Hikaru No Go (Hikaru No Go)

Rating:
Summary: Addictively exciting despite being about a board game!
Review: As a long time fan of Hikaru no Go, I am excited that this excellent series is now being translated and that Americans can be introduced to this ancient and strategically complex game.

Hikaru no Go is somewhat of a coming of age tale about young Shindo Hikaru, who unleashes the spirit of a long deceased Go master from the Heien era when he is able to spot a blood stain on a go board that is invisible to everyone else. This ghost, Fujiwara no Sai, occupies a part of Hikaru's mind, playing go through instructions given to Hikaru.

Initially, Hikaru is an average child who likes sports, is failing his classes, and has little interest in playing go, but soon he has a fateful encounter with Touya Akira, another child his own age. Hikaru, playing as Sai completely beats Touya, a prodigy at go and the son of a Master. Hikary earns himself a rival when Touya learns that Hikaru has never played a game before in his life. Sai and Touya's passion for the game eventually begins to change Shindo's mind and he begins to wish to learn to play for himself. In the meantime, Sai's games played through Hikaru have begun to attract the attentions of some of the top professions of the game who suspect Shindo to be some sort of mysterious prodigy.

Despite the prominence of the Character Sai, the subject of this manga is, as the title suggests, about Hikaru (Hikaru no Go means Hikaru's go). Through the course of this story, Hikaru will learn what it means to have meaning in his life, to be focused on something larger than himself, and to deal with both the joys of victory and the sorrows of defeat and loss, both in front of a go board and in his life. The manga is over 20 volumes in length, and over the course of two and a half years, we get to see him mature from a boy to a young man through Igo.

This series is one of my favorites and I highly recommend it. If it were possible to give it a higer rating, I would. It was also quite popular in Japan as well, where it served to introduce a whole new generation of Japanese children and teens to a game that had become stereotyped as something their grandfathers played. There are many explanations in the story both by the author, and as commentary by the characters that explain the moves in a game so that one can follow it and understand the importance of each play relative to the story even if one has never touched a go stone in his life.

Rating:
Summary: Highly addictive, exciting, emotional, inspirational series!
Review: I am so happy that the Hikaru No Go (HnG) series has finally come to America. Following the successful manga also came a very popular anime. I cannot wait to send in my review for the anime and thus I post the anime review here.

HnG is a coming-of-age story of a legendary go player in Japan. The premise of the story is similar to Yu-Gi-Oh (about a game) but HnG is more matured than Yu-Gi-Oh. The series opens with a captivating episode, introducing us to key characters of the story: Hikaru, Akari, Sai, and Akira. Hikaru is a common 12-year-old boy who struggles with his grades at school. He did horribly in his social studies exam and he was on his way to his grandpa's house to find some antique so that he could sell for some pocket money. (His mother withheld his pocket money because of his poor exam results.) He found an old goban in his grandpa's storage room and he met Sai for the first time. This encounter changed Hikaru's life and started his journey in the world of Go to help Sai achieve the illusive "divine move."

HnG is a wonderful and exciting story with beautiful and detailed artwork. (Artwork gradually matures and solidifies after the first few volumes.) The story reflects the desire and determination in all of us to pursue our dreams. Although I don't know anything about Go, I find the story enticing, emotional, funny, and almost inspirational. This series communicates important values such as learning how to focus on your goals, endure the pressure, and overcome obstacles with tremendous determination, sometimes against all odds. It is also an intelligent, non-violent series that has captured the imagination of a large international audience and has turned many of them into go players. It is amazing how the writers create such an exciting story out of a boring board game and it doesn't require the audience to have any prior knowledge of the game. (I notice that Anime Expo 2004 in Anaheim features two sessions of Go lessons both on 7/3 and 7/4. What a treat!)

