THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
Chihayafuru 3 starts off with a quick recap and possibly for the first time in the series actually properly explains how Karuta is played, and I will admit straight up, when I first watched the series years ago I just liked the hype and had 0 clue how the game worked besides the players having to finish their set of cards. This explanation is great because it actually allows the audience to follow the game and understand the very cunning strategic gameplay involved in Karuta and that it really is a skilled sport and not a simple card game. Due to the recap the audience will not be left behind from the huge gap between seasons and will be able to quickly get back into the show, which happens at a breakneck pace and Chihaya almost immediately starts playing in a training camp. She begins improving things like her posture and learning how to use her left hand and strategize while playing Karuta, this training arc is very important later on to her finally winning a tournament, and it heavily foreshadows her growth into becoming one of the top 5 active female Karuta players. After this arc the story doesn’t waste any time, we quickly get into tournaments, future career plans, school trips, and finally the meijin matches. Every arc is wonderfully crafted and feels like a genuine story that has no contrived or standard elements seen in the majority of anime set in a Japanese high school.
The characters who receive the most attention this time around Chihaya and Taichi, which is actually refreshing, although I like the side characters, that’s what they are, side characters. I don’t really want the Karuta club being the main focus in this series, season 2 was heavily focused on a team setting and was set up as a school sports competition anime that is centered on going to nationals. While this was enjoyable and had immense amounts of hype, I like many of you originally got into this series for the character drama between the main characters. This season on the other hand, was focused heavily on personal development and on the big 3 who everyone really wants to know about, Arata, Taichi, and Chihaya. Their character development arcs lived up to everything I wanted, Chihaya has a future plan of becoming a teacher and even makes sure she enjoys her high school life so that she can relate more to students in the future. Arata finally comes to terms with his goal of being the best at Karuta and his love for Chihaya, which leads to one of the most sudden and abrupt confession scenes in anime that had the audience rolling. Mashima realizes that although he really likes the competition of Karuta and doesn’t half ass it at all anymore, what he really wanted was to be side by side with Chihaya and decides that if he can’t have her Karuta isn’t worth playing as a group. Overall, I loved the character drama and I think it was by far the highlight of the series, every main character got the growth I had hoped for, and the side characters got enough attention that they were not left behind.
The art and the animation were also stellar this season, Madhouse is finally back with the high production values. Between the extremely clean card taking, the flower petal imagery, the amazing character design and outfits, the facial expressions during games, and the symbolic imagery for the atmosphere characters felt during games, the art was a perfect 10/10 score and there is nothing more to add. The art of the series is perfect, and while maybe the animators themselves might feel like they can always do more, the viewers themselves are sure to be completely satisfied from the love and care this series received.
To add on the technical values, the sound production was truly splendid. Having professional or at least really well trained readers for the Karuta games really adds something most other anime lack, stellar voice acting in the background. Although most anime can have great voice acting during the important scenes involving the main characters, few shows can boast they have 20 min of great background voice acting that really draws the viewer into the show and makes the 20 min feel like 2. Besides this, the soundtrack was hype, the sound effects were top tier, and the opening was so good I never skipped it. The sound deserves at least a 9, while its not on par with a music based anime, its about as good as it gets for a sports anime.
This season was incredibly enjoyable and for personal enjoyment I would rank it as the best show in both the season it started and the season it ended, it will likely be my top contender for anime of 2020, and I think it is immensely under watched. Overall the series has reached new heights and I cannot help but give this show a near perfect rating of 9, if I was younger and had seen less anime it likely would even receive a 10, if you have read this review and haven’t seen the series yet, please do so, it is among the best anime has to offer.
