(L) Chihayafuru [Manga]

[ID555]

Wow finally things are happening on that front? Lol assault though.

Spoiler:

I knew it was Arata. Well, no matter what happens at the end, feels good to know that I was right.

[scififan]

Originally Posted by karice67

I'm sorry, I don't really have the time to go into it.

Is it your reply the poster above or..is it Chihaya's reply to Taichi?
Taichi's all 100 cards turns black/dark to him already explains his reason for playing karuta. His eagerness to play againist Arata seems vain,
Mangafox forum has bunches girly talk about a sinking ship. It lacks the talk about how to manage a club with the declinging membership. At least, the story of a sinking ship is more appealing to readers.

[ID555]

Originally Posted by scififan

Is it your reply the poster above or..is it Chihaya's reply to Taichi?
Taichi's all 100 cards turns black/dark to him already explains his reason for playing karuta. His eagerness to play againist Arata seems vain,
Mangafox forum has bunches girly talk about a sinking ship. It lacks the talk about how to manage a club with the declinging membership. At least, the story of a sinking ship is more appealing to readers.

They do tend to favour the bishies...

[karice67]

Originally Posted by scififan

Is it your reply the poster above or..is it Chihaya's reply to Taichi?

That was my reply to the poster above me.

Alright, I'll be a bit more specific: look for posts by Biribiri_chan on the MF forums. I think she's got the most balanced and nuanced view of the chapter thus far. Ignore the shippers if you can. Unless that's what you're interested in.

Edit: Rin_'s comments are also really good.

[Reckoner]

138:

Welp. After that bombshell I totally expect that this will be ignored for months on end to frustrate us readers as much as possible .

Also this chapter was extremely painful to read. ;_;

[Miraluka]

Two confirmed facts:

1. Being Taichi is suffering.

But, it's time to move on, leave the kids playing games. Even sensei had to work despite loving playing Karuta. Props to him for not lashing out at her or something, he just steps asides and leaves.

2. Chihaya a shit.

[Mitcher]

Hey, now it seems like Suetsugu-sensei is in love of an afflicted Taichi.

[Anh_Minh]

I hope he can get his life back on track.

[Ulin]

Noone still reading this?

Spoiler for ch169:

So the class A final will be Arata vs Shinobu as expected after Chihaya's loss (Something I find pretty normal since she will have to win in the queen match and we can't expect her to win two straight times against the queen) but what I really like to see is the outcome of the class B final... I want Tsukue-kun to win so badly (even more than Chihaya right now)

The last chapters have been pretty good, even if the monthly release makes it a bit difficult to read sometimes

[Anh_Minh]

Eh, I don't really care about Tsukue.

I want to see where they go from here.

[Verso Sciolto]

Originally Posted by Ulin

Noone still reading this?

Sounds like a rhetorical question but ... 192,358 people bought a copy of the latest volume (32) within the first five days of its release, so I'd say quite a few people are still reading.

They're not talking about it here though...

[Ulin]

Originally Posted by Verso Sciolto

Sounds like a rhetorical question but ... 192,358 people bought a copy of the latest volume (32) within the first five days of its release, so I'd say quite a few people are still reading.

They're not talking about it here though...

I know I meant here, refering as the lack of comments, specially as the story has been quite interesting in the latests issues (at least for me)

[SuitUp]

I for one I'm just waiting for it to end, so they adapt it in a 3rd anime series

[Ulin]

Originally Posted by SuitUp

I for one I'm just waiting for it to end, so they adapt it in a 3rd anime series

I don't think we are even near the end.... Chihaya is still not close to the Queen title, and we will probably face a fierce battle between Arata and Taichi for the Meijin... maybe for the right to chalenge him or even with one of them already in the throne.

And don't forget the rest of the cast, that once HS is over will have to find time to meet or even to keep playing...

