Chihayafuru is an anime series based on the manga which won the Manga Taisho Award and the Kodansha Manga Award in the shoujo manga category.

Chihaya Ayase is a girl who has spent most of her life simply supporting her sister in her model career. That changes when she meets a boy named Arata Wataya, a talented karuta player. He thinks that Chihaya has a potential to become a great player. As Chihaya takes on a new dream of becoming Japan's best karuta player, she is soon separated from her karuta playing friends as they grow up. Now in high school, Chihaya still continues to play karuta in the hope that she will one day meet her friends again.

(Copy-pasta about karuta for those who are interested but don’t know the wonder that is Google on the next post.)

Now for my ramblings that no one will care about orz

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I first read about this anime. I have never read the manga, and all I knew about karuta is that it is some sort of card game. It may have been because I wasn’t expecting much to begin with, but this anime was surprisingly good.

Because the ‘sport’ that is karuta is unknown to the majority of the world outside of Japan, I must admit I was confused at points due to my lack of understanding about the game. They do explain what karuta is and how to play it in the anime, but it’s done gradually, and over several episodes, so the significance of some scenes in early stages of the anime went straight over my head. Derp. Although, the idea is original and they have done a good job of making it entertaining.

Romance is a main plot point, but we don’t get long stretches of internal monologue about how much “suki” our female protagonist feels for the “sugoi” male protagonist or other similar shoujo derp. There is a good balance between character relationships and the plot, which makes me very happy. * U*

I also love love love Chihaya. She is so unlike all the annoying female protagonists that I have come to hate. She is so real compared to all the copy-pasta female protagonists like the madly-in-denial-tsunderes, or the cliché orphan-that-is-nice-to-everyone-and-oblivious-to-everything, or the super-shy-and-scared-by-everything girls, etc, etc. Her character is still exaggerated, but I find it to be so much more believable and likeable. It’s like a breath of fresh air, which makes me love this anime (and her) even more.

Tl;dr:
Like shoujos? Watch this.
Don’t like shoujos? Watch this.

OMG this post is so long ; A;

The basic idea of any karuta game is to be able to quickly determine which card out of an array of cards is required and then to grab the card before it is grabbed by an opponent.

There are different versions of karuta, but the version played in Chihayafuru is called “Ogura Hyakunin Isshu” and employs the rules of “competitive karuta”

"Ogura Hyakunin Isshu" players are given the first three lines of a tanka (a type of poem) and try to find the last two lines. It is often possible to identify a poem by its first one or two syllables. There are one hundred poems.

"Competitive karuta" is a one-on-one game where, out of the one hundred total available karuta cards, each player gets a set of twenty-five and the first player to clear out all of their cards is the winner. The fifty remaining cards are "out-of-play" and can not be brought into play even if read. If you take a card from the opponent's set, or if the opponent touches an incorrect card, you are able to remove one card from your own set and place it in the opponent's set, moving you closer to victory.

O: I LOVE THISSS!! ITS SOOO CUTE <3 and it seems very well- made.... you know, like the producers spent lots of time on it (:

I THOUGHT IT WAS WEIRD A EARLY IN THE SERIES SINCE IT WAS A CARD GAME AND ALL BUT I ENDED UP LIKING IT TO THIS DAY ESPECIALLY YESTERDAY'S EPISODE!

>>5 Ya know, because your posts are in all caps, I'm reading it as if you're yelling... So I can't take anything you say seriously lol... No offense.

bump

This anime fucking ADORABLE.

I read it after looking at this list of manga that won this 'supposedly prestigious manga award' and Chihayafuru won the best Shojou manga of 2011.

I watched the anime after I found out there was one, and omgsdghjiwrhnmrkl it's too cute. ;-;
Makes me want to play Karuta. Too bad I'm such a lazy ass, I wouldn't bother to memorize poems.

FUUUUUUUUUUUU

I just got up to the scene shown in the picture. Manly tears man, manly tears.

I LOVE this anime!!! The manga is good too, but I prefer the anime!! 8D My favorite character is Arata Wataya because he's very inspirational!!

This anime kind of reminds me of Hikaru no Go! :)

Bumping this because it needs more love ; 3;

**Currently Chihayafuru is up to episode 18/25.

While Chiyahafuru is now focused on the game of karuta and Chihaya's development, they do reward us with scenes that remind us that there are love interests going on (the train scene, anyone? * u*). I like the way they are handling the romance, but I do hope to see more of it towards the end of the series. (some sort of closure plz?)

I also love what Kanade (Kana-Chan <3) brings to the series. I love the scene when she is talking to Chihaya in her parent's shop, and also the most recent scene where she is playing karuta (end of ep 18). Whenever I see karuta through Kanade's eyes, I'm reminded that karuta isn't just a game or sport, it's poetry. I don't think I've ever been so interested in poetry in my entire life.
Also, out of all the karuta member's introduction episodes (which overall I did find a bit boring :/) I though Kana-chan's was by far the best * U*

Also also, it makes me very happy that this is a fall anime. I have no idea if it was unintentional or not, but it suits the anime perfectly.

Hadn't heard of it until I saw this. Now I'm going to watch it... Thanks!

i lik this anime alot :D

Poor Taichi
I don't know much about Karuta but I understand a little that draw luck is a bit frustrating.

>>14 me too ^^
>>15 yes, poor Taichi. =(

I really like Chihaya x Taichi pair. Hope they end up together..but I think they will not. (-.-;)
Can't wait for Chihaya to become the Queen! >.<

Only one episode left.
2nd last episode and they introduce a new awesome looking character.
At this point there is no way Chihaya can become Queen.
Yet, they haven't announced a 2nd season? :I
FFFFFUU-
If they don't end up making another series I'll probably end up hating the last episode so much.
In other news, I have no idea who to ship.
I love Arata, but Taichi has been growing on me ever since he stopped being such a brat.

I can't believe that Arata actually beat Shinobu (the Queen). Is it Arata that's good, or Shinobu that's weak?