Chihayafuru 2

*Includes spoilers. Media credits go to their owners.*

Ahhhh, finally, Chihayafuru 2 is here! While it was already out last week, I didn't have the chance to relax and carefully enjoy the first episode soon enough. But now I have. And even though there will be another episode out by the time this bit of the blog will go live, I'll focus on the first episode here.

So whoever doesn't know it yet - Chihayafuru is an anime series about karuta. WTF is karuta? It's the name of the game, yo! Actually it's a game the Japanese nobles used to play and has a 100 cards in it with poems from the Hyakunin isshu - a great anthology of classical Japanese poetry. To set that aside, this anime is about smacking cards! You need to grab a card as soon as you hear the first syllable of any of those 100 poems. And that's what Chihaya (the pretty lady on the picture) and her friends do all series long. Sounds extremely dull?
It's not!
It has some pretty awesome sports tactics and abilities mixed into it, but it's also kind of elegant in the form of the poems and the readers (who read the poems to the competitors) and tradition. Even though competetive karuta has very little in common with the nobles of ancient times. Mostly everyone is sweaty and has to think a lot. Anyway, some pictures I captured from the first episode.

There's a new girl, who looks like a bitch and obviously likes Taichi. Not cool, missy. GTFO, he needs to be with Chihaya, kk?
Actually, I can't wait for today's episode, so I'm just going to leave this at that. Really want to see moooar!

Real life topic anime

*May include spoilers. All media credits go to their owners.*

I haven't seen a lot of anime that could be classified as 'themed'. What I mean by that is - I don't really watch anything that doesn't have something mystical in it. Obviously these animes could also be referred to as 'themed' - mostly themed for boys because of the battles and abilities - but what I envision when I use that word is something like sport or music or art or culture. I think the very first anime about sport that I saw was Attack No. 1 - or maybe Captain Tsubasa. But little difference which one of them was the first because I hated both of them. I admit that I did watch Attack No. 1, or Mila Superstar as it was called in German on the RTL2 channel where I watched it, but only because it was just before Sailor Moon for some time. Mostly I was the fastest remote control clicker in the world when it came to any of the sports animes. Not sure if I saw any music animes back then - but if I did, I probably switched the channel just the same.

Chihayafuru

So having a vague memory of not thinking anything of these shows, it will not surprise you that I avoided watching any 'themed' animes for a very long time. The very first thing that sparked my interest years later was Chihayafuru - and I only started watching that one because of Uta Koi and the beautiful poetry. But to be fair, Chihaya and her friends were more engaged in Karuta as a sport rather than a noticing the rich history and context of the 100 poems. Still, even though every one of them had a special ability or angle for approaching the sport, I had no idea that was actually what captures the viewer when it comes to sports animes. So when Chihaya came out with her epic hearing, Taichi with his memorization skills and Arata just being OP and having a long history, I thought it was all some kind of new way of displaying action. Little did I know that that's exactly what you look for in these kinds of shows.

When it was then suggested I watch Kuroko's Basketball or Kuroko no Basuke, I was still clueless about what it was going to be and, frankly, also very skeptical. That changed within the first episode. When I realized that every single one of the characters was going to have a special power - very similar to supernatural or mystical powers that the characters in my usual animes have - I was all over that show. No joke. Did I think that some of those abilities were ridiculous? Of course. Would it really be possible for someone to have so little presence that he gets away with all kinds of sneaky tricks - surely not. Especially when he generally sucks at basketball. But is that an awesome idea to portray and make possible in an anime - definitely yes. Not to mention that epic copy-ninja style of Kise, Kagami's jumps, Midorima's long range shots and the monstrous Aomine. Can't say that the only girls in the show have any less worthy abilities. If Riko's special power is somewhat logical and might be possible in reality - even if not to that extent - then Momoi's power is just mental. And awesome. And OP. But when playing against it, it makes winning that much more desirable. All in all, I had no idea basketball could be shown with so much feeling and action. I watched one episode at my college the other day and a basketball player sitting next to me commented on how dramatic the show looked. He was right - and that's what makes it epic!

Very recently, however, I watched Nodame Cantabile. I admit that I chose it because it was on a rather high spot in the ANN top 50. I knew it was going to be an anime about music and even though my sister had actually suggested I watch Angel Beats or something of that name, I had never watched anything remotely related to music before. At least not on purpose. So as I started it, I had no idea what to expect. When the show evolved though, I realized that it was kind of in the same style as the sports animes. Most of the time they just pointed out how great musicians the main characters were, how much better than other players, but here and there they added effects like: "When he conducts, people start seeing flower petals" or "When she plays, it feels like we are all in a fairy tail". Sure, that might not qualify as a special power exactly, but I know enough about music to know how people talk about the pieces they just heard - at least in my own country. And mostly these talks do not involve flower petals - or black feathers and princes, which were also present, by the way. So hearing what was right and what was wrong with their technique or approach was pretty much like improving oneself on the battlefield - this time the battlefield was the competitive musical world.

Nodame Cantabile

And I loved it! The show was amazing, even with the sometimes overextended music and the nonexistent animation. Seriously - not too much fun to watch a conductor just stand in place, doing nothing. Still, it had humor and some extra relationship topics and most of all the growing of their personal skills and ambitions.

I guess what I'm trying to say is - if it ever comes to watching these themed shows, don't be too conservative like I was. They might be more epic than you know.

See you next week!