Chihayafuru is an extraordinary confluence of the sports, shojo, and even literary genres. The show successfully balances its different components to deliver a compelling personal narrative for its main characters and painting an exquisite picture of Karuta and its community. Unfortunately, although excellent and well polished in many areas, it falls short of being a 10 out of 10 show, still hamstrung by many holdover elements from its original format as a serialised manga.

Although Chihayafuru follows a fairly standard premise for a sports anime: forming a high school club and the individual desire to excel, it comes close to realising the full potential of this kind of narrative. While Chihaya is not a particularly dynamic or complex protagonist in terms of what makes her tick, she is still remarkably compelling. Despite the narrative acknowledging and criticising her ditzy nature, it never detracts from the charm, gravity and emotional force her character brings. The way she is written, the animation, and the superb voice acting all give Chihaya an incredibly earnest and charismatic quality that is hard to resist. Although she is not the plot's central driving force after forming the Misuzawa Karuta Club, she is undoubtedly its emotional centre. Unlike less polished Josei or Shojo anime, her centrality is not due solely to the love triangle centred on her or even being the point of view character, but due to her ambition and goals influencing everyone around her. Refreshingly, the love triangle is also an element handled well as a part of the overall narrative instead of being central to it. This signals that the show central focus being on Karuta and Chihaya’s connection to it while the other elements mostly support and enrich this.

On the other hand, because Chihaya often does not drive the plot herself due to her personality, the show’s male lead, Taichi, often ends up being placed in positions of agency the narrative usually reserves for the protagonist. This is a recurring limitation of many Shojo and Josei series since the character with the most conflict and choices to make is often one of the male love interests. While Chihaya's ambition may be earnest, having an infectious quality that draws in other characters and the viewer; it lacks the dramatic and visceral bite that drives Taichi. He is positioned as the club leader, making him central to the plot and a vital component of Chihayafuru's emotional core as the person in the worst position of the love triangle. This is intuitively the most compelling perspective to follow since it involves the most conflict from different angles. Unlike Chihaya, his drive is not born out of a simple love of Karuta, which makes it far more interesting to examine. However, this is also a bit unfair to the series since following Taichi's perspective would functionally shift the show away from many of its core shojo elements that give it much of its character. Ultimately, the choice of Chihaya as the protagonist serves the series since it gives it a solid emotional and thematic throughline that is ever-present. Yet since she mainly reacts to the plot instead of driving it, the show suffers from meandering pacing and loss of focus at times when it does not have the structure of a school year or on-going tournament to frame things.

To establish a robust emotional backbone, Chihayafuru opts for a flashback opening that reveals some strengths and weakness of the approach. The main cast’s younger selves are excellently voice acted and characterised, creating a sincere atmosphere that quickly overcomes the detached feeling from starting with a flashback. While a relatively lengthy sequence lasting a few episodes, it successfully captures the impact a few important people and moments can have on someone early on in their lives. And to its credit, it manages to succinctly and subtly establish the love triangle without having to spell it out to the viewer that all three of them share an important connection. However, despite the efficiency of the flashback that also subtly introduces members of the supporting cast that reappear in later in Chihaya's life, it does also disrupt the pacing and flow of the show somewhat. The return to the present in episode four evaporates some of the attachment and understanding the audience has of the characters due to the length of time that has passed in the narrative. While Chihaya's character has remained largely static, giving some much needed emotional grounding to the present, the change in Taichi and Arata means the show must work to reestablish an investment in the current state of the characters. This bogs down the emotional pacing of the show since it is at least partially putting the cart before the horse.

Nevertheless, the information about their childhood is ultimately invaluable, giving the series both an optimistic yet nostalgic air, attempting to recapture the past through reaching the dreams they had back then. Yet, this emotional importance does not become fully realised until the characters become more entrenched with the viewer midway through the season. The chronological approach did avoid any confusion or impression that their motivations emerged from nowhere. However, it would have certainly been better to start in medias res and introduce the flashback at some point prior to their first tournament. This would have given some time for the present status quo to entrench itself while sprinkling in intrigue about Chihaya and Taichi's history while establishing Arata as a distant yet essential figure. Not only would the viewer be craving this information, but it would better serve the overall pacing of the season. Though, in defence of the series, this would require some serious retooling of the manga's material to work and is much easier for someone adapting things to consider with the narrative already written out.

A consequence of this is that the overall season feels choppy in its pacing. The set up to the initial tournament where the first stakes of the series are introduced feels far too drawn out since the flashback saps the initial momentum right out of the opening. At the same time, the series feels like it loses focus after nationals, with the end of the school related tournaments leaving the series without much of a way to frame its narrative. The tail end of the season which focuses on more individual tournaments does help to flesh out the world of competitive Karuta beyond just school clubs and students. But there is also distinct lack of a central direction or forward momentum with how open ended this professional world is which ends up giving the series a bit of meandering feeling. Perhaps this is due to the lack of an established calendar that can provide the viewer with some anticipation of events to come, which is taken for granted in the build-up to school tournaments in most sports anime. However, this drop off in the second half of the season distinctly feels like a legacy issue from being adapted from a serialised manga that does not lend itself to fitting neatly into a season of television. Although it is somewhat unfair to hold it against the anime, this is still a seasonal adaptation, and its endpoint feels more forced than a natural bookend. While the closing episodes are still a logical endpoint with the school year is finishing for Chihaya, there is still a feeling of incompleteness since there is no clear emotional climax at any point towards the end that would usually cap off a season.

