The voice cast members for the third season of the anime announced two cast changes on Sunday (23), after two members of the previous cast passed away. Kenta Miyake (My Hero Academia's All Might) replaces Unshō Ishizuka as Dr. Harada, the mentor who teaches the traditional Japanese game of karuta to the main character, Chihaya.
Yoshino Ohtori replaces Toshiko Fujita as Taeko Miyauchi, the karuta club advisor at Chihaya High School. Both Ishizuka and Fujita passed away last year.
The voice cast members announced the changes during the “Chihayafuru week in Awara 2019” event in Awara City, Fukui Prefecture. The cast members had previously announced this third season of the anime based on Yuki Suetsugu's Chihayafuru manga during a similar event in Awara in 2018.
The new season was scheduled to premiere in April on NTV's "AnichU" programming block, but was ultimately postponed to October. The season is scheduled to air in two parts (two quarters of a year).
Morio Asaka is returning to direct the anime at Madhouse. The three main cast members will also return, including Asami Seto as Chihaya Ayase, Mamoru Miyano as Taichi Mashima, and Yoshimasa Hosoya as Arata Wataya. 99RadioService, which performed the opening themes for the previous two seasons, returns to perform the new opening song “COLORFUL”. The band Harassment will perform the ending theme song “Hitomebore” (Love at First Sight).
The first 25-episode season of the television anime ran from October 2011 to March 2012. The second season, Chihayafuru 2, premiered in January 2013 and also had 25 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed both seasons in several countries when they aired in Japan.
The official synopsis of the anime:
Chihaya Ayase is a beautiful and determined young woman passionate about karuta, a game inspired by classical Japanese poetry. As a child, Chihaya was introduced to the game by a quiet and talented transfer student named Arata, and felt an immediate attraction to it.
Now in high school and with her childhood friend Taichi, Chihaya dreams of finding Arata so they can rekindle their love for karuta, but they discover that he has stopped playing for personal reasons. Determined not to let Arata's passion die, Chihaya and Taichi form the Mizusawa High School Karuta Club, where they learn that in karuta – just like in life – working towards your dreams is the key to winning, even when everything seems out of reach.
Suetsugu published the manga in Kodansha's Be-Love magazine in December 2007, and Kodansha published volume 37 in February of that year. The manga has sold over 21 million copies in Japan and is being released digitally by Kodansha in English.
The manga also inspired two live-action films. The first, Chihayafuru: Kami no Ku, premiered in Japan in March 2016. The second, Chihayafuru: Shimo no Ku, premiered in April 2016. A third film, titled Chihayafuru: Musubi, is scheduled for release on March 17th of this year! The manga also inspired a live-action mini-series titled Chihayafuru -Tsunagu-, which premiered in Japan on February 20th.
Source: ANN