LogFAQs > #969500631

23. Chihayafuru
https://myanimelist.net/anime/10800/Chihayafuru
Fall 2011 (25 episodes), Winter 2013 (25 episodes), Fall 2019 (24 episodes)
My Score: 9/10, MAL Score: 8.19/10 S1, 8.39/10 S2, 8.47/10 S3
Best Character: Ayase Chihaya

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcCJgmLZYkE

BONUS (a ProZD video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj7VMd8z8XA
(I don't normally watch his stuff, but a friend showed me this years ago after we had pretty much the same conversation, so I felt like including it)

Premise: Karuta is a sport where a reader goes through a series of poems and players compete using speed and memorization to be the first to grab its corresponding card. Ayase Chihaya is obsessed with the game, and she works hard to build a karuta club in high school.

The Good: Chihayafuru is the greatest sports anime I've ever seen. I'm sure some of the people who have never heard of this anime are glancing back up at the premise and wondering if I'm being serious. I mean, this is a sport where step one is memorizing a hundred poems, and then you compete to be the first one to sweep them from the play area when their corresponding line is read. I know it doesn't sound super exciting. However, Chihayafuru does an excellent job at all of the things that make a sports anime entertaining.

Karuta has a surprising amount of depth. There's always a new technique to learn and perfect. Theres always a new way of thinking to steel oneself against powerful opponents. Chihaya and her friends practice hard together to improve, and there are a lot of fun character moments along the way. Watching them play karuta also quickly became hypnotic. Anything can be fun with the right presentation and editing. I also like how karuta doesn't have much division between men and women or the young and old. Anyone can play it, so over the course of three seasons it builds up an impressive cast of characters. I like all of the main ones, including Taichi and Arata. Chihaya herself is still easily my favorite. She's a tomboy whose her sport of choice is karuta, and she has a lot of great moments where she obsesses over it. If the sports stuff isn't gripping enough, this anime also has one of the best love triangles I've ever seen between the three main characters. It adds a lot of depth and emotion without ever distracting from the karuta.

The Bad: My only problems with this are inherent to karuta itself. I really hated one opponent whose whole gimmick was challenging every single card the other player got. Karuta matches desperately need to be recorded for video playback and have referees to cut down on this bad sportsmanship! Another opponent was only good when their grandmother was the poem reader because they'd been listening to her voice all their life and could pick up things earlier than anyone else. That's an unfair advantage! As you can see, I'm very invested in the nuances of karuta. In a way, that's a compliment, because it means Chihayafuru made me care about a sport that sounded so boring initially.

Overall: When I was watching the newest season of Chihayafuru recently, I was surprised how quickly the episodes flew by. Karuta is a sport that's very stop-and-start. If it was presented wrong it would be a boring drag to get through. This anime always managed to create tension between opponents, however. The matches were always gripping. The overarching goals of the characters, as well as their development, also flowed seamlessly between events and linked everything together. I know karuta sounds like a boring sport, but Chihayafuru managed to turn it into something I genuinely cared about. I hope it gets another season someday. It was a wonderful surprise when S3 came out after a six year pause. Now that the manga is over, though, I fear this might be as far as the anime goes. Even if that is the case, it was still one hell of a ride.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/8/3/AAcDcBAAD5Hf.jpg

CHARACTER: Ayase Chihaya (Chihayafuru)
https://myanimelist.net/character/47163/Chihaya_Ayase
Voiced by: Seto Asami
TOP 100 RANK: 26th

SPOILERS FOR CHIHAYAFURU

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGNTSKusYmY

That isn't a great video. It was surprisingly difficult to find any clips of Chihayafuru at all. Still, I think it's a good way of showing Chihaya's overall character. Other than the karuta sports stuff, the biggest thing in this is the Taichi/Chihaya/Arata love triangle. Both of them are good guys with a genuine connection to her. Chihaya is a beautiful girl, but most people are put off by her personality. Taichi and Arata both respect and admire her karuta obsession, though. That video is two clips where Chihaya had a chance at some girl talk, and in both of them she somehow circles back to karuta. I don't think either of her potential lovers would be surprised or offended at that. They'd probably think it was cute, and that's why I'm pretty much okay with Chihaya ending up with either of them.

Still, if you'll permit me to talk about shipping a bit more, I do have a personal preference. I'm on Team Arata for a few reasons. One is that, as far as I can tell, Chihaya is leaning that direction too. She's had some cute moments where she thinks about Arata that way. When Taichi turned down Sumire, he said that he wanted to choose the girl he dedicated himself to. Well, Chihaya deserves the same opportunity, and she seems to be choosing Arata. By the end of the third season, both of them have confessed to her. I think the contrast between them points to Arata as the better choice. Taichi left Chihaya an emotional mess, and she was even on the verge of quitting karuta. I understood where Taichi was coming from, but, still. Compare that to Arata. The only reason the third season ended on a remotely happy note was because Arata did everything he could to lift Chihaya's spirits. I think he's the superior choice! Both boys are still good.

Aside from the romance stuff, Chihaya is just a friendly and fun character. She has so many idiosyncrasies, like passing out to sleep between matches. More than anything, though, watching her karuta skills grow over the course of three seasons really invested me in her. I celebrated her victories and lamented her losses. I felt for her when she injured her finger. I watched her dream about becoming Queen, and I have no doubt in my mind that she'll get there someday. Chihaya is just such a wonderful character.