HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS THEY APPROVED A SEASON THREE WE GOT MORE CHIHAYAFURU COMING WOOOOO. After a five year break for some live action adaptations, it is somehow miraculously time for more animated Chihayafuru. Having already passed the halfway point of the existing material, I was already getting a little misty-eyed about my upcoming goodbyes; but now there’s a new season coming, everything is wonderful forever, and Chihayafuru will continue to brighten our days for many seasons to come.

No need to thank me, incidentally. I’m well aware of all the buzz these writeups have been generating, but it’d be a little gauche of me to take all the credit for getting this one greenlit. It’s just something that comes with the territory, after all.

Anyway. Marvelous news about Chihayafuru The Franchise aside, right here in Chihayafuru The Show we are currently in the midst of a heated battle with Chihaya’s first rival Retro-kun and his merry men. Our last episode didn’t have any one clear focus, and instead dabbled in some bouncing around the board, offering some unexpected character development for the key Hokuo rivals while also progressing Chihaya, Taichi, and Kana’s ongoing narratives. There was a lot of setup, but not so much payoff, and I’m guessing that means this episode will hone itself into a tighter showdown between Chihaya and Amakasu. Frankly, there are just only so many opportunities for these characters to clash – if they’re spending all this time building up Amakasu’s weaknesses as a player, I have to assume they’re also going to cash in on those weaknesses for character development here, and not keep following him as a parallel thread through nationals. That means this is likely to be a Chihaya-focused match episode, and those are always a treat. Let’s get right to it!

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Let’s trample through another Chihayafuru! Our last episode was one of my favorites of the show to date, a terrific tournament episode that married an excellent team battle to some resonant emotional drama for Taichi. The conflict was essentially “Taichi as team general versus Taichi as individual player,” and he shined in both those roles, giving the audience some real payoff for his overarching role as leader. The balance of setup and payoff can feel a little more prominently visible in sports dramas than many other genres; the show essentially pays in emotional explication and tactical exposition, and then that work eventually pays off through the conflicts that grow out of our understanding of those variables. Last episode was basically all payoff for Taichi’s journey so far, and it was some glorious payoff indeed.

With the semifinals match having been totally consumed by Taichi’s struggles, I’m guessing that means we’ve saved a Chihaya episode for the last match. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Chihaya actually compete – her last defeat was to Yumin back in the first season, and since then we’ve been spectating Shinobu fights and building up the new recruits. This team tournament is essentially the only time in a year that the club gets to fight as a group, so I’m guessing they won’t lose to Retro and company in the regionals, but am interested in seeing what emotional spin they put on this match. And hey, if they for some reason want to give us two General Taichi Addresses His Troops matches in a row, I certainly wouldn’t complain. Let’s get right to it!

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I’m gonna watch more Chihayafuru and you can’t stop me! Having devoted the entirety of this morning to writing over three thousand friggin’ words for a different Current Projects article, this afternoon I’m cooling off with Chihayafuru, my designated comfort watch. So far, the show’s second season has mostly been dedicated to integrating Hanano and Tsukuba into the natural rhythm of the karuta club. It’s been a somewhat bumpy ride to get there; the second episode had to rely on some pretty contrived conceits to solidify Hanano’s membership, and Tsukuba’s personality has only really come into focus in the most recent episode. But that episode also effectively acted as the hard sell of their merger into the group, and at this point, they’re integrated well enough that the natural interactions of them and the other members going forward should finish the job.

With Hanano and Tsukuba-related club integration drama consuming the first day of the team tournament, I’m guessing we’ll now be returning to the original five players, and focusing on the actual tactical back-and-forth of them versus their day two opponents. I’m very excited for this; the previous year’s team tournament was utterly overshadowed by integrating Tsutomu into the group, and so this could be the first time we see our five leads compete together in a purely tactics-driven match, uninhibited by some character’s specific arc-related needs. Chihayafuru’s tactically focused matches often tend to be its biggest highlights, so I’m very ready for what today might bring. Let’s get right to it!

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Alright, let’s jump right into some more Chihayafuru! The show’s last episode saddled itself with an almost insurmountable challenge: integrate Hanano into the overall team in a way that didn’t feel completely out of character for her. Hanano is clearly not the kind of person who’d naturally gravitate towards the karuta team; making her entrance a dramatic hurdle doesn’t require any contrived circumstances, because it’s only under contrived circumstances that she’d even want to join in the first place. Instead, the true challenge of her entrance was basically just justifying its end point. Hanano’s personality would greatly help the team’s overall dynamic, but what series of events could possibly bring her to the point where her presence on the team is already an assumed fact?

Chihayafuru settled on “she’s willing to sacrifice in order to pursue Taichi, and she bonds with Kana.” Those choices don’t really result in clean or entirely believable drama, but that’s basically a tradeoff the show is forced to make in order to justify introducing a character who will clearly improve the overall team dynamic, but has no believable reason to be on a karuta team. One episode of slightly unbelievable drama is a fine price to pay for a character like Hanano, and I’m excited to see how she integrates into the group now that she’s truly joined. Let’s get started on the third episode of Chihayafuru 2!

