One of the greatest josei sports series in the history of manga is Chihayafuru and, after fifteen years, it’s been announced that it is finally ending.
While we already knew that the manga was headed towards its climax, this is our firm confirmation that the manga will indeed end with the release of its 49th volume. The 48th volume was just released this week, meanwhile, the last volume will hit shelves in Japan in summer 2022.
The final volume 49 of "Chihayafuru" by Yuki Suetsugu will be released in Summer 2022.
This also means the final chapter will be published soon.
English release @KodanshaManga
French release @pikaedition pic.twitter.com/NZUmabE4wV
— Manga Mogura RE (Manga & Anime News) (@MangaMoguraRE) February 9, 2022
I’ve talked about Chihayafuru on the J-List Blog multiple times in the past. If you haven’t read my ten-year retrospective piece on the first season of the anime, I highly recommend it. If you don’t feel like going back through those words, I can tell you that if you haven’t checked out this series yet, you’re living an incomplete life.
First launched in Be Love magazine back in 2007, Chihayafuru is a non-traditional sports story in that instead of the focus of the series being baseball or football, it’s competitive karuta. Once you get over that initial shock, however, what you find is one of the best stories about chasing after your dreams with your friends that you’ll ever come across in the world of manga or anime.
They have adapted the series into three separate seasons of anime (which were annoyingly spaced out over the period of almost a decade) and fans are still waiting for season four to be announced. How long they’re going to make us wait for that is unknown, but with any luck, it won’t be too much longer.
This seems to be the year that many major titles are coming to a close. My Hero Academia has hinted at it, Fire Force is just about ready to peace out, and now Chihayafuru is taking its final bow. Which series will be next?
Source: Oricon
