Chihayafuru

I have both watched the anime and read the manga (maybe did not start from the beginning). It’s good because I really, really like “mind sports” series. Hikaru no Go and Sangatsu no Lion are the other main examples.

Watching Chihayafuru. “She’s speaking more quietly, is she inviting me to get closer?”

Arata vs Harada-sensei in Meijin challenger match. I think Harada will win because the author seems to be taking a really long route and planning to continue the series for a long time (it’s already at something like 30 volumes, right?). But since Harada and the Meijin are both side characters, it could also be that Arata gets to face the Meijin and loses. I think from the author’s perspective the prefered outcome is in what “small stories” she wants to tell along the main narrative.

Harada wins the first match of best of three, and then yields the second match. That… actually makes a lot of sense. He needs one win once more either way, so if he thinks he would benefit from the additional rest more than having two tries at winning it seems like a good strategy.

Shinobu Wakamiya, the queen, hears her successful politician grandmother suggest she become the first professional karuta player in the world, in the sense of someone who makes a living of doing nothing else. Shinobu is touched and decides to do just that. I love this development because I always enjoy so much stuff being built out of nothing, going from zero to one, so to speak.

Watching Chihayafuru. One female contestant in a finale wears embarassing “supporter head bands” on her and thinks to herself “I have to win or this outfit will be too embarassing to bear”. Indeed, winners usually earn their right to be eccentric. The queen and meijin certainly do their part.

I hate the trope where a character tries something different but it doesn’t work well and he finally succeeds when he tries “to be himself” again. I would like to see an opposite, a character who is doing okay, but then tries something different and starts doing much better. However this “different” really changes him and doing that causes damage. Many stories start by having their protagonist change positively in the beginning, but it doesn’t usually happen later in the story, at least not for major characters. I guess the most common variation is a villain becoming a friend when defeated.

Watching Chihayafuru. Taichi challenges the meijin to a practice match, who refuses. Taichi then takes out a prepared present which surprises and seems to please the meijin. Onlookers comment how “He knows how to climb the ladder (出世するタイプ). You don’t see many high school second-years with that knack!” I really like that side of Taichi, and he has become my favorite character. I think that type indeed tends to succeed in real life, not precisely because that aspect of climbing, but a general ability to adapt and go to the logical extremes with whatever they are trying to succeed with.

Also I like how Taichi displays the trait of Machiavellianism, I don’t know another way to describe it. He “goes out his way to hide his intentions”, as I heard a “professional” describe that trait. For example Taichi didn’t tell anyone, not even his closest friends that he decided to forgo school camp to participate in a tournament. He coolly just faked being sick. Now he tells Chihaya he forgot something and goes back alone to meet the Meijin.

Before seeing what Taichi wanted to tell the Meijin, I think a really cool thing here would be him asking to become the Meijin’s student, even though the Meijin says he dislikes Taichi. I really, really like student-mentorship dynamics that are something out of the ordinary. For example the film Whiplash and Sangatsu no Lion spring to mind.

Actually he asked for a review match (which could of course lead to more developments), and was accepted after he admitted bluffing about being Chihaya’s boyfriend. Hmm, actually this is kind of interesting because he made that lie to protect Chihaya, but now he is giving that up for personal gain. I think these kind of subtle things are pretty common in media, but you don’t know when you miss them. Often I’m not paying enough attention simply because I’m not immersed enough.

If I were to sketch the direction of the series, I would have Taichi become the Meijin by sacrificing everything, including Chihaya. Then Arata and Chihaya essentially choose each other over karuta, even though they continue competing. Chihaya also becomes the Queen for some time. When Taichi first becomes the Meijin — in the very next Meijin tournament actually — he becomes very distant to others, much like the current Meijin and Queen. Later he warms up to his old friends, but it’s never really the same anymore.

(2025-08: Here I started reading the manga from where the anime ends. I never do this but I guess I was too curious about how the story would continue.)

Somewhat related trope to that mentor-student thing that I like is when two previously distant characters develop an odd friendship. For example how in Sangatsu Rei befriends the Meijin. I’m not sure of the details, but maybe it has something to do with one character finally finding someone who understands him, so the preeequisite is that the character does not become good friends with just anyone.

Taichi does it again, not telling anyone he stays behind to take part in a tournament. Chihaya cries when she realizes he did it again. “Why does he always go alone, not telling anyone?”

Taichi loses again, Meijin sees his sleeping tears in the plane home. He really should take Taichi under his wing. Also that girl who is always after Taichi is starting to suit him perfectly. Damn, I didn’t like her before so I don’t properly remember what happened between them so far, if anything.

