Chihayafuru's second season is a seamless continuation of the first, which is both high praise and a minor criticism since it builds on the strengths of its first season while not really ironing out any of the flaws. Although the sports side of the show is still done excellently, the heavy focus on it creates a sense of imbalance in the narrative since the josei romance is noticeably absent for most of the season. While by no means a dealbreaker since the Karuta tournaments are exceedingly compelling, the intense focus makes the season feel as if it is no longer living up to its promise as both a sports and romance narrative. Though the series retains an overall sense of balance, it is becoming clear that it is not ideal to have it divided into seasons from its original serialised format. It is really meant to be a continuously running story with few narrative subdivisions. Despite that, Chihayafuru 2 is still undoubtedly an improvement, and more importantly, understands how to build on its existing story.

An essential step Chihayafuru 2 takes is to establish its new status quo for the school year instead of merely continuing the current dynamics. The introduction of Sumire and Tsukuba both excellently supports the established cast and add new dimensions to the narrative. In particular, Sumire is perhaps the strongest addition since she fills a missing female role in the narrative thus far. She is essential in magnifying the romantic elements of the series as the only person who is overtly interested in pursuing it and as an 'outsider' to the world of Karuta. Although the audience is never under the impression her affection for Taichi will go anywhere, she serves an important supporting role for his character. One that pushes him to consider his relationship with Chihaya and Arata further. Sumire also serves as a compliment to Kanade's character, who previously had no one to discuss romance with, Chihaya being as ditsy as she is. Although this season does not further the relationships of our main cast directly, Sumire's introduction and interactions with Taichi and Kanade serve as a reminder and means to examine their feelings in more detail. In this, the show demonstrates an understanding that a convincing narrative cannot solely centre around furthering the goals of their protagonist, be it in Karuta or romantically, and needs to dedicate time to its other characters to make things feel more fully realised.

Part of this is simply good storytelling to avoid the appearance of the world revolving around the main characters. But a larger part is understanding the requirements and constraints of their setting. Although the high school environment can feel far too ubiquitous in anime, it is a significant feature of life in Japan. Instead of just using it as window dressing, Chihayafuru justifies its choice of setting by having its characters and plot involve the specific challenges of a high school student. In particular, the dynamic of becoming seniors, and to an extent leaders, as they advance each grade. It integrates this into its plot and embraces it as an essential part of its setting that it needs to address. Perhaps this should be a basic expectation, but with so many shows surrounding high school, it is remarkable that so many avoid or fail in this step. Tsukuba poses a minor complication as the quintessential unruly junior, essentially challenging the main cast to grow as characters to better manage and understand him. This new dynamic helps propel character growth since they are no longer just dealing with their peers. With enough members to swap people out of their tournament lineup, it challenges the characters to consider why they play Karuta and their goals with it. It gives the viewer greater insight into what drives the characters, like Komano's desire to be a team player and Chihaya's unbridled love for Karuta that she wants to share with everyone. This all works to make Chihayafuru's narrative organic, concerned with following the lives of students who are serious about Karuta instead of a sports show that happens to be set in high school for one reason or another.

Despite the superb development of the main cast, the flaws and limitations of the previous season are still apparent. While the first season established the love triangle and built tension around it, the second season neither relieves nor furthers it much. While not necessarily a problem, it reaches a point where the show feels scared or unable to have Taichi, Chihaya and Arata interact as a trio for an extended scene without detonating all the romantic tension. This bogs down the show's pacing since it draws out the love triangle instead of having it evolve as their relationships with each other change. Although it is exceedingly difficult to manage the romance and sports elements simultaneously, it feels like Chihayafuru does not really attempt to and merely alternates between them, and not with equal emphasis. While the romance and competitive elements are still done well in isolation, it feels less and less like they complement each other with how little interaction there is. In essence, Arata's presence is almost entirely divorced from the competitive goals of the cast at Misuzawa High yet essential for the romance elements of the story, all of which creates a mild disjoint between the story threads.

Similarly, Shinobu feels distinctly underused who, along with Arata, suffers from a lack of screen time. Although she was positioned superbly at the start of the series, carrying a mysterious and overwhelming air to her, that can only last so long. Without the benefit of having an extensive flashback dedicated to her like Arata, it is hard to say Shinobu is positioned well as a rival to Chihaya. If anything, she feels like a plot device or obstacle instead of another character at times due to sheer isolation from everyone else. While this is part of her character arc, the lack of understanding from her perspective makes her seem either undeveloped or unintelligible. This only made worse in comparison to how much characterisation some of Chihaya's one-off opponents get through their rather clumsy perspective changes. This lack of development also leaves the connection between Arata and Shinobu feeling more like a red herring than a compelling plot element. It is both underdeveloped given how little screen time the two of them have and is not explored to its full potential, either as an additional romantic complication or a rivalry or friendship B-plot that could flesh out both their characters and serve as a implicit contrast to Chihaya and Taichi.

