Chihayafuru

Chihiyafuru is a josei comedy-drama series focused around a high school girl named Chihiya and her interest in the Japanese card game of karuta as she assembles her own school club devoted to the game and competes in a number of competitions with them. Much like Hikaru no Go did for the Chinese game of Go, Chihiyafuru boosted the popularity of competitive karuta games immensely when the anime aired back in 2011. The series takes its time to explore how Chihiya became acquainted with the game of karuta as the first few episodes of the series are devoted to how she befriended Arata and took ... interest in the game. Several more episodes in the series are used to introduce additional members to Chihiya's newly formed school karuta club, each of whom either being experienced or newcomers to the game. The series shows the gradual developments of the karuta club through their competitions as they learn to improve their skill in the game and get introduced to a number of other karuta players who also get their fleshing out. A plus that I would give Chihiyafuru over Hikaru no Go is that the game of karuta is more accessible for viewers than Go as the game is more focused around memorization and reactions compared to Go's focus being on strategy and tactics, thus making it an easier game for newcomers to adapt to.

I do have a number of issues with this series. Chihiyafuru has a tendency to milk melodrama at a number of points in its run during tense moments in the competitions that Chihiya and her club go through. While such exaggerated emotions may seem appropriate during losses and setbacks experienced by the characters, it does get overblown when milked during the middle of a game and less tense points of the title's story.

Also, my thoughts of Chihiya as the title's lead character are rather underwhelming. While her strong devotion to karuta is an admirable trait, her single-mindedness towards the game borders on obnoxious and there wasn't much else that stuck out for me with her character. Her character didn't seem to grow or develop at all throughout the course of Chihiyafuru as she is still the same energetic and naive tomboy that viewers are introduced to at the start of the series. Compared to the titular male lead of Hikaru no Go whose character gradually matured and his skills in his game of interest improved, I have to question why I should care for Chihiya as a lead character in this series as I cared more for her teammates in the karuta club than I did for her.

While not prominently focused on, there were a few points in the series where I found myself questioning the parenting of some of the families for major characters in the series, most notable instance being the neglect Chihiya received from her family as they are more fixated on her older sister's modeling career. In addition, the series ends just as Chihiya's second year in high school starts up and the series continues onward into its second season the following year.

Overall, I would say my thoughts on Chihiyafuru as a whole are mixed and its praise by many seems mostly exaggerated. While it is nice to have another series like Hikaru no Go that delves into another game unique to Eastern cultures and having some solid side characters, the show's dabbling into melodrama and its rather shallow lead character were major bumps in my enjoyment of the series. I'm not sure if I would even want to dabble into the show's second season.

Chihayafuru is the only shoujo sports anime I have ever seen. If you're looking for something in that incredibly narrow category, this is the show for you.
I actually feel like I'm not qualified to speak on the show, since, I'm starting to think that maybe I just don't like sports anime. This show reeled me in with a compelling human story about the 3 most important characters, then it introduces you to more characters, and then it slows down and just sports all over the place for the rest of the show. Once the story became less focused on characters and more focused on the ... game, I found the show to be a chore I felt the need to push through because I was so invested in these characters and I needed to see how things would play out. It took me about 5 months off of and on watching, but I'm still pushing, now on season 2. I told myself I was going to be done with the show after one season but I was NOT. The show can be formulaic, it really feels to me like a show that did not need as many episodes as it has, but something keeps pulling me back. Maybe it's an intense personal desire to stay in familiar universes and be surrounded by the same characters, or maybe it's a strong desire for resolution.
The characters in Chihayafuru are not the most incredible I've ever seen, but they are diverse, and they are all treated with respect and understanding. Regardless of gender. It's unfortunate how anomalous that can be, but it is really nice when it happens. The only thing I maybe found a little bit frustrating was how obvious the shoujo romantic leads are when placed next to the other members of the karuta team. Why are these tall, beautiful, super fit people playing a game with three completely normal looking human beings. I was very concerned that the other characters would end up being treated as space fillers, and not given proper attention. But in actuality, all characters maintain (admittedly) two-dimensionality, while also being given their fair share of attention. It's not completely equal, but the story does make sure to regularly shift focus in the karuta team and show that each character is contributing their own individual skills, and they are so much stronger because they have each other. sports anime. It is also surprisingly frequent that the backstories of opponents is shown. It might even be to an unnecessary degree. I found myself at times being like, okay we get it, everyone has intense personal relationships with the cards and the game and that's what makes them so good at it, sports anime.
The only other thing I found a bit annoying was that the show WAY overuses the same like 3 tracks of background music, to the extent that they start to lose all emotional weight because they are being used with so many different scenes with so many emotions contained within them. This also, at times, contributed to feelings that some scenes were just far too melodramatic. I wish they would have used the money they spent on the most unnecessary CGI on like, one more song.
I guess this is one of many things I've enjoyed that I'd put under the category of "not great, but definitely enjoyable." I don't know if I properly expressed how important it is to me to engage in media that shows equal respect and kindness to a diverse set of characters, so for that alone, it's worth it. But I also found that the shoujo romance appealed so perfectly to that part of my brain that gets excited by shoujo romance. It sucked me in and now I can't escape, because I am so invested in these characters and I want to watch them all fight to achieve their dreams.

"I was never good at anything. I never had any dreams. But, Arata told me that if I become the best karuta player in Japan, I would be the best in the world. If I can be the best in the world at something, I think it's worth a shot." -Ayase Chihaya

Chihayafuru is a series that kept me wanting more every time.

Story- 7/10
The female lead Chihaya is obsessed with an old game called karuta. After her encounter with Arata, (a boy in her elementary school) she becomes enchanted with karuta. The story isn't anything amazing, but the way it is presented is great. ... The first few episodes start off with flashbacks explaining many things, such as, "What is karuta?" and "Why does she play this game?" The real appeal of Chihayafuru doesn't lay in the story but in it's characters.

Characters- 9/10
The characters are what really stand out about Chihayafuru, the characters are all unique and colorful in their own ways. Chihaya with her strange antics and tomboyish mannerisms and her childhood friend Taichi and his over calculating mind. All characters have a problem they have to face and overcome throughout the course of the series.

Art- 9/10
The animation and art were really well done. The animation was fluid and the characters all looked different. The eyelashes that most shoujo anime/manga had were something that I personally never really liked, but the eyelashes here fit really well with the characters.

Sound- 8/10
The music fit well with the flow and mood every time they were put in. The openings and endings were also pleasant to listen to.

Enjoyment- 10/10
The show is interesting even when they aren't playing the game and when they are the outcome is usually unpredictable. Every time an episode ended I was eager to jump straight into the next episode.

Overall- 9/10
Chihayafuru is a must watch anime and will leave you wanting more. Luckily the second season is already complete as well and quite satisfying.

In my search for new animes to watch, Chihayafuru turned out to be a light and fresh option after seeing shows as Serial Experiments Lain that required too much concentration and mental analysis. And the truth is I made a good decision.

The story is simple and even predictable, but emphasizes important values such as friendship, self-improvement and professionalism in such a natural way that allows it to develop different nuances that keeps of being generic. One peculiarity to note is like for example, Ping Pong The Animation, this isn’t a show focusing on the sport, but uses it as a resource to develop the ... characters, something not exactly bad as Karuta reaches a certain grade of prominence which allows us to know about its bases, playing styles and even the meaning behind each poem. The only problem is that the plot structure is like any other sports anime and there isn't a high point in the whole development of the show.

Each character has a unique personality as well as various charms and fears they face along the series which allow them to develop a backstory. The protagonist, Chihaya, may seem too perfect in the first episodes but this dissipates with the passing of the show which makes her credible as person. Moreover, it's remarkable she's the key of the team’s chemistry and without her the things wouldn't be the same. In general terms, the repertoire is solid and varied.