The opening episode consolidates a great deal of information from the manga and distills them into a 23-minute program. The ups and downs, twists and turns, challenges and suspense of the story will instantly grab your attention and you would not let it go until you reach to the end of the series. It is a long series with 75 episodes but the 75 episodes will just evaporate in front of your TV in no time. The suspense will bleed into your emotions and the passion will engrave itself into your memory. The storywriters are very clever in alternating suspense and comedy in the series to balance the emotions of the audience. The TV production stays true to the original manga but I wish that they would not put in the three filler episodes and use the extra airtime for the conclusion of the series. (This way, they would not have to cram so much stuff from manga vol. 19 into episode 75 and the opening song of the 2004 New Year Special!)

Character development is also an important feature in HnG. By the end of the series, you can look back and appreciate the significant development and changes in each of the characters. The director has put in a lot of effort in weaving an almost continuous soundtrack in every episode to signal various events, enhance the suspense, or arouse the emotions of the audience. The inspirational vocal music not only communicates the message of the story to us but also sets the tone of the story for us. Two Mix did a wonderful job as they did to Gundam Wing. Thank you, Two Mix, for creating such beautiful songs for us!

Finally, it is the beautiful artwork that draws me to this anime in the first place. HnG's characters actually have different looks! (In most anime, the characters look very much alike. You can pretty much swap the hairdo and the characters will change from boy to girl or from one character to another.) HnG manga's artwork is also an exceptional work. If you compare Mr. Takeshi's later work in the series with other manga, you will find a stunning difference in terms of his attention to details and his use of shadows to make objects look almost three-dimensional. I wish that Shonen Jump would at least publish manga volume 24 to get us to the final resolution as stated in the opening theme song, Get Over, that our hero has surpassed everyone/everything and is heading toward higher goals!

Rating:
Summary: Highly addictive, exciting, emotional, inspirational series!
Review: I am so happy that the Hikaru No Go (HnG) series has finally come to America. Following the successful manga also came a very popular anime. I cannot wait to send in my review for the anime and thus I post the anime review here.

HnG is a coming-of-age story of a legendary go player in Japan. The premise of the story is similar to Yu-Gi-Oh (about a game) but HnG is more matured than Yu-Gi-Oh. The series opens with a captivating episode, introducing us to key characters of the story: Hikaru, Akari, Sai, and Akira. Hikaru is a common 12-year-old boy who struggles with his grades at school. He did horribly in his social studies exam and he was on his way to his grandpa's house to find some antique so that he could sell for some pocket money. (His mother withheld his pocket money because of his poor exam results.) He found an old goban in his grandpa's storage room and he met Sai for the first time. This encounter changed Hikaru's life and started his journey in the world of Go to help Sai achieve the illusive "divine move."

HnG is a wonderful and exciting story with beautiful and detailed artwork. (Artwork gradually matures and solidifies after the first few volumes.) The story reflects the desire and determination in all of us to pursue our dreams. Although I don't know anything about Go, I find the story enticing, emotional, funny, and almost inspirational. This series communicates important values such as learning how to focus on your goals, endure the pressure, and overcome obstacles with tremendous determination, sometimes against all odds. It is also an intelligent, non-violent series that has captured the imagination of a large international audience and has turned many of them into go players. It is amazing how the writers create such an exciting story out of a boring board game and it doesn't require the audience to have any prior knowledge of the game. (I notice that Anime Expo 2004 in Anaheim features two sessions of Go lessons both on 7/3 and 7/4. What a treat!)

The opening episode consolidates a great deal of information from the manga and distills them into a 23-minute program. The ups and downs, twists and turns, challenges and suspense of the story will instantly grab your attention and you would not let it go until you reach to the end of the series. It is a long series with 75 episodes but the 75 episodes will just evaporate in front of your TV in no time. The suspense will bleed into your emotions and the passion will engrave itself into your memory. The storywriters are very clever in alternating suspense and comedy in the series to balance the emotions of the audience. The TV production stays true to the original manga but I wish that they would not put in the three filler episodes and use the extra airtime for the conclusion of the series. (This way, they would not have to cram so much stuff from manga vol. 19 into episode 75 and the opening song of the 2004 New Year Special!)

