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)

__Hobbies:__ Japanese dancing, jazz (vocal), and modern ballet

[Profile (mausu)](https://mausu.net/talent/otani-ikue.html)

[Twitter](https://twitter.com/emilyneves)

Emily Marie Neves is an American voice actress, ADR director and script writer known for her work on English adaptations of Japanese anime shows and films associated with Funimation and Sentai Filmworks/Seraphim Digital. In 2005, she was a preliminary contestant for the fourth season of American Idol at the Las Vegas auditions, where she advanced to the Hollywood round and was eliminated. She was a resident actress at the Alley Theatre in Houston. She was previously married to fellow anime voice actor [Andrew Love](https://anilist.co/staff/96848/Andrew-Love) and was roommates with [Maxey Whitehead](https://anilist.co/staff/103722/Maxey-Whitehead) in college.

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.

Ririka Tachikawa