A lot of anime are getting sequels today. Especially ones that nobody had any hopes of returning. Even with this upward trend, fans of Chihayafuru were greeted with the most pleasant of surprises on finding out about the production of a third season.
Chihayfuru’s first season ran from October 2011 to March 2012 for a total of 25 episodes. Its sequel, Chihayafuru 2, ran for the exact same number of episodes, from January 2013 to June of the same year. Both were animated by Studio Madhouse, who are known for their other smash-hit series such as Hunter x Hunter (2011), No Game No Life and Death Note among many others.
The third instalment is set to air in 2019, with the three main cast member remaining unchanged, with Asami Seto as Chihaya Ayase, Mamoru Miyano as Taichi Mashima and Yoshimasa Hosoya as Arata Wataya. Chihiayafuru is based off of Yuki Suetsugu’s manga of the same name, which still being serialized in Kodansha’s Be-Love magazine.
Sentai Filmworks describes the story:
“Chihaya Ayase is a beautiful and headstrong young woman with a passion for karuta, a card game inspired by classical Japanese poetry. As a child, Chihaya was introduced to the game by a quiet, gifted transfer student named Arata, and she was instantly drawn to it. Now in high school and reunited with her childhood friend Taichi, Chihaya dreams of finding Arata and the three resuming their love of karuta, only to discover that Arata has quit the game due to personal reasons. Determined not to let Arata’s passion go to waste, Chihaya and Taichi form the Mizusawa High School Karuta Club, where they learn that in karuta – as in life – working toward your dreams is the key to winning, even when what you want seems just out of reach.”
The announcement for this third installment is beginning to clear the stigma that the anime community has created about Studio Madhouse, pertaining to the lack of sequels to extraordinary series. They have been proving all of us wrong, with the currently airing second season of Overlord and now this, an unexpected dark horse in the form of Chihayafuru.
You can catch up on the first 2 seasons of Chihayafuru at Crunchyroll.