Chihayafuru

all her life, chihaya’s dream was to see her model sister become japan’s best… that is, until a quiet, unassuming transfer student named arata tells her otherwise. a dream, he explains to her, is something she needs to work at herself. arata plays a competitive version of a traditional japanese card game, known as hyakunin isshu, in a way chihaya has never seen before. after taking arata’s place in a game, chihaya discovers she has a passion for it. now chihaya wants to become number one in the world, the queen of karuta. note: won the 2nd manga taisho award and the 35th annual kodansha manga award for best shoujo. was nominated for the 20th tezuka osamu cultural prize in 2016.