Oh, she confessed. What a beautiful scene. She can’t find him alone during the day, then she sees him in a gym class, outside alone few floors below. She throws the bag and the surprised Taichi catches it. Then she shouts her confession and asks Taichi too to confess to the girl he loves.

I’m starting to think this series works better as manga than anime. Maybe it’s just those same reasons I generally prefer manga to anime. For example anime has this uniform production quality and nothing really stands out, unlike the way manga can use many techniques to emphasize. Manga is nice because you can read it at your own speed and pay more attention to the things you enjoy most. In anime (and tv series) this reading habit of mine transforms into very awkward constant pausing of the video.

Haha, Taichi-hai. A tournament held (each year?) on Taichi’s birthday. The prize is a kiss from Taichi. Of course all of this was decided without telling Taichi anything.

Taichi confesses his feelings to Chihaya, not all positive feelings. She turns him down and Taichi quits the club by telling the teacher only that he wantst o study for the exams… Everything going to my liking.

I don’t like the side characters so much and the matches are quite long and repetitive. The big picture stuff I care about happens too rarely. There are many manga with epic scales, but shorter than ten volumes. I can’t help but feel that this does not really need 40+ volumes. Maybe if I will read this again in the future, knowing all the developments I might have more patience for the smaller stuff.

“Read” something like 9 volumes in just several hours. As I’ve said before, I don’t think there’s a wrong way to read manga, books or anything. Skimming, jumping over portions, reading the ending first, anything goes. Even if I read this again just as fast, I would probably pick up different things and find different kinds of enjoyment in the parts that I liked first time around. In comparison, what I really want to avoid is ever feeling that reading is a chore and then not doing it at all. Often I end up reading something really deeply only because I allowed myself to pick it up very lightly. That applies to most serious past-times I think.

Reading more Chihayafuru. Arata is opening the lunchbox prepared by his childhood friend for the tournament. His hands shake, as he is playing a version of Russian roulette. Last time the lunch totally broke his stomach (he had to go shit during a match, haha), but now he is delighted to find “winning lunch” in the box.

Some of my earlier predictions, or rather wishes, are actually coming true. Mashima did become a student of sorts to the Meijin, and now he is experimenting with being the “bad guy” instead of the hero.

Hanano (who confessed to Taichi, but refused to hear the reply because she knew he would decline), is approaching (again?) Taichi’s mother. I like this. (Page image)

Taichi invites Sudou to an evil bet that whoever loses has to quit competitive karuta. Sudou declines at first, but then suggests an improvement: In addition, the one who wins has to keep playing karuta for the rest of their life. I like that, feels like a curse, especially on Taichi who “doesn’t like” karuta.

I think it makes a good story to have a character fall into darkness and succeed because of that, but in a twisted way, and so become cursed, and then finally get healed by something. In the end they are both successful and fulfilled. In this case I think Taichi should become the Meijin using his newfound malice, and then be saved by Hanano. It may not be exactly love what will happen between them, and the conditions for it won’t open until both have changed significantly from their high school years.

In the end Arata won the Meijin challenger match against Taichi, so that throws my ideas into trash. Maybe next year… it’s always the next time with Taichi… yeah I wouldn’t be surprised if there will be 30 volumes more, even though I think it should be heading towards the end now in my opinion.

I don’t usually like it when social media creeps into manga as a topic, but this handles it pretty interestingly, focusing on Shinobu trying to become famous and make a living from being a karuta player.

Apparently Chihaya finally finished. Having trouble obtaining the last volumes so I’m content with getting spoiled by /a/. I’m happy how much talk there is, I knew /a/ had good enough taste to like this. Apparently Taichi “won” in the end, that is was chosen by Chihaya, even though Arata won the last tournament. I think it should have been the other way around, and anon below agrees with me

Do Taichifags even want Chihaya end?

— I would have prefered a meijin end, but that hope sunk long ago. At least he won something.

>wins the meijin tournament
>chihaya ends up with arata

Not gonna lie, Taichi being Meijin is kino from thematic standpoint because it turns out, he actually can do anything if he puts his mind on it but he will never get the girl he loves. Meanwhile Arata spends his youth trying to be Meijin and succeeding his grandpa only for his dreams to shatter but he ends up with chihaya, who’s actually his very first friend and comes full circle

Also agree with this anon:

my favorite part of chihayafuru was shinobu trying to create a career out of karuta.”

Aratafag tears give me life.