Speaking of technical aspects, Chihayafuru has visuals full of vivid colors, well-drawn backgrounds and design character quite accomplished. However, certain distant scenes lose spectacularity. The animation accomplishes its purpose and is efficient transmitting the feeling of tension and agility when the characters play Karuta. The sound effects sound organic, but sometimes can go unnoticed. Both the OP and ED are a bit generic, but they make a good presentation of the show. Of course, the voice actors did an excellent job interpreting each character.

Chihayafuru is an inspirational show which is totally enjoyable and if it's true is not stellar in most of its aspects, is nice and worth seeing.

This review only applies for the first 6 episodes of the series, it does not constitute for the overall experience of the anime itself and it will be comprised of what I liked/disliked about the anime and the reason I have had dropped it for.

So my problem with Chihayafuru is that I really couldn't invest any interest in the card game at hand. Let me explain. First of all it isn't a card game, but instead it is a reaction game. The game is simple to understand. You have some cards, 100 in a deck, which you place in any order you want in ... your territory, territory which basically is, quoting Wikipedia, the space in front of the player, 87 cm wide and separated from their opponent's cards by 3 cm. Once a player has no more cards in their territory, they've won. After you've arranged the cards you're given 15 minutes to learn the arbitrary positions you've given them, then the game starts. Each card has written on them a poem that origins from some old japanese poem collection. The players have to basically pick a card each time they hear a poem they recognize. A person will read off a bunch of poems, starting with some not written on the cards themselves to get the players accustomed to the reader's voice. And then they go on and pick what card they hear. There are certain penalties that result in moving cards from your territory to the opponent's and viceversa in case you do something, but I don't really know them and merely read about them, but that's okay, this is pretty much the detail the anime has given on the game >so far<.

So my problem here is simple. The anime didn't display any strategic part of this game and merely made it seem like a game of match two, where you basically you pick two things that are the same as fast as you can react. From what I've read off about competitive karuta, there are certain penalties if you rush and react too fast and in an unfavorable position, penalties which at least make you have some prior planning of how you're gonna tackle a situation. But the way the anime displays it is merely a reaction game. When I think of a card game I think of one of either two things. A) A game where you basically form a deck strategically to combat certain types of opponents but the results are generally gonna be obvious and luck will be generally minimal, only displaying the complexity of the game itself and your sense of predicting your enemies. B) Different situations that stem off due to different chance of draws where you have to think strategically and have to adapt to the situation at hand and have some sort of in the moment planning to succeed.

Neither are Karuta as displayed in the anime. It is all fast reaction time. And most explanations on the game are there to give a relative, rather than essential, understanding of the situation. Don't get me wrong, the game is displayed accurately and what happens is indeed accurate to competitive karuta. As far as the matches and the actions go, it is accurate. But it is really poorly explained. There are a lot of details that I understood with a very simple explanation upon a google search that the anime just didn't really bother going into explaining properly. As the anime displays it, all you have to do to succeed in Karuta, is react faster than your opponent, always. Which in truth isn't necesarily the case, since you have to know if it's worth risking a penalty if you go for x instead of trying to stay safe. So bottom line, you're gonna watch people reacting as fast as they can without the thought behind what they've done. Which sucks, because you enjoy things all the way more when you can understand what's happening. I mean, even with the penalties and what not, it is still gonna be a game of who reacts faster, but at least show the depth of the game...

However, if the series does not focus on Karuta the card game, on what does the series focus? On the passion of every character for the game. Which quite frankly it does do well and the story itself is mostly about having the determination to follow up on doing something you enjoy and trying your best to improve and enjoy it with other people. The motivation behind the characters is understandable and even enjoyable to an extent, and that extent is the characters having some reason to cry once every episode... I'm not 100% sure if in the first episode any tear is shed, but I'm really sure in each episode after the first, someone or a multitude of characters will have to cry. And I could accept that if that only happened while they were children (the series will start with a flashback about the main character's childhood) because I mean at that age, you tend to get emotional and what not, but then you have a girl cry while saying "I like kimono..." and then you're like fuck off.

And although the motivation of the characters is well explained... well... first of all the main characters are a group of 2 boys, 1 girl, one boy, quiet and reserved, the other, brash and outspoken and a girl that is clutzy and somewhat aggresive. Spruce it up with a love triangle and you've already given my enjoyment terminal cancer. Coupled with what I already said about the whole, cry at least once per episode thing, add in some other things that are spoilers that seem like poor and cliche demotivators to stop someone from doing something they dedicated their life to, obvious right off the start too and... I wasn't gonna enjoy this right from the start, was I? You see the 2 boys, 1 girl group is what I used to call a shounen tri-fecta, so imagine my surprise when I found that in a josei of all things. I'll need a new name for this type of group of characters. At least I ain't misinformed anymore.

I might be a little unfair since the overall setting doesn't have them in a group and as they grew up they... some of them... ok, one of them really considering a spoiler, has changed. But that character's route is also quite obvious from the start too so... For me I don't really have anything left to go on with on the character route. The game doesn't entice me, the story while its theme is interesting and somewhat well executed, it does depends on its characters, which are pretty much the same archetypes I've encountered for years... What do I have left? The art style which I can at best describe as feminine? The sound which is used to complement the characters' I already dislike mood and japanese poems I never really cared for?

To put it quite frankly, if the roadblocks I have had had set for me aren't really roadblocks for you, you will most likely be able to enjoy this anime. If you don't mind the characters being somewhat cliche and having merely a relative understanding of what's going, the theme of dedication to something you like will only come off as really strong for you. But with all these hurdles I had mentioned I couldn't enjoy this series. If the game does sound somewhat interesting you could give this series a try because that gives it all the more strength to what it's trying to do. However if you dislike tropey characters and the game sounds uninteresting, I don't think you have a lot to go on, frankly, since those are integral parts of the theme. I hope the game's depth is better explained if you do decide to head deeper than me into it, but the characters themselves are nothing new that you can't predict.

In their darkest hour, when everybody else was dead and have become distant memories, 3 normal kids take it upon themselves to play a card game to determine the future of mankind....Or who will bear the right to bone the blond chick before she turns old and ugly.

This pretty much is what i have to say so bye now...Or not?

You see Chihayafuru is a very strange case and i don't think that as time passes and i let what i watched sink in even more is gonna help all that much. Let me explain what i'm on about. I finished this anime 6 days ago. ... As i was watching it i kept some notes to remind myself what my thoughts were cause i'm odd and old and my erections are chemically fueled.. No actually i'm lying but you should have seen the expression on your bloody faces.

Erections apart i was confused by how they managed to make an anime about a card game and make it seem like you were watching porn for the first time..Exciting, messy, with animal sounds(if you're into that stuff), with heavy breathing and a bloody white mess to finish it off.

But that is part of the story and speaking of which i just realised i started this review all wrong and haven't talked about what Chi is all about. Like i said i'm old and i have the attention span of a fetus.

The story then,is about a girl Ayase Chihaya who spent a chunk of her childhood chasing after her successful sister's dreams,never to have her own. That changes when she meets the four eyed stud by the name of Wataya Arata, who not only is a stud but also finds a perversive satisfaction teaching her the ways of tantric sex...Yeah fucking right,he teaches her about a card game, karuta. And our little Chihaya was entranced. But in order to take the hard journey of pursuing dreams they had to find a 3rd person to join the party.. Mashima Taichi would be known forevermore as the third wheel and a stepping stone to achieve her dream of becoming the world’s best karuta player and jump Arata. After that some shit goes down, they get separated from Arata and enough cause the force of spoiling is strong with this one. Only thing i will say though is that the scenes where they were kids felt very much natural, their dialogues their interactions.

