Chihayafuru (anime TV series), via Crunchyroll

This series is 25 episodes long, but it is my great wish that there will one day be more seasons aired.

This series focuses on competitive karuta. I didn't really understand what that was at first. If you're not sure either, here's a quickie explanation (if I get any of this wrong, feel free to correct me in a comment – everything I know, I learned from watching the anime and reading a bit here and there on Wikipedia, and it's quite possible I missed or misunderstood some things): A karuta deck is composed of 100 cards, each of which has a portion of one of the One Hundred Poems written on it. The two players each get 25 of those cards (according to what I read on Wikipedia, 50 cards aren't in play) and arrange those cards on their side of the playing field. A third person, the reader, reads one of the poems, and the first player to touch the card that corresponds to that poem gets to have that card. The goal is to reduce the cards on one's side to zero. If a player takes a card from their opponent's side, he or she may move a card from his or her own side over to the other player's side.

Synopsis:

When she was in elementary school, Chihaya was introduced to competitive karuta by Arata, a transfer student. She became fascinated by the energy and intensity of the game. Taichi, her best friend, started learning to play along with her, at first mainly because he was jealous of the attention Chihaya gave Arata. The threesome was later separated, however. Chihaya continued to study and play karuta, Arata abandoned it after his beloved grandfather's death, and Taichi abandoned it due to his mother's insistence that he only concentrate on those things he could excel at and that would help his future. (My understanding is that, while there are Master and Queen levels in karuta, it's not possible to play karuta for a living, the way one can Go.)

When she enters high school, Chihaya wants to start a karuta club and is convinced that Taichi will, of course, be part of that club. Taichi is reluctant at first, but eventually joins, in part because he's still nursing a crush on Chihaya. Three other students are later convinced to join: Kana, a quiet girl who loves the One Hundred Poems upon which karuta is based and whose family owns a traditional clothing store; a boy nicknamed Nikuman-kun ("Porky"), a karuta player Chihaya and Taichi faced when they were children; and a boy nicknamed Desktomu-kun, whose greatest gift is his ability to study.

The more experienced members of the club work towards their goal of becoming good enough to compete in the Master and Queen tournaments, while the less experienced members learn the rules and do their best to rise in rank. The whole team also occasionally competes in team tournaments, learning to play as a group. Meanwhile, the subplot involving Arata and Taichi's interest in Chihaya continues, with Chihaya still completely oblivious to everything but karuta.

Review:

I'm so glad this show was recommended to me and that I listened and started watching it – of all the shows I've been watching in the past few months, this is one of the best. I thought, going into it, that I had some idea of what karuta was, but I definitely wasn't expecting what I saw. Although I couldn't follow along with some of the finer points of the game, the matches were still incredibly exciting to watch.

What I'm currently reading and watching

The amount of posting I've been doing lately has been pretty sad, compared to the amount of stuff I've been reading and watching. I thought I'd do a quickie "first impressions" post - I haven't finished any of the things listed below yet, so keep in mind that my opinion of them may change. Ideally, you'll be seeing full posts for all these things at a later date.

Reading:

• The Innocence of Father Brown (e-book) by G.K. Chesterton - I picked this up as a freebie from Project Gutenberg. It's more a collection of short stories with Father Brown in them than a novel. I'm almost done with it and I have no idea what I'm going to write about it. I don't think it's really all that bad, but it's not for me. The resolutions to the mysteries have often not been satisfying to me - Father Brown relies more on characters' consciences than on the law, so stories would sometimes finish while I was still waiting for someone to bring in the police.
• Double Dare (book) by Vicki Hinze - I'm almost halfway through this book and less than thrilled with it. The "virus and body doubles at the mall" craziness could have been a lot of fun, but I feel like Hinze must have written most of Maggie and Justin's romantic scenes in another novel, because I'm not feeling their romance at all.
• I Hunt Killers (book) by Barry Lyga - This is one of my ARCs. I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but it looks like this is an attempt to create Dexter for teens. The main character's father was a notorious serial killer who did his best to teach his skills to his son. I'm not sure, yet, what direction Lyga plans to take things.

Watching:

• Brave 10 (anime TV series) - If I finish this series, it will only be after much perseverance. I hate the main female character, and the fight scenes aren't nearly good enough to overcome my hatred of her. I finished episode 4 yesterday, and the only reason I'm still watching is because an enemy from a previous episode has returned and shows signs of a seriously masochistic crush on another character. He should be good for some laughs, and maybe he'll kill the main female character in a fit of jealousy. I can only hope.
• Chihayafuru (anime TV series) - Megan gets a giant "THANK YOU!" for recommending this show to me. When I first started watching it, I said it looked like a cross between Hikaru no Go and Sand Chronicles. I still feel that way. Every episode of this show has me grinning with excitement and joy, as much, if not more, for the outcomes of the Karuta matches as for the wisps of romance.
• Recorder and Randsell (anime TV series) - Each episode is very short, which is a good thing, because the premise is too thin to survive in longer episodes. For some unexplained reason, the main characters are an older sister who looks like a child and a younger brother who looks like a young man. The series' jokes and gags are all built around this. For instance, there's a recurring joke involving the brother walking home with his school friends and getting chased by the cops, who think he's a would-be child molester.
• Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi - World's Greatest First Love (anime TV series) - Oh man. This series is kind of terrible, but I am so addicted to it. Really, really addicted. The day I started it, I watched 6 episodes without hardly realizing it. A single episode of Brave 10 feels like an eternity, while a single episode of Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi feels like nothing. Part of this series' appeal is getting to learn a bit about manga creation. An even bigger part of this series' appeal is the overflowing buckets of emotion. Supposedly these guys are all adults (these are all romantic relationships between men, by the way), but you wouldn't guess it from the way they avoid telling each other anything. Also, there are love triangles galore.