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)

His name is sometimes mistranslated as Hitoshi Horikawa.

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.

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)

Jay Hickman is an American actor, singer and voice actor. He is best known for his prolific voice work on English language dubs of foreign films and television series. Most of these works are in anime that ADV Films has licensed, but he has also voiced numerous Korean and Japanese action and horror films, such as the original Dark Water, released in 2002. Among anime devotees, Hickman has won recent acclaim as Shinichi Mechazawa, the identity-critical robot in Cromartie High School and the emotionally challenged Prince Mytho from the series Princess Tutu.

Akira Wataya