__Height:__ 173cm (5'8") 
__School:__ Fukui Prefecture East Hitsufujioka High School 
__Karuta Society:__ Fukui Nagumo Society - A Class

Arata Wataya was a transfer student from Fukui that went to Chihaya's elementary school. The grandchild of a master karuta player, Arata inspires Chihaya to take up karuta by telling her that he thinks she has a talent for it. He had difficulty fitting in at Chihaya's elementary school because of his Fukui dialect and his family's poverty. His passion for karuta is inspired by his grandfather, a Meijin (master). After their first game at Arata's house, Chihaya befriends him. His dream is to become a Karuta Meijin. After graduating from elementary school, he returned to Fukui to care for his sick grandfather. He stops playing karuta because his grandfather died while Arata was competing in a karuta tournament to rise to A-rank. However, after Chihaya and Taichi visit him in Fukui, he regains his resolve to play competitive karuta again.

Chihaya Ayase is a girl who has spent most of her life simply supporting her sister in her model career. That changes when she meets a boy named Arata Wataya, a talented karuta player who recognizes Chihaya's potential to become a great player herself. As Chihaya takes on a new dream of becoming Japan's best karuta player, she is soon separated from her karuta playing friends, Taichi Mashima and Arata Wataya, as they grow up. Now in high school, Chihaya still continues to play karuta in the hope that she will one day meet her friends again. 
 
(Source: Chihayafuru Wikia)

__Skills & Abilities:__ shooting a firearm

[Website](http://yoshimasa-hosoya.info/) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/hosoya_info) | [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/yoshimasa.hosoya/) | [Staff Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/yoshimasa_hosoya_staff/) | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6cry8C4nNpobQdf8be7cdw) | [YT Twitter](https://twitter.com/bokudake369) | [Weibo](https://weibo.com/u/7599287210)


A Japanese voice actor, singer and narrator. He graduated from Tokyo Announce Gakuin Performing Arts College, then joined Mausu Promotion Actor Training Center in 2002, and signed on with Mausu Promotion in 2006. He is currently a freelancer.

__Awards:__
- 8th Seiyuu Awards - Best Supporting Voice Actor for his role as [Yuusuke Asahina](https://anilist.co/character/47223/)
- 10th Seiyuu Awards - Best Supporting Voice Actor for his roles as [Orga Itsuka](https://anilist.co/character/89235/) and [Ginti](https://anilist.co/character/88683/)

__Non-Anime Roles:__
- Welt in "Honkai Star Rail" (VG)
- Gaius Worzel in "The Legend of Heroes" series (VG)
- Basilio Lupus Magnus in "Metaphor: ReFantazio" (VG)

[Profile (Oginext)](http://www.oginext.com/women/terasaki.html) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/terachan0804) | [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/terachan0804/) | [Blog](https://ameblo.jp/after-grow/)

Blake Thomas Shepard is an American voice actor who works on anime series at ADV Films, Funimation and Sentai Filmworks. 

Shannon Emerick is an American stage actress and voice actress. She is a graduate of Yale University having a B.A. in theatre studies and English. Shannon is also an accomplished anime voice actress working with ADV Films and Seraphim Digital.

Chihaya is a girl in the sixth grade, still not old enough to even know the meaning of the word zeal. But one day, she meets Arata, a transfer student from rural Fukui prefecture. Though docile and quiet, he has an unexpected skill: his ability to play competitive karuta, a traditional Japanese card game.
 
Chihaya is struck by his obsession with the game, along with his ability to pick out the right card and swipe it away before any of his opponents. However, Arata is transfixed by her as well, all because of her unbelievable natural talent for the game. Don't miss this story of adolescent lives and emotions playing out in the most dramatic of ways!
 
(Source: Kodansha USA)
 
Notes: 
- It won the 2nd Manga Taisho Award and the 35th annual Kodansha Manga Award for Best Shoujo. 
- It was nominated for the 20th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2016.

They may have just won their most coveted karuta tournament, but members of the Mizusawa karuta team still have a long way to go. Each member chases their dreams, and with a win under their collective belt, those dreams are closer in reach than ever. Chihaya Ayase is determined to challenge Wakamiya Shinobu and win the title of Queen, and Taichi Mashima is ready to take on Arata Wataya now that he’s made it into the most elite of karuta players — but an unexpected revelation will deal these karuta players a hand none of them saw coming. (Source: Sentai Filmworks)

Now in their second year of high school, Chihaya and her friends share all the fun and worries that come with welcoming underclassmen to the team as they face tough rival schools. The passion of the Mizusawa Karuta Club burns hotter than ever, but with the same refreshing, youthful mood carrying over from the first season. 
(Source: Crunchyroll)

Original episode bundled with the 22nd manga volume.

The manga adapts Yui Tokiumi's spinoff novel series for Yuki Suetsugu's Chihayafuru manga. 
 
The novels feature a series of stories detailing various characters' lives in middle school. (The original manga begins when they are in elementary school and skips to high school.) 
 
(Source: Anime News Network & Be-Love issue 21)

Ayase Chihaya is a cheerful tomboy without any ambitious aspirations in life. At school one day, she meets a boy named Wataya Arata who is an outcast at school. Feeling pity despite peer pressure, Chihaya befriends Arata as he reveals to her his aptitude in karuta which institutes Chihaya's dream to become a karuta queen.