Get ready for the return of our favorite karuta players! The official website and social media channels of the Chihayafuru anime has just released a video preview for the anime’s upcoming third season. The video previews the upcoming season’s opening theme song “COLORFUL” by 99RadioService, who sung the opening themes for the previous seasons. You can watch the video here.
A new teaser visual was also revealed for the upcoming third season, which will still be directed by Morio Asaka for Madhouse.
The three main cast members were previously announced to return for this season: Asami Seto (Chihaya Ayase), Mamoru Miyano (Taichi Mashima), and Yoshimasa Hosoya (Arata Wataya). More cast members were recently announced to be returning to the series, such as Tooru Nara as Yuusei Nishida, Ai Kayano as Kanade Oe, Tsubasa Yonaga as Tsutomu Komano, Megumi Han as Sumire Hanano, and Miyu Irino as Akihiro Tsukuba.
Some cast members, however, were replaced by new voice actors: Dr. Harada will now be voiced by Kenta Miyake (who also voices All Might in My Hero Academia), while Taeko Miyauchi will now be voiced by Yoshino Ohtori. Both characters’ original voice actors, Unsho Ishizuka and Toshiko Fujita respectively, passed away last year.
Sentai FIlmworks, which holds the English-language license for the anime, describes the series as such:
”Chihaya Ayase is a beautiful and headstrong young woman with a passion for karuta, a card game inspired by classical Japanese poetry. As a child, Chihaya was introduced to the game by a quiet, gifted transfer student named Arata, and she was instantly drawn to it. Now in high school and reunited with her childhood friend Taichi, Chihaya dreams of finding Arata and the three resuming their love of karuta, only to discover that Arata has quit the game due to personal reasons. Determined not to let Arata’s passion go to waste, Chihaya and Taichi form the Mizusawa High School Karuta Club, where they learn that in karuta – as in life – working toward your dreams is the key to winning, even when what you want seems just out of reach.”
Chihayafuru season 3 is set to air on October 2019. This season is scheduled to air for two cours (i.e., two quarters of a year).
Source: Anime News Network