Chihayafuru 3 follow the lead of the first two seasons to make an incredible spokon from a discipline quite unknown outside Japan: (competitive) karuta. A discipline that, though creates some scepticism at first, you will soon love because of the righteous adaptation to animation it has.
While the first season focused on the presentation of the characters and world of karuta and the second one on a pure display of the “sport”, the techniques and the competitive factor, this season focus on what it supposed to: going further and beyond. However, I got to admit I missed a bit the “slice of life” essence of the first season during the second one, which is filled with matches and matches. Don’t misunderstand me: Yuki Suetsugu is a wonderful writer that accomplishes to reinvent her work constantly. Chapter after chapter she brings new ideas, new strategies, new thoughts about the discipline, new personalities and cast of rivals, new emotions and gestures about the tatami, all created in a sublime way and with an unprecedented plot and directional quality, making her work remain fresh and interesting game after game. But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t miss there more of the emotional drug that I like: more interaction between the characters, more unrequited love, more moments at school, more real interaction from the rest of the secondary characters in play beyond being mere spectators of a game. It is also true that I found the introduction of the new freshman members of the club a bit forced and accelerated, but this is something that can be easily overlooked. After all, we are talking between an outstanding and a remarkable high.
In fact, all these aspects that I missed a little during the second season are clearly manifested again during the third season, and I have only needed 6-7 episodes to prove it. In this, the author manages to insert incredibly emotional moments about the feelings and background of the characters between game and game in a very organic and realistic way.
To all this we must add the incredible work of animation and artistic direction of Madhouse, who returns to work in Chihayafuru almost five years later, which manages not only to maintain the high level of the first two seasons but to refine the animation and the direction of the work after several years of pause.
It is clear, therefore, that Chihayafuru remains the underrated jewel of the slice of life and spokon genre that it always was. We are facing a work full of love and passion that people full of love and passion know how to appreciate.
