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Hikaru no Go

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Hikaru no Go
GenreFantasy, Historical Settings, School Life
Manga
Written byYumi Hotta
Published byShueisha
Anime
Directed byShin Nishizawa
StudioStudio Pierrot

Hikaru no Go (ヒカルの碁) is a popular Japanese anime and manga coming of age story based on the board game Go written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. The production was supervised by Yukari Umezawa (5-dan). The manga is largely responsible for popularizing Go among the youth of Japan in recent years, and in other areas such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea.

First released in Japan in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1998, Hikaru no Go has achieved tremendous success, spawning a popular Go fad of almost unprecedented proportions. Twenty-three volumes of manga were published in Japan, comprising 189 chapters plus 11 "omake" (extra chapters). The anime series, which was created by Studio Pierrot, ran for 75 half hour episodes from 2001 to 2003 on TV Tokyo, along with extra New Year's Specials in January 2003 and January 2004.

In January 2004, the manga series debuted in the United States in the English language periodical Shonen Jump published by VIZ, now VIZ Media. In 2005 it was announced that VIZ Media also has the license to the anime. Hikaru no Go Volume 1 DVD was released on December 27 2005. A Hikaru no Go "Sneak Preview" DVD (first episode) was released in the January 2006 issue of Shonen Jump (Volume 4, Issue 1) to subscribers.

Sometimes abbreviated as 'HGO', 'HikaGo' or 'HnG'

Hikaru no Go has been announced to be a part of Cartoon Network's new online broadband service called Toonami Jetstream. It is slated to begin July 17, 2006.

Series Premise and Story

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Hikaru Shindo, the title character, is an elementary school student in Kita Ward, Tokyo. While exploring his grandfather's shed for something to sell, he stumbles across a Go board haunted by the spirit of Fujiwara-no-Sai, a fictional Go player from the Heian era. Sai wishes to play Go again since he has not been able to since the late Edo period. Because of this desire, and because Hikaru is the only one that can "hear his voice" (unofficial translation), Sai inhabits a part of Hikaru's mind. A second conscience of kind.

Urged by Sai, Hikaru starts playing Go even though he really has no interest in the game. The arrangement is that Sai will tell Hikaru the moves to make and Hikaru will place the stones on the board. When Hikaru, aided by Sai, beats Akira Toya, a boy his age but very skilled at Go, Akira begins a quest to discover the source of Hikaru's strength. Thus begins an obsession which will come to dominate the rest of Hikaru's life while captivating the reader's (or viewer's) attention.

Hikaru becomes a member of Haze Middle School's Go team along with Kimihiro Tsutsui and Tetsuo Kaga several months before he actually attends that school. They play in the Winter middle school Go tournament, but right after Haze's team defeats Kaio Middle School's team, a boy discovers Hikaru Shindo's identity and Haze's team gets disqualified because at the time, Hikaru did not go to Haze Middle School.

Due to the fact that Kaga was loyal to the Shougi team as opposed to the Go team, Hikaru and Kimihiro recruit some other boys so that the team could play in the summer middle school tournament. With newcomer Yuki Mitani, Hikaru and Kimihiro play in the summer tournament but lose to Kaio Middle School (Kaiō) in the second round.

Hikaru, seeing Akira's skill grow, decides to become an insei so he can chase after him; this means he must leave his school's Go club. With Tsutsui, the founder, dropping out to study for high school exams, it is up to Hikaru's friend, Akari Fujisaki, to keep the club together. Yuki Mitani leaves but he returns to the club for occasional play.

During the summer holiday, Hikaru finds a way to let Sai play -- through the Internet. Sai starts to play on the internet through Hikaru in an Internet cafe for two months, during which the mysterious existence of the legendary Internet go player 'Sai' becomes the focus of Go players across the world. Akira realizes the similar techniques in Hikaru and Sai's Go and nearly finds out Hikaru's secret. Seeing potential danger of revelation, Hikaru and Sai stop playing online.

Hikaru becomes an insei and meets fellow trainees Shinichiro Isumi and Yoshitaka Waya (whom he had played before online) along with others. Hikaru also meets a spoiled brat named Kosuke Ochi. After working his way up the ladder as an insei, Hikaru, along with many of his insei peers, enters the exam to become a professional Go player. The structure of the exam is a series of matches that only the three players with the least losses will pass. Ochi is the first to pass the professional exam and Waya is the second. Akira, who became a pro the year before, tests Hikaru's strength by tutoring Ochi to beat him in their final match of the exam, but despite a string of intensive teaching sessions, Ochi loses to Hikaru. Shinichiro Isumi quits the Nine Star Club and is no longer an insei, but still pursues Go. Hikaru passes the professional exam and becomes a professional player.

Akira gets an impressive winning streak, which ends at twenty-six victories with a loss to Kurata. He gets an award for the highest win percentage and the longest winning streak. Hikaru gets his professional player certificate and vows to catch up to Akira.

