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Chihayafuru
Dec. 8th, 2011 05:27 pmOne of this season's new anime is Chihayafuru. It's that rare beast the gender-neutral sports anime.
This one has been compared to Hikaru no Go, and there are indeed a few similarities. The plot is only loosely similar in that they are both sports anime. The real point of likeness is the suspense. Chihayafuru is about a poetry card matching game. On the face of it, nothing should be less likely to be thrilling and heart-pounding. Like HnG, however, it really kind of is. The story gets inside the players' heads and engages you in their reasons for playing and wanting to advance, the struggle to form a club and a full team, the way the game catches everyone differently.
The most intimate focus is on Chihaya, our heroine, Arata, our angsty hero, and Taichi, our ambivalent hero. Their relationships provide a lot of the dynamic tension, and the series succeeds wonderfully in showing that all three of them are human. They each have great strengths and equal weaknesses. Chihaya has natural ability in the game but also a tendency to obsess and pretty striking emotional immaturity. Arata is a genius, and deeply conflicted over the game that he once lived for and now feels he shouldn't have. Taichi is bright, popular, and desperately messed up by a fear of only being second best. All of them are, in turn, deeply exasperating and amazingly sweet, and only together do they seem to have any stability.
(They are just begging to be a threesome, especially as the romantic thread intensifies.)
This one is very worth watching, especially if you've been craving a good sports series. It opens with our focal characters' entry into high school, and almost immediately flashes back to how the trio met and played years ago. That section may feel like it's moving slowly, but it sets up the return to the present beautifully.
And on the basic eye-candy side, the art of this one is really lovely.
This one has been compared to Hikaru no Go, and there are indeed a few similarities. The plot is only loosely similar in that they are both sports anime. The real point of likeness is the suspense. Chihayafuru is about a poetry card matching game. On the face of it, nothing should be less likely to be thrilling and heart-pounding. Like HnG, however, it really kind of is. The story gets inside the players' heads and engages you in their reasons for playing and wanting to advance, the struggle to form a club and a full team, the way the game catches everyone differently.
The most intimate focus is on Chihaya, our heroine, Arata, our angsty hero, and Taichi, our ambivalent hero. Their relationships provide a lot of the dynamic tension, and the series succeeds wonderfully in showing that all three of them are human. They each have great strengths and equal weaknesses. Chihaya has natural ability in the game but also a tendency to obsess and pretty striking emotional immaturity. Arata is a genius, and deeply conflicted over the game that he once lived for and now feels he shouldn't have. Taichi is bright, popular, and desperately messed up by a fear of only being second best. All of them are, in turn, deeply exasperating and amazingly sweet, and only together do they seem to have any stability.
(They are just begging to be a threesome, especially as the romantic thread intensifies.)
This one is very worth watching, especially if you've been craving a good sports series. It opens with our focal characters' entry into high school, and almost immediately flashes back to how the trio met and played years ago. That section may feel like it's moving slowly, but it sets up the return to the present beautifully.
And on the basic eye-candy side, the art of this one is really lovely.
