Chihayafuru

Plot

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. After becoming friends, he believes that Chihaya has 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 is reunited with her childhood friend, Taichi Mashima. Together, they form the Mizusawa Karuta Club. With her teammates and friends supporting her, Chihaya strives to become the best karuta player in the world and to one day be with Arata again.

Development

Yuki Suetsugu belonged to a karuta club in senior high school, and feels that the school years are a period of a person's life where "you can dedicate the most genuine part of yourself to something". The name of the series is a poetic Makurakotoba, or pillow word, and comes from the first five syllables of the seventeenth poem in the Hyakunin Isshu poetry anthology, a collection of one hundred poems which are printed on the karuta cards.

Manga

The manga has been serialized in Be Love since 2007, and has been collected by Kodansha into 33 bound volumes as of October 2016. As of 23 February 2012 Kodansha has also published the first two volumes in a bilingual edition, with English translations by Stuart Varnam Atkin and Yōko Toyozaki. The manga is licensed in Taiwan by Tong Li Publishing.

Anime

An anime television series based on the manga was announced in May 2011. The series was produced by the studio Madhouse under the direction of Morio Asaka with script supervision by Naoya Takayama and character designs by Kunihiko Hamada. The art director is Tomoyuki Shimizu, the director of photography is Kenji Fujita, the colour supervisor is Ken Hashimoto, the CG director is Tsukasa Saito, the music is by Kousuke Yamashita, and the sound director is Masafumi Mima of Techno Sound. The series' 25 episodes aired on Nippon Television between 4 October 2011, and 27 March 2012. The series was simulcast in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand by Crunchyroll. Animax Asia aired their English adaptation of the anime from 13 February – 18 March 2013. The series was released in 9 volumes on DVD and Blu-ray Disc between 21 December 2011, and 22 August 2012, and as a complete set on Blu-ray Disc on 18 July 2013.

A second 25-episode season, Chihayafuru 2, aired on Nippon Television between 11 January and 28 June 2013, and was simulcast by Crunchyroll. An original video animation episode was released on DVD bundled with the special edition of the 22nd manga volume on 13 September 2013.

Sentai Filmworks has licensed both seasons of the anime for home video release in North America.

The first season's opening and ending themes are "Youthful" by 99RadioService and "Soshite Ima" (そしていま, "And Now") by Asami Seto respectively. 99RadioService released "Youthful" as a single on 30 November 2011. Two original soundtrack and character song albums were released on 18 January – 28 March 2013. The second season's opening and ending themes are "Star" by 99RadioService and "Akane Sora" (茜空) by Seto.

Novel series

A 4-volume novel series was published by Kodansha under their KC Deluxe imprint between 9 September 2012, and 13 December 2013. The books were written by Yui Tokiumi and illustrated by Yuki Suetsugu and follow the middle-school years of the three protagonists.

Other

Kodansha released a guidebook for the series on 9 November 2011. It provides a study guide for the poetry and background for the story.

Live action film

On 11 April 2015, it was reported that the series would be adapted into a live-action film. A live action film adaptation titled Chihayafuru: Kami no Ku was released in March 19, 2016, with a second film released on April 29, 2016.

Reception

Chihayafuru won the second Manga Taishō award, and the 35th Kodansha Manga Award in the shōjo manga category. When Chihayafuru won the Manga Taishō award, it was commented that the series combines elements of the sport genre and literary elements with a discerning eye on the subject matter. The manga had sold over 16 million copies in Japan by the spring of 2016, and its popularity has boosted the popularity of competitive karuta.

In the week of 10–16 March 2009, the fourth volume of Chihayafuru appeared at #24 on the Japanese Comic Ranking chart, selling 29,776 copies in that week. In the week of 8–14 June 2009, the fifth volume appeared at #11 on the chart, selling 46,774 copies in that week. The next week, it slipped to #21, selling an additional 40,344 copies in that week. In the week of 7–13 September 2009, volume six of Chihayafuru appeared at #8 on the list, selling 61,089 copies. The next week, it appeared at #23, selling 45,028 copies in that week. In the week of 7–14 December 2009, the seventh volume ranked at number nine on the list, selling 70,790 copies. The following week, it ranked at #15, selling an additional 55,266 copies. The eighth volume of Chihayafuru ranked at #5 on the bestseller's list, selling 92,555 copies in the week of 8–14 March 2010. The following week, it slipped to seventh place, selling an additional 72,957 copies. For the week of 7–13 June 2010, the ninth volume of Chihayafuru appeared at #6 on the chart, selling 99,296 copies in that week. The following week, it slipped to ninth place, selling an additional 74,885 copies. The tenth volume of Chihayafuru placed first on the list for the week of 13–19 September, slipping to nineteenth place the next week. For the week of 13–19 December, the eleventh volume debuted at #2, slipping to #23 the next week. The twelfth volume appeared at #9 for the week of 7–13 March 2011, rising to #4 the following week. The thirteenth volume debuted at #3 for the week of 13–19 June 2011, slipping to #20 the following week. The fourteenth volume debuted at #3 for the week of 12–18 September 2011, slipping to #24 the following week.

Among North American reviewers, Gia Manry, writing about the first episode of Chihayafuru, felt that despite the animators' efforts, karuta seemed boring, and criticised the overuse of CG sakura, describing it as a "mixed bag" of an anime. Bamboo Dong says that Chihaya's passion and characterisation make karuta interesting. Carlo Santos felt that the series was the "first genuinely good show of the season", citing its characterisation, unusual subject, and polish of the first episode. Marcus Speer enjoyed the production values of the first episode, but felt that the theme songs were "standard fare". He was intrigued by how the characters' childhood impacted on their present interactions. Theron Martin appreciated the focus on the characters rather than the game, feeling that while the teenage Chihaya seemed "gimmicky", her younger self was "quite likable". Chris Beveridge praised the tension shown between Arata and Taichi in the second episode's karuta match. Theron Martin felt the second episode's karuta tournament was tense and compelling, and that despite the plot unfolding in a predictable fashion, the execution made this forgivable.