[Blaat]

Originally Posted by SuitUp

I for one I'm just waiting for it to end, so they adapt it in a 3rd anime series

There's already enough chapters for a third (two cours) series, and in 5 months or so we'll have enough chapters for a fourth series. The pessimist in me thinks we won't ever get a third season if it doesn't get announced this year.

Originally Posted by Ulin

I don't think we are even near the end.... Chihaya is still not close to the Queen title

Nope, Chihaya is very close to the Queen title it will happen this school year. The first chapter already revealed that Chihaya will be playing the Queen match in her third high school year and she's just lost to Shinobu and in sports manga/anime tropes that means she'll most likely win the rematch.

[Ulin]

Originally Posted by Blaat

Nope, Chihaya is very close to the Queen title it will happen this school year. The first chapter already revealed that Chihaya will be playing the Queen match in her third high school year and she's just lost to Shinobu and in sports manga/anime tropes that means she'll most likely win the rematch.

Ups, I totally forgot about it!! Then maybe we are getting to the climax (although there are so many plots waiting to be explored... and I'm almost as interested in the Arata-Taichi match for the Meijin title as I am in the Queen's one (specially since we can suposse that Chihaya will win, specially after losing to Sinobu this time again)

[Verso Sciolto]

Hastily posted links. Kodansha USA Lists Digital Releases for Chihayafuru, Tokyo Tarareba Girls, A Springtime With Ninjas Manga ... but with very little additional detail. Scheduled for release from February 14, 2017.

Direct link for the page with the first verse of volume one available online from this new electronic edition in English (Ages: 13+):
http://kodanshacomics.com/series/chihayafuru/

First impressions based on chapter one.
No poetic annotations on the pages themselves* - maybe appendix at the end of the volume?
The English translation is new, not the same as in the bilingual edition (Two volumes released in 2011 & 2012, together containing the first 17 chapters, corresponding with the first three Japanese volumes.)
Vol. 1 listed as 187 pages. That's the same number as the Japanese first volume, counting the pages with "character designs", the 4-panel omake and the "Welcome to the World of Competitive Karuta" text.

* [Edit: Too hasty in previous remark, Some -but not all- poems are identified on the page and their translations are the same as Stuart Varnam Atkin's translations included in the back of the two bi-lingual editions.]

[Ulin]

I really hope they do a printed edition too... in that case I'll be inmediately on board

[Verso Sciolto]

Originally Posted by Ulin

I really hope they do a printed edition too... in that case I'll be inmediately on board

I hope so too and although I will try to purchase this first digital volume regardless I wish they'd announce soon if they already have plans for a print edition in English as well. The reactions so far indicate that quite a few people still prefer physical copies but perhaps this makes more sense to Kodansha, at the moment, based on distribution and print costs?

If they publish a print edition at some point I hope they follow the Japanese originals, which I've been told are also echoed in the way the French print edition is published as well. I hope they follow that pattern for the new English version too because of the cover designs for each volume and other elements such a flap texts. Some details from which appear to have been omitted for this digital edition - based on the preview for chapter one.

The bi-lingual print edition essentially erased some of that detail by bundling parts from more than one volume - especially the second and third volumes which ended at the end of the second bi-ligual book and thus eradicated one cover and erased the

Spoiler:

Se o hayami quotation associated with the third volume through its flap text. Those two books didn't include the other extras from the first three volumes either.

Side note: The illustration by Yuki Suetsugu was nice at the end of episode 17 of

Spoiler:

Sangatsu no Lion.

Spoiler for Hospitalisation / release from... Feb. 2017.:

On Twitter Suetsugu-sensei gave "inflammation of the intestines" 「腸に炎症」 as the reason for her hospitalisation after previously writing that it was very painful and that she still couldn't comfortably move much, but, she gradually seems to be doing a bit better and she wrote that she can keep her food down now [, still supplemented.]

