The characters are awesome. Taichi's my personal favorite. He's a total ass in the first episode and afterwards becomes the sweetest guy in the series. Despite him being good-looking and good at everything, he's a self-proclaimed coward with a crush on the main character, Chihaya. I hear some people give Chihaya shit for being annoying, but she's not. I find her to be the most endearing of the entire cast. She's the one who most strongly pushes forward the theme of growing stronger, which is one of my favorite themes in anime. The progression of strength really makes you feel proud of what she and the other characters have worked hard at to perfect.
There's also Ooe, Nishida, and Desk-kun. All of which have moments that made me admire them, but other that, not too interesting or worth the screen time. There is, however, Arata and Shinobu, the "antagonist" and the antagonist.
Arata was childhood friends with Taichi and Chihaya and came to fall deeply in love with the group they had formed, but had to leave soon after solidifying their bonds. After several years, they see each other again, but this time he acts as more of a mysterious obstacle, for both Chihaya and Taichi in different ways. Chihaya wants to overcome his power in karuta and Taichi wants to overcome the emotional hold he has on Chihaya. We got some sad love triangle stuff going on.
Shinobu is a beautiful girl who dominates in karuta, which is why she's given the title of Queen, the strongest female player. She's a lonely girl, who spends all her time perfecting her art and growing stronger. A child who grew up isolated, as she was made to be good at karuta, so no friends... This is where you can sympathize with her, which makes her a good antagonist in my book.
The art is very nice, but did take me an episode or two to get used to. It reminds me of Your Lie in April's art style, where actual lips are drawn on certain characters.
Oh, and the OP is amazing.
Basically, it's a good-ass show and should be viewed.
