Chihayafuru

Always deemed inferior to her elder sister, the strong-willed yet aimless Chihaya Ayase has no dream of her own. In contrast to her, Taichi Mashima, the son of a surgeon, is gifted yet insecure as he is burdened by the heavy expectations of his strict mother, who wants him to be perfect in everything. However, the lives of Chihaya and Taichi soon change as they encounter Arata Wataya, the new transfer student in their class.

Inspired by Arata's dream to become the best at competitive karuta—a card game based on the classic anthology of one hundred Japanese poets—Chihaya quickly falls in love with the game. Refusing to lose to the talented Arata, the prideful Taichi joins along and immerses himself in the game, aiming to one day surpass his fated rival. The three friends spend their childhood practicing karuta everyday, until certain circumstances force them to part with each other.

A few years later, now in high school, the trio finds themselves reunited through the world of competitive karuta. Alongside their newfound comrades and rivals, they embark on a journey of self-discovery, friendship, and romance.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Chihayafuru won the second Manga Taisho award in 2009 and the 35th Kodansha Manga Award in the shoujo manga category in 2011.

Kodansha published the first three volumes of Chihayafuru, consisting of the first seventeen chapters, in two English/Japanese volumes under their Kodansha Bilingual Comics line, on December 21, 2011 and February 23, 2012 respectively. Kodansha Comics USA has been digitally publishing the series in English since February 14, 2017.

Two live-action films were released in 2016. The first, titled Chihayafuru Kaminoku, opened in Japanese cinemas on March 19, followed by a second film, titled Shimonoku, on April 29, 2016. During a stage greeting event for the second film, a surprise announcement was made that a sequel would be produced, although details for a production schedule or release date were not revealed.

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Related Manga

Alternative version:	Chihayafuru: Chuugakusei-hen
Adaptation:	Chihayafuru, Chihayafuru 2, Chihayafuru 3
Sequel:	Chihayafuru Plus: Kimi ga Tame

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Characters

Ayase, Chihaya

Main

Mashima, Taichi

Main

Wataya, Arata

Main

Wakamiya, Shinobu

Supporting

Ooe, Kanade

Supporting

Suou, Hisashi

Supporting

Harada, Hideo

Supporting

Sudou, Akito

Supporting

Komano, Tsutomu

Supporting

Sakurazawa, Midori

Supporting

Reviews

Jun 10, 2023

MaahHeim

Recommended

There are some things in this world that can give you a purpose and/or save you. We call that "passion". For Chihaya, that passion was karuta. And for me, that passion was Chihayafuru.

It took me a long while to write this review because I felt like I'd never going to be able to put into words how incredible important this manga is for me, and how it changed not only me, but the very competitive karuta scene in Japan and around the world.

Chihayafuru is a story about three childhood friends that end up playing the same thing together: Karuta. It is a real game that's ... been around for almost a thousand years, and was previously played using shells instead of cards. The one played in the manga is called Competitive Karuta, which is a form of karuta that combines agility, memory and poetry. I want to start by saying that it wasn't that much popular before Chihayafuru, and that a manga, THIS manga, was able to make it popular again.

These three childhood friends end up growing up and going different ways, only to find each other again, for different reasons, in high school. Our main character, Chihaya Ayase, who is completely addicted to karuta, really wants to make a club out of it in her new school, but (as you probably felt reading all my previous paragraph) there weren't a lot of people interested in karuta/that really understood it at first glance. In Japan, kids are made to remember all the 100 poems that are needed for playing competitive karuta, so it kind of becomes a traumatic memory for most. Still, Chihaya decides to find people to play with her, and, during that, ends up trying to re-connect with the two people who played with her when she was a teenager. One of the boys, Taichi, hasn't played it since his childhood because of other interests, and her other friend, Arata, the one who showed her what karuta was about, was faced with incredible loss and stopped playing it for good.

Chihaya never stopped, though. With her unwavering love and having find a dream that is finally hers: to become the Queen, the strongest female player of karuta in all of Japan. As she moves foward, her old friends and new friends she make along the way end up getting dazzled by karuta as well, meeting her in her journey as friends, teammates, rivals, senpais and kouhais. This is a story about a young girl figuring out what she wants to be, following her dream, falling in love and meeting incredible people as she plays one of the most delicate and yet intense games ever made (so intense that is considered a sport in Japan, actually). The 100 poems speak to her, and speak to the reader. The author, Suetsugu Yuki, is incredible in every aspect: The metaphors, the art, the story, the way she writes her characters. She is able to show how competitive karuta matches work through the eyes of the players. The romance has its many setbacks, but is one of the most beautiful love stories I've ever seen (Shipping them for literal 8 years and seeing them end up together was one of the best moments of my life). The characters stayed and will stay with me forever as well.

This is an amazing story, an amazing shoujo, an amazing romance. I hope you give it a chance even though my review might've been too emotional and not say much about the actual story. And if you do give it a chance, I hope it makes you want to keep moving on as it did for me.

"Like a boatsman adrift at the mouth of Yura, I do not know where this love will take me." - Sone no Yoshitada (poem 46)

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Jun 23, 2023

Abyque

Recommended

“If I can be the best in the world at something, then I think it’s worth a shot.” – Chihaya Ayase

Finding what you love is the most important lesson I've taken away from this series, and the Chihayafuru series has become an important part of my life. Life is full of ups and downs, and I believe that everyone experiences these, but sometimes you just wonder "what am I doing?" or "what is the point of my life?" You don't know what to do, how to feel, or where to lead yourself. We often start to doubt every area of our lives when we're feeling ...

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Aug 20, 2022

broke_and_brown

Recommended

Well-written

"kaze wo itami, iwa utsu nami no, onore nomi, kudakete mono wo, omou koro kana" - Loosely translates to "As the wind is strong, waves hit the rocks, yet only I am shattered when I think of you."
Chihayafuru is one of the best thematic and nuanced character works in manga/anime, at least ever since Sangatsu no lion. While Karuta is the central plot device to move the story, the Hyakunin Isshu - the 100 poems are subtly the main drivers of the story. This becomes much more apparent when each of the poems wonderfully encompasses the story of each of the characters and their ...

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Chihayafuru Sequel - Chihayafuru plus - kimi ga tame announced ItzElite - Oct 31	18 replies	by RobertBobert »» Nov 2, 3:10 AM
Poll: Chihayafuru Chapter 205 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 7, 2018	79 replies	by Zooincle »» Oct 31, 9:39 AM
Poll: Chihayafuru Chapter 134 Discussion Stark700 - Aug 26, 2014	15 replies	by Zooincle »» Oct 29, 9:23 PM
How does the manga compare to the anime? (NO SPOILERS) TsutanaiFuun - Jul 21	2 replies	by Nirinbo »» Jul 21, 10:09 AM
I don't know but i hate arata. You too? jit8082 - Dec 30, 2022	3 replies	by Raon »» Jun 30, 12:17 AM

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