All right, still not back to the alphabet posts (I'm in D still, right?) but I just finished watching this and I really feel this intense need to review it immediately. So Chihayafuru time it is.
The Basics
Genre: Drama, Game, Sports
Aired: October 5, 2011 to March 28, 2012
Directed by: Morio Asaka
Producers: Madhouse Studios
Closing Theme: Soshite Ima by Asami Seto
Review
The Story: All right, so you have this girl: Chihaya Ayase. When she was younger, she met a boy in her class (Arata) who was poor and people made fun of him and ended up going over to his house one day. While she's there, he asks if she'd like to play karuta with him and it turns out he's seriously good. It ends up sparking a passion for the game in her as well. There's also another boy, Taichi, who was a kind of a douche as a kid but he grows up into a really cool guy.
Now, in the future,which is the main focus of the story...they're all in high school. They haven't heard from Arata in awhile, and Taichi ends up at the same school as Chihaya. Everyone says she's beautiful but it's wasted as soon as she moves or speaks, mostly because she's all tomboy and crazy and obsessed with karuta. She decides in high school to start a karuta club, and sort of forcefully pulls in members.
The entire anime revolves around the karuta club, with every single member working to grow and improve, even the players like Taichi and Chihaya who are already spectacular.
The Characters: I absolutely adored the cast of this anime. First of all, Chihaya herself was just so...endearing. People kept calling her weird and refusing her and such and she just kept going. She was happy, easily excitable, and she truly loved karuta. Her enthusiasm is probably what made me so enthusiastic about the series itself.
Then there were the two main guys...even though one of them barely ever showed up. For one there was Taichi. The jerk of childhood who grew up to be a great guy, who encouraged Chihaya and kept being her friends and joined the club to help her out. Obviously he was in love with her. (No I am not kidding.) Then there was Arata. He grew up to be emo because of his grandpa's death until Chihaya like forcibly reminded him that he loved karuta. He didn't show up nearly enough (favorite character, I wanted him there at all times) because he lived kinda far away.
The other members of the club...were awesome. There was one who quit karuta for awhile and then Chihaya was like “DUDE. NO. YOU ARE AWESOME AND NEED TO BE IN THIS CLUB.” She recruited another guy because he was like, a genius. And the other girl got roped into it because she thought it was uber-elegant.
I can't actually describe how awesome these guys are. But they're awesome. I love them all. Even the crazy sadist from another team.
The Not-Winning: All right, I'm the first person to admit that I love, love, LOVE watching people work toward their goals and eventually succeed. It's the only reason I finally conceded to liking Glee somewhere in the middle of season 3. (When that happened I immediately texted my boyfriend “Fffffffuuuuuuu”.) So, you would think I would anticipate seeing Chihaya and Arata and Taichi and everyone else succeed in this series, advance to the Queen and Master positions respectively. Okay, there's only one Master position and it can't go to Arata AND Taichi and I think Arata should earn it, but anyway... I did like seeing them win. I loved watching the new players succeed in their matches and I loved seeing Chihaya have trouble in hers and have to figure out how to overcome it. But I also loved when she didn't figure it out in time and ended up losing. I ended up loving that she DIDN'T advance to the final match for being Queen of karuta.
Why? Because that's life. In life not everything is pretty and perfect and you don't get to succeed just because you're the “main character” (is there a main character of real life? I think not) and I love it when anime reflects that! It's always so awesome.
Conclusion?: When this series was first announced and I read the summary and everything I thought it sounded stupid. I had a few people who had read the manga tell me it was actually pretty good, but I have this habit of not believing what people tell me about series, and my expectations going in were still pretty low.
Then I watched the first episode. And I kind of liked it. On to the second episode. Still kinda liked it. By episode 6 or so I was completely in love. By the end, my response was prettymuch “GIVE ME A SECOND SEASON NOW”. And by prettymuch, I mean I literally said it out loud. In kind of a weird voice, actually speaking that caps lock. I was at the kitchen table eating breakfast and my family looked at me like “wtf is wrong with you” and we all went on with our lives because we all know there's a lot wrong with me.
I'm hesitant to make my usual “if you like this kinda thing you'll like this” kinda comparisons because I really have no idea what to compare Chihayafuru to. I guess if you like enthusiastic, awesome main characters, you'll like this anime. But really, since I didn't expect to like it and ended up loving it, I have to say everyone should give it a shot. Everyone. Go watch it right now.
My rating: 10/10. This series just became the sixth series I've ever given a perfect score, thus killing my ability to say “I can count my 10/10s on one hand”. I now require both hands. Or I need to grow an extra finger or something.
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