Joseph Luster
February 10, 2022 
Kodansha just published the 48th volume of Yuki Suetsugu’s Chihayafuru manga, and the next one will be its last. The series—which originally launched in the pages of Kodansha’s Be Love magazine back in 2007—is officially set to come to an end with volume 49.
In Japan, Kodansha’s Magazine Pocket app will be making the first 47 volumes available for free from Thursday to Friday.
Volume 48 cover:
The Chihayafuru manga inspired three seasons of TV anime, with the first running from 2011-2012 and the latest premiering in October 2019. Crunchyroll streamed all three seasons as they aired and they’re also available on HIDIVE both subbed and dubbed. Sentai Filmworks released the seasons on home video and describes the series like so:
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.