And you might be wondering-as did i at first-what the hell does this card game have that is so interesting..To achieve the ultimate knowledge you have to resort to Google and find out more about karuta, which is very much unknown to us westerners..I mean i only play some poker from time to time and that's my relationship with card games..Oh and i watched some Yu-gi-oh eps..So not an expert on this one. Anywho, as it turns out, the card game karuta in is nothing like Yu-gi-oh and it's definitely not something that springs to mind easily when talking competitive card games. And as i'm not a fluent lad i will describe it to the best of my ability..Ok, ready?...........Sitting down?...............Ok here it goes...Hit the card with your hand before your opponent does..Sounds simple? Well that's were most people get it wrong..And since i'm not able to fully explain all the workings of the game, you have to watch it to understand what it's all about..That's the magic of coming to learn of something new.

Karuta as card games go, or even sports for that matter, is as fascinating as it is unusual. It's really second to none. From swipe techniques to card layout and prioritisation to mental challenges, it's all there..That said i cannot sit here and tell you that all is well cause you can only go too far with this premise, or at least for me the matches were becoming stale after a while..It's like Chihayafuru found a spot that could sit comfortably and sat there for the rest of the way.

But Chihayafuru to make up for it also combines this game with some drama and with each characters hopes and desires and it does it in such a simple way that makes this a very easily digestable watch for most of the time.

That doesn't always work though, as the characters tend to get very emotional and cry over the smallest things possible. And that would be fine and understandable if they lose a match they poured their soul into but crying over a pencil that broke? Ok that didn't happen actually but you get the idea..If not there's a word that will help you out.. Overdramatisation.. And that always rubs me off in a bad way.

The visuals are another thing that caught me off guard along with the precise use of music.The animation is colorful and vibrant and the characters are just stunning. The music is comprised of orchestral pieces strategically positioned for maximum attack.

Now to sum it up cause my skeleton is not what it used to be, Chi is a perfect example of anime that doesn't have the need to resort to ridiculously grand plotlines or pseudo-intellectual fanfares to transfer what it wants to the viewer. The cast are as easy to understand and connect with, as are interesting.

There are many complaints i didn't address and ones that held this anime back. Make no mistake this is a good anime but it's far from spectacular. A jack of all trades and master of some.. Should you watch it? Yeah why not..I mean compared to some overrated anime that come to mind this is by far superior and way more interesting and realistic. Am i talking rubbish? Maybe i'm mentally unstable and i might change my mind in a couple of mins.

~~This is a review of both season 1 and 2~~

After many times of straight up ignoring this title due to the concept I finally decided to watch it. It was the kind of impulse decision where you've got a ton of things you want to watch and can't make a decision. Close your eyes, Click a title and proceed to watch. I should do this a lot more. Maybe i'll find other gems like Chihayafuru.

There's a lot of common misconceptions surrounding Chihayafuru, misconceptions I find myself guilty to believing aswell. To be honest I won't blame myself or others. In hindsight, how can a card ... game about poems be exciting? Mix in a bit of classical Japanese literature and you've got yourself a show many will frown upon the thought of watching. Watching Chihayafuru taught me to go into shows blindly. To not be swayed by common opinions and decide for yourself if you like it.

Now then, onto the review!

To summarize the show briefly; Chihayafuru is about a high school student named Chihaya who fell in love with a certain card game called Karuta when she was younger. She fell in love with it after playing a certain character who'll play a role in the story. Her goal is to become the best Karuta player in Japan and become the so called ''Queen'' which is the title for the best female player. to summarize the game in short; There's 100 poems and each player is given 25 random cards with the second verse of a poem. Players are given time to place their cards on the floor in any way they want. A so called ''Reader'' will read the first verse of a poem and players are supposed to take the second verse to that card. The game is over if one side has no cards left.
This doesn't mean that side has automatically lost since players are allowed to take cards from both sides.

Chihayafuru is a lot of things. It's a sports anime with real drama. It's a slice-of-life show with some romance mixed in. It's a show about a game maturing to a sport, and most importantly, It's a show where there's no main character. Every character feels like the protagonist of their own story. Yes technically Chihaya is the main character but the other characters get equal screen time, their own story and problems to deal with in great detail. I feel like it wouldn't do the show justice to call Chihaya the clear main character. I know and like characters like Taichi and Komano equally as much as Chihaya.

The show does a good job setting the tone of the story. It's not overly complex. It's a simple story about a girl aiming to be the best in what she loves most. It's the execution that shines through. We experience the journey of Chihaya as she decides to set up a club, recruit members and in turn we experience the story of those members. There's a few things in the beginning that didn't make a lot of sense. If there's something to fault It would be that the recruiting of members felt forced. It didn't flow very well. The show would randomly introduce us to a character who you can instantly tell will join the club. It made the events leading up to that feel less significant. Outside of that the story is very well paced.

The biggest strength of Chihayafuru is it's characters. I feel like i've gotten to know every single character. We get a lot of insight about their rivals aswell. We find out their struggles, thoughts and goals just as much as our main cast. This is what makes Chihayafuru so good. Many times have I wanted to root for the enemy as much as for our main cast.

One of the reasons I feel like it's unfair to call Chihaya the undisputed main character is because there's loads of interesting character dynamic between our main cast. It's safe to say some characters spend more time with other characters than Chihaya. I feel like this is an important point in shaping them. They aren't all there for Chihaya. They're here for themselves, their own goals and to overcome their own struggles. To make friends in between and grow closer as a group. The way Chihayafuru handles it's characters is extremely comparable to Hunter x Hunter which has some of the finest characters i've ever seen out of an anime.

At heart Chihayafuru is as much a drama as it is a sports show. The thing that's so important for a show focused on drama to succeed is making believable characters with believable struggles. Without these two things you can't possible create drama that doesn't feel forced or overdramatized. It came to my surprise how real all the drama felt. To some characters Karuta means absolutely everything. Imagine when you lose a match you knew you could win by only two cards. If I was someone who was extremely passionate about karuta i'm sure I would shed some tears of disappointment and sadness. The feeling of wanting to get stronger but struggling to achieve that is something a lot of us can connect with. Being strong isn't for everyone. In fact, being strong requires determination and this is what the show depicts really well. Characters who are determined and motivated do their absolute best to become stronger and throughout the show we experience the results to that determination. It's a journey you don't want to miss.

Chihayafuru's sound department has done a remarkable job in creating proper background music and using them at the right time. At the same time their usage of NO sound has proven to be very succesful. In a game where hearing is crucial to success the lack of sound in some scenes actually help build tension and help you understand what the players go through right before a verse is read. The opening songs are fun and nice. It isn't anything special but it's the kind of song you'd expect for this kind of show. The ending songs on the other hand are extremely good and I still have both of them on repeat.

Chihayafuru is a show you don't want to miss out on. It's just that good. While the beginning may seem like your generic ''let's start a club and recruit members'' what lies beyond that is something truly special. A journey with each character to what they find important and want to achieve. Chihayafuru has given me a feeling I haven't had in a long time. The desire to keep watching, wanting to know what'll happen next and being able to keep watching over our characters as some sort of silent guardian. I'm truly happy I've finally decided to watch and finish the show. As this is a gem you absolutely don't want to miss.

When an anime is so full of pleasant surprises, there's only one word to describe it — delightful.

Since I first started watching Chihayafuru after finishing Death Note, I honestly wasn't expecting much from it. Sure, it had some good reviews and an interesting premise about some obscure Japanese card game, but I still couldn't see it turning into something amazing (or even remotely entertaining).

If anything, I thought I might learn something new about Japanese culture. After all, 15 years of watching anime had already taught me a bit about Japanese food, festivals, traditions, etiquette, and honorifics, so why not learn about card ... games too?

As I started watching Chihayafuru with this post-Death-Note-depression / let's-watch-anime-for-educational-purposes mindset, I was immediately blown away by how fresh and unexpected everything about this show was.

