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Sentai Filmworks Licenses Chihayafuru Anime

Sentai Filmworks announced on Wednesday that it has licensed the first and second seasons of the Chihayafuru anime. The company will release the series digitally and on home video.

The anime adapts Yuki Suetsugu's ongoing manga series. Sentai Filmworks describes the story:

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.

The first 25-episode television anime season ran from October 2011 to March 2012. The second season, Chihayafuru 2, premiered in January 2013 and also ran for 25 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed both seasons into several countries as they aired in Japan.

Suetsugu's manga has also inspired two live-action films, and a sequel film has been greenlit.