Voice cast members for the third season of the anime announced two casting changes on Sunday, after two previous cast members 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.
Voice cast members announced the changes during the “Chihayafuru week in Awara 2019” event in Awara city, Fukui Prefecture. Cast members announced this third anime season 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 ended up being postponed until October. The season is scheduled to be broadcast in two shifts (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 of the previous two seasons, returns to present the new opening song “COLORFUL”. The band Harassment will perform the final theme song “Hitomebore” (Love at First Sight).
The television anime's 25-episode first season 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 who is 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, feeling an immediate attraction to the game.
Now, in high school and with her childhood friend Taichi, Chihaya dreams of finding Arata so they can share their love for the game again, but they end up discovering that the boy stopped playing for personal reasons. Determined not to let Arata's passion die, Chihaya and Taichi form the Mizusawa School Karuta Club, where they learn that in karuta – as in life – working for your dreams is the key to winning, even when everything seems out of your control. range.
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 already sold more than 21 million copies in Japan, and has been released by Kodansha in a digital version translated into 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, already has a release date on March 17. March this year! The manga also inspired a live action mini-series titled Chihayafuru -Tsunagu-, which premiered in Japan on February 20.
Source: ANN