Immediately, the first word that came into my mind was "striking". Although this was mostly related to the art, the story, music, and characters didn't seem too bad either, so I kept watching.

The stunning art often reminded me of "Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso", for it was not only beautiful and colorful, but also somewhat realistic (no green / purple hair or pet boars in sight). Although some of the characters have pink or blue-ish hair, the shades are either light or dark enough to make them resemble natural hair colors and therefore seem believable. Their eyes are also very expressive, which makes it difficult not to be completely mesmerized by the show or to ever want to look away from it. As if that wasn't enough, everything was also extremely well animated and again reminded me of the anime mentioned above, for the opening has hiragana subtly flying around in the same way that there were music notes and letters flying around in the opening of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. Given this beautiful and modern art and animation, I thought that this anime had to be from last year (or from 2 years ago max), and was therefore surprised to discover that it came out almost five years ago.

Another surprise included hearing Mamoru Miyano come into the picture. Even though he's pretty much in every show I watch these days, I still wasn't expecting him to show up in an anime I had never even heard about before. Although his voice acting definitely made everything better, it wasn't the most important aspect of this show and simply complimented all the other seiyuu who were also very good. Chihaya's voice in particular was extremely pleasant to listen to and conveyed lots of different emotions without ever feeling fake or sounding annoying. Other seiyuu shined not so much for their voices as they did for their accents, which in this case had to do primarily with the Fukui prefecture (though characters from other regions also appeared). While I'm obviously no expert when it comes to Japanese accents, I could definitely hear the different intonations these "regional" characters used as well as the particles they added at the end of their phrases (e.g. "ya" instead of "wa", "ga", or anything else).

After my initial surprise of casting such talented seiyuu for such a seemingly shallow anime, I quickly discovered why they were hired for the job. While one would expect this show to be about a silly card game as well as the usual puppy love and love triangles you normally find in school settings, this anime was far from being so one-dimensional and predictable. From complex personal struggles to dynamic relationships, everything about it was moving and poetic, and, most importantly, in constant movement and evolution.

As the characters developed and the plot unraveled, there was not only scenic art and captivating eyes to look at, but also lovely voices and background music to listen to. While nothing out of this world, the themes and songs used in Chihayafuru are very fitting and appropriate, hence helping the story progress really well. This makes the anime feel consistently peaceful and relaxing but also intense and dramatic when necessary. Comic relief hasn't been forgotten either, and often appears in the form of chibi faces, character quirks and criticisms, and, of course — cheesy jokes.

Consequently, Chihaya Furu ends up being a wonderful show all-around and probably one of the most underrated of all time. Whether you want to watch it for the beautiful art, the great voice acting or the novelty/educational aspects involving Karuta, you definitely need to experience the wild ride that this anime is. You may still not know how to play this Japanese card game even after watching 25 episodes revolving around it, but hey, at least you will have seen how fun it can actually be.


PS: my only problem with Chihayafuru was how the final episode did not offer an ending for the first season but was instead used to set up the premise for the second one. Although I could personally watch every single season of this show over and over again, I understand that some people may not have the time or the desire to do so, so offering some sort of resolution rather than leaving around so many loose ties would have definitely been appreciated. However, since Chihayafuru is neither the first nor the last anime to pull this trick, all is forgiven in the name of an otherwise wonderful show.

Up until recently, I had never heard of Karuta. I had heard that Chihayafuru was a really good shoujo sports-ish anime, so I wanted to give it a try, but never found the time. I recently got the opportunity to watch it, and I ended up binging it in 3 days. This really surprised me, as I didn't expect to enjoy it this much, when I found out it was all about poetry, I thought it'd be a one and done deal, watch the first season, and then next seasonal, thanks and goodbye, but it isn't the case. I'm genuinely looking forward to watching season ... 2 of this show. Let's get into the proper review, shall we? (I'll try to not spoil anything as much as possible, i'm sorry if I do, it's not intentional)

// Story // 9/10
The story and plot is kept simple, nothing too complex. Chihaya, a 15 year old high school girl wants more people to join her Karuta club in school. She gets told off by the club advisor, and then cue a flashback arc. A flashback arc so early in the story? Well yeah, but it actually works. It gives us an insight as to why Chihaya loves Karuta so much and how she discovered it. We also get some character introductions through this arc, and these characters will be important later on down the road, at least in the first season.
Overall the story isn't anything too wild, you have your typical Slice of Life parts, the Karuta matches, a tournament arc, and it manages to keep good character development, but we'll touch on that more a little bit later.
*Note: This caught me a bit off guard and took me a while to understand, but Episode 16 is a filler/recap episode, I don't think it's necessary to watch, I skipped it and don't think I missed anything*

// Art // 8/10
For 2011, the art is pretty damn good, i'll give it that. Chihayafuru holds it's own when it comes to the art department. The scenery looks great, the characters to do too... For the most part.
The thing that kind of ticked me off about the art is the lack of detail for the side characters. Chihaya, Taichi, Arata and Kana are very well drawn, and have a nice look to them, the typical shoujo kind of art style, but other side characters like Nikuban-kun and Desk-kun lack detail, most side characters have no eyes, and just lines! Are they blind?
Other than that, the art is nice to look at, it's not aggressive in any way and is relaxing with a nice color palet that comes back regularly.

// Sound // 9/10
This is probably gonna be the weakest part of the review, as I rarely pay attention to the background music / sound, but i'll try to be as detailled as possible.
From what I could gather, the sound worked very well with the show. The background music was fine, no problems there, and the background sounds/noises were fine as well, sometimes Chihaya would throw a fit, and there'd be a cute sound when she waves her arms around that adds comedic effect, or when she drops dead after a match. The sound is good, and works well.
Where it shines though is in the voice acting. Chiahaya and Taichi's VA's are excellent, and I really couldn't see anyone else in those roles, while for some other shows, I could easily see a few different VA's for a single character.
The OP is great, it works well with the theme and vibe, an energetic song for a show filled with an energetic cast.

// Character // 10/10
Speaking of the cast, this has got to be one of the most loveable casts i've seen in a while! Chihaya is a fuzzball of cuteness, Taichi is just cool and likeable, and all the club members are dedicated to their craft, and their dedication to Karuta makes them all look great!
I didn't really see any major character progression in Chihaya for this season, she obviously got better at the game (maybe?), but Taichi and Arata definitely grew, Taichi now has feelings for Chihaya, and Arata should be making his comeback to Karuta, when he wanted nothing to do with it.
Overall, this has to be one of the most memorable and likeable anime casts i've seen in a while, and i'm looking forward to watching season 2 to see them grow even more!

// Enjoyment // 10/10
I genuinely enjoyed watching Chihayafuru. May it be for the story or the cast, it was an enjoyable experience overall. 3 days is the usual amount of time it takes me to watch a 12 episode long series, if i'm fast. The fact that I watched all 25 episodes in 3 days says alot about how much I enjoyed the experience!

// Overall // 9/10
So, with all the praise i've given this show, why didn't I give it a 10/10?
Well it all comes down to a few factors that make it close to a 10, but not quite there yet. The side character design, or lack thereof already kicks it down a notch, but, to me, it just doesn't feel like a 10/10. There's shows that, when i'm done watching them, I can instantly tell that they're a 10/10, and no matter how much I liked this season, I just didn't have that feeling when I finished it. I'll definitely be watching at least the second season!
Overall, it's a great show that maybe isn't for everyone with the whole poetry thing, but it's worth a shot at least!

Thanks for reading!

It might be a long time ago, when an anime impressed me that badly.

At the first moment I asked myself why there was a card based anime which is tagged in sports. But I realized fast, that it's more about then just a card game.