When Hikaru learns he is to play his first oteai game, he also learns that Akira is his opponent. Akira doesn't show up at the game, giving Hikaru the win by default. It is revealed that Toya Meijin, Akira's father, is in ill health. While Meijin is in the hospital, Hikaru visits him, and asks him if he would play a friend of his on the Internet. This allows Sai to have an opportunity to play Toya Meijin. Toya Meijin accepts and says that if his opponent wins, he will retire. Sai, who plays for Hikaru, wins. True to his word, Toya retires after his next title match, but remains a respected player in the Go community.

Throughout the series, as Hikaru grows, Sai begins to realize that the purpose of his attachment to Hikaru is primarily intended to help Hikaru, rather than allow Sai to continue to play. After Sai's game with Toya Meijin, Sai realizes that he has completed his task on earth (see Fujiwara-no-Sai), and fades away a few days later, on Kodomo no hi (こどもの日), or Children's Day, as indicated by the carp flags in the background of the manga scene.

Distraught at Sai's disappearance, Hikaru embarks on several journeys to the various memorials of Honinbou Shusaku, the body Sai last possessed, in an attempt to search for him. When Hikaru finally realizes that Sai is gone, he vows never again to play Go again.

After Hikaru misses several matches and is threatened with expulsion from the Professional Go Player's Association, Shinichiro Isumi comes back from a Go study trip in China and convinces Hikaru to play with him. Upon playing the first few moves, Hikaru realizes that the only place he could find Sai was to play Go - that Sai is still with him in the skills he taught Hikaru. Afterwards, Hikaru once again began playing in his matches.

The anime series ends with Hikaru's match against Akira Toya, the culmination of their years of rivalry, but without the presence of Sai. Hikaru loses, but afterwards is visited in a dream by Sai, who hands Hikaru his fan as a symbol of his presence. Following this dream, Hikaru buys his own fan, and carries it with him to Go matches as a memento of Sai.

As a result of the match, Hikaru and Akira acknowledge each other as rivals. The final scenes in the anime show Akira and Hikaru arguing like old friends over Go concepts in the Toya family's Go parlor.

The manga version of Hikaru no Go goes beyond the anime, and goes further on in Hikaru's career to the International Youth Go Tournament, the Hokuto Cup. Hikaru, along with Akira and a Kansai Go player named Kiyoharu Yashiro are selected to represent Japan, while Hong Su-Young (a Korean Go player that was beaten by Hikaru earlier in the series) and two others represent Korea and three of Shinichiro Isumi's Chinese friends represent their country.

Due to a translation error, an interview of one of the Korean team's players downplayed the skill of the legendary former player Honinbou Shuusaku. Although the Korean later finds out, he refuses to correct the error and instead emphasizes it when he realizes that it enrages Hikaru, who takes it as a direct affront to Sai. This leads to Hikaru eventually challenging the player on the Korean team, the captain, in a match where he loses by only one half of a moku.

Japan eventually comes in last, behind Korea (1st) and China (2nd).

In the end, Hikaru was asked for his reason to play Go. With tears in his eyes, he answered "To link the far past, with the far future". The manga then ends cyclically, with Sai ghost once again asking "can you hear my voice?" (Note: In 2003 the anime extends to include the preliminary matches leading to the International Youth Go Tournament by presenting an extra one and a half hour production.)

English-language adaptations

Hikaru no Go is published in English in the United States Shonen Jump magazine, and in individual graphic novels.

The manga is unedited in the Shonen Jump version and the manga chapters that can be read on the Shonen Jump website. Unlike the earlier Shonen Jump versions, instances of cigarettes are removed from the Hikaru no Go graphic novels so that they can be labelled as appropriate for everyone. For instance, the cigarette that smoker Tetsuo Kaga puts on a Go board is changed to a wad of chewing gum in the graphic novel. The cigarette habits were edited out in more recent (as of 2005) Shonen Jump editions along with the graphic novels. The change in the graphic novels is controversial with the series' fans. Similar changes were made when it was adapted as an anime, inside Japan.

Characters

Names are in Western order (first name before surname) except for Fujiwara-no-Sai's.

