Chihayafuru Season 3 Shares New TV Spot

The Fall season has officially begun, and has already featured a ton of fan-favorite franchises making their big returns to the scene. But one of the final debuts to join the scene is nearly upon us as Chihayfuru‘s return for its much-anticipated third season will begin in just a matter of days. The new season of the series will feature many of the voice cast and staff from the first two seasons, and the latest TV spot for the new season has teased one of the big returns, Taichi Mashima.

The official Twitter account for Chihayafuru shared a new promo for the third season featuring Taichi Mashima, who used to go to the same grade school as Chihaya and is part of the central Chihaya love triangle along with Arata. There’s definitely a few scenes here that definitely spark that fire.

Chihayafuru Season 3 is officially scheduled to debut on October 22nd in Japan, and Mamoru Miyano has been confirmed to returned to voice Taichi in the third season. Other returning cast members include Asami Seto as Chihaya Ayase, Yoshimasa Hosoya as Arata Wataya, Tooru Nara as Yusei Nishida, Ai Kayano as Kanade Oe, Tsubasa Yonaga as Tsutomu Komano, Megumi Han as Sumire Hanano, and Miyu Irino as Akihiro Tsukuba.

Not all cast members will be returning, unfortunately, as both Unsho Ishizuka and Toshiko Fujita have passed away. Kenta Miyake and Yoshino Ohtori have joined the cast in their stead as Dr. Harada and Taeko Miyauchi respectively. Originally created by Yuki Suetsugo for Kodansha’s Be Love magazine in 2007, Chihayafuru has printed more than 21 million volumes in Japan.

The first two seasons of the series ran for 50 episodes from 2011-2013, and can currently be found streaming on Crunchyroll and HIDIVE. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the series for a home video release in the United States and they describe 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.”