is a Japanese ''

josei , also known as and its abbreviation , is an editorial category of Japanese comics that emerged in the 1980s. In a strict sense, ''josei'' refers to manga marketed to an audience of adult women, contrasting ''shōjo'' manga, which is market ...

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

series written and illustrated by

Yuki Suetsugu is a Japanese manga artist. Career She debuted in 1992 in Kodansha's ''Nakayoshi'' magazine with ''Taiyō no Romance''. Her works later moved to ''Bessatsu Friend'' magazine, also published by Kodansha. Her career was put on hiatus in October ...

. It was serialized in

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', '' Afternoon'', '' Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' ...

's ''josei'' manga magazine '' Be Love'' from December 2007 to August 2022, with its chapters collected in 50 ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes. It is about a school girl, Chihaya Ayase, who is inspired by a new classmate to take up '' Hyakunin Isshu

karuta are Japanese playing cards. Playing cards were introduced to Japan by Portuguese traders during the mid-16th century. These early decks were used for trick-taking games. The earliest indigenous ''karuta'' was invented in the town of Miike in ...

competitively Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indiv ...

. An

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series adaptation aired from October 2011 to March 2012. The second season aired from January to June 2013 and the third from October 2019 to March 2020. Three

live action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...

film adaptations were released from 2016 to 2018. The manga has won the Manga Taishō and the

Kodansha Manga Award is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous year, the event is sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. It is currently awarded in three categories: '' shōnen'', '' shōjo'', and general. The awards began in 1977, initially ...

. Since its fourth volume was released in March 2009, it has regularly appeared on the Japanese Comic Ranking chart, and as of December 2022, the manga had 28 million copies in circulation. Its popularity has boosted the profile of competitive karuta in Japan.

Plot

Chihaya Ayase is a girl who has spent most of her life simply supporting her sister in her modeling career. That changes when she meets a boy named Arata Wataya, a talented

player. After becoming friends, he believes that Chihaya has potential to become a great player. As Chihaya takes on a new dream of becoming Japan's best karuta player, she is soon separated from her karuta playing friends as they grow up. Now in high school, Chihaya is reunited with her childhood friend, Taichi Mashima. Together, they form the Mizusawa Karuta Club. With her teammates and friends supporting her, Chihaya strives to become the best karuta player in the world and to one day be with Arata again.

Development

Yuki Suetsugu belonged to a ''karuta'' club in high school and feels that the school years are a period of a person's life where "you can dedicate the most genuine part of yourself to something." The name of the series is a poetic '' makurakotoba'', or pillow word, and comes from the first five syllables of the seventeenth poem in the '' Hyakunin Isshu'' poetry anthology, a collection of 100 poems which are printed on the ''karuta'' cards. In this poem ''chihayaburu'' is used as an epithet to ''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'' and can be translated into English as "shaken in fury" and "swift in fury", according to Edwin A. Cranston, or "awesome", as offered by Joshua S. Mostow.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by

, ''Chihayafuru'' was serialized in the ''josei'' manga magazine '' Be Love'' from 28 December 2007 to 1 August 2022, with a spinoff side story chapter released on 1 November 2022. The series' 247 chapters and the side-story chapter were collected by publisher

into 50 ''

'' volumes, released between 13 May 2008 and 13 December 2022. Kodansha has also published the first three volumes in a two-volume bilingual edition, with English translations by Stuart Varnam Atkin and Yōko Toyozaki. On 14 February 2017, Kodansha Comics began publishing a digital edition of the series in English; 34 volumes have been released as of October 2022. The manga is licensed in French by

Pika Édition Pika Édition is a French publisher headquartered in Vanves, specializing in manga. Founded as a daughter company of Media System Editions, it was taken over by Hachette Livre in 2007. Distribution ''Pika Édition'' publications are distributed ...