On the eighth day into her hospitalisation, she posted an image of her working on a new chapter page, accompanied by a note that she can afford to lift her pen, calorie wise. Twitter feed
*Get well soon*

On the tenth day she posted that she has her stomach full and that she had inked 20 pages. Still a bit more to go...

Also adding here that "Be Love" publicly encouraged her -via Twitter- to take her time, rest and give her body the opportunity it needs to properly recover ... not to worry if getting well means delaying publication of Chihayafuru. Thereby, in a round about way, perhaps, telling her appreciative fans to be patient. Something I'd like to echo here.

Not sure if it means the 6th issue of the magazine, to be released mid-March, will have a "full" chapter or if the release date for Volume 34, will need to be pushed back a little further. The March 1 release of Ch. 178 appears to be on track.

Her latest message seems to say something like: Thank you all for worrying but stop worrying. I'm improving, am almost back to normal and want to get back to work. Look forward to it.... She wrote that she expects to be released from the hospital tomorrow - which means she'll get out Feb 27 (JST).

Confirmed. She did indeed get discharged that day...

Hopefully the issues are behind her - she returned in March, like a lion. As it turns out Suetsugu-sensei was only working one chapter ahead. The panels from this work-in-progress-photo, linked above, have now appeared, looking better, on the second page of chapter 179, in Be・Love number 7, released today. A chapter which, like the latest tankobon (34), appeared on the scheduled date and both were well worth the wait.
Hope she can sustain this, craving more than chocolate.

Spoiler:

... and she brought back Hayami, the calligraphy student, as Chihaya's opponent...

Spoiler for Ch. 176 & 178:

The book Kana gives Chihaya in ch. 176 is:「英語でよむ万葉集」"Eigo de yomu Manʾyōshū", "Reading Manʾyōshū in English" by Ian Hideo Levy.

Edit April 15, 2017 (Updated April 19):
In Chapter 180

Spoiler for Poetry and Japanese history related to chapters 149 and 180, primarily.:

Setsuna Hayami makes her reappearance with a slightly more expanded introduction to her back story. Once again she and her calligraphy based karuta are associated with Ogata Kōrin (Kourin, Korin) or -perhaps more precisely- associated with reproductions of karuta sets based on Kōrin's writing and illustrations. These cards as depicted present something of a puzzle to me. In flashbacks in chapter 180 we are shown that Hayami too attempts to reproduce them by hand and it appears that one of her attempts could be for "natsu no yo ha" (36), Mostow: "The short summer nights".

When Hayami made her first appearance she was also depicted with cards from a Kōrin set. Based on images on the manufcurer's site, it looks like the following cards appeared in Vol. 29, Ch. 149 on page 15, top to bottom:
1. Poem 60 - Torifuda
2. Poem 10 - Yomifuda
3. Poem 60 - Tori
4. Poem 36 - Tori
5. Poem 60 - Yomi
6. Poem 10 - Tori
7. Poem 72 - Yomi
8. Poem 72 - Tori
9. Poem 36 - Yomi
10. Poem 10 - Tori

Where both the playing and the reading cards for poem 36 may have been depicted alongside Hayami. Perhaps someone more familiar with the sets of Kōrin cards comes along to provide correct(ed) identifications.

Something else to note about that richly decorated panel is that the text of another poem, "tama no o yo" (89) is written over the top of all the imagery. Written in the same "script" or calligraphy style as employed for the Kōrin card set. Shokushi Naishinnō's poem is not depicted as a card, however. Its text appears unlike the other poems because it is shown free floating without its illustration from that set.

To repeat something about that chapter from another forum, I found Hayami's one stroke introduction interesting and the allusion, in that same panel, to a "black and white world" intriguing. Intriguing not in the least because it came right after all the references to that painter / artisan perhaps best known for his use of vivid colour.

