Chihayafuru 2

Chihaya Ayase is obsessed with developing her school's competitive karuta club, nursing daunting ambitions like winning the national team championship at the Omi Jingu and becoming the Queen, the best female karuta player in Japan—and in extension, the world. As their second year of high school rolls around, Chihaya and her fellow teammates must recruit new members, train their minds and bodies alike, and battle the formidable opponents that stand in their way to the championship title. Meanwhile, Chihaya's childhood friend, Arata Wataya, the prodigy who introduced her to karuta, rediscovers his lost love for the old card game.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ayase, Chihaya Main

Seto, Asami Japanese

Mashima, Taichi Main

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Wataya, Arata Main

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Wakamiya, Shinobu Supporting

Nakamichi, Mihoko Japanese

Ooe, Kanade Supporting

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Suou, Hisashi Supporting

Touchi, Hiroki Japanese

Harada, Hideo Supporting

Ishizuka, Unshou Japanese

Sudou, Akito Supporting

Ohara, Takashi Japanese

Komano, Tsutomu Supporting

Yonaga, Tsubasa Japanese

Sakurazawa, Midori Supporting

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Maruyama, Masao Producer

Nakatani, Toshio Producer

Ooshima, Yuka Producer

Tsunoki, Takuya Producer

Reviews

Mar 8, 2022

evangelionlove

Recommended

250 WORDS OR LESS REVIEW:

Chihayafuru 2 only covers about half of what season one did. This was the right idea to fix its “sometimes too fast” pacing, but the execution had a lot to be desired. There was too much padding this season; the start to most episodes would be the last minute or two of the previous one. There were also multiple times where a character would reflect on their ENTIRE journey after a victory or defeat, which would take a few minutes to do. The games are drawn out more, which adds to the tension and gives the audience a chance to ... reflect on the characters during their matches. The national tournament was so exciting and I never wanted the characters to win more. The romance is still not at the forefront yet, but it is bubbling more than in season one. The characters are still endearing. I love how Arata has an accent, as many anime wouldn’t care to have a detail like that. More typical sports themes, and basically forgetting the theme of how the West is influencing Japan to stray away from its roots that the previous season opened the door to. I probably overanalyzed anyway. Season two improves upon multiple aspects from season one, but doesn’t really expand upon those opened doors from the previous installment as much as I would have liked. Still a solid addition to the franchise.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 14, 2024

whiteflame55

Mixed Feelings

I think this season was honestly a bit of a let down after the first. It's not even so much that much has changed, but that there's a distinct lack of change on an interpersonal level. Personally, I think a lot of them have shown individual and distinct changes. Arata's really come into his own, gaining back all of his confidence and actually facing Chi and co. for the first time. Sumire and Tsukuba have certainly shown some development, though they are also new to this season. Nishida and Kana have had their moments, and Chi herself has developed mainly as a player, though I'd ... say Taichi and Tsutomu were the most interesting characters this season for their development.

What's remained almost entirely unchanged are the romantic elements, and while this show certainly doesn't have to go hard in the romance department, it feels like it's going out of its way to stay almost entirely still. I wouldn’t mind that if they were entirely absent from the series, but they’re clearly telegraphed from early in S1, so this series can’t just coast as a slice of life at this point. Arata has spent scant few episodes interacting with the main cast, so any love polygon feels like his corner is just barely there. Taichi's relationship with Chi has gotten more interesting, but he steadfastly refuses to even suggest at something more, which is starting to get ridiculous this far into the series. And Chi herself seems almost entirely shut off from romance to the point that it’s a wonder this character is a 16 year old girl. She may be aromantic, but it’s just amazing how little she even considers it. It feels like the writing deliberately drags out what could be something far more interesting if there was a relationship shift and some progression in how they perceive each other that isn't karuta-related.

I don't so much mind the series going into great detail about karuta and analyzing each match, but it does feel like there's only so much time you can spend digging into how its played and how to excel at it before it becomes stale, and this season seemed to push that as well. The interpersonal elements make this series, as does the character development. Making them better at karuta just doesn't have the same oomph to it.

Overall, while there's still a lot of what I like about this series (it still looks great and the OST is even better this season), it just doesn't do as well narratively. Still a good series, but it's losing steam and S3 will have to find a way to pick that up in order to make this continue to be a strong watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jan 15, 2020

lv100sneaking

Not Recommended

Chihayafuru season 2 is pretty disappointing.

This season is incredibly slow compared to the first season. The main characters were developing well last season but they ground it to a halt in this one. Every match feels exactly the same, just with a different set of faces. The Mizusawa gang seemingly loses all confidence at the start of every match, but by the end of them, win or lose, they've got Superman levels of confidence. EVERY match.

This season has got more inner monologue per 26 minutes than any single human is capable in a day. The directors insist we know what all 100+ characters are ... thinking at all time, even when they are completely irrelevant to what's going on in the episode, and they insist on making every thought as detailed as a doctorate's thesis. The directors also insist on making every single emotion, positive or negative, super dramatic, as if our characters are trying to defuse a bomb. ALL THE TIME. Chihaya could be about to fart during a match, you would've thought she just received a letter informing her that her mother died with how intense her reaction is. It takes so much away from the more genuine moments of the season.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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