Karuta's a traditional japanese card game which refers to hundred poems of Japanese classics. There are individual matches and team matches, the ultimate ambition is about using good hearing, quickness, instincts, strategy, feelings and the connection between the poems/cards and yourself to win the matches and to become better Karuta players. You have to take the cards from the opposite ... side faster than your opponent, while they were read and collect it to win.

Chihayafuru could take you to the world of Karuta and maybe you'll start to love it even more, than you did for an anime. At least it worked for me. The hole anime's outstanding and somehow I'm thinking about to play Karuta somewhere along the way. So I hope you'll enjoy Chihayafuru as much I did it.

*Note: This is a review of Season 1 and some aspects of Season 2 of Chihayafuru*

Passion. Determination. Conviction. Those ideas can carry the human spirit to great distances. But sometimes, just having those in your mind are not enough. You also need talent. As someone who has competed in sporting and music competitions, I know firsthand how it feels when you carry passion for the thing you're doing but compared to someone who is talented, you will never be the best. Indeed, it can dampen your spirits but at the end of the day, it's always a great feeling to know that you gave it ... your best shot.

Chihayafuru is an anime that explores those ideas. It is a story about (competitive) Karuta, a Japanese card game. The rules are pretty simple: the players listen to the card read by a reader and attempt to be the quickest to capture that card on the mat. The first player who clears their side of the mat wins the game. Although it sounds simple, participants must be able to memorize all (or mostly all) 100 poems used in Karuta.

The story starts off with a beautiful girl (who we learn her name is Chihaya) putting up a poster in her high school (Mizusawa High School) advertising the competitive Karuta Club. However, her beauty is not supported by her manners as she frequently acts like a tomboy. While sitting on the grass one day, Chihaya meets her childhood friend, Taichi, who is attending the same school as her. They mull over about the days when she, Taichi, and one other friend, Arata, were playing Karuta together and participating in team tournaments together. The world seemed rosy to Chihaya until Arata had to move away. As a result, the dream team was disbanded and the boys started forgetting about Karuta. However, Chihaya continued to pursue her dream as being the Queen of Karuta. Seeing her passion for the game, Taichi decides to pick it up again and that brings us back to the scene at the first episode of the anime: Chihaya putting up a poster advertising the competitive Karuta Club. The first season of Chihayafuru is mostly about Taichi and Chihaya building the team to 5 players. The second season highlights how each player on the Karuta Team realizes their inner potential and displays it on the competitive stage.

What makes Chihayafuru really engaging is that there are multiple lenses you can use to appreciate the story. It is a story about growth, about teams, about passion, and about determination. There are so many elements that give Chihayafuru its flare that my review cannot do it justice. So I will only touch on the aspects that popped out for me.

The story in season one is paced very well. It captures the passion that the players have for the game. However, the anime reveals that passion for the game comes in many different forms, aside from passionately playing it. Ooe, a girl who joins the club, is passionate about the poems in Karuta. For each card, she sees a different shade of emotion and she uses those meanings to guide her to victory on the mat. Komano (or lovingly called Desktomu) is interested in analyzing player patterns and the statistical side of Karuta and he uses his niche to help his teammates play smarter and realize the strengths and weaknesses of their game. Karuta is more than a game of speed and memorization. It is a game where everyone can find a thing they can like about it.

Being an anime about a competitive event, it does fall trap to the endless monologues during games. It gets even more excessive in season 2 as the story starts providing endless backstories for each team and for each player. Although we get an opportunity to understand the other players, it got to the point that even the anime made fun of itself for providing a flashback for a minor group of characters. This sort of writing puts the story back a few steps as you start pleading the anime to finish the match as soon as possible so we can see more Chihaya, Taichi, and Arata moments.

There is also a romantic storyline in the anime. If you are seeking an anime with lots of moments where characters are confessing their feelings for each other, Chihayafuru does not do that. The anime portrays romance as a driving force that pushes our characters towards their goal. Though as the audience, we can see that the romance is heavily implied. Hence, the sprinkled romance provides the spice to the show but is not one of the foundational tastes.

Although there are only 3 main and many more supporting characters, there are no useless characters to the anime. I can almost describe the cast as an actual team where everyone is doing something to help the progression of the story. Despite the great chemistry between all the characters, the main characters are still in the spotlight. They are Taichi, Chihaya, and Arata.
Taichi is your typical high school heart throb. He's smart, handsome, and everything else a girl sees in her ideal boy. He is pretty good at Karuta but being around brilliant Karuta players, he doubts his playing ability. He also has this thing for Chihaya but, without spoiling too much, let's say that like how he sees his Karuta ability, he needs to have more confidence in himself.
Arata is another heart throb in his own way. Armed with his glasses and snake-like reflexes, he snatches cards off the mat like they are his prey. He's a Karuta prodigy but he is also Chihaya's first teacher. So, he becomes immortalized in Chihaya's mind as a Karuta deity. Despite being a top player, he is not at all arrogant. In fact, neither Taichi nor Arata are. They are both humble men who are passionate about their sport.
Chihaya is the story's central figure. Aptly nicknamed "a beauty in vain," Chihaya sports the beautiful looks but doesn't have the "female charms" to make her the Queen of her high school. However, her charm comes from her passion for Karuta and her relentless pursuit of perfection. She defines the word obsessed because Karuta is food and water for her. It also helps that she has a knack for Karuta but still lacks the final touches to make her the best in the game.

All three characters develop very well by the end of two seasons. However, out of the two male MCs, Taichi develops the most as he is given the most screen time. He develops from being a boy who has almost given up on Karuta, to playing it but doubting his playing abilities, and finally to being able to recognize that he can play his style of Karuta as successfully as any of the top players. On the romantic frontier, as a child he saw Arata and Chihaya as his friends but once he gets into high school and starts the Karuta Club with Chihaya, his feelings towards Chihaya change. What makes him a complex character in this respect is that he realizes how Chihaya sees Arata and he must struggle to decide how he can convey his feelings for her while still being friends with Arata. Arata becomes his rival not only on the playing mat, but also in the war of love.
Due to the fact that he has limited screen time, Arata is not shown much development. However, he does overcome his reason for not playing Karuta and once he picks it up, he excels at it. The main struggle that he faces while playing Karuta is that he only plays individually and the only time he ever played as a team was with Taichi and Chihaya. He is the character who questions what is the purpose of a team, and how is playing as a team different compared to playing individually?
Chihaya's development is focused on how she develops as a player, moving from form to form and realizing her unique abilities that can help her win matches. Throughout both seasons, she experiences many losses and as a viewer, it gets frustrating to see our favourite female lead lose matches but as a character, she grows from those experiences to become a great player. Another interesting aspect of her development centers on how she sees Arata. Being her first teacher, she respects him but gradually, her respect grows into admiration and possibly into worshipping Arata as a God. The anime begs the question: what sort of love does she have for Arata? It is a fact that she adores him as a friend but is it to the level of romantic love? Her image of Arata is very complex and the anime leaves it to the audience to decide how they want her to see Arata.

The main supporting characters are those involved in Mizusawa's Karuta Club: Ooe, Komano (Desktomu), and Nishida (Porky). These characters do not get much development as they primarily serve as guides who help point Chihaya and Taichi in the right direction. As mentioned earlier, Ooe is passionate about the poems and Komano is a Karuta stats guru. They help show that Karuta is more than a game of memorization and swiftness. I could not see what Nishida brought to the story other than being the other good Karuta player in the club.
In the second season, the club adds two additional members named Sumire, and Tsukuba. Sumire joins Karuta for the mere reason of getting closer to Taichi. As a result, if you have not recognized that Taichi has the hots for Chihaya, Sumire points it out for you. Tsukuba is in the story for comedic purposes as he makes his signature creepy face when playing games. The character juggling in the second season starts to get out of hand as the anime treats any character who has a line as a supporting or even as a main character. There are just too many backstories to tell that I want to say to the anime that it's alright if we don't know Player #5's onion-cutting tale of their path to success because they will not appear again.