Character development is also an important feature in HnG. By the end of the series, you can look back and appreciate the significant development and changes in each of the characters. The director has put in a lot of effort in weaving an almost continuous soundtrack in every episode to signal various events, enhance the suspense, or arouse the emotions of the audience. The inspirational vocal music not only communicates the message of the story to us but also sets the tone of the story for us. Two Mix did a wonderful job as they did to Gundam Wing. Thank you, Two Mix, for creating such beautiful songs for us!

Finally, it is the beautiful artwork that draws me to this anime in the first place. HnG's characters actually have different looks! (In most anime, the characters look very much alike. You can pretty much swap the hairdo and the characters will change from boy to girl or from one character to another.) HnG manga's artwork is also an exceptional work. If you compare Mr. Takeshi's later work in the series with other manga, you will find a stunning difference in terms of his attention to details and his use of shadows to make objects look almost three-dimensional. I wish that Shonen Jump would at least publish manga volume 24 to get us to the final resolution as stated in the opening theme song, Get Over, that our hero has surpassed everyone/everything and is heading toward higher goals!

Rating:
Summary: The best manga about go you'll ever read!
Review: I got hooked on Hikaru No Go a few years ago, back before it was licensed in the US. But, I've been following along with this translation of it in Shonen Jump, where it's currently being serialized. I have the entire series in Japanese, so I probably won't collect the English version. But, if you haven't tried this series yet, I highly recommend that you pick up this volume for yourself.

This manga revolves around a game called go, an ancient strategy board game that originated in China, thrived in Japan for a time, and is played in Asia and all over the world today. Now before you walk away assuming that you have to be interested in go to enjoy this manga, let me assure you that you don't need to know much about go at all in order to enjoy this manga.

The true strength of this manga lies in its characters. Almost all of them are quite likeable, and even the minor ones are well developed. Yes, most of them are a little obsessed with go, but that's to be expected. The main characters grow and mature as the series develops, but there's not much time for them to grow much in just the first volume.

The other element that makes this manga one of my favorites is the story. As I said earlier, this manga revolves around the game of go. The title translates to Hikaru's Go. Hikaru is the main character, and just as the title suggests, this manga follows his development as a go player. The story begins as Hikaru reluctantly takes up go in order to appease a whiny ghost named Sai with amazing talent for the game and a couple lifetimes of experience. This, of course, leads to problems as Hikaru makes the moves that Sai tells him to make, playing well beyond the level someone who has never touched the game should be able to reach. When Hikaru starts wanting to play himself at his own level, things get even more complicated.

I said earlier that you do not have to be a go player in order to enjoy this manga. You don't need to understand the game to tell who's winning or losing and what moves are good or bad. The character's reactions are enough. But I must say, a good number of people who play go started after reading this manga. There's something about the story that makes you want to learn more about the game and start playing yourself. Maybe that's just the way go is. Just like Hikaru, if you watch people play enough, you suddenly want to play yourself. Personally, I started this series because I already had some interest in go, but reading it really gave me the motivation to start improving my game.

Of course this review wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention the art work. Unlike most manga, this manga has a separate author and illustrator. While the author, Hotta Yumi, weaves a great story, the illustrator, Obata Takeshi draws some great images to match. In this volume, while his work is very good, his style isn't quite as detailed and polished as it is by the end of the series.

Although Hikaru No Go is my all time favorite manga, I can't give it more than four stars because of the translation. The translation might not be that bad if this is your first exposure to Hikaru No Go, but if you're a long time fan, prepare to be a little disappointed in the names. First of all they are flipped so that a character's given name comes first so that Shindo Hikaru becomes Hikaru Shindo. (In Japan the family name usually comes first.) It might not be that big a deal if you're not used to seeing the names the other way around, but it drives me crazy. My other complaint about the translation of names is that all the characters refer to each other by their given names. It seems incredibly out of character for some of them when you know a little about social relationships in Japan, and it gets a little confusing when the more minor character who are almost exclusively referred to by their given names in the Japanese (like Tsutsui and Kaga) are suddenly being called by their given names. I know minor complaints like these are common among people who fall in love with a series before it gets liscensed and that I should be grateful that the characters weren't entirely renamed, but I still feel that the translation detracts at least a little from the series.