Update May 1, 2017:
There is no new Chihayafuru chapter in the most recently released magazine issue - Be Love 10 - which does have a full colour introduction for the third live action film, "Chihayafuru: Musubi", on its inside "end page". Showing Suzu Hirose and the four new cast members. The regular preview page for the next issue also has an image of Chihaya this time - to go with an announcement for the continuation of the manga. In short, the next chapter, 181, is scheduled to appear in Be Love 11, to be released around May 15, 2017...

The Be Love website has been updated. Behind spoiler tags below is the preview image as currently hosted there - as also printed in Be Love 10. Chihaya Ayase is pictured as she appeared in chapter 180. As she appeared during the karuta qualification match with Setsuna Hayami (速水節奈).

In this preview we're shown the moment when the card for the "tago no ura" poem (04) starts to levitate, as it lifts off the tatami, in Chihaya's mind. The visualisation of a transformative moment for Chihaya as she continues her match with Hayami. Hayami who is a life-long student of calligraphy, whose love for the set originally created by Ogata Kōrin connected her with competitive karuta. Someone whose karuta further developed under the guidance of, former queen, one time women's karuta title holder, Yumi Yamamoto (山本由美). The opponent who stopped Chihaya's qualifying progress in a previous year's cycle, but whose own transformation during that match facilitated Chihaya's mental progress in the process of defeating herself - as she was defeated by Yamamoto. Both Hayami and Yamamoto are members of Suihoku-kai (翠北会), a Tokyo based karuta association/society.

Spoiler:

[Verso Sciolto]

Tonight, at midnight, Be Love 11, for 2017, will be released, containing chapter 181, song one hundred and eighty one.

The day after that, Kodansha Comics (USA) will release the new English translation of Volume Two in their digital edition of the manga series. Unfortunately, it looks like the same Geo-blocking will be in place which restricted access to Volume One as well. No news on opening the borders or on a print edition of the English translation.

In 2015, the cover design of the second tankōbon became the basis for "Chihayafuru Kami no Ku's" promotional materials. A hand holding the playing card for the poem printed in volume one, was added. Suzu Hirose became the face of Chihaya in the image created for the first film adaptation for the series. The substitution of flowers framing the actress' face was another change made from the original artwork. For the eText of the manga, Kodansha has returned to the original image and thereby preserved the associations of this specific flower. Through Hanakotoba, the language of flowers, this enigmatic cover flower is telling part of the Chihayafuru story. A flower getting a message across.

Based on the preview of Volume One, I'm assuming no poem will be shown in the beginning of the second eBook either.

Spoiler for Cover Poems:

From the collection of one hundred poems, Fujiwara no Okikaze's poem was selected to be printed on the inside flap of Volume two in the original Japanese tankōbon. The same poem was also picked for the second and final bilingual book released so far.

One day after that, the print edition of "Tome 20" will be released in Pika Edition's ongoing French language run of the series.

Spoiler for content:

Covering the Yoshino tournament, in that timeline, funny enough...

The third, and final live action movie, "Chihayafuru -Musubi-" is currently being filmed. Recruitment for volunteer extras continues, for on location shooting throughout May and June 2017. Looks like they're in Ashikaga today.
http://movies.robot.co.jp/extra/chihayafuru/

Lots of wonderful developments. It's a good time to be a Chihayafuru fan, I think.

Update, May 15:
The preview page is up for Be Love 12. Although there is no “Chihayafuru” related illustration, the series is listed in the line-up for that issue, meaning chapter 182 will be in print by June 1, 2017.

Spoiler for Previews page for Be Love 12:

(“Chihayafuru” will be appearing alongside the second part of a 「ギャルボーイ!」 (“Gal Boy!”) revival special by Mariko Nakamura.)

The title page for “Chihayafuru” chapter 181 was uploaded to Be Love’s Twitter feed. The image shows Chihaya, in a very elaborately decorated, flowery kimono. So much going on there, with the "river", the cranes and the Heian era carriage. She is tying tasuki and the film title is tied in through her hair ornaments. The page also reveals the scheduled August 10, 2017 release of the next tankōbon in the series, Volume 35.

