“I know that I’m not alone, but I want to be strong even when I am.”

Taichi Mashima

Well, we have to begin somewhere. Last year, I was on a Sport anime roll. I needed an anime that peaked my interest from all sides, but nothing was compelling enough. Hence, I’ve skimmed anime recommendations for one, and I have found my perfect selection. Frankly, it wasn’t an anime I would usually seek. It is a Josei anime and because no one took them seriously, I didn’t either until I did.

Chihayafuru with its tremendous power has captured the hearts of millions all over the globe with its beautiful story, animation, and characters. It aired in 2011 and has been dearly loved in Japan. It wasn’t only loved but it increased interest in the unique sport “karuta”, which lead to an increase of its practistans. It became a welcoming and familiar anime, home and comfort to many including myself.

At this point, you’re wondering what the heck is this story about that she keeps on telling us all this useless information? Well, let’s get into business.

Chihayafuru is a slice of life/ sport anime. It is originally considered a josei anime (made especially for women). It follows a teenage girl named Chihaya Ayasi with her two best friends Taichi Mashima and Arata Wataya. They meet when they are elementary school students and she gets introduced to this competitive sport through the kid genius Arata. Chihaya, the kid tomboy as many loved to call her, became friends with this kid and captured his admiration for Karuta as hers. However, Taichi was the exact opposite. He bullied Arata and made fun of him. Taichi, the intelligent talented rich boy, had suddenly caught feelings for Chihaya. The only solution he found helpful was to join both of Chihaya and Arata in playing. They became excellent friends and developed a great bond to each other and to this sport. They simply loved each other and overcomed their first impressions of each other to reach grounding and honest relationships. Of course, all magnificent things end and so their journey together. Arata moves away to another city, but Chihaya and Taichi keep on playing and decide to form their own team.

At first you might think, oh but these characters seem shallow and boring. They seem like characters we will hate, and trust me, at first, you will. However, Chihayafuru being a slice of life allows its characters an enormous space for growth and creativity. They experience major changes from loss, love, understanding life, jealously, passion, honesty, and even sacrifice. They grow subtly and by the end of it, I realized I will do anything for these 2d people.

This dream like anime that makes categorizing it really hard, so people agreed that it’s a slice of life tackles a variety of tropes and complexities that if not done correctly will ruin this anime. Nevertheless, Studio madhouse never disappoints. Thus, creating a beautiful mixture of sport, light romance, friendship, and poetry.

A unique sport:

Few people know about the existence of a sport named competitive Karuta making in unique to Japan. it is one on one game facilitated by specialist reciters and a judge. they play a game of 100cards that are in reality well loved japenese poems. They competitively have to take the cards if they exist. it is a game of memorization, literature, choice of cards, speed, lithness, and intelligence depending on the player’s perspective on things and how you can personalize your game. Hence, it transfers into a complex game that is beautiful in its essence.
what is truly capturing about this anime, though, is allowing karuta to become much more than it is, a story. We learn how characters seek it and why they love it. sometimes it is a team play and sometimes it is a mental and personal game. Karuta, thus, becomes a miscellaneous sport where people share their love for poetry, competitiveness, and friendship, which leads us to the result Competitive Karuta had on our 3 main characters.

A heart wrenching love triangle:

“Love is when it isn’t fun to be with that person. It’s when nothing goes the way you want. When you’re not having fun… and yet you still want to be with that person.”

Taichi Mashima

Love triangles are either a hit or miss. they either include cheating or an obvious winner, or they are a beautiful relationship of pining that is in enervating but equally satisfying and ambiguous. Chihayafuru, of course, has mastered the second. Creating a lover triangle can be hard, again, especially between best friends. however, I loved this one.
Separation between characters is an enormously laborious action. We recognize the meager chances of Taichi and we recognize that Chihaya drowned in the world of her favorite sport. Thus, she is fascinated by those like her. Logically, when the kid she thought of as a prodigy confesses to her, she is love struck.
But, Taichi has always been pining for her. It is almost unfair for him(definitely unfair). His confession was the most heart-felt and painful since he knew that she will not share his feelings, she was rather disappointed. Because the writer allows us to see things from his perspective, it was even more painful. When he started, finally, loving the game, it was melancholic.
He started embracing his love for the game, but it was equally confusing to him. He didn’t know whether he no longer loves Chihaya, or he just discovered his love for the sport he was playing. Even though my heart broke when he lost meaning of the cards, I think with the hurting he will rediscover his true feelings and meaning of the cards since he is talented. I just wish I could tell him that he deserves someone much better than her, and that he can do it.

Complex characteres:

I was captured by the ability that the mangaka has. She made characters with love and passion. At first, I hated them. they were there not because they loved the sport but because they are greedy, only one character aka Chihaya seemed passionate about it. Though soon, I could do anything for these characters. they grew to be passionate, empathetic, loving, competitive, and most importantly brave.
My favorite character is definitely Taichi. You can easily sense the developments in his character, you can sense his fears and his powerful characteristics, and you will understand the motives behind his action. He definitely has the best character development arc I’ve seen.
These characters became my friends wand planted asense of familiarity in my heart.
They weren’t there because they needed to make the sport fun, sport was just a part of their life. Unlike other animes, there isn’t necessarily anybody who is winning all the time. They have weaknesses and they have strengths. In essence, the mangaka achieved her goal, they were human-like. Therefore, they became complex.

Poetry:

The Ogura 100 poets wrote the poems on the 100 cards of karuta. These poems are considered few of the best japenese poetry of all time written by 79 male poets and 20 female poets. Almsot each episode sheds the light on some beautiful poems and how they came to life. They genuinely grasped my heart. They blend nature and feelings in such undeniable uniqueness that you cannot shy away from reading them. These simple haïkus are outstanding. But, the one I thought most about was Minamoto no Shigeyuki’s poem.

When winds send waves crashing against the rocks, I recall how my own efforts were in vain.

It is by far one of the most astonishing and touching poems I have ever read. It made me think about how little words this poet used, but how much he transferred.

Final thoughts:

All in all, Chihayafuru is a great anime. It’s an anime of comfort, a friend to keep our company in lonely days when needed. I would recommend it to anyone, honestly. It deserves much more hype than it gets. I absolutely love it with my full little cold heart that I cannot transfer it into words (anything new? Nope)