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Let’s get back to Chihayafuru! The first episode of the show’s second season introduced a girl who’ll presumably be the team’s newest member, the altogether charming Hanano. Hanano is petty and scheming and exactly the kind of sharp-edged character this largely wholesome crew really needed. I’d actually expected us to get a crew member who fulfills this caustic tonal role a long time ago, but I’m still very happy to see her now, and looking forward to seeing how she settles into the overall group dynamic. We’ve also got plenty of traditional Chihayafuru drama to look forward to, and given the first episode was basically all “Hanano is a horny gremlin who doesn’t give a crap about karuta,” I’m eager to see how this episode actually hooks her into the sport, or at least the team. I mean, maybe she’ll actually remain at “karuta is boring, but Taichi is hotter than the seven hells,” but I have to assume she’ll get a bit more texture than that. Either way, she’s an endearingly cynical on-screen presence, and I’m eager to see what this episode brings. Let’s get right to it!

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What the heck you guys let’s watch some more Chihayafuru. Chihayafuru has become one of my steadiest comfort projects in recent months – it’s always a joy to watch, and every episode offers plenty to talk about in a craft sense too, whether it’s through the show’s character work, overall sports drama structure, or the individual choices that bring its matches to life. Though the show certainly has its share of dramatic and aesthetic problems, it nails that ineffable “just one more episode” appeal that is incredibly difficult to achieve and incredibly valuable to possess.

The show’s first season ended on a somewhat unusual conflict, as instead of watching Chihaya herself compete, we last saw the Queen and Master each defend their own titles. In a practical sense, that was pretty much the inevitable result of a faithful adaptation of an ongoing manga – but it also conveniently set the stage for our heroes’ next challenges, and also brought Arata back into the foreground. At this point, my only source of hesitance in starting this season is the fact that we’re probably going to be changing opening songs, and Chihayafuru’s first opening song is one of my all-time favorites. But to live is to change and to change is to suffer, so let’s just accept what we must and GET ON WITH THE KARUTA.

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Let’s finish the first season of Chihayafuru! This show has been a wonderful ride so far, building up an incredibly charming cast and methodically establishing karuta as a robust sports drama platform. Its matches have slowly but surely laid the groundwork for battles that are now both totally comprehensible in a tactical sense and also inherent reflections of their participants’ styles and personalities. And at this point, the cast is broad enough that the show can pull off exciting matches that don’t even even include any of the main characters.

The show’s weaknesses are equally clear. On the narrative front, the Chihaya-Arata-Taichi love triangle exists in a wibbly-wobbly shoujo romance space that is just never as compelling as the karuta-related drama. Though the show has worked to humanize Arata, in an immediate narrative sense, he’s still framed as some kind of lofty goal for Chihaya in a way that doesn’t really invite any sympathy for her situation. Beyond that, the show’s visual style reflects its director’s fairly one-note vision, bathing everything in golden light and generally aiming more for “functional” than “beautiful.” But the story being told and the matches being played are so enjoyable that I’m not really put out by Chihayafuru’s various issues. Let’s check out the Master finals, and finally see the mountain our boys have before them!

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It’s time for Chihayafuru! The last episode was mostly just a check-in episode that pushed all the characters slightly further down their non-karuta-related personal arcs. It wasn’t a standout, but those rarely are, and I’m guessing it’ll take Arata actually returning to karuta in a big way to make his drama feel that satisfying. At the moment, we’ve currently got one show that’s an urgent and exciting sports drama, where Chihaya and her clubmates all apply their unique talents to satisfying karuta matches. At the same time, we’ve also got a Kimi ni Todoke-style slow-burning shoujo love drama, without the endearing face-to-face scenes or strength of characterization to really make that work. I can’t really invest in a romance between two characters who were friends as kids for a couple on-screen episodes, and since then have exchanged maybe a dozen lines in total with each other. Fortunately, I’m guessing last episode’s subdued nature means the show will start revving up into karuta matches again soon, and with two episodes left in the first season, I have to assume that even the Arata drama will start paying off soon. Either way, I’m loving this show in spite of my complaints, so let’s see what episode twenty four brings!

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Alright, let’s get right back to Chihayafuru! Chihaya suffered a pretty crushing defeat last week, finding herself beaten by the eternal Rules Lawyer Queen and prior Actual Queen. Chihaya has begun to internalize processes of reading her opponent, and
moving beyond her wholly speed-based play, but this battle demonstrated that she’s still not mentally strong enough to avoid being easily rattled. Our heroine’s natural focus has thus become its own kind of liability – Chihaya is generally so competitive that
she doesn’t really need to work on settling her nerves, but when her confidence is actually shaken, that means she’s also not really equipped to handle it. We may spend some time attempting to overcome that hurdle now, or we may jump over to Arata’s own struggles. Either way, we’ve only got a few episodes left in Chihayafuru’s first season, so we’re hopefully building up to something. Let’s see what episode twenty-three brings!

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Let’s dive right into Chihayafuru number twenty-two! Last episode turned out to be one of my favorite episodes of the show so far, with both Chihaya’s development as a player and Ririko’s story as her opponent offering strong and emotionally charged drama. “Creating opponents that you also want to cheer for” is pretty much a given when it comes to strong sports drama properties, but by the end of last episode, I was actually tearing up over how Ririko’s efforts reflected her coming to love herself. Ririko’s appearance also made for a clear parallel with Chihaya, her own former play weaknesses embodied in the play style of her opponent.

It was also just very satisfying seeing Chihaya legitimately grow as a player, internalizing the lessons of both her teachers and former opponents, and turning that into a more well-rounded approach to karuta. Chihaya has earned this level up, and I’m excited to see how Chihaya Mk. II plays against her upcoming challengers. Let’s get right to it!

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