Karuta (かるた) , a card game unheard of outside of Japan. Competitive Karuta, an even rarer version of Karuta, is unheard of even for many Japanese people. Chihayafuru, however, changed all of this. At its core, Chihayafuru is a series about a girl’s love for Competitive Karuta. Her love for Karuta inspires others to grow as she seeks to spread the joy Karuta brings on her journey to become the next Karuta “Queen”.

Karuta?
In 13th century Japan, Fujiwara no Teika commissioned and compiled a series of 100 poems by 100 different renowned poets. This anthology of 100 poems is known as the 百人一首 (Hyakunin Isshu) translated into English as “One Hundred Poems by 100 Poets”. Centuries later after the Portuguese introduce card games to Japan (Karuta comes from the Portuguese word for card “carta”), the poems were then printed onto playing cards. Karuta is frequently played by Japanese people on New Years for fun and is then quickly forgotten the next day. Japanese students in elementary and middle school learn about the hyakunin isshu in school akin to how many English speakers learn about Shakespeare in their literature classes.

Competitive Karuta takes Karuta to the next level. Players must memorize all 100 poems if they want a chance to win. They lay their cards down on the floor where they then race to see who can recall the poem and pick up the corresponding card the fastest. Think of it like a mix of chess and karate. It’s highly intellectual: you need to be strategic with how you place your cards, you need to memorize the position of 50 cards that are frequently moving around. It’s athletic as well: to take a card you need to be faster than your opponent. You need to swipe, slap, and block to win. Audience members watch matches in silence, but don’t be fooled. The tensions are high between players as they strain to listen to the next sound in hopes of being even a millisecond faster. And just like that, the silence is broken as you hear a bunch of people slapping the floor fill the room. You’d better watch out for those flying cards. Playing Karuta is no easy feat.

The Characters
The cast of Chihayafuru are by far the highlight of the show. Chihayafuru spends a lot of time developing its characters, giving us reason to cheer for them, to cry for them, or to laugh with them. While the story follows the Karuta club of Mizusawa high school, the first few episodes are dedicated to the origins of our main trio: Chihaya, Arata, and Taichi. We see how Arata got Chihaya to play a round of Karuta, who in turn got Taichi to play Karuta. Karuta actually ties the 3 together and lets them bond even when they eventually separate. Chihaya’s first match with Arata is one she replays in her head years later. Her unbridled passion for Karuta stems from that very first match.

Years later we see that passion return, stronger than ever before, as Chihaya tries to create a Karuta club at her high school. As she tries to recruit new members to the club, we see how these new members tick. Kana-chan is a lover of all traditional Japanese things, especially traditional clothing. Her vast knowledge on Japanese poetry gives her a good reason to switch to the Karuta club. Karuta scratches that itch she couldn’t get from any other club. Tsutomu is competing with Taichi for the best grades in school. He always seems to get 2nd place but figures that joining the club will help with his studies to give him that edge over Taichi.

The 2 new recruits show us how personal of a game Karuta is. Their playing style directly reflects their personalities. Kana-chan comes not only having memorized all 100 poems in their entirety, but their histories as well. This lets her separate tricky, similar sounding cards which gives her a slight edge over everyone else. She can easily imagine the poetry in her head which lets her visualize the cards even better. She knows what cards are in play and what cards have been called by connecting the poems to their authors. For Kana-chan, each poem is unique and special and all the cards should be treated as such. Tsutomu on the other hand, is incredibly studious. The memorization aspect of Karuta which helps further his studies is a plus for him. He also loves to analyze and analyzing is his biggest weapon. Analyzing his opponents gives him the edge: he knows how his opponents play. He knows their strengths and weaknesses, he knows their secret tricks which lets him adjust his playing style accordingly.

Characters and Karuta matches
While we could talk forever about the characters in Chihayafuru, another strong point is using the matches to develop character. Chihayafuru does a great job at giving all its opponents a personality and unique playing style. We see men and women play each other, we see old and young people play against each other. This further attests to the accessibility of Karuta and its uniqueness that separates it from other sports. Intellect means nothing if you don’t move fast enough and speed means nothing if you can’t come up with a plan. We see a plethora of playing styles: aggressive, speedy, reserved, cunning, sadistic, methodical, unfaltering, and even psychic-like styles. We learn more about our own protagonists through what they learn in matches. As Chihaya plays against tough opponents, she learns new aspects of Karuta she never considered, which in turn, deepens her love for the game. As Tsutomu gains more experience, we slowly see him develop into a player with potential. As someone who once felt worthless, he soon realizes what it means to be on a team.

Losing
Losing is normal for Chihayafuru. They lose a lot actually. Even Chihaya, the team’s ace with the potential to become the next Karuta Queen, loses fairly frequently. While many sports anime find crazy ways to show how it’s possible to overcome any obstacle, Chihayafuru shows us the (depressing) reality that you can’t always win. You can’t always just overpower your way to victory in Karuta and in life. There will be times when you lose and there is always someone better than you. There are times when you get injured and you can’t do anything about it other than sit by and watch. All of our characters have to cope with loss at some point in the series and their losses are pivotal moments for their development. Mistakes are deadly in Karuta and can cost the entire match. It’s invigorating to watch our cast pick themselves back up and use that as constant motivation to improve.

Animation and Music
I have nothing special to add to this section. The animation is nice and consistent. The Karuta matches are animated amazingly and it really adds life to the matches compared to manga panels. The intro is really great and so is the ending. I’m a fan of the little motif (the five notes) they play when something good is gonna happen. (Kind of like Giorno’s theme, once you hear it play you know its over for the other person). The music is perfectly utilized and adds the right atmosphere to every scene whether it be tense or fun.

Overall Thoughts
Chihayafuru hasn’t gained much traction outside of Japan. It’s understandable seeing that Karuta is a complex game especially for those who don’t speak Japanese. I’m glad that I gave Chihayafuru a chance because it has become one of my favorite animes. For me, it combines the best aspects of Haikyuu with Sangatsu no Lion, hence why I called it the sports anime for sports anime fans and non-fans alike. The balance Chihayafuru achieves between the 2 is amazing and I believe this makes it an anime anyone can watch. Not only are the matches exciting and make you want to binge watch to see who wins, Karuta is an important aspect of Japanese culture and is simply fascinating to learn about. I have no complaints.