a story of that culture, but it's also a story of passion, a story of love and grief, and a story of goofy t-shirts.

  

  The game itself was completely foreign to me when I started watching, but the show does an excellent job of introducing and explaining karuta from the rules to the poetry itself. If you're big on literary history or played Fate/Grand Order in the last year, you'll be met with a few familiar names like Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shounagon and be treated to translations and analyses of their poetry through Kanade.

  

  The rules, on the other hand, are explained as we follow along with Chihaya learning the game. In middle school, Chihaya lives in the shadow of her older sister with no greater ambition than to support her modeling career. After playing a karuta match with Arata and bonding with him and Taichi, she finds herself with a natural talent and a growing love for karuta that persists long after Taichi moves on and Arata moves away. Dragging Taichi back into the world of karuta, she starts a school club in the hopes of meeting Arata again at a competition.

  It's through the karuta club that Chihaya brings the cast together, literally. Her optimism is infectious and her antics are enough to let every other member of the team play the straight man. Beyond that, they each have a remarkable amount of depth that comes naturally over the course of the season; Kanade tries to balance her love for the cultural aspects of karuta with the competitive aspect, Tsutomu finds fulfilment in karuta as a novice, and Nishida acts as another rival and a foil for Taichi's natural talent. It's heartwarming to see how the new team members' interactions with each other change over the season, especially when taken with how comfortable Chihaya and Taichi already are with each other.

  They're close, everyone knows they're close, and Taichi struggles with wishing they were even closer. Their friendship is shown throughout the season through their body language and interactions besides it being the driving force of their karuta club. Taichi's affection as well as his hesitation to take their relationship further is shown in contrast through extended, quiet shots and offhand remarks, making it believable enough that Chihaya hasn't noticed amidst everything else going on.

  

  In the meantime, Arata struggles with the loss of his grandfather and karuta mentor, swearing off the sport entirely from the guilt of leaving him alone when he suffered a fatal stroke. The presentation of his dementia and moment of lucidity was almost entirely too vivid for me to keep watching, but it's that kind of heartache that makes the lighthearted and celebratory moments that much more appreciable. It's hard to call this my favourite part of the series, but it's one I wasn't prepared for that impressed me completely.

  On the whole, Chihayafuru is incredibly funny, heartwarming, and educational to boot. If you're still on the fence and especially if you're completely baffled by the concept of karuta, slap away your doubts and watch it.

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