Hikaru No Go literally translated as “Hikaru’s Go”.

Shindoh Hikaru is your average 12-year old 6th Grader who isn’t too keen on school, but one day when he is looking through his grandfather’s attic, he stumbles on an ancient bloodstained Go board. Attempting to wipe the stain, the room is flooded with light and a ghost appears. It is the beginning of a legendary partnership.

The ghost is Fujiwara no Sai, a member of the court during the Heian period. Sai was one of the two men assigned as the Go tutor to the emperor. In a match to see which of the two would educate the emporer, Sai loses to his cheating opponent and commits suicide, only to return before Hikaru as a ghost. Sai was unable to leave the material world because of his dream to master "kami no itte", the Hand of God, the ultimate move. Now aside Hikaru (who has no particular interest in Go), Sai takes up the challenge of preparing Shindoh for the strategical and epic world of Go.

Created by Hotta Yumi and Obata Takeshi (a.k.a. Ken Obata), Hikaru No Go is a shonen story of Hikaru’s journey through the ranks as he meets, challenges and befriends fellow Go players. Since the release of the manga and anime series, there has been a huge fan base and has raised a large interest in the board game amongst younger fans.

Go (called Wei Ch'i in China and Baduk in Korea) was developed in China between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago and it contends with backgammon for the right to be called the oldest game still played in its original form. Today it is played by millions in Asia and thousands elsewhere.

The artist Obata Takeshi has previous works including Karakuri Zoushi Ayatsuri Sakon (Tales of Puppetmaster Sakon) and Arabian Majin Bokentan Lamp Lamp. Nobuhiro Watsuki of Rurouni Kenshin fame was actually assistant to Obata-sensei during Watsuki's high school days. In fact, Watsuki openly acknowledged Obata-sensei's influence to his manga Rurouni Kenshin.

REVIEW:

By Glacialink

There aren’t many series that can turn something so seemingly boring into a gripping story. Of course, to call Go boring cannot be further from the truth, as Hikaru No Go shows. Both the anime and manga have received much praise, and both have followed the same storyline so far. The manga moves at a slightly slower pace but each page is covered in wonderful artwork by Obata Takeshi. The anime brings each character to life and it is the character’s personalities which makes the series so endearing and enjoyable to read/watch. The fact that Hikaru doesn’t really have any interest in Go puts a spin on the story until he meets Touya Akira. Some of the most memorable characters are the ones who don’t appear all that often (such as the taxi driver, or scary motorcyclist) because the impression they leave the first time they appear is only reinforced every time they appear again.

The music is also great: Kids Alive did a wonderful job on several of the songs (“Bokura No Boken”, “Reign Heart”), and the instrumental in-show music is on cue to emphasise certain moods in each episode.

Visually, the manga rises above many others. Obata Takeshi is an incredible artist with the precision of an architect, although some may say that this creates a lack of artistic flair. There is consistently good artwork throughout, the linework is crisp and clean and the characters were designed to show signs of aging/growth in their faces as the story progresses. Another plus is the various sets of clothing that each character goes through – many other series keep to one costume per character. The anime is equally impressive (especially later on in the series) and rises to the level of high-quality anime aesthetically, although being a series, is not as detailed as OAVs such as X 1999: The Movie or Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X).

Hikaru No Go is a drama, but it stays considerable close to real-life scenarios. Although there is the element of Sai being a ghost, the events that take place are revolved around the modern world of Go, using actual existing tournaments and Go Titles. At the end of each episode is a short tutorial by Yukari Umezawa (a professional player in Japan) and two children.

The only down-point of the anime is that it has a rather “slow” start, which may put some people off before they watch the rest of the episodes. It does pick up pace quickly after that though. If you do find the first episode rather boring, I would recommend that you stick by and watch through 2 or 3 more episodes before deciding whether to continue or not.

Overall, I would rate this anime a 9 out of 10.