しりとり
A Japanese word game in which players take turns saying words whose first kana is same as the last kana of the previous player's word. For instance, someone might start with [i]ringo[/i] (りんご) and the next person might follow with [i]gomasuri[/i] (ごますり). A player who repeats a word is out. As there are no words that start with [i]n[/i] (ん), a player who uses a word ending in it, such as [i]mikan[/i] (みかん) is out.

h4. Strategies

h6. Letter frequency
A major shiritori strategy is to use words that end in a letter that appears much more frequently at the end of words than at the beginning. This makes it harder for the opponent to come up with words and easier for you.  By repeatedly using such a letter, the hope is that your opponent will run out of words.

In Japanese, popular letters to use with this strategy include [i]ru[/i] (る), [i]nu[/i] (ぬ), [i]pu[/i] (ぷ), and a few others. They are referred to as the "ru attack" (る攻め), "nu attack" (ぬ攻め), and so on. 
To take [i]pu[/i] as an example, [1] says there are about 700 Japanese words ending with [i]pu[/i] but only 160 starting with [i]pu[/i].

In English, [i]y[/i] works well with this strategy. [1]

h6. Countering
If your opponent is attacking you with a particular letter, then you can attempt to counter them using a word that both begins and ends with that letter. [2]

h6. Examples

* [i]ru[/i] attack
** [i][[Puchimasu!]][/i] season 2, episode 40   [Noted by user Elle Lowel at post #3030911, comment #1795085]

* [i]pu[/i] attack
** pool #13493, which is based on words [[Kanzaki Ranko]] used in [i][[Idolmaster Cinderella Girls]][/i] episode 8 (starts at 15m15s, video "here":[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ir3VUqWkmI]).

h4. Links

[1] "English shiritori analysis":[http://www.procrasist.com/entry/english-siritori]

[2] "A surefire way to win Shiritori":[https://matome.naver.jp/odai/2142409661773204801]

* "Blog post":[http://kudaranaihanashi.blog.shinobi.jp/%E5%A5%A5%E6%B7%B1%E3%81%8D%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E/%E7%A7%98%E5%A5%A5%E7%BE%A9%E3%80%80-%E3%81%97%E3%82%8A%E3%81%A8%E3%82%8A%E5%BF%85%E5%8B%9D%E6%B3%95-] talking about Shiritori strategies, including [i]nu[/i], [i]ru[/i], and [i]pu[/i] attacks.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gcp8jBY4CI - A YouTuber attempts to defeat the AI bot Rinna using the "pu attack".
shiritori