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Live-Action Chihayafuru Films' Videos Feature Chihaya Giving Love Advice

TOHO began streaming two collaboration videos between the upcoming live-action films of Yuki Suetsugu's Chihayafuru manga and NTV's ZIP! morning program on Monday and Tuesday. The videos feature the character Chihaya (played by Suzu Hirose) quoting the Ogura Hyakunin Isshū, the collection of poems used in the karuta game, as advice on love.

The first video tackles how someone can confess their feelings to someone they love. It quotes poem 17 in the Hyakunin Isshū by Ariwara no Narihara, the poem from which the manga and films' title originates. Chihaya advises that one should try not being direct with their confession, and to try being casual, such as by quoting the poem.

The second video centers on the topic of how two lovers might reaffirm their love if they feel that it might not continue. It quotes poem 43 by Fujiwara no Atsutada, which speaks of a stronger present love than when the lovers first met.

The first film, Chihayafuru: Kami no Ku (Chihayafuru: Upper Phrase), will open on Saturday, and the second film, Chihayafuru: Shimo no Ku (Chihayafuru: Lower Phrase), will open on April 29.

The film stars (from left to right in below photo):

• Yūki Morinaga (Kanojo wa Uso o Ai Shisugiteru) as Tsutomu Komano, a member of the Mizusawa High School Competitive Karuta Club
• Yūma Yamato (Silver Spoon, Crows Explode) as Yūsei Nishida, a member of the Mizusawa High School Competitive Karuta Club
• Shūhei Nomura (Taifū no Noruda, live-action Daily Lives of High School Boys, Hibi Rock: Puke Afro and the Pop Star) as Chihaya's childhood friend Taichi Mashima
• Suzu Hirose (Crows Explode, Umimachi Diary, Mamoru Hosoda's The Boy and The Beast) as Chihaya Ayase
• Mackenyu (Kamen Rider Drive: Surprise Future) as Arata Wataya, the childhood friend who leads Chihaya and Taichi into the world of karuta
• Mone Kamishiraishi as Kanade Ōe, a member of the Mizusawa High School Competitive Karuta Club

Norihiro Koizumi (Midnight Sun, Kanojo wa Uso o Ai Shisugiteru, pictured far right) is directing the films.

The rest of the cast includes:

• Jun Kunimura (Black Rain, Kill Bill, live-action Attack on Titan's Kubal, The Wind Rises' Hattori) as Chiba's teacher and mentor Harada
• Mayu Matsuoka as the "karuta queen" Shinobu Wakamiya
• Miyuki Matsuda (Hot Road, ZOO) as the teacher Taeko Miyauchi at Chihaya's Mizusawa High School
• Hiroya Shimizu (Slayer's Chronicle) as Akihito Sudō, a member of the Hokuo Academy Competitive Karuta Club
• Ryōtarō Sakaguchi as Hiro Kinashi, a member of the Hokuo Academy Competitive Karuta Club

Pop group Perfume will perform the film's theme song "FLASH."

Suetsugu's manga follows a schoolgirl named Chihaya who competes in the Japanese card game of karuta. Suetsugu launched the manga in Kodansha's Be Love magazine in December 2007, and Kodansha has published over 13 million copies of the manga's 30 volumes. Kodansha also released a bilingual edition of the first two volumes in Japan in 2011-2012. In an interview with Japanese entertainment news website Comic Natalie posted on March 11, Suetsugu compared the status of the manga's story to the seventh station of climbing Mount Fuji.

The series inspired the first 25-episode television anime season from October 2011 to March 2012, and the second 25-episode season aired in Japan from January-June 2013. Additionally, the 22nd volume of the manga bundled an original anime DVD when it shipped in September 2013. Crunchyroll streamed both television anime series outside Japan as they aired.