One Liner: More Hikaru! GIMMIE MORE HIKARU!! Animation: The animation in Hikaru isn't that spectacular. There is a review group out there that says the animation is "perfect", with absolutely no flaws at all. I wholeheartedly agree. However, instead of seeing this as a drawback like that review group did (they gave Hikaru a 2.7/5!!! the horror!!!), I believe the cookie-cutter almost nauseating perfectness worked to the series' advantage. No big breasted women. No useless details. Only what's important to Go and to the anime and nothing else. As long as the animation is good enough to the series, right? Sound: I don't think I can properly let you guys know how much I appreciate the soundtrack. Sure I can say that I love all the OPs and the EDs, and that I have listened to the soundtracks at least a dozen times. That alone will earn a high rating from me. But this is the first anime that showed me what a good soundtrack can do. Think of a Go match. Then imagine very dramatic music in the background. When I first experienced this, I laughed my ass off. I mean, it's so unexpected! Yet surprisingly, it works. The soundtrack just sucks you into the series and sets the mood perfectly: anxious during a match, joyous during victory, or teary-eyed in defeats or moving scenes. I fell sucker to all of these emotions, and I credit it all to the soundtrack. It's that powerful. Story: I first thought that an anime about Go must be a joke. It's just a game about putting pieces on a grid! How exciting can that be? So I downloaded it - with the intention of trashing it later... ...yea, it didn't work. Just one episode is one episode too much. I was sucked into the series. Bad. To those that know me, you can verify. Hikaru No Go became my obsession, even to the extent that I started to learn how to play Go (not like I went through a lot of trouble, since they teach you at the end of each episode). Well anyway, back to the story. As you can expect, it's another one of those anime about a normal kid trying to become the World's Best at something (in this case, Go). And in the beginning of the series, this was the objective and focus, Hikaru learns how to play go and becomes really good. Fortunately, this doesn't happen all 75 episodes. Though I'm not sure where, sometime in the series the focus has shifted from a game to characters, whose growth, personalities, and attributes shine through the game they play. I can't really say just what's so great about the story, except that it's totally awesome. Really addicting. Character: The characters are totally cool. Like I said in the story section, each character is revealed through their game. Then they become so real to you. Real emotions, motives you can relate to, personalities that make you smile, or pound the table when you're frustrated. The characters are really good, and VERY memeorable. Too bad that some of the characters were left out of the character development, but given the circumstances, I don't think there is any other way. Value: Totally addicting. A definite rewatch value. Often I find myself going back and rewatching specific matches because they're just really cool. Oh yea, and also, Hikaru No Go is educational! You can learn how to play Go! Who wouldn't want to do that? Enjoyment: I genuinely enjoyed Hikaru No Go throughout. Though straight forward, the anime becomes so addicting and so powerful that it's so hard to fight the urge not to become a Hikaru No Go fanatic (not like I put up much of a fight anyway)> Bottom Line: Hikaru No Go may not be as smart of clever as other series, but it is a VERY good anime that surprisingly addicting. Beware! You'll have lots of fun watching this one. |
Title: Hikaru No Go