Let’s put this into a bit of perspective: generally to warrant a second season a series needs to sell well in one way or the other. Chihayafuru’s DVD sales were abysmal: it sold like, 500 copies in its first week or so. Despite being a really excellent and well-made series, people just didn’t want to bite, and I had given up on any hope for a continuation. Imagine my surprise when the manga suddenly gets really popular and a second season has been highlighted!
And guess what? The production-values still are completely top-notch. There only are a few episodes with some bad and jerky animations. Otherwise: everything is perfectly crisp, the animation manages to make every single karuta match stand out and sparkle. There still is a ton of eye candy here. Any idea how hard it is to keep up this consistency for like fifty episodes?!
I mean, Chihayafuru’s sequel is just amazing. It continues the trend that the first season set, and just continues on with it, doing so many things right. Every single episode, it doesn’t just push one character forward; it tries to do this with as many characters as possible. No episode is wasted like this, and every episode brings something new to the table. It really is amazing how the creators continue to be able to do this. They introduce quite a few new characters that have a great impact on the storylines, and nearly all of them have some sort of gimmick, yet they feel real, and very relatable. The acting was fantastic in the first season, and that didn’t let up in the second, and the second now has so much build-up and development behind it!
It’s really clear that the creators here have a very good understanding of the game of Karuta: they really manage to flesh out the game even more in this season, and show many different sides of it. A downside is that if you just look at the matches objectively, then this series is a bit predictable in the big picture, but in the small picture, it’s everything but: the creators try their hardest to make the individual karuta-matches as exciting as possible.
This season does have a bit of a downside that it’s the middle arc, so there is no beginning, nor an ending, and because of that the juiciest developments are reserved for the other parts (if they’ll ever get there), and as a result this series does have less subject material, so it can move a bit slow at times. But still this show had some of the best characters of the year.
One-Sentence Review: If this series can’t get you fired up on Karuta, then nothing will; fantastic characterization.
Suggestions:
– Hikaru no Go
– Nodame Cantabile
– Shion no Ou
This anime is just (excuse my language here) fucking great!
Its Josei, its a sporty kind of anime, and it’s about Karuta… by all means it should be boring, however, Chihayafuru is enchanting and really gets you to appreciate something you might not have ever even heard of otherwise.
No complaints here, though I do hate those fillers.
This is amazing, it starts out pretty simple, but its gets layer and layers of characterization added as it progresses and end in amazing final. It really is one of those shows that pulls you in by its passion XD.
the bad side about chihayafuru was it focused to much about karuta i felt bad about taichi’s unrequited love for chihaya. she was to dense i just felt sorry for him never getting apreciated once in a while.this made me bored of the series in the middle of it
500 copies in its first week? Where are you getting these figures from? False information!
Chihayafuru’s remunerative issues were down to commerce from behind-the-scenes, not because of the public’s reluctance to ‘bite’. Amongst fans it is fast becoming one of the cherished and highly regarded series of recent years.