Chihayafuru: The Most Beautiful Anime You've Never Heard Of

“In my mind, the words of the many who came before me are the treasures I have inherited over the years. And to pass them along to all of you, to sell them secondhand, is why I became a teacher.”- Tokiji Fukasaku

Hello! And welcome to my first written anime review. Today I’m going to be writing about one of my favorite stories throughout any media, Chihayafuru. The quote above inspires me every time I read it, to share the stories that I have found myself lucky enough to hear throughout my life. That being said, this review will have spoilers, so please, if you haven’t seen Chihayafuru yet, go and watch it. It’s an incredible show, and I don’t want to ruin any of the moments in the show that I want to talk about here. And with that, let’s get into it!

Story:

Chihayafuru is a sports shonen hiding inside of a story about an obscure Japanese card game centered around poetry. It follows our titular protagonist, Chihaya Ayase, on her journey from a child and a karuta beginner, to her early adult life as an experienced and accomplished player. Chihayafuru doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, and it doesn’t need to. The sports shonen formula has always been compelling, and will be for a long time to come. The better half of season 2 is a tournament arc, which is fun, thrilling, and emotional the whole way through. That being said, sports shonen live and die by their cast of characters. They need to have a main team that we want to cheer on, to hope for the best for, to feel pain for in a difficult loss. Especially good sports shonen will even develop the benchwarmers, and have you hope for their time in the spotlight. Chihayafuru delivers on this in spades. From Ayase’s childhood rival Taichi, to child karuta prodigy who gave up the game Porky-Kun, to our beloved bespectacled analyst Desktomu, every character in the Mizusawa high school line-up, and plenty of characters from other teams get their time to shine, and all get some jaw-dropping, heart-wrenching moments. 

Chihayafuru starts its story with a short, incredibly well-done arc of our 3 main protagonists, Ayase, Taichi, and mutual friend and grandson of an Eternal Master of karuta, Arata, as children. This arc does a great job of exemplifying who these 3 are as characters, and most importantly, introduces Chihaya to karuta, igniting her love of the game and setting the rest of the show in motion. The rest of the show’s 3 season long run time show Chihaya’s journey to become the best karuta player that she can be, from forming a team to compete in tournaments with, to networking with great players throughout the karuta scene, and her constant practice and dedication to the game she loves. It’s a simple premise, and certainly one that’s been done before, that works because it’s executed in a top-notch manner. We get to see Ayase and her team go through multiple hardships, we get to cheer for them when they overcome them, and get to sit with them in their moments of failure. Chiaya and team Mizusawa’s growth over the series runtime is extremely satisfying to watch, and feels realistic and believable because the characters are all given a good amount of time on screen, and their defining moments are taken seriously and allowed sufficient time to breath by the studio, amplifying the emotional depth of the series. Overall, I love Chihayafuru’s story. It’s a fairly simple story written very well, and that’s all it needs to be. 

Production:

As much praise as I just sang this show’s story, what really elevates this show to the level that it is is its production. Madhouse is a consistently great studio, and are the ones behind a lot of my favorite shows (A Place Further Than the Universe, Parasyte: The Maxim, Death Note, and most recently, Frieren). Chihayafuru is animated beautifully, and this really gets highlighted in the show’s more emotionally resonant moments. The show is at its best when the characters win a tournament, are crying tears of joy and hugging one another, and that moment is allowed to just hang in the air for a minute. We get to see the emotions on characters’ faces as they’re processing them themselves, and as an audience the show gives us the time to take a step back and feel what the characters are feeling.

And of course, this breathtaking animation wouldn’t be complete without a great score to back it up. The music in Chihayafuru is so memorable, and it all fits together so well. The score has these really comforting, slower pieces that are used expertly to complement the story and elevate these defining moments of the show. That being said, the more hype moments of the show feel a little underscored compared to the slower times. The music that plays during tournaments is not what has stuck with me for the last few years since I first watched Chihayafuru. The music that I still find myself humming from time to time are the pieces that play while Chihaya is celebrating a big tournament win, or the moments where teammates are comforting one another after a difficult loss. 