, in Korean by

Haksan Culture Company Haksan Publishing Co., Ltd. ( ko, 학산문화사, translit=Haksan Munhwasa, lit=Haksan Culture (company)), a subsidiary of Daewon Media, is a South Korean publisher, famous for its large selections of domestic and imported comics (manga/manhwa) a ...

, in Taiwanese by Tong Li Publishing, and in Thai by Bongkoch Publishing.

Anime

A 25-episode anime television series adaptation, produced by the studio Madhouse under the direction of Morio Asaka, aired on

Nippon Television JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed ...

from 4 October 2011 to 27 March 2012. The screenplay was written by Naoya Takayama and character designs were by Kunihiko Hamada. The music was composed by

Kousuke Yamashita is a Japanese composer and arranger from Hamamatsu, Shizuoka. Yamashita is best known for his work on ''Digimon Xros Wars'', '' Xenosaga: The Animation'', and the tokusatsu television series ''Mahou Sentai Magiranger'', ''Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger ...

, and the sound director is Masafumi Mima of Techno Sound. The series was simulcast by

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and t ...

Animax Asia Animax is the pay television channel in Asia owned by KC Global Media Asia which broadcasts Japanese language anime and Simulcast anime, anime programming through English-language feeds in Southeast Asia (formerly including Brunei), South Asia (e ...

aired an English version of the anime from 13 February to 18 March 2013. The series was released in nine DVD and Blu-ray Disc volumes from 21 December 2011 to 22 August 2012. A Blu-ray Disc box set was released on 18 July 2013. A second 25-episode season, ''Chihayafuru 2'', aired on Nippon Television between 11 January and 28 June 2013, and was simulcast by Crunchyroll. An

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA ...

episode was released on DVD bundled with the special edition of the 22nd manga volume on 13 September 2013. The season was collected in a two-volume Blu-ray and DVD box set released on 22 May 2013 and 18 September 2013. A 24-episode third season was originally announced to premiere on Nippon Television's AnichU block in April 2019, with the main cast and staff reprising their roles, but was delayed and aired from 22 October 2019 to 24 March 2020. The season was collected in a two-volume Blu-ray and DVD box set released on 25 December 2019 and 25 March 2020. Sentai Filmworks licensed the first two seasons of the anime series for home video release in North America. The series' first episode premiered with English subtitles on the Hidive streaming service on 15 June 2017. Sentai Filmworks' dub is streamed by Hidive starting from 29 August 2017. The first season was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 12 September 2017. In December 2019, Sentai Filmworks announced that they had licensed the series' third season. The first season's opening and ending themes are "Youthful" by 99RadioService and by Asami Seto respectively. 99RadioService released "Youthful" as a single on 30 November 2011. The original soundtrack with

character song An image song or character song is a song on a tie-in single or album (often called an image album or character album) for an anime, game, ''dorama'', manga, or commercial product that is sometimes sung by the voice actor or actor of a character ...

albums was released in two volumes on 18 January and 28 March 2012. The second season's opening and ending themes are "Star" by 99RadioService and by Seto. The third season's opening and ending themes are "Colorful" by 99RadioService and by Band Harassment.

Other

Kodansha released several guidebooks for the series, with the first released on 9 November 2011. It provided a study guide for the poetry and background for the story. A 4-volume novel series, ''Chihayafuru: Chūgakusei-hen'', was published by Kodansha under their ''KC Deluxe''

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

between 9 September 2012, and 13 December 2013. The books were written by Yui Tokiumi and illustrated by Yuki Suetsugu and follow the middle-school years of the three protagonists. A manga adapting the novels, written by Tokiumi and illustrated by Oto Tooda, was published in ''Be Love'' from 13 October 2017 to 1 November 2018 and compiled into three volumes. On 11 April 2015, it was reported that the series would be adapted into a live-action film. A

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

titled '' Chihayafuru: Kami no Ku'' was released on 19 March 2016, with a second film, '' Chihayafuru: Shimo no Ku'', released on 29 April 2016. '' Chihayafuru: Musubi'', a third and final feature length film in the trilogy, was released on 17 March 2018. The films got a five-episode tie-in series on

