I finally got to write about Chihayafuru for Why It Works this week, which I’m sure you all saw coming the moment season three was announced. Chihayafuru is awesome, its storytelling is satisfying in the sort of nuts-and-bolts craft sense that tends to lend itself to these columns, and I was more than happy to combine the two. Let’s get to it!
Chihayafuru and the Makings of a Great Tournament Arc
Hello all, and welcome back to Chihayafuru’s pre-Masters tournament! We return in the midst of the top eight, to a field that serves as the ultimate validation of Harada’s teaching style. While this tournament opened with all of the karuta societies’ various leaders bragging about their students, at this point, Harada has emerged as the clear victor. All four quarterfinal matches feature a member of his Shiranami Society, and even Harada himself is still in the running. After years of serving as Chihaya and Taichi’s most reliable ally and confidante, it’s wonderful to see his dedication to karuta and his students pay off in such stunning fashion.
This is no time to sit and celebrate, though! All four of Shiranami’s contenders are facing down tough opponents here, as Taichi squares off against long-time rival and admitted sadist Sudo, while Chihaya battles the actual former queen for a spot in the semis. Here in the third season, Chihaya’s ultimate dream no longer feels all that far away; Haruka might be rusty, but she’s still one of the best karuta players in the world. In a tournament that could very well serve as the ascension of a new karuta generation, Chihaya, Taichi, and Arata are all battling for themselves, for their friends, and for the dreams that have carried them this far. Let’s get to it!
Alright folks, let’s settle in for one more episode of Chihayafuru! When last we left off, Chihayafuru and Taichi had each fought their way through the preliminary rounds of the pre-Masters qualifier tournament, securing two spots in the quarterfinals. For each of them, their route to this moment has involved stepping up their pro karuta game in major, demonstrable ways. On Chihaya’s side, her time spent focusing on her left arm, and increasing awareness of her own tactical choices, has led to her mastering a style somewhat near to Shinobu’s “silent karuta.” In contrast with her dramatic swings early in the series, she’s now embracing precision to use only just as much force is necessary. As a result, she was able to overcome last year’s Master challenger, who was admittedly out of practice, but still far from a pushover of an opponent.
On Taichi’s side, his often painful self-awareness seems to actually be reaping some positive dividends, as he now seems far better able to acknowledge his unproductive mental cycles, and attempt to rise above them. Of course, telling yourself not to be anxious isn’t necessarily a sure-fire way to end your own anxiety; fortunately, Taichi is also benefiting from the emotional support of his many trainers and teammates. As a result, Taichi has bolted to the top eight of his first-ever Class A tournament, a ridiculous feat that only underlines how long he’s actually belonged at this tier. And with Arata, Harada, and various other heavyweights in the mix, I’m sure we’ve got a pile of thrilling matches ahead of us. Let’s get back to Chihayafuru!
Alright everyone, we’ve not a moment to waste here. Chihayafuru’s third season has begun, and within two brief episodes, we’ve already found ourselves in the midst of one more tournament arc. While Chihayafuru is very comfortable executing on training arcs, episodic vignettes, and sequences focused on propelling its central relationships, it is undoubtedly most comfortable, and most entertaining, in the midst of its regular tournament arcs.
And why not? When it comes to stories based around one-on-one competitions like karuta, and particularly ensemble productions like this, the tournament arc is the most natural venue for compressing all of a narrative’s strengths into a concise dramatic structure, complete with naturally rising tension and a continuous feed of fresh antagonists. No need to find some contrived excuse for gathering and battling all your prior enemies: they’re there for the tournament, and that’s explanation enough. The trajectory of your protagonist can be balanced by the journeys of their friends, while the natural winnowing of a tournament’s progression means that as the active battles get more intense, the in-show audience is filled with beloved characters to cheer them on. As Nishida just demonstrated, even one-on-one tournaments don’t have to feel isolating: our heroes are fighting together, and given how well this show has built up all their relationships, I can truly believe in their camaraderie and mutual trust. Let’s dive back into Chihayafuru’s pre-Masters tournament!
Alright folks, let’s get right back to season three of Chihayafuru! It’s currently Wednesday, and I just logged on to Crunchyroll hoping the new episode had been released, only to see that two new episodes have somehow already been released. That doesn’t make any sense to me chronology-wise, but I’m not going to look a gift Chihaya in the mouth, and am eager to get back to the karuta drama. Last episode served as a fast-paced but generally effective return to the series, using an early series of flashbacks to remind us of both the rules of karuta and the relationships between Chihayafuru’s leads, before diving right into Chihaya and Taichi’s training with the Fujisaki team. Their training under Sakurazawa went on to lay out a variety of threads for us to follow, from Chihaya’s quest for a more strategy-minded understanding of karuta, to Taichi’s Chihaya-bound relationship with karuta itself.