On the technical side, the art in Chihayafuru is fabulous. Madhouse did a fantastic job of drawing all the characters to reasonable proportions. Chihaya is drawn very beautifully and makes her stand out as the female MC. Taichi is also well done in that he has realistic body proportions rather than the outrageous arm and leg lengths seen in typical shoujo anime. The colouring is also fantastic. Madhouse used very luscious colours especially when it came to the background scenery and the kimonos. The hand motions of the Karuta players were also drawn very realistically and it is evident that the studio did their research on how Karuta players move in game. Chihayafuru is definitely one of my favourite anime when it comes to the art department.

The sound was also well done. The OST of seasons 1 leans on strings and brass, giving it a very grand atmosphere to the show. However, it does get repetitive after hearing the themes over and over again. The OP and ED of the first season were also very good. The OP is upbeat with a soft voice leading us to the episode while the ED had that ancient and classy mood to it. Second season's OST started to become unnoticeable but the OP and ED did not drop in quality at all.
The voice actors also did a fantastic job. Taichi is voiced by Miyano Mamoru who also did our favourite mad scientist Okabe Rintarou from Steins;Gate and he did not disappoint at all (but no evil laugh this time). Chihaya is voiced by the lovely Seto Asami who also did Matsuyuki from AnoHana and also the ED for both seasons of Chihayafuru. She portrayed Chihaya very well, capturing her quirky, erratic, but yet very passionate personality. Arata is voiced by Yuka Terasaki who did a very good male voice, capturing Arata's soft nature.

Overall, Chihayafuru is a very good anime. If you are looking for a romantic tale with a sports backdrop, you may be in for a disappointment. You may also feel underwhelmed if you are going into Chihayafuru thinking it's a "certified fresh" story. However, if you are into a good tale, with very good artwork, and don't mind learning some Karuta and Japanese poetry at the same time, definitely give Chihayafuru a shot!
In the first few episodes of the first season, I was inclined to give it a 10/10 due to the great storytelling but the anime began to slow down and lacked the "pop" it had at the beginning. Because of the high bar that season 1 set, season 2 felt slightly underwhelming (primarily because of the flashbacks) but nevertheless still told a great charming tale. I would give season 1 a 9/10 and season 2 an 8/10.

Thank you for reading my rather long review! Chihayafuru is a very good story and I would love to hear your opinions about it!! Are you a Team Taichi or Team Arata fan? Has the anime gotten you into Karuta (not me yet but I would love to play an English version of it using English poems)?

Chihayauru is one of the best anime i have ever seen !!!It has a mix of all genre i must say. When i read the description i saw Karuta, a card game. But when my friend told me that it is a very highly rated anime I thought why not to give a try and.....!! It is really awesome anime.

STORY

The anime starts with our protagonist Chihaya Ayase, who is an average girl , nothing special really, who has a dream of watching her sister the best model in the world! But when she met a new student named Wataya Arata, a transferred student ... from Fukui, she realised that it can't be her dream. Wataya ( A karuta genius) introduced her with Karuta (A Japanese traditional card game where when the poem is read you have to find that card before your opponent does). Chihaya realised that playing Karuta is fun and she had the talent for becoming a Queen, a female Karuta Champion.

They made a team along with Chihaya's childhoood friend Mashima Taichi. But as they went to middle school they got separated somehow! But destiny united Chihaya and Taichi again in high school where Chihaya tries to make a Karuta Club so that she could challenge Arata at the Nationals! But karuta is not liked much by the people of Tokyo! Would she be able to make a Karuta Club ? and would she be able to become a queen????

CHARACTER

Like the story, the characters are very unique and perfect. Their introduction was very smooth and even the side characters were introduced without disturbing the storyline!

Ayase is known as 'Beauty in vain'. She is very beautiful but the moment she speaks, it is broken by her tomboyish image. But its those very traits that reel you in. She is the joyous energy that keeps the group together, and despite her clear superiority in the game, genuinely cares for her friends, and helps aid them in their journey to pursue Karuta.

Taichi, Ayase's childhood friend. He is a true friend of Chihaya, is always along with her for her help. His mental forte is unmatched to most every player the game has ever known; even once reciting every card at random in the entire deck of 100, just because he could. His family is privileged, and he is pressured by his parents to keep at the highest tier in terms of sports and exams. His brains keep him on par with the purists that achieve their status merely due to athletic prowess. He acts as the groups motivator and leader, often amping everyone out of their slumps with "Just the right words" to turn them around.

Arata represents the reverse side to Taichi, being the poorer, lesser appreciated, segment to the story. As the story progresses, his darker past becomes realized, and he continues to become a shining beacon for Ayase.
Others are Nishida, another talented Karuta player after Arata and Desktomo-kun, a bookworm who finds a route to enjoy and make friends through Karuta and Kana-chan.

ANIMATION

It been a long after when i have seen a such a detailed animation. Every character has been made with pure detail. To be honest although animation is not that important but this anime has a perfects combo of animation character and story i have seen yet!

The character have perfect body design, face shapes and other details!!! Plus the comical backdrops and chibi moments are just great.

ENJOYMENT

Did i enjoyed the anime???
Yes!! I did. Even after rewatching I had the same fun in watching it as i did for the first time. Even watching Karuta is fun I sometime wonder how fun it would be playing it on a real Tatami Floor.

And most IMPORTANT
You will enjoy to hear those Poems and the meaning behind every poem. Each episode is dedicated to one poem and it has been related so beautifully that my excitation levels were at 100% to watch the next episode!!
The story has a quick pace so you won't get bored even for a second plus the comical backdrops and jokes keep the mood hilarious all the time.

SOUND

I am using this as a separate heading to appreciate the Opening song 'YOUTHFUL' and the ending song 'Soshite Ima'. Guys to be honest its been after some time when i have heard such a beautiful opening!! Along with the singer's voice, the lyrics are just great!!!

The whole story has been beautifully woven into the Opening song and ..............I have no words to explain the beauty of this song!!!

OVERALL

Long and short of it is that Chihayafuru is one of its kind. It's a masterpiece! You would regret if you have not seen this anime yet. It has all the elements in it , it has slice of life, comedy, romance , fun and yes!.......... you would love to see the Karuta tournaments for sure!!! Remarkable poetry and symbolism that will take your breath away. You will fall in love with karuta, that I can promise you.

I can't predict your mood right now but let me gear up your excitation that it also has a season 2 which is even better than this!!!
and yes i forgot mention i give it a 10 in all the categories above!

I rarely watch anime in the Slice-of-life/Sports genres since I don't find them adequately engaging; however Chihayafuru combines both of these in a fashion which makes for an entertaining watch. This review will only be based on the first season.

The story revolves around karuta, a real-life competitive card game popular in Japan. The protagonist, sixteen-years old Ayase Chihaya and her classmates start a karuta club at their school and participate in various national tournaments, ultimately aiming for the championship titles of Master and Queen. Basically that's the essence of the plot.

However what makes this show interesting is the characterization of the protagonists. They are serious ... about the game they play, constantly trying to improve themselves and achieve perfection. The characters frequently get emotional about failures or successes. While such over-enthusiasm about a card game may seem slightly odd, the true beauty of the characters lie in the strength of their friendship and love; which is expressed through their shared passion for karuta. The touch of romance only adds to this delightful blend of adolescent emotions.

Finally, the creators must be commended for paying close attention to detail regarding the intricate rules of karuta as well as the detailed depiction of real-life playing venues, like the Omi Jingu shrine. The poetic history of karuta is also explored as well as beautifully interwoven into the story.

The story continues in the second season, which I am yet to watch. Chihaya and her friends have yet to fulfill all their dreams, but their journey through the world of karuta is still to teach them many valuable lessons, not only about karuta but about life itself.