Finally, a warning: This series does have it's ups and downs. It gets rather depressing for a while in later volumes, and there are many ups and downs throughout. But, part of what makes the story great is that the main characters don't always win. In my opinion, the losses just make the victories even more satisfying and keep the story realistic (or as realistic as a story with a go playing ghost can be). Unfortunately, the series also stops rather suddenly after 23 volumes with a less than satisfying finish. There are some one-shot chapters that were released after the final chapter that round things out a little, but this is still one series I was sad to see end. Still, I highly reccomend giving it a try.

Rating:
Summary: Ready, set, Go!
Review: I have never seen the "Hikaru no Go" anime, and don't really know anything about the series beyond this one book, but it looks to be an interesting comic. The premise, basing an entire series around the game of Go, is different enough and captivating enough to make me want to keep reading.

This first volume is a good introduction, demonstrating and explaining the Go game to those who are not familiar with it, as well as introducing some of Japan's Go culture, and the intensity behind the game. Hikaru is our tour guide through this strange world, as ignorant of Go as most of the readers. As Hikaru learns, we learn.

Of course, there is more than just Go in the comic, with the supernatural elements brought in by the possessing spirit Fujiwara-no-Sai, doomed to haunt a Go board until he fulfills his goal of playing the "Divine Move." There is no love interest as yet, nor any particular crisis that happens other than the initial set-up. I get the feeling that "Hikaru no Go" is a patient comic, that will slowly unveil the plot over time. I definitely plan to keep reading.

Rating:
Summary: Another great Shonen Jump series in the US!!!
Review: Ready to GO!! It's Hikaru no go.
The story is about a normal 6th grader kid who after finding an old Go table game he gets possesed by a Ancient Japan Go instructor named Sai, that suicided herself after losing a game and being banished from where he lived.
And the adventure stars, Hikaru's trying to make Sai happy (in order to him to not barf everytime Sai's sad XD) learning to play Go.
The story is very interesting and the art's very cool.
After reading this, I assure you'll problably want to find a place to learn this interesting game...

Rating:
Summary: The start of a saga...
Review: Shindo Hikaru is an ordinary teenage kid who is possessed by the ghost of a thousand-year-old master of the game of Go, Fujiwara no Sai. Thus begins an intriguing and well-realised story of rivalry, obsession and frustration...

To begin with the mercenary Hikaru is content to let Sai play Go through him in return for helping out with his schoolwork, but after he encounters Touya Akira, a Go prodigy his own age, Hikaru starts to want to play the game himself. Akira, on the other hand, devastated by the superior playing abilities of Sai (who is invisible to everyone else except Hikaru) sets off to confront this astounding young player who has appeared in the world of Go from as if from nowhere. Hikaru/Sai's abilities come to the attention of adult players too, including Akira's father, Touya Meijin, the best professional Go player in Japan.

The story grows in complexity introducing many well-realised subsidiary characters who interact with Hikaru to guide him on the path to "The Divine Hand", the perfect move that all the top players of Go aspire to. The writer, Hotta Yumi, has taken a lot of care in making the story of Shindo and Akira merge seamlessly with the real world of professional Go as played in Japan, China and Korea.

This long-running manga spawned a popular anime series in Japan; I am looking forward to it being licenced for English-language release soon.

Rating:
Summary: LOVE THIS MANGA!!!!
Review: This manga is one of my all-time fave series! ^_^ its so intresting and unique and its all based on this ancient game from Asia called GO which is so much fun to play ^_^ i STRONGLY recomend this manga to all manga fans youll fall for the unique story and amazing drawings as well as the cool characters ^_^