If there is one critique of Chihayafuru’s animation that I could give, it would be that the show often uses a really saturated, nostalgic filter to it. I don’t know the technical way to describe it, and I personally like it as a method of emphasis for the more important moments of the show, but I could see how it could be grating to some. 

Characters:

My favorite character changes every time I watch Chihayafuru. My first time watching, it was Taichi, genius child, talented at whatever he attempted. His fall from grace as the best karuta player in his elementary school class, to struggling to keep up with Ayase when they enter high school, as well as his learning of the value of hard work and the satisfaction that comes from achieving goals that have been deliberately worked towards is extremely compelling to watch, and the man that Taichi grows into is a great sight. My second time, it was Tsutomu, often called Desktomu. Getting to see his growth from someone who was literally glued to his desk, too insecure to pursue anything outside of studying, into a confident and happy member of the Mizusawa karuta club, was fantastic. Most recently, and I think currently, my favorite character is Hanano Sumire. She gets introduced to the audience as a girl who is boy-crazy, and will stop at nothing to get what she wants, and right now, what she wants is Taichi. She decides to join the club as an attempt to get closer to Taichi, and throughout the show, we see how she changes from being completely disinterested in karuta, and unwilling to play if she didn’t absolutely have to, to watching her be completely engulfed in watching her teammates play, cheering them on, and waiting eagerly for her chance to play. Even though she’s definitely a B-string player on the team, she has quite a few scenes where she absolutely steals the spotlight. One of my favorite moments in the entire show happens when Taichi decides to play in a tournament while the rest of the club is on their class trip. Hanano, being a first year, isn’t on the trip, and decides to go and cheer him on - yet another attempt to win him over. Taichi stayed home from the trip by telling his mom that he was feeling sick, and when she learns what is actually going on, she storms to the karuta hall to pull him from the tournament. The one who prevents this from happening is Sumire. Telling his mother to let him play, trying to explain how much this means to Taichi, begging her to look through the window and see how hard he’s working to achieve the goals he has set for himself, Sumire sacrifices any chance that she’d have with Taichi romantically,by starting a foundation of displeasure between her and Taichi’s mom, in favor of helping Taichi keep going in this tournament, and to play as hard as he can for as long as he can. There are many moments like this throughout the show, but this is one that has always stuck with me. 

Manga Ending:

Alright, I’m gonna say this one more time: If you haven’t seen the show, please do so before you read this.

Sadly, the ending of Chihayafuru has yet to be animated. There are about 120~ chapters, if I recall correctly, of manga content after the ending of season 3. And if you are a fan of the series, you need to read this ending. It brings the entire show to a resolution that is equally satisfying and painful. Characters that we’ve watched grow throughout the shows 75 episodes get really great sendoffs (they’re not dying lol). We get a slight time-skip that shows what the characters are up to down the line, and shows that their lives will go on.

I have multiple favorite moments from the ending, from Porky getting to be the greatest wingman of all time and helping Desktomu finally be with Kanade, from watching Ayase finally become a karuta master, Taichi finally finding himself and his love for karuta once again after having it almost robbed from him, from watching Taichi and Chihaya finally end up together, and watching Arata carry on despite his losses, both romantically and in karuta, and maintain his friendship with both Chihaya and Taichi. I pray that one day this ending gets animated, and if it ever is I really hope that Madhouse is the studio behind it.

Conclusion:

If you can’t tell by now, I absolutely adore Chihayafuru. It is a perfect 10/10 in my opinion, and is a show that made me take away a previous 10 rating from shows that don't meet this same level of excellence. This show means so much to me, and despite me watching it 4 times by now, I can’t wait to watch it again. This is one of the many stories I’ve been lucky enough to experience, and I’m truly grateful for the chance to be able to talk about it a bit with you guys. Thank you so much for reading, and please let me know if there’s any other shows you’d like to see me or the other members of Oyasumi X Anime talk (or write) about on our discord at https://discord.gg/9qdVP7Ghej . Have a great day!