Hikaru no Go!

9/27/10


Yeah, this manga like ended a long time ago but I recently dug it up and read the whole thing and FELL IN LOVE with it. Especially with such an obvious yaoi pairing! God, I was so disappointed Hikaru and Akira didn't kiss!! Goddammit!!


Here's your basic info:


Title: Hikaru no Go
Arthor: Yumi Hotta
Artist: Takeshi Obata


Summary:While exploring his grandfather's shed, Hikaru 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, having not been able to since the late Edo period, when his ghost appeared to Honinbō Shūsaku, an actual Go player of that period. Sai's greatest desire is to attain the Kami-no-Itte (神の一手) – "Divine Move", or the "Hand of God" – a perfect game. Because Hikaru is apparently the only person who can perceive him, Sai inhabits a part of Hikaru's mind as a separate personality, coexisting, although not always comfortably, with the child.

Urged by Sai, Hikaru begins playing Go despite an initial lack of interest in the game. He begins by simply executing the moves Sai dictates to him, but Sai tells him to try to understand each move. In a Go salon, Hikaru defeats Akira Toya twice, a boy his age who plays Go at professional level, by following Sai's instruction. Akira subsequently begins a quest to discover the source of Hikaru's strength, an obsession which will come to dominate his life.

Hikaru becomes intrigued by the great dedication of Akira and Sai to the game and decides to start playing solely on his own. He is a complete novice at first, but has some unique abilities to his advantage; for instance, once he has a basic understanding of Go, he can reconstruct a game play by play from memory. Through training at Go clubs, study groups, and practice games with Sai, he manages to become an insei and later a pro, meeting various dedicated Go players of different ages and styles along the way. While Hikaru is at this point not yet up to the level of Akira, he demonstrates a natural talent for the game and remains determined to prove his own abilities to Akira, Sai, and himself.

Characters:

Shindo Hikaru- Protagonist who is assisted by Sai. At the beginning of the series, Hikaru is a sixth grader in elementary school. An important factor in the development of Hikaru's passion for Go is an encounter early on where Hikaru becomes the rival of Akira Toya. At first, he thinks that Go is just for old folks and he is annoyed at Sai's demand to play, but little by little his passion for Go increases as he plays more and more. From being a member of a school Go club to becoming an insei and finally a professional Go player (at 14 years old) a year after Akira, Hikaru matures throughout the course of the series. Throughout the series, Hikaru gets older in age as both the manga volumes and animated series follow him from 6th grade to high school. Hikaru is often portrayed wearing clothing having the numeral "5". This is a pun on the Japanese word for five: 五, which is pronounced go. His birthday is September 20. Part of his strength is his ability to read far into the game very fast, and