Hulu Japan Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television series ...

on 28 February 2018. The series is titled ''Chihayafuru -Tsunagu-'' (''Chihayafuru: Connect''), and connected the story of the second and third films. It also included behind-the-scenes footage and cast interviews. In addition, the third film got another tie-in titled ''Chihayafuru -Manabi-'' (''Chihayafuru: Study'') on Hulu Japan on the same day that introduced the new members of the Mizusawa Karuta Club and explained the rules of karuta. A 3-volume novelization of the films, ''Eiga Chihayafuru'', was published by Kodansha under their KC Deluxe imprint. The first two volumes were released on 11 March 2016 and the third on 13 February 2018. The books were written by Yui Tokiumi, based on the screenplay by Norihiro Koizumi. They were re-released in hardcover from 24 February 2017 to 28 February 2018. Another 3-volume novelization of the films by Yūki Arisawa, ''Shōsetsu Chihayafuru'', was published by Kodansha under their Kodansha Bunko imprint in 2018. The first two volumes were released on 16 January and the third on 15 February.

Reception

''Chihayafuru'' won the second Manga Taishō award, and the 35th

in the

shōjo manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent females and young adult women. It is, along with manga (targeting adolescent boys), manga (targeting young adult and adult men), and manga (targeting adul ...

category. When ''Chihayafuru'' won the Manga Taishō award, it was commented that the series combines elements of the sport genre and literary elements with a discerning eye on the subject matter. It was one of the Jury Recommended Works in the Manga category at the 16th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2012. The manga had over 16 million copies in circulation in Japan by the first half of 2016; over 24 million by the end of 2019; over 27 million by the beginning of 2022; and over 28 million by the end of 2022. Its popularity has boosted the popularity of competitive ''karuta''. The manga has regularly appeared on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike i ...

's Japanese Comic Ranking chart. Between March 2009 and September 2011, the fourth through fourteenth volumes all appeared in the top 25 during the week of their release and the week after. Among North American reviewers, Gia Manry, writing about the first episode of ''Chihayafuru'', felt that despite the animators' efforts, ''karuta'' seemed boring, and criticised the overuse of CG

sakura A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of genus ''Prunus'' or ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especially in Japan. They generally ...

, describing it as a "mixed bag" of an anime. Bamboo Dong says that Chihaya's passion and characterisation make ''karuta'' interesting. Carlo Santos felt that the series was the "first genuinely good show of the season", citing its characterisation, unusual subject, and polish of the first episode. Marcus Speer enjoyed the production values of the first episode, but felt that the theme songs were "standard fare". He was intrigued by how the characters' childhood impacted on their present interactions. Theron Martin appreciated the focus on the characters rather than the game, feeling that while the teenage Chihaya seemed "gimmicky", her younger self was "quite likable". Chris Beveridge praised the tension shown between Arata and Taichi in the second episode's ''karuta'' match. Theron Martin felt the second episode's ''karuta'' tournament was tense and compelling, and that despite the plot unfolding in a predictable fashion, the execution made this forgivable.

listed it in their "Top 100 best anime of the 2010s". '' IGN'' also listed ''Chihayafuru'' among the best anime series of the 2010s. Writing for ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'', Lauren Orsini considered it to be one of the five best anime of 2011; she wrote, "Even Western viewers will quickly become invested in the fast-paced drama of competitive ''karuta''".

Notes

References

External links

*
''Chihayafuru''
at Kodansha Comics
Official NTV website
* {{Madhouse 2007 manga 2013 anime OVAs 2011 anime television series debuts 2013 anime television series debuts 2013 Japanese television series endings Card games in anime and manga Josei manga Kodansha manga Madhouse (company) Madhouse (company) franchises Manga adapted into films Manga Taishō Nippon TV original programming Romance anime and manga School life in anime and manga Sentai Filmworks Slice of life anime and manga Sports anime and manga Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (Shōjo) Hulu Japan