  • Hikaru Shindo (進藤 ヒカル Shindō Hikaru) - Protagonist who is assisted by Sai.
  • Fujiwara-no-Sai (藤原佐為) - A spirit who can't stop playing Go and the mentor of Hikaru Shindo. Sai wants to play the divine move (a.k.a. the Hand of God). In the manga and anime, Sai had possessed the real-life figure Hon'inbo Shusaku and through his body, became the world`s best go player of all time. Extremely effeminate by today's standards, Sai is often drawn with traditionally feminine features and mannerisms, and many fans sometimes mistakenly call him a "she" in passing only to correct themselves after realizing their mistake.
  • Akari Fujisaki (藤崎 あかり Fujisaki Akari) - Hikaru's childhood friend. She begins to learn Go as well when Hikaru becomes interested and later joins the Haze Middle School Go club, serving as captain of the girls' team, despite her being a weak player.
  • Akira Toya (塔矢 アキラ Tōya Akira) - Hikaru's biggest rival and Kaio Middle School student. Akira was already a very strong player when Hikaru first began playing and was amazed by Hikaru's seemingly impossible strength. Since his first game with Hikaru, Akira has been obsessed with discovering the secret behind Hikaru's strength.
  • Yuki Mitani (三谷 祐輝 Mitani Yūki) - A player at the Go Club at Haze Middle School who overcomes his cheating habit.
  • Tetsuo Kaga (加賀 鉄男 Kaga Tetsuo) - President of Haze Middle School's Shogi club. Kaga hates Go because he likes Shogi better and because Akira is better than he is and Akira has a completely detached attitude towards the game. He still plays Go from time to time to keep his skills limber. Tetsuo smokes cigarettes, which were kept in the earlier U.S. Shonen Jump versions of Hikaru no Go, but were removed from the U.S. graphic novels and the later (as of 2005) Shonen Jump versions.
  • Kimihiro Tsutsui (筒井 公宏 Tsutsui Kimihiro) - Optimistic nerd who relies on a strategy book. Kimihiro is the founder of Haze Middle School's Go club. More of a strategist than a real player, Kimihiro prefers the intellectual pursuits of Go more than its nature as a game.
  • Toya Meijin (塔矢 名人 Tōya Meijin) - Akira Toya's father. His real name is Koyo Toya (塔矢 行洋 Tōya Kōyō); Meijin is a title he received for defeating the best Go players in Japan.
  • Yoshitaka Waya (和谷 義高 Waya Yoshitaka) - Hikaru's "big brother" insei. Like Kaga, he has a dislike for Akira Toya because he can never defeat him and because of Akira's detached attitude towards the game.
  • Shinichiro Isumi (伊角 慎一郎 Isumi Shin'ichirō) - Insei that has a lot of self doubt during the pro exam.
  • Kosuke Ochi (越智 康介 Ochi Kōsuke) - Spoiled brat that Akira tutors so Akira can test Hikaru's strength.
  • Kaoru Kishimoto (岸本 薫 Kishimoto Kaoru) - Kaio Middle School Go club chief and former insei who did not become a professional
  • Yun Sensei (ゆん先生) - Yun is Akira's Middle School teacher who is in charge of the school Go club
  • Yuri Hidaka (日高 由梨 Hidaka Yuri) - A 3rd year Kaio Middle School student who stands up for Akira when he gets bullied by three other kids who dislike his presence. She hates bullying of all kinds.
  • Ito (伊藤 Itō), Kojima (小島), and Okumura (奥村), a.k.a. Mean Kids - The family names of three pupils who dislike Akira Toya's presence in the Kaio Middle School Go club; they bully him by making him play two games at the same time without even looking at the boards.
  • Shu (修 Shū) or Shu-san (修さん Shū-san) - The owner of a Go salon where Hikaru finds Yuki. Shu knows a cheater when he sees one. He hires Dake-san to teach Yuki a lesson about cheating.
  • Dake-san (だけさん, Mr. Dake) - A person hired by Shu to teach Yuki Mitani not to cheat. He poses as a regular at the Go salon and hides his strength. He bets money on the game, reveals his strength, and wins 10,000 yen (about $90 U.S.) from Yuki. Hikaru and Sai later win the money back. Dake-san sings romantic songs while playing Go.
  • Heihachi Shindo (進藤平八 Shindō Heihachi) - Hikaru's grandfather.
  • Kuwabara Hon'inbo (桑原本因坊 Kuwabara Hon'inbō)- The current holder of the Hon'inbo title in Hikaru no Go. Kuwabara is friends with Toya Meijin.
  • Harumi Ichikawa (市河 晴美 Ichikawa Harumi) - Ms. Ichikawa is the cashier of the Go club that Akira Toya teaches at. She feels saddened when Akira leaves the club to become a better Go player, primarily because she sports a small crush on the go prodigy.
  • Shigeo Morishita (森下 茂男 Morishita Shigeo), a.k.a. Morishita Sensei or Mr. Morishita - A man who became a pro at the same time that Toya Meijin became a pro. He is Waya's go teacher when Waya first appears. Morishita also mentored Michio Shirakawa (7-dan), the community Go leader.
  • Yuta Fukui (福井 雄太 Fukui Yūta), nicknamed "Fuku" (フク) - An insei and classmate of Waya who doesn't have Waya's unruly temper.
  • Yuki's sister (Mitani's sister, 三谷の姉 Mitani no Ane, in the Japanese version) - A girl who works at an internet cafe and lets Hikaru go on the computers for free during her shifts. Helps Hikaru with his English.
  • Seiji Ogata (緒方 精次 Ogata Seiji, 9-dan) - A Go professional who sees Hikaru's talent when he explains a go move that would baffle professionals.

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Media and release information

See: Hikaru no Go media and release information

Voice actors

Japanese version (Seiyū)

English version

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