Though Taichi’s relationship with karuta has always been closely tied to his feelings for Chihaya, the consistent reiteration of that across season three’s premiere seems to imply that we’ll at last be directly addressing that fact, and moving him towards either a more honest relationship with Chihaya or a healthier one with karuta. At the same time, Chihaya’s new understanding of Taichi’s situation feels like a neat echo of her newfound interest in strategy. In both her personal and competitive life, Chihaya has always been propelled forward by her single-minded love of karuta, an instinct that at times has made her feel more like a narrative force than a fully realized person. Chihaya’s desire for a more thoughtful approach to karuta seems mirrored by her new awareness of Taichi’s feelings, as if in both karuta and her personal life, she’s finally taking a moment to step out of her enthusiasm and assess the world around her. I’m excited to see Chihaya taking steps towards greater self-awareness, and am expecting some gloriously thorny drama ahead for her and Taichi. Let’s see what’s in store in the next Chihayafuru!
Did you really think I wouldn’t also be rambling about Chihayafuru over on Crunchyroll? Considering it’s easily the platform’s strongest pickup of the season, I expect to be gushing plenty more about Chihayafuru over the course of the fall, and that starts right now. Today I break down the foreshadowing and returning threads of Chihayafuru’s third season, sussing out the finer points of season three’s recent premiere. Let’s get to it!
Chihayafuru is Back! But Where Do Its Heroes Go From Here?
It’s time. It’s time! IT’S TIME! It’s been thirteen long months since I concluded my journey through Chihayafuru’s second season, and season three has finally arrived! SIT THE FUCK DOWN EVERYONE, IT’S TIME FOR CHIHAYA SATURDAY.
Alright, I know it’s probably a little inconsiderate of me to say “finally,” considering some of you have been waiting six friggin’ years for this season. But Chihayafuru is just such a fun, lovable property that even my much shorter wait has felt pretty interminable, and to those of you who’ve actually waited the full six years, I salute your fortitude. It has been far too long since we’ve spent time with Chihaya and the gang, and I couldn’t be happier to be back here with the karuta crew, and all of you as well.
When we last left off Chihayafuru, a great number of our key characters had just experienced a variety of major transitions. Arata at last returned to competitive karuta, and ended up beating Shinobu in his first major match, prompting immediate speculation about his path towards the master seat. However, Arata’s victory might have ultimately ended up impacting Shinobu’s journey more than his own, by pushing her another step closer towards embracing karuta as a communal activity. Meanwhile, Taichi at last earned his entry into Class A, and will be joining Chihaya for intensive training under the badass Sakurazawa. With all our leads on new paths and the rest of Chihaya’s team gearing up for fall tournaments, we’ve got plenty to look forward to from the season to come. Let’s return at last to the wonderful Chihayafuru!
Hello folks, and welcome to hell. Having fought my way through nearly every premiere of the fall season, I’ve weathered injustices and disappointments both familiar and entirely new, all to bring you the freshest possible anime delicacies. There were a huge number of new releases this fall season, but with so many of the season’s high-profile shows being sequels, separating the strongest newcomers from the pack seemed even more arduous than usual. I succeeded, though, and I return to you with arms full of alluring new cartoons. Additionally, many of the shows that are either continuing into the fall or commencing new sequels are also really darn good – if you’re not current on them, I’d highly recommend supplementing your viewing schedule with something like Vinland Saga, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, or Chihayafuru.
As usual, I wrote full length reviews for all of the premieres I’ll be summarizing here, which you can check out over at ANN’s preview guide. I’ll also be including links to each individual review below, as I run down the season’s new prospects from best to worst, and separate them into loose tiers of view-worthiness. Returning to help me define those tiers will be an array of representative Chaika gifs, because everybody loves Chaika and it’s easier to describe gifs than to write funny descriptions anyway. Without further ado, let’s break down the fresh premieres of the fall anime season!
With one of my favorite goddamn shows premiering in just a few short weeks, it seemed about time to sing the praises of the endlessly entertaining Chihayafuru. It’s hard to summarize Chihayafuru’s appeal in just a few hundred words, but I did my best to highlight how it’s one of those rare and wonderful shows where your investment in the tactical mechanics of sports drama is always rewarded, often in ways you’d never expect. Here’s the piece!
It’s Time to Get Caught Up For Next Season’s Chihayafuru!
You folks enjoying this summer season? ME NEITHER. FUCK this summer season, we deserve better than this, we’re throwing it out and starting over.
Seriously though, this summer season’s actually been pretty great, but time’s cruel grinding of gears creaks ever onward. With only three weeks left in our current season, it’s time once more to turn our gaze forward, as we examine the approaching highlights of the fall season. Some anime seasons are defined either by larger-than-life creators or ambitious new productions, but for Fall 2019, the biggest stories for me are a pair of long-awaited sequels. My Hero Academia’s fourth season will finally be arriving, and even more importantly, friggin’ Chihayafuru is at last getting its third season! Chihayafuru is one of my absolute favorite recent anime, and having never gotten the chance to watch it as it was airing, I’m absolutely thrilled to experience season three alongside all of you.
Those two shows are likely the biggest stories, but as always, there are plenty of other properties with strong potential or talented creators attached, and every season ends up offering some welcome surprises (like the excellence of this summer’s Granbelm). Per usual, I won’t be summarizing every single upcoming show here – you can check out a site like anichart for something like that. Instead, I’ll just be highlighting the shows that actually catch my attention, with an explanation of what element of their production team or source material or whatnot caught my eye. Without further ado, let’s preview the top prospects of the upcoming season!