Where Chihayafuru 2 then chooses to dedicate most of its run time is in the Karuta matches themselves. Although superbly done, the overwhelming focus on them does gradually detract from other story elements. Over half the episodes in the season are almost entirely dedicated to Karuta matches. While a step in the right direction since the previous seasons feels like it skimps too much on matches, this feels like an overcorrection with too little time dedicated to character elements. The almost immediate dive into the Tokyo regionals robs the new characters of some breathing room to better established themselves. During the tournament itself, the characters focus squarely on the problem of their upcoming matches and less on their interpersonal relationships. Although this is also a testament to how compelling the individual games are written and animated since they effectively carry most of the season, it gives the distinct impression that the series focuses more on its plot elements instead of character.

This further contributes to the continued choppy sense of pacing since the season does not end after its natural climax. With most of the focus on the journey of the Mizusawa Karuta Club as a group, the end of the national team tournament would be the natural place to close the season. Yet, the show still continues with the individual tournament after nationals. This is likely an unavoidable limitation as the tournament schedule in real life is established this way. However, this robs all the tension from the individual tournament as the stakes are almost non-existent compared to nationals. And with Shinobu and Arata now playing, the viewer is never under the impression that Chihaya will make it very far, deflating much of the anticipation since this becomes more of a checkpoint in her character arc instead of a possible breakthrough. While the show does pivot to another important climax: if Taichi will win the class B tournament and finally make it to class A, the lack of build-up compared to the team championship results in it falling somewhat flat. Although this does not come out of nowhere, it lacks a clear emotional throughline since this goal affects to his relationship with Chihaya and Arata instead of his role as the president of the Mizusawa club. As a result, the emotional beats of the season feel off since it is trying to address two different threads that have become increasingly divorced from each other. While this could be expected in a serialised manga, it is hard to digest in an anime since each season does not feel like the cohesive narrative that is expected in a televised format.

Even with some of these limitations, the narrative and presentation of the show are still compelling enough to overcome them. In no small part helped by the superb and consistent characterisation of the cast from both seasons. However, some of the manga elements the show carries over, while effective, are now undoubtedly hamstringing Chihayafuru. The use of manga like text hanging over the characters to convey the characters thoughts or information without using dialogue feels extreme unsubtle. While clearly efficient and even effective for comedic situations, some of the details delivered could be easily inferred, while others are important titbits that feel as if they should be delivered diegetically for greater emphasis.

At the same time, the constant use of perspective jumping into the internal monologue of different characters in quick succession is still an issue. Because of the back-and-forth use during matches, it still feels much more intrusive than simply shifting character perspective for a different scene within the episode. However, there is a marked improvement in its employment since the perspective shifts are done through an interesting lens and mostly used with compelling characters that will play a future role in the narrative. This can still feel cheap since there are times it is abundantly clear Chihaya or the Mizusawa club's opponents are merely “opponent of the week” style characters with little relevance to the serialised plot. It cannot help but feel time and effort is wasted going into too much detail of the backgrounds for one-off characters when a much simpler explanation would have sufficed. This, combined with the gradual repeats and overuse of the same musical stings makes certain matches feel far too drawn out. At the same time, they remain oddly compelling, which is also an indication that the series as a whole is doing something very right and that these are more blemishes than serious problems. This strong, emotional, almost nostalgic, quality still permeates the series into its second season. Perhaps best exemplified by the visuals and music in its new opening. It is this earnest quality, emanating from the show, and in particular from Chihaya's character that still serves as its foundation and the source of its compelling nature. It overrides most of its flaws to produce an emotional quality that only the best stories can achieve.

Overall, Chihayafuru 2 maintains the superb quality of its first season, though it shifts some of its priorities around. While it feels distinctly imbalanced, it is also undoubtedly excellent in the areas it chooses to focus on. Being able to maintain a compelling tension for multiple Karuta matches in a row is no easy feat. In a way, it also demonstrates how the show builds off its first season since the character groundwork was done there. Although the series improvements push it into a 9 out of 10, it is just barely in that range and has definitely hit its current ceiling. While many of Chihayafuru's flaws are easily forgivable or entirely understandable, it also has too much apparent missed potential to say it reaches a 10 at this juncture. While still a great show, at the pinnacle of the sports and josei genre, the second season makes clear there are limitations it needs to overcome, with most of its minor flaws established as more or less inherent or structural issues. Without melding its two genres together seemlessly, it’s hard to say it should be a 10. And Chihayafuru seems to be content shuffling its priorities around in each season to manage them, leaving it as a great show, but not quite as outstanding as it could be. Perhaps that will only come at the latter parts of its story when the plot converges on Arata and Shinobu, but at the very least a vast majority of viewers will find it easy to be compelled to keep watching until then.