Chihayafuru Anime Review

I remember when this show first aired in the Fall Season of 2011. It’s been a while since then, and the show has had 2 seasons worth 50 episodes since. Despite centering around a traditional Japanese memory game called Caruta, it has quite the following from all cultures. It originally caught my eye because it falls under two specific categories, josei and poetry. That couldn’t appeal to me more! I began watching it as soon as it aired in October of that year. Now that its second season wrapped up at the end of June I believe it’s time I reviewed the anime. So let’s get on with it!

The story of Chihayafuru (appropriately titled after its protagonist) follows a second year high school student named Chihaya. She and her two childhood friends Taichi and Arata  bonded over playing Caruta together. But as they got older, Arata moved away and their friendship was severed for many years. Luckily what brought them together in the first place ultimately brought them together again. The story of their friendship however is not exactly the main focus, the story focuses mainly on the culture that surrounds Caruta, for high school students as well as those looking to play on a national scale. The story of the three friends takes a back seat as often practicing, tournaments and Caruta culture is what keeps the story moving forward. Chihaya creates a Caruta club for her high school and so opens up the cast of characters to her teammates as well as other students from other schools. We get to learn the inner workings of different types of characters, their mentality towards the sport and their thoughts as they play the game. There’s a lot to this anime and that’s a strong point. They offer so many perspectives that you can get wrapped up in all the little details pretty quickly.


There is a lot to learn about the world of Caruta if you watch this anime. As a Canadian I had never heard of Caruta before I started watching. It seems like it would be so much fun to play if there were an English equivalent. The culture is fascinating, and it’s refreshing to see something that’s typically unpopular be featured in a popular anime, and have it be popular enough to return for a second season. I couldn’t get into animes focused around tennis, basketball or other sports, but this featured the right sort of sport for me! It respects the sport and shows just how stressful, but how beautiful the sport can be. It is based on poetry after all, and learning about the hundred poets of Japan was a treat. I wish it focused on the poems more so, but I understand why they didn’t (just a personal preference!). I also feel like this anime does a good job of showing the Japanese culture around competition in a traditional setting; it’s an enjoyable way of learning more about their culture on the whole.


Another strong point is the diversity of the characters in this anime, all of them are very interesting. Each episode brings in new characters how ever briefly, and lets the audience into their head as they play Caruta. Players, coaches, parents, students, on lookers, almost everyone is examined. It adds a great dynamic that not many other animes get the opportunity to do. However because of its broad spectrum it lacks in developing the main characters. Even its main character Chihaya feels very under developed most of the time. She doesn’t change enough to make you feel like you’re on a journey with her, and her traits are uncommon and hard to relate to. She’s likeable, especially in the first few episodes where she’s a child and growing into her own, but the character she becomes as a teenager is stubborn and too much of an air head. The potential she had as a child is lost when she grows up. It’s a shame to be honest. She’s such a large focus in the story but is so far emotionally from the audience most of the time. I found it hard to react emotionally to her struggle, it’s a shame that her character was hard to connect with. However, the dynamic of her two friends Taichi and Arata is a refreshing change, as their faults are much more relatable. Their motivations and struggles are much more moving, so this does help the disparity for the lack of emotion towards Chihaya. And as mentioned earlier, since there are so many characters that get examined, everyone can find a character they get attached to. It’s just a shame that the main character suffers while her supporting characters are much more interesting.

The setting of this anime however, is not so strong. It’s your typical high school setting but is does change location, going to real life locations like Omi Jingu for their tournaments. The settings themselves aren’t a problem, just that they’re often re-used. After the first season you’re wondering how much more this story has to offer, it cycles through tournaments both for the high school team as well as personal tournaments on the national level for the individual characters. They exercise all that the Caruta culture has to offer for students who compete. And then in the second season they do it all again. The characters have grown but the situations are the same. The way they approach the situations are still more or less the same. It makes the story feel too repetitive, and the new characters do not refresh it enough. On top of that there’s filler episodes as well as unnecessary recaps that just repeat the same scenes over and over again. It falls short on the potential of exploring all sorts of different obstacles. There’s potential to throw different scenarios to see how these developed characters will react to them, but it never realizes their full potential. If it were to return for another season I’d be hesitant to continue watching if it followed the same formula for another year.
So what’s my opinion overall? There are many strengths and weaknesses to this anime. With a large repertoire of 50 episodes there’s bound to be things everyone loves in tandem with things they dislike. With this anime its strengths make it fascinating, it keeps me coming back to watch more, and learn more about the Caruta culture. At the same time its weaknesses discouraged me from watching intently, the repetition had me hitting the fast forward button on more than one occasion. For that reason I have to give this anime a 6.5 out of 10. I wanted more out of the story than I got yet there’s so much left to explore. Here’s hoping the manga makes up for it, and that if it were to return for a third season it would offer something new to those who have watched since the beginning. I recommend this anime to anyone who has a passion for poetry, sport, or Japanese culture. It’s worth checking out despite its failings, so if you’re curious then check it out!
Christina