Chihayafuru

Chihayafuru (ちはやふる)
 is a manga series written and illustrated by Yuki Suetsugu, serialized in Be Love and published by Kodansha. It is about a school girl, Chihaya Ayase, who after seeing her sister become a fashion model, is inspired by a new classmate to take up Hyakunin Isshu karuta competitively. It has been adapted into an anime television series, screening on Nippon Television and Crunchyroll from 5 October, 2011.


The manga has won the Manga Taisho Award and the Kodansha Manga Award. Since its fourth volume was released in March 2009, it has regularly appeared on the Japanese Comic Ranking chart, and in August 2011 was estimated to have sold over 4.5 million copies. Its popularity has boosted the profile of competitive karuta in Japan.


Characters:
MeeT
Chihaya Ayase (綾瀬千早 Ayase Chihaya)
 is a determined school girl who "possesses a remarkable hearing ability". She believes that by persevering in karuta, she will meet her childhood friend Arata again, and begins a karuta club at her high school with Taichi. She is the main protagonist of the Chihayafuru series.
Chihaya is a tall and slim teenage girl with long brown hair and brown eyes. She is also considered beautiful and stunning. Chihaya usually wears her school uniform when at school. When she isn't at school, she wears very fashionable clothes (hand-me-downs from her sister). She also wears many clothes with Daddy Bear on it, even when she practices karuta.
When she was 12 years old she had short hair, much like Taichi's current hair but shorter and showing her ears. She had a very tomboyish look back then. When she was in middle school, her hair grew longer about shoulder length, and she wore her school's uniform.
She is very determined, and a total tomboy. She also very outgoing, kind, has a short temper, and possesses good reflexes. 
Chihaya is sort of absent-minded, but has been noted to occasionally have extremely keen focus. Chihaya gives others her trust easily, and can be deceived with little effort. She is seen as good-natured and easy-going, and as straightforward as her style of karuta. She often says the first thing that pops into her head, much to the dismay of those around her. She is also extremely competitive towards anyone she perceives as a rival, friend or foe, and can be very petty. Though she's pretty, everyone called her as 'beauty in vain'.  



Plot

Chihaya Ayase is a girl who has spent most of her life simply supporting her sister in her model career. That changes when she meets a boy named Arata Wataya, a talented karuta player who recognizes the potential Chihaya has 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 still continues to play karuta in the hope that she will one day meet her friends again. Development Yuki Suetsugu belonged to a karuta club in senior 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 comes from the first five syllables of a poem in the Hyakunin Isshu poetry anthology, which is printed on the karuta cards.

The manga has been serialized in Be Love since 2007, and has been collected by Kodansha into 16 bound volumes as of December 2011, which is also available in eBook format. The manga is licensed in Taiwan by Tong Li Publishing. The manga became the 20th best selling manga in Japan in 2013 with 2,311,857 estimated sales in period.

Anime An anime television series based on the manga was announced in May 2011. The series was produced by Studio Madhouse under the direction of Morio Asaka with script supervision by Naoya Takayama and character designs by Kunihiko Hamada. The art director is Tomoyuki Shimizu, the director of photography is Kenji Fujita, the colour supervisor is Ken Hashimoto, the CG director is Tsukasa Saito, the music is by Kousuke Yamashita, and the sound director is Masafumi Mima. The opening theme is "YOUTHFUL", performed by 99RadioService, and the ending theme is "Soshite Ima", performed by Asami Seto. The series aired on NTV between October 5, 2011 and March 27, 2012. The series is simulcast in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand by Crunchyroll. The opening theme of the second season is "STAR" performed by 99RadioService and the ending is "Akane Sora" performed by Asami Seto.

The first volume of the series was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 21 December, 2011, with a limited edition character charm of young Chihaya.