Spoiler for Chapter 181 title page image:

Update June 15, 2017. The story continues as scheduled. A string of consecutive chapters. Chihaya's image -full of symbolism- partially reappears on the preview page for Be Love 14. I found the chapters in between very interesting.

Spoiler:

June 30, 2017 -Update and a bit of slightly older news. Today Chapter 184 came out in Be Love 14. Haven't read it yet. Based on the sample pages released via Be Love’s Twitter feed I can’t help but wonder again what role in the story - and what potential influence on Chihaya- Suetsugu-sensei has in mind for

Spoiler for character’s name:

Mima Keiichirō 美馬 慧一郎.

In the upcoming karuta match he's facing quite a formidable opponent.

The following is probably going to a put a dent in this thread's commentary traffic but it looks like we’re headed for a hiatus. As posted on Be Love’s website, the preview for Be Love 15 does not show Chihayafuru in the line-up for that issue, to be released July 15, 2017:

Spoiler:

On June 13, 2017 Kodansha Comics released volume three in English in their Digital Edition of the series licensed for the market in the USA.

According to the website for volunteer extra recruitment, all filming on the Chihayafuru Musubi sets came to an end on June 30, 2017. Thanks to all the thousands of on set and behind the scenes participants. Looking forward to your finished film.

July 11, 2017. From sketches to finished images in six steps to illustrate how bonus artwork was created to be used in conjunction with a collaboration advertisement campaign. Only the first image without any brand names, the rest of the "six-step sets" of "work in progress" drawings was uploaded to Suetsugu's Twitter Feed earlier today.

Images

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July 15, 2017. Definitive confirmation, no new chapter released today, only Chihayafuru week in Awara related content on the back cover of the magazine.

The preview pages for Be Love No. 16 show Chihayafuru in the line-up for that issue, scheduled to be released on August 1, 2017.

Spoiler:

Perhaps also a good moment to edit and remark on other available translations. Please expand if you have additional info or corrections. Of the available translations, I'm aware of, the Korean edition, published by Haksan Culture Company appears to be the furthest along, with thirty-one volumes in print, as of May 26, 2017. Printed as: 치하야후루 31권.
Thirty volumes have been released in Chinese by the Taiwanese company Tong Li Publishing, the latest of which was released on June 15, 2017. Printed as: 花牌情緣 30.
"Chihayafuru Tome 21" will be released in French by Pika Édition on August 23, 2017.

It is my understanding that these are the only print editions currently still being released, besides Japanese serialisation of individual chapters in Be Love magazine - with Japanese print editions of collected volumes appearing approximately twice a year.
The Japanese language magazine and tankōbon can also be purchased in "eBook" formats from various online bookstores.

Anyone know of other language editions or different versions of Chihayafuru being published at the moment?


Update, July 23, 2017.
One week before the release of the next chapter, Suetsugu-sensei wrote some Twitter observations about the national high school karuta championships - because this year's finals of the competition took place this weekend. Looking towards the future, with some trepidations about changes, while reminiscing about tournaments of the recent past she attended, observed and incorporated into her manga series. A series with its own profound impact on such events. The core of the series for such a long time. Bracketed in a single image:

Images

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As her previous messages indicated, Saturday's live coverage of the team competition of the 39th tournament was hosted on niconico online. (Still available as "time shift".)

T-shirts -blue or red- for sale at Omi Jingu for competitors participating in the events -with Chihaya from a panel of the manga printed on the back and a poem card printed on the front:

Images

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Also -edited- to include these links, for reference and search tools, the website of "Shigureden", the hall of Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, a museum in Kyōtō for the One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets. In Japanese and partially translated into English. Not sure if this museum site had been mentioned here before but the Japanese version has search functions which enable searching for poems by clicking the hiragana keyboard for the first character of the "first verse" 「上の句 」or the first character of the "second verse" 「下の句」or by typing words or text portions into the search field.