Score : 8/10

Recommended.

*This review is spoiler free*

Chihayafuru is an anime which gets far too little attention in my opinion.
The characters are well written and the story will pull you in from the very first episode.
Yes, this anime is both interesting and exciting to watch, not to mention how you get insight into a game/sport that many of us didn't even know existed!

I recommend this anime to you who like a strong female lead, intense showdowns in terms of competitive sports, great character development and last but not least a lil bit of romance sprinkled in. (And let us not forget about a couple of hotties ... ;) YW)
I found myself enjoying this anime a lot more than I actually thought I would at first, and I believe most of you will feel the same! Give it a shot, it will surprise you! "doki doki"

No Spoilers!
This anime is one of those anime that no one talks about but is lowkey really good.

Characters: This anime brought back many good memories of the times I played sports in high school , the characters seemed realistic and genuine. Each character had their own unique personality and traits. The emotions portrayed by every character was inspiring and fit the story well. At first i thought that this anime would be full of pretty boys like Taichi in order to please the girl fanbase but I greatly appreciated it when there was a greater emphasis on the characters' personalities than just their looks like ... any other cliche fan-service anime.

Music/Sound: The opening was really good , usually I skip openings but when an opening is good I don't skip it because it sets me up and puts me in the mood to watch the anime.(Angel Beats,Attack on Titan,etc) In addition, the music in the competitive scenes was done well and it made the scenes more intense.

Story:The story is very well written, many scenes have outcomes that you would not expect so this leaves you in a state where you aren't bored after one or two episodes. At first, I thought that Karuta was a sport that was made up just for the sake of this anime, but when I typed it on Youtube I was shocked. The way the athletes played Karuta was just like the anime and it made me even more interested in the anime. In addition , there was zero confusion while watching this anime as the sequencing was perfect and the flow of the anime was amazing.

Emotions: This anime brought many emotions that was unexpected. There were many scenes that made me teary. I am a fan of sad anime so these scenes only made the anime more memorable and put this anime in my top ten list.

I Give this anime 10/10 overall.

Recently, sports anime have become more popular. The times when Hajime no Ippo was the only known sports anime are over and nowadays series such as Haikyuu, Kuroko no Basket or Yowamushi Pedal have an enormous amount of fans. However, even before their boom, sports anime existed. One of them is Chihayafuru, a show about karuta. Karuta is a game about Japanese poetry including aspects such as speed, precision and reaction time. It is widely known in Japan but rather unpopular as a competitive sport.

This is reflected successfully in Chihayafuru, as it starts out with the protagonist, Chihaya, having trouble finding new members for her ... karuta club in high school. This is a theme which occurs quite often in anime, for example Free!, but in contrary to swimming, karuta is an actual unpopular sport, which makes Chihaya's difficulties greatly believable.

Next to Chihaya, there are two male protagonists, Taichi and Arata. At the beginning of the anime, we see the three of them during their childhood years and learn how they got in touch with karuta. In other anime, this aspect is usually covered at a later point in time throughout multiple flashbacks. Chihayafuru's method is unusual but very fitting as it is not just an anime about karuta but also a story about growing up and maturing.

Chihaya is a happy girl who wants everyone to be happy. She does not like when someone is bullied and consequently defends Arata, who does not have any friends because he is new in Chihaya's class, and tries to get to know him better. While visiting Arata, she learns that he wants to become the greatest karuta player in Japan. Taichi, a popular boy in the same class as Chihaya and Arata, does not want to accept Chihaya's affection towards Arata and his hobby and, being the stubborn kid he is, starts bullying both of them. Due to several events, the three of them start growing closer and become friends in an absolute heart-warming manner. The anime would already have been great if it had stayed in this time period but, as mentioned above, it decides to do a time skip and we learn how the protagonists are dealing with their lives in their high school years.

Chihaya has not changed much since she is still very enthusiastic about karuta. Compared to the other main characters, she has received next to none development. However, this changes during her high school years as she becomes a better karuta player, which affects her personality greatly.

Taichi might be the character who has changed the most during the time skip. He is no longer a spoiled kid but an understanding person who cares about others. Compared to Chihaya, he does not develop as strongly during their high school days but nevertheless has to deal with several problems he can overcome thanks to karuta and his friends he made by playing the game.

Arata is a special case since his personality changes due to a stroke of fate. Development might not be the right term to describe what he experienced but his character is quite different to the Arata he was in his childhood years. The anime then presents Arata as a person who has to be able to face his fears and worries and does so magnificently.

Next to the three protagonists, there are several members who participate in Chihaya's karuta club. All of them have distinguishable personalities and different goals, which is reflected in the way they play karuta. They become stronger due to the game and find confidence in what they are doing. Additionally, being a sports anime, there are naturally a lot of opponents the karuta club has to face. Most of them have an interesting backstory or at least entertaining personalities. Some are also recurring characters, which makes them much more important than characters who appear for only one episode.

The story is basically about Chihaya's karuta club and how they attend different tournaments. The matches' outcome is often quite predictable as the anime uses the standard sports anime formula but it is executed quite nicely. Chihayafuru is definitely a character-oriented show and should not be viewed if you want to see a lot of plot twists. Nonetheless, the matches are intense and you start wondering how the episodes end so quickly even though the characters are only staring at some cards.

On the other hand, one problem with this anime is that it tries to include too many themes. Chihayafuru is a story about competitive karuta, a story about growing up, a story about love, a story about dealing with loss, a story about receiving appreciation from one's family, a story about priorities in life, a story about maintaining friendship. Had it abandoned some of its topics and, in turn, exploited some of them more thoroughly, it might have been beneficial. The anime never fails in implementing its themes but it is too short to convey all of them properly.

The soundtrack is a bit repetitive but still memorable and fitting to the anime's atmosphere. The opening is a perfect introduction to every episode and the ending could not be more fitting. Chihayafuru's art style is similar to that of Ore Monogatari and fits the simple nature of the anime phenomenally. At the same time, it manages to capture the games' intensity fantastically and, consequently, could not have been any better.

Ultimately, I can recommend this anime to basically everyone. Even if you are not interested in regular sports anime, Chihayafuru is worth it thanks to its characters alone. It is not often that there are anime about a such a niche hobby but if there are, they should be done just like Chihayafuru.

As a person who was at first reluctant to watch the first season of chihayafuru, I have come a long way and now i am one of the most obsessed people with this anime.

Why?

1. the characters and 2. the subtleness of everything in chihayafuru and how the story unfolds so eloquently to viewers, coupled with awesome animation and ost. To those who are still reluctant about starting the series because of its "karuta focused plot", just give it a go and you will definitely find a gem of an anime amongst the many mediocre harems and supernatural animes that just all blur together. ...

Story: 9
The first season of chihayafuru focused a lot more on the different characters and their growth throughout the series. I really enjoyed how interesting karuta can be despite not knowing what the actual game entails or having any clue as to what the rules and customs are. That in itself is a testament to how great the story is, and it's one of those shows that really encourages you to start learning karuta yourself because it looks so fun! The character development was amazing, especially Taichi who at first, i didn't quite like him, but as the story progresses you realise how real he is which really resonates to us average anime viewers. But enough of the characters I'll elaborate about that a bit later. But overall the story is certainly an immensely enjoyable one, and the very very subtle romance in the story really just enhances the chihayafuru experience. On a side note, one thing that i wished there was more of is more romance i guess but i do like how subtle it is so yeah i guess that's just a personal opinion :)

Art: 9
As always, Madhouse delivers amazing animation and the karuta matches are very well done especially how the fluidity of the Shinobu's movements are animated. The animation was very consistent and the art style is one that i favour (i'm a big fan of Suetsugu sensei's works)

Sound: 9
The OST was amazing !!!! It really adds to the tension in every karuta match and that feel-good moment would have certainly been not as feel-good without the accompanying OST. I love Morio Asaka he really is the josei master as i am a big NANA fan and he certainly did not fail to appeal to me with his direction (that was a bit off-track :P )

Character: 10
The characters are AMAZING. I cannot stress enough how amazing all the characters in chihayafuru really are (especially Taichi oh god i love him). Each and every character has their own shining moment and the development throughout the series is one of the best i have seen. Chihaya's passion, Taichi's resilience and determination, Porky's humour, Oe-san's femininity and Desk (don't know how to spell his name) person's motivation. Each and every character adds to the series and not one of them is bland. Even the Empress became likeable !

