Summary
In the December issue ofJapanese publisher Kodansha’s BE LOVEmonthly manga magazine, it was announced that Yuki Suetsugu’sChihayafurumanga would be getting a sequel with brand-new characters. The new series titled,Chihayafuru plus Kimi ga Tamewill be launching in the magazine’s January 2024 issue which drops on December 1.
Like the parent story, the manga follows characters invested in the traditional Japanese card game of karuta. The tagline for the series, “What has become of the Karuta club that Chihaya and the others have left behind?” implies that the events of theChihayafurusequel will be set at the same school.
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Chihayafurufollows the titular character, Chihaya Ayase, a teenage girl who developed a passion for karuta in her childhood after meeting her new classmate Arata Wataya. Karuta is a traditional Japanesecard game based on the Hyakunin Isshu(One-Hundred Poets), a classical anthology of Japanesewaka(classical Japanese poetry). The upcomingChihayafuru plus Kimi ga tamefollows Ritsu Nagara, a first-year student at Mizusawa High School, who aims to win the national high school championship in competitive karuta having joined the Karuta Club at Mizusawa High.
After the departure of Chihaya Ayase’s group, the club is left with just one A-level player, putting Ritsu’s ambition a little out of reach; however, like Chihaya and her friends, Ritsu’s group could unearth incredible karuta players. A brand-new visual was also released depicting the new cast of characters.
The originalChihayafurumanga by Yuki Suetsugu was originally published in Kodansha’s BE LOVE from December 2007, with the series running for 50 volumes until December 2022. The final chapter was published in the magazine’s September issue along with a spin-off side-story which was also featured in the collection of the 50th and final volume that hit shelves in December 2022.
AChihayafuruanime produced by Madhouseran for a total of 74 episodes split across three seasons, the first of which ran for 25 episodes from October 2011 to March 2012, while season 2 ran for 26 episodes from January to September 23, while season 3 ran for 24 episodes from October 2019 to March 2020. The series has also inspired three live-action films, two released in 2016 and one in 2018, with a live-action miniseries that premiered on Hulu Japan. The series has won a number of awards, like the second Manga Taishō Award in 2009, and the Kodansha Manga Award in the Shōjo category.
