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.
