Chihayafuru

Oct 31, 2011

Moon_Light

Recommended

Preliminary (2/252 chp)

I wasn’t going to review Chihayafuru yet, but it’s epic-ness needs to be shared with the world, well "the world," is a broad statement, and yeah so is "epic-ness," but either way, it's a really cute anime. So, let me count thee ways of awesome-ness.

Being a fan of both anime and manga (though anime has only a few episodes in as well) I couldn’t pass the opportunity to rant about it.

The story's main theme are on the simplicity of friendship, passion, and dreams, some the things that matter and drive our spirit as a youngster (first time ever to use that word). Not any ... passion, a form of passion that moves us and sometimes helps us achieve things we didn’t think we could, even if we feel that part of us has long ago deserted us.

Chihaya is an outspoken girl who looks up to her model sister and is her number one fan. Her number one dream is for her sister to become a great model.
One day, Arata transfers into her class and automatically because of his shy and none talkative nature he is secluded and picked on., His number one bully is Taichi, Chihaya’s friend since childhood. Through a few random occurrences they end up becoming friends. Arata then introduces her to the world of karuta, a card (sorta) game. Her world is never the same after that.

Chihaya’s point of view is pure, the only type of innocence that a kid can accomplish. The beginning is mainly showing us how karuta entered her life and how it changed her.
Right a way you can tell things are going to happen that are going to test the boundaries of friendship, will, love, and everything in between. Not necessarily romantic love, I mean the love you have for your dreams, goals, and for your friends. How people growing apart and having their own life doesn't mean they forget you . How no matter what the distance, they don't always really lose that part of themselves that made you friends to begin with.

The art is clean and beautiful. I loved to see the transformation into their older self and that they looked different and yet you can tell it’s them and not because they still resemble their old self somehow. It’s very well done. But hands down the anime gives you the full effect of said art. You’ll know what I mean when you see it. Still very cute and charming, just like the story thus far.

The characters are one of the best thing in this manga, though what gives it a nice touch is the karuta element.
Arata , Taichi, and Chihaya are great characters, whose individual persona are what make them a great combination, because they are very different. Chihaya grew up and didn’t forget and throughout the beginning you can tell that she’s the glue, the proverbial glue that holds them together at the end. Her and karuta. It always goes back to that game to the point that it’s character of its own.

I didn't really find anything I disliked with the manga. It's too early to tell what direction it's actually going to go, although we can speculate at this point but I really hope I'm wrong (I like to be surprised!). It has a shoujo atmosphere about it that is a common ground with a lot of manga but it also feels like it'll have more depth just like the first few chapters suggest.

The end of each chapter is a constant reminder that you shouldn’t give up on your dreams. No matter how young or old or in between, dreams are dreams. They fuel us to keep going, to look forward.
The thing to see is if Chihaya, Taichi and Arata can sustain the flow of time and distance…
I can’t say anything else since there are too few chapters out as of now. But it's definitely worth a shot.

“You can’t call it a dream if you don’t work on it yourself.”

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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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Sep 23, 2022

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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May 9, 2014

sayuri-99

Recommended

Preliminary (Unknown/252 chp)

Truthfully, I didn't expect much at all when I read this manga. I didn't even know what karuta was! I decided to pick it up out of pure boredom ne because the ratings were high. It definitely exceeded my expectations.

Story: 10

The story itself is pretty simple: a girl who wants to become a karuta queen, who then forms a karuta club at her school. Even though I can't relate to karuta at all, the execution is wonderful. It makes you feel as if you can relate, even though you can't. I assume I feel I can relate because of their passion and drive to try ...

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Jan 22, 2016

HiatusXHiatus

Recommended

Preliminary (157/252 chp)

Though it was written josei genre, in my opinion Chihayafuru is rare example of combination between shonen and shojo.

About Chihayafuru :
Chihayafuru is a manga that tells the story of a high school girl named Ayase Chihaya who aspires to become a Karuta Queen because of her encounter with her childhood friend, Wataya Arata. The question is, what is it Karuta anyways? Even I have already read up to chapter 157 (at the time of writing this review) is still not fully understood about Karuta. When I was asked to play it, I definitely can't play it. In essence, Karuta is a card game while ... listening. When both players hear a poem in accordance with one of the existing card, then who was the first to get the card wil get point. The winner is the player who collects the most cards (the player whose card runs out in their area has won).

