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Chihayafuru Season 2 (anime review)

review provided by Katie and Andrew

Title: Chihayafuru Season 2 on Blu-ray

Director: Morio Asaka

Studio: Madhouse

Author: Yuki Suetsugu

U.S. Distributor: Sentai Filmworks, Section 23

U.S. Release Date: March 20, 2018

Format and Length: Blu-ray / 25 Episodes / 625 Minutes

Genre: Drama, Game, Romance, School Life, Sports

Industry Age Rating: 14 and up

Overall Personal Rating: A

Similar Series or Titles to Check Out: Hanasaku Iroha: Blossoms for Tomorrow and Chihayafuru Season 1

 

Synopsis:

Chihaya’s determination to become a master karuta player has not changed, but as a new semester begins, the team’s focus switches to recruiting new members for the club in order to keep their meeting space. Unfortunately, while a number of students initially express interest, few are willing to put forth the effort it takes to play on the level of the existing members. Enter Sumire Hanano, who split with her boyfriend on the first day of school. Now seeking a replacement, she thinks that Taichi might just fill the role nicely, even if it means jumping into a pool with a shark like Chihaya! Now all the cards are on the table or, in this case, the floor and the games are really about to start!

 

Commentary:

I will first try and explain Karuta but it will not be short. Karuta is not to be compared with playing cards in the sense of the Western World. It is not Poker, Rummy or Skat. It would be most comparable to Memory. There are different types of Karuta that can be played. Uta-Garuta is played in Chihayafuru. The card game consists of 200 cards, 100 of which are called Yomifuda, this are the reading cards and 100 Torifuda, which are the cards that are use by the players itself. On the Yomifuda are the first three verses of a traditional Japanese poem. The Poetry comes from the Hyakunin Isshu (100 poems of 100 poets, each poet one poem). The Torifuda (game- or field-cards) contain the last two verses of the respective poem. The challenge consists in recognizing the poems during the reading and to catch the corresponding play card in front of the opponent. Karuta fulfills everything a sport should have, high concentration, excellent memory, lightning reflexes, strategic thinking, endurance, resilience, mental strength and a tremendous commitment to the long training for coordination and precession. The person who touches the right card on the field first gets the card, when you take a card from the opponents side you can give them one of yours, when your half of the playing field is empty you win.
It sounds simple and quite boring but it’s NOT. In order to touch the right card quickly, cards get flung of the playing field, people are sweating, thinking and reacting at full speed and crazy-eating chocolate in between these intense games. To really play Karuta at top level you need memorization skills, good hearing and senses, good posture, analytic and strategic skills, precision, strength, speed, perseverance, an emotional connection to the cards and so much more. As you can see, Karuta is very difficult to play but when it is played by people who love it, it is a beautiful thing.

 

Chihayafuru Season 2 starts off right where season one left off. We are introduced to two new characters who are the only students who join the club in the new semester. We first meet Sumire Hanano, an incoming first year, and she has decided to only join the club and learn to play Karuta in order to get closer to Taichi. Eventually, she is moved by everyone else’s passion and becomes a proper member of the club. She uses makeup, especially mascara, as battle armor and is never without it. We then meet Akihiro Tsukuba, an incoming first year student who has played Hokkaido-style Karuta (second verse karuta using two hands) and wants to join the club and learn how to play first verse karuta. He is the annoying/creepy character that you want to hate but instead learn to love. He has three younger brothers who look up to him and he plays off their attention to the extreme. He is drawn to pretty people so of course he looks up to both Chihaya and Taichi. Both characters added to the plot and made a great addition to the series.

 

Chihayafuru Season 2 focuses more on the competitive karuta than the love triangle between Arata, Chihaya and Taichi. The love triangle was there but we saw a lot more karuta games, both individual and the group games. The Tokyo finals and the High School Nationals were both shown and the other schools from season one were back again, along with a few new ones. Chihaya also faces off against the current kurata Queen and once again loses but she learns an important lesson while doing so.

 

The animation was beautiful and breath-taking. The background animation popped with color and the music really set the mood. I truly cannot wait for the third season to air so I can see what happens next.

 

Extras:

Chihayafuru Season 2 on Blu-ray includes clean opening and closing animations and Sentai Filmworks trailers as special features. This series was released with both English and Japanese with English subtitles as language options.

 

Overall Grade: A

SoniAni: Super Sonico The Animation (anime review)

Soni Ani: Super SonicoTitle: Soni  Ani: Super Sonico The Animation Complete Collection

Director: Kenichi Kawamura

Studio: White Fox

Music: Go Sakabe

U. S. Distributor: Sentai Filmworks, Section 23

U. S. Release Date: May 26th, 2015

Format: Blu-ray and DVD / 12 Episodes / 300 Minutes

Genre: Music, Game, Comedy, Slice of Life

Age Rating: TV 14

Overall rating: C

Synopsis:

Saying Sonico is an incredibly busy young woman is an understatement. She juggles a modeling career, part-time work at her grandmother’s bar, and performs lead vocals and guitar in an all-girl band all while attending college! Not to mention taking care of her five cats – or is that the other way around? When her workload gets a little too heavy, she can count on her fellow musicians Suzu and Furi and the rest of her friends for a stabilizing influence. Get ready for the bounciest adventure ever as this three girl band shakes, rattles, rolls and takes Tokyo by storm!

Commentary:

Ok I get it, this is a straight forward game that based anime that is all about the cheese cake. One thing that stood out tome was that we are beginning to see more and more of the Kim Kardashian body with abnormal sized breast, thin waist and large or should I say giant hips/butt. Super Sonico may not have the giant hips, but it is clear that the body style is trying to play off on the absurd pop culture that lives on TV.

Soni Ani: Super Sonico is a smile anime that spotlights the sexy girls and how often can you take this rather naive girl and put her in suggestive situations. Well, at least we know who the audience is and to put is simply I pity this group of the anime fandom.

Overall Grade: C

The strength of Soni Ani: Super Sonico The Animation is the animation. White Fox understood what they had to do and they did it. They bring forward a animation style that fit the series. The rest of the series has its funny moments and it stays true to the sole purpose of the series to even exists.

On the other side of the coin it really doesn’t have a lot to offer other that sexy girls and one who is nothing more than a object of obsession. There are plenty of series out there that provide this type of entertainment and I can’t say that it stands out as something that makes me want to go back of more.

If you are looking for bouncing boobs and plenty of suggestive situations that take a rather naive young lady and make her a object of sexual obsession. The you should run to your local anime store to see if you can pick this one up when it releases.

For the U. S. release I have to hand it to Sentai Filmworks because they hired a Cosplay super star, Jessica Nigri, to voice Super Sonico. If anyone would understand the concept of being on object of desire it would be her. I’m sure that plenty of the male fans see her as someone very special and will find the extras included with this release as something to own.