What holds the series together is the compelling earnestness of Chihaya and the robust characterisation of the supporting cast. The relatively small world of Karuta lends well to the frequent appearance of side characters, which gives them many moments to endear themselves to the audience. Their quirkiness and memorable personalities, from Dr Harada, Sudo, to even Sakura Kannai, help bring the world of competitive Karuta to life. Particularly excellent are the members of the Mizusawa Karuta Club, which fill crucial narrative roles while remaining compelling characters in their own right. Kanade has perhaps the most critical role outside of the main cast as the means for the show to explore the poetry used for Karuta. This aspect is unique among the sports and even anime's based around competitive activities since there is an organic dramatic element in its format. Kanade's explanation of the poems brings out the literary appeal of the hundred poets and supports the more dramatic aspects by providing a more profound means of expression to characters. This elevates many scenes out of melodrama since there is a greater substance backing the conveying of their emotions in a way much better than any dialogue that could be convincingly written for high school students. While still relatively direct and simple in the thematic use of poems in the narrative, they, more importantly, remain accessible as popular entertainment. Although slightly disappointing that the poetry is not given more prominence, electing to focus on the competitive sports elements, this is more a matter of preference. If anything, the reading of the poems is still excellent and a regular reminder of the profound beauty of the hundred poets.

On a more interpersonal level, Kanade is the only one in the supporting group with any awareness or sensitivity to romantic feelings, which helps to remind the viewer of the romantic tension. The love triangle is handled refreshingly well as an obvious complication without being blunt. To Chihayafuru's credit, it does not feel the need to spell out the conflicted feelings between the main cast. Although hardly subtle at times with its visual cues, it is still significantly better than some outright romance anime. The evasiveness and few words shared between Arata, Taichi and Chihaya resonate and reveal more than narration could ever do. This same subtlety is well applied to the familial relationships of the main characters and their styles of Karuta. Again, while the inferences a viewer can make are fairly obvious, the show does not feel the need to hit you over the head with them. Instead, they show the strengths and weakness of the various characters playing sufficiently before brief explanations are used to reinforce them. This is further enhanced with the superb sound effects and visual metaphors used for the various characters. In particular, Shinobu and Arata's visual and sound cues are stunning, adding tremendously to their mystique and presence as top players. The only time their Karuta styles are explored in detail is when there is a narrative reason for characters to discuss it internally or with each other. Even then, the exposition or discussion of tactics and techniques in appropriate detail for their circumstance instead of solely for the audience's benefit.

On the other hand, the aggressive use of perspective changes and flashbacks to contextualise characters can feel extremely egregious at times. While it was acceptable and even executed well with the supporting characters close to the main cast, it becomes excruciating in later instances. Particularly appalling is the use of flashbacks and internal thoughts of characters to introduce them midway through a match. This goes beyond the just changing perspective to an established supporting cast members for exposition and veers into the territory of the hitherto unknown characters internally going over their history and motivations. Although passable for simple characters like Ririka and Sakura Kanai, this is only the case because there is little to convey. This minimises the time spent in their perspective, with a short shift able to remain relatively innocuous or inoffensive. This finally falls apart with Chihaya's match with Yamamoto Yumi, where the extent of the flashback and information conveyed crosses critical mass. This instance retroactively made me more critical of each use of airdropped flashbacks, further cheapening it as a means of characterisation. While there is no easy solution without seriously retooling their source material for adaptation, this method of perspective jumping felt particularly hamfisted for an anime. Yet again, in the show’s defence, this is another legacy issue of its form as a manga. If novels excel at internal dialogue and animation excels at sound and visual details, manga's strength is perhaps the ability to shuffle through perspectives quickly. After all, thought bubbles appearing simultaneously or in quick succession for multiple characters is fairly common. This kind of head jumping would be difficult to pull off in a novel and is merely passible now in animation.

Despite some difficult elements with its structure that stem from its original format, there is that undeniable spark that makes Chihayafuru incredibly compelling. Tension is fantastically maintained in each match, and the personality of the characters all shine through. Aside from the strong voice acting, it is very much the writing of the series that builds this earnest desire in the viewer to keep following the story. Despite its slightly esoteric subject matter, it is one of the few anime which keeps you hooked, wanting to see characters succeed and how their interpersonal conflicts resolve. Unfortunately, though tempting to give it a 9, the flaws were too glaring for the sheer charisma of the characters to overcome. Ultimately, Chihayafuru, as adapted into a season of anime, is an 8 out of 10. Still, it is an exceedingly strong 8 that can easily cross the threshold into even a full 10 as the narrative deepens. With captivating characters and an interesting premise in place, some additional polish and refining of their narrative tools is all that is necessary.