Chihaya Ayase is a beautiful, outspoken, high school girl with a passion for Karuta. The anime starts out with Chihaya putting up posters to start a Karuta club at her school. However, it’s a little odd because she’s wearing track pants under her skirt. This is our first indication she isn’t the brightest crayon in the box.
She laments her lack of “teammates” lying in the grass listening to her “not-Ipod”. Chihaya is interrupted by her childhood friend, Taichi. They walk to the train station together and Taichi’s feeling for Chihaya are pretty obvious—not that she notices—even though he apparently has a girlfriend. I kinda feel sorry for the girl dating him. He makes it sound like they’re dating out of obligation and he would drop her in a heartbeat if Chihaya made a move. Pretty sad. Cue Taichi’s confession that he’s not interested in karuta anymore.
From there, it branches into a flashback, about how Chihaya became interested in karuta and the boy who sparked this interest, Arata. I’m not recounting the whole flashback, but her friends are jerks.
So far, I found nothing to nitpick in this anime, aside from Taichi's girly eyelashes. The art is beautiful, especially the ending animation! So far, the storyline seems like it could be very good if it goes down the right path. It has the potential to be a heartwarming coming of age story, and I hope it does well in the later episodes.
More Images Here.
