Movie Review: Chihayafuru: Kami no Ku

                                              Chihayafuru: Kami no Ku Review

This film is based off the manga/anime Chihayafuru and it tells the story of a high school girl named Ayase Chihaya who loves the Japanese card game Karuta more than anything in the world and her dream is to become the best in the world at Karuta. Chihaya starts a club for Karuta at her school but has trouble find members because most people aren't interested in Karuta but then she finds out one her old friends Mashima Taichi who she use to play Karuta with goes to her high school and she convinces him to join even though he hasn't played in years. Chihaya and Taichi end up finding three more members for their club and the club starts training for the upcoming Karuta tournament that Chihaya is determined to win despite their being two beginners on their team.

One of the main reason that Chihaya was always so dedicated to Karuta was because she hoped that one day it would reunite her with Wayata Arata who is the one that first introduced her to Karuta and is one of the best Karuta players around and he is the grandson of a Karuta master. Arata was friends with Chihaya and Taichi when they were in elementary school and the three competed as a team together. While Chihaya had also admired him for his skills in Karuta, Taichi had felt inferior to Arata since he was so much better at Karuta than Taichi could ever imagine himself being and that due to this he could never measure up to Arata in Chihaya's eyes. Since Taichi always feels jealous of Arata their friendship is a bit more complicated especially since they both seem to want to be with Chihaya although romance isn't something that Chihaya thinks about at all.

The movie was overall very good it did a good job at capture the feel of the series as well as the characters whom I love to a great degree already so I loved seeing them in live action as well. I loved that Chihaya still had so much energy, passion and determination and I loved that Taichi was still that slightly awkward 'jack of all trades, master of none' that I fell in love with when I was watching the anime. I would say that I felt that things were dealt with more in depth in the anime but that is something that is to be expected since there was more time in the anime. Overall I loved the movie and it renewed my love for the series that never really left me. Please tell me your thoughts on this movie or the anime series.