NUMBER TWO – Chihayafuru
I’m saving the best for last, and that’s saying a lot because Chihayafuru is one of my all-time favorite shows of the past five years. Madhouse put this series together, and it’s pretty much a miracle it got a second season from the perspective of an American anime fan. Madhouse has done a lot of things, including the aforementioned Aim for the Ace and upcoming Ace of Diamond.
The director is just as prolific as the studio. Morio Asaka has worked on Nana and Cardcaptor Sakura, both favorites of mine. Naoya Takayama, on the other hand, only has that Supernatural anime under her series composition belt. Regardless, the direction of this series is absolutely brilliant. He could have easily spliced that two and a half episode flashback throughout the series, but he wisely kept it at the beginning. It was a risky move, for sure, but one that ultimately paid off. You’re cheering for Chihaya, Taichi, and Arata by the end of that flashback and I was certainly absolutely invested by the end. I’ll admit it. I was crying with them by the end.
Chihayafuru follows Chihaya, Taichi, and their karuta club as they try to win. See? It’s pretty much all the same. The next show is the same way too. But of course, there’s more than that. Chihaya, Taichi, Nishida, Komano, and Kana-chan all work so well of each other. Chihaya is the driving force of the club, Taichi is their fearless leader, Nishida is the pace-setter, Komano is the brains, and Kana provides an all too valuable background in classical literature.
Each episode ends at quite possibly the most frustrating place it could end and leaves me wanting the next episode NOW every time. I was at the edge of my seat each time and cheered for the Mizusawa karuta club when they were winning and cried with them when they were losing.
The best sports anime, though, use the sport as a means for character development, instead of using the character as a means to show the sport on screen. Chihaya has already reached A-class, which is the highest class in karuta. In rank, she has nowhere else to go. But at each turn, she finds someone better than her. She finds the girl who says “lucky” all the time or the Queen, Wakamiya Shinobu. She’s challenged by people her own age and people older than her and she only learns that she has more to learn, not that she’s reached her peak. This is played out a little in Bamboo Blade too, with Tama. I loved both executions, by the way as it puts the character’s interaction with the sport in the spotlight rather than the sport’s interaction with the character.
Taichi, on the other hand, is constantly stuck at the B-class. And you watch him lose over and over again in the B-class, but always excels in team matches. You watch him step up for the team, but never for himself. He’s selfless, but never cares for how he does himself. What he cares about is how he does reflects on the team.
The other characters go through their own respective strife, of course. But mentioning them is almost a crime. The draw of Chihayafuru was watching these characters grow from episode to episode and if I’m just to spoil all that right here, then what’s the point in watching the show?
The BD box for the second season is 13,986 yen on Amazon Japan right now, and I’ve always been extremely tempted to buy it. It doesn’t have subtitles, but it’d be totally worth it to own that thing just to be able to watch it whenever I want to.
Why no mention of Free!, Knight in the Area, Ginga e Kickoff, or Kuroko’s Basketball?!
I didn’t mention Ginga e Kickoff, because I didn’t know it existed. But I mentioned everything else. Name dropped, if you will.
I would just about shed blood for a legit release of Touch. I’m still holding out a faint hope that Right Stuf or somebody else will pick it up someday.