Enjoyment: 10
As you can already tell, I am a big big fan of Chihayafuru and I enjoyed it waaaay too much. I think the above really reflects my passion towards this anime.

Overall: 10
If you still have any doubts as to whether you will like this anime, then I suggest you watch this anime because those doubts will be immediately erased and it will certainly not disappoint. I understand that this genre isn't for everyone, but i truly believe Chihayafuru has something that everyone can relate and hence enjoy this anime.

I had this anime in my hard drive for a while, but I just never got around to watching it until this week. I kept postponing watching it, yet when I finally and actually started watching it, I was hooked. I finished two seasons in less than 4 days. I couldn't believe it myself. I had no idea what Karuta was. Usually when I get hooked on animes, I still take breaks from them, like 1-2 days. This anime I wasted no time at all. It was rather slow paced during intense matches, but I think that is what got me hooked to it. I ... just needed to know what happens next. I was often frustrated and sometimes the outcomes were predictable, but some reason it was still interesting. If you are wishing for a romance filled anime, look else where. This anime will frustrate romantics. You'll find yourself rooting for Ayase to be in love with Taichi one minute, then Arata the next. It's super frustrating, but that is also probably the main reason why I want to keep watching it and couldn't stop. I am also planning to read the manga. I give it a 9 overall, even though I did enjoy it so much because I was frustrated and decided to be stubborn with this anime. As a sport anime in general, it has all the elements you would ever want to see in what a real sports team should be. Each character brought their unique styles of Karuta into their team plays and it was interesting to see how each member took into account all the other member's hard work, love, and dedication into their own Karuta and made it extra special. It made the anime extra enjoyable and kept me on the edge of my seat every time.

I´m sorry that this review will get rather long but this time I just want to write that much about this anime ;)
Sometimes you stumble across one of those anime which happen to feel different, whether they are good or not is up to you but still they are/feel different.
Chihayafuru is one of that kind.
Basically, it´s a mixture of sport, a little comedy and drama which is not the most common type of anime but definitely not unique either.

To sum up the whole anime: Chihayafuru is all about "Karuta", nothing more, nothing less.
Karuta is a Japanese game using cards with poems written on them.
To ... win the game, the player has to win a certain card on the game field which is the appropriate card to a different one (also a poem) which is being read out by a third party.
If you touch the right card before your opponent does, you win that card.
Once you manage to clear your field (25 cards for each player) you win the game.
So basically, it´s all about memorizing all cards/poems plus the appropriate cards/poems and being faster than your opponent.
This is a VERY simple way to describe the game, if you watch Chihayafuru you will come to understand that it´s way more difficult than it might sound up to this point of the review.

The anime involves six main characters, the five Karuta club members and a friend of the two founders of the club, who happens to live far away from them and therefore does not appear that often. Nevertheless, he is one of the important characters, if not the by far most important one.
The characters are one of the strong points of Chihayafuru because the five members of the Kurata Club are all quite unique in their appearence, behaviour and their way of playing the game, one uses her speed, one pure mathematics and another his memorizing skills.
Using their different abilities, one can easily see the differences in their style of play which is important for the anime, otherwise it would get boring quickly.

Talking about the battles, they happen to be surprisinlgy interesting, one would think that an anime all about sitting on the floor and touching cards has a high risk of becoming monotonous but the battles are really intense and thrilling and as I have already mentioned, the style of play changes with every character of the Karuta club.

Another good aspect of the anime is it´s humor, they´re not frequent enough to call Chihayafuru a comedy anime and they are not breath taking or jaw dropping but the gags are enough to reduce the tensed atmosphere which is omnipresent because of the high aims of the Karuta club.

The pacing is also well done.
Unlike some shounen anime (just for the shit storm, lets´s mention SAO at this point), there are many setbacks and defeats for the Karuta Club, so we´re not bound to watch Chihaya and her friends, being totally overpowered, blasting their way to the top of the world tree... uhm national championship.
Furthermore, unlike even more shounen (take a look at DBZ), the better players never seem to outrun the inferior ones, we actually get to see a lot of progression, even the screentime is allocated nicely, although two of the five members can´t do shit against the three good ones.
So no Yamcha, no Chiaotzu but equally shared focus.
That´s why I said this anime is somewhat different, of course, there are more facts like how the school settings stereotypes are completely ignored and how the strongest player of the club has the biggest flaws, problems and the smallest understanding of the whole game.
These things made Chihayafuru feel some kind of unique to me and I cherish that.

Of course, there are debatable aspects of Chihayafuru as well, the anime explains a lot of techniques and rules which can feel tedious, though it´s important to understand the game which makes up the whole anime.
I can understand if poeple stop watching tha anime due to the seemingly endless talks about one syllable, two syllable and dead cards, positioning techniques and movement patterns.
Like I said, tedious but necessary, necessary but tedious.
Also, if you expect the anime to involve anything else than Karuta, you´re bound to be disappointed, of course, there are some other aspects like love but they are almost crushed in an instant.
One scene from Chihayafuru sums it up:
* Cell phone rings* "Sorry, it´s my girlfriend... hey there... mhm ... mhm... yeah, let´s break up." "Wait, did you just break up with your girlfriend?!" "So what, let´s play some FUCKING KARUTA !!!"
I know that this is totally taken out of the context but it still does um up the overall attitude towards anything that is not Karuta.
I know there is some stuff going on behind the scenes, especially one character does a lot of thinking, and they sometimes think about things like love and so on but nothing really happens.

To come to an end, Chihayafuru is a surprisingly interesting anime about an old card game with intense battles and loveable characters.
In spite of that, there is nothing else than Karuta in this anime, so if you can´t bring yourself to like this game, you may not enjoy Chihayafuru very much.
Try to at least give it a shot, I had A LOT of fun with this anime.

+
Characters, Equality among the Characters, Intense Battles, Humor, Opening (!!!)

-
A lot of theory, Nothing else than Karuta

This being my first review, I decided to review Chihayafuru, anime which I have finished watching like 9 hrs ago, after whole day watching it.

Chihayafuru is one of those anime which at first you might think you will not be interested in, since (at least for me) it is a sport anime, and of a sport that I never even knew that existed till I watched this anime.

I admit, I was avoiding this Chihayafuru for quite some time, since I was not captivated by its premise. But as it often goes, first 3 episodes are crucial and either you get hooked or you ... are off the hook. For me, it was the first one. I kinda like those casual animes where the main protagonist do not end up saving the whole world in the process (although once in a while, those are good to watch too) and this one is a perfect example how to make sport anime.

Each match does not take more than one or one and a half episode, which in comparison with like Kurokos basketball is really really short (like really, one basketball match that takes up to 5 episodes or something like that...), here it is sometimes settled in 12 minutes.

Character development cannot be discussed here without spoilers, so all I can tell that you can see progress with each of the protagonist from the beginning to the end.

As the music goes, nothing memorable here, sometimes I even forgot that there is some music playing in the background. I tried to watch into and outro more than once, but still I always ended up skipping it (nothing beats Spice and Wolf...)

In the end Chihayafuru is one of those sports animes which can captivate you even if you do not know anything about the sport, because the struggles of the main heroes captivate you that you can evend spend all day long watching this series.