Initial Impressions: Chihayafuru 2

Okaeri, Chihaya-san! Welcome back, Chihaya!

It seems like an eternity since I last saw the Karuta Club, but even among the ridiculous amount of quality anime offered this past year, Chihayafuru did not lie forgotten. I've said before that shoujo anime (this is actually a josei series) can be a bit more of a challenge to make interesting, but Chihayafuru pulls it off with aplomb, and it's generated a bit of a cult following because of it. Of course, calling this series a simple josei isn't very accurate, as it combines elements of various genres into one wonderful experience, but the point remains. Regardless, few anime last year left as deep an impression as Chihayafuru did, and I'm ecstatic to see it return just as strong as it left off.

For those of you who don't remember the first season very well, the premise revolves around three children, the ditsy but passionate Ayase Chihaya (Asami Seto), the popular but unfulfilled Taichi Mashima (Mamoru Miyano), and the karuta genius Arata Wataya (Yoshimasa Hosoya), who are all bonded together by karuta and brought back together in high school because of it. A love triangle exists among them, in which Chihaya loves Arata, Arata probably loves her back but lives far away, Taichi has always held unrequited love for Chihaya, and Chihaya only sees Taichi as a close friend. All of them hold dreams about becoming the best at Karuta for different reasons; Arata always wanted to be the Meijin (best male player), Chihaya wanted to meet up with him again but genuinely fell in love with the game, Taichi felt that he would only catch up to them both and make Chihaya look his way if he could beat Arata. With their goals in mind, Chihaya and Taichi start a Karuta club and along with their friends slowly climb to the top, only to get defeated at what amounts to Nationals in the first season and have to start all over again by gaining five new members to keep the club afloat in their second year of high school. It's an incredibly inadequate summary for the glorious atmospheric treasure that Chihayafuru really is, but we've yet to even touch on what this post is actually about.

That being said, Chihayafuru 2 picks up right about where we left off; the Karuta Club is recruiting and the new year brings kohai to the potential members list. Since a Karuta demo would probably scare everyone off, the other female member of the club, Kanade Oue, instead sets Taichi and Chihaya up as traditionalist eyecandy, which has the unfortunate effect of drawing a crowd of girls (and one boy) who are only interested in getting to know Taichi. Among the kohai is Sumire Hanano (Megumi Han), a girl who was recently dumped by her boyfriend and is looking for a rebound in Taichi. She's an interesting character, declaring herself "shoujo-heroine" worthy and Chihaya and Kanade as enemies in her quest to get her man. There's little doubt that she will become one of the main members of the club, but how and why will definitely be worth seeing, as she's driven to tears by one of the poems describing the fleeting nature of youth and beauty.

On the other side of the coin, Chihaya and the rest of the club have suddenly found themselves in disagreement about the new members. Everyone but Chihaya has realized that the kohai show little to no enthusiasm for Karuta, and they're ready to give them up as a bad job and ignore them. On top of that, each of them has a different priority for how they should be spending their time.

Taichi wants Chihaya to work her hardest so she can achieve her dream and play in the Queen match and he wants to improve himself so he can get to the Meijin match; Kanade wants to focus on traditionalism and only teach the kohai that are genuinely interested; Komano wants the kohai to be there but just so that the club won't die out; Nishida wants the five of them to practice together for the high school competition to the exclusion of the new members. Chihaya, on the other hand, wants it all; she wants what the rest want, but she truly wants the kohai to love Karuta as well, and she's willing to throw away her practice time to teach them (though she's terrible at it).

All in all, it's as if Chihayafuru never left at all, and I'm beyond happy to see the story continue. I don't even need to wonder about the next two episodes for this one; it's a keeper and I look forward to each episode with the rare fangirl squeals I usually reserve for Eureka Seven.

OP "STAR" by 99RadioService