About Karuta :
Although it sounds simple, but this game requires a lot of requirements. Players must memorize the whole poem to be read, for it takes a strong memory and concentration. Players also must respond immediately when a poem was read when it also takes a keen hearing. Finally, players must take the first card than their opponent, while it also takes speed and accuracy when taking the card. In other words, to be proficient in Karuta. It takes memory, hearing, speed and accuracy. Not to mention also takes stamina, concentration, pose, mental conditions and various other things. This is what makes the game Karuta no less exciting than football, basketball, or volleyball.

Story :
Not much to say about the story like most sport manga in general, make team, join tournamet, and fight various opponent. But the thing many sport manga didn't have is the romance. Chihayafuru can insert beautiful romance in the middle of tournament, not to mention the romance itself is a complicated one between Chihaya-Taichi or Chihaya-Arata.

Character :
Many character in Chihayafuru are interesting, the main character herself Chihaya has different when usually the main character of sports manga are boy. Her cheerful and spirited character can make special affection towards myself. Unlike many female characters in general that are sensitive, Chihaya is really insensitive expecially about love, she is just Karuta Otaku, people often call her beauty in vain. Next is Mashima Taichi that has crush on her for a long time and sadly one-sided, he's a real friendzone. But I think his character are the most developed, he can fill the hole that Chihaya flaws as a main character. Next is Arata, when you watch the anime and continue with the manga, you can see his character are develop too.

Other than those three, many supporting character are also interesting. Mizusawa's teammate have their own role to the story. And the character are not only a highschool students, there are many older players too that can make Chihayafuru more interesting than the average High School Sports.

Art :
The art are good, I have no complain.

Conclusion :
Like I said before, chihayafuru is rare example of combination between shonen and shojo. On the one hand this manga can make your heart pumping with it's shonen like tournament but on the other hand can also make your heart melting with it's shojo classical triangle love. I found a new genre of manga, Sportmance (lame is it? LOL).

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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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Jul 22, 2011

greenforv

Recommended

Preliminary (9/252 chp)

I usually don't read sports manga or anything sports related for that matter. But this manga is much more than about a sport as much as it is about building relationships thru it.The story is predicable, and as I kept on reading it, I found it to be about accomplishing one's dreams (no matter how trivial they may seem to others), about being passionate about something in life and about lasting friendship. Chihaya is a girl who discovers the game of karuta, in elementary school, thru another student named Arata, as well as her innate ability for itl. Along with another classmate, Taichi, the three ... form a team and continue to improve until they graduate from elementary school and go their own separate ways. Chihaya still hopes that one day three will be reunited to play karuta like old days and continues to pursue her passion for it. This forms the basis of the story, her trying to bring her friends together to play karuta again while striving to become the best in the game in face of all the teasing, mocking and disapproval she receives for it.

Story 7- The story has been predictable for the 9 chps that I've read so far. It's not the most original story. It uses karuta to illustrate all sorts of relationships within a family, school, friends, etc... not just within a team or a romance. Though romance is another subplot, i hope it stays that way and become the central point further down.

Art 8- I don't know much about art, but I enjoyed looking at the bishie characters, shoujo backgrounds in some panels and the details. A lot of attention has been paid to drawing the detailed panels of the game karuta, which I really enjoyed.

Characters 7- The characters are the prototypes of the most you've read in other shoujo/shounen manga. But one of the characters that stands out is the main character Chihaya. She made me keep on reading the manga and as the manga progresses she's the one whose character develops the fastest and best. I like how she's not been shown to be a typical shoujo girl, but as an indepedent girl with a kind and helping heart. The other characters (main or secondary) don't stand out much for me, cus you have the archetype of the stoic character with a sad past, the perfect childhood friend who's most likely in love with the girl. I would say that, for me at least, the story is character driven rather than plot.

Enjoyment 7- The reread value is not very high, very low medium for me. But so far I'm enjoying reading it. I hope it doesn't deviate from the main plot much and go into a different territory. It should rest as a sports manga without involving a lot of romance.

Overall 7- Not the most original manga you've probably read, but won't feel like you've wasted your time reading it. I would recommend it as a light read and for teens.

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Mar 19, 2016

saki88

Recommended

Preliminary (163/252 chp)

personally, whatever manga that consumes me, i consider it a masterpiece. a story that does not make me sleep at night. characters that get my blood boiling. a plot that gives me goosebumps. a story that makes me cry, smile and touches my inner soul while reading and after reading.

story wise - 10
because i havent read anything similar to this one. you just have to read the manga to find out for yourself.

art - 10
because i dont read a manga that does not have excellent art.. this one is really excellent, for me

character - 9
im giving it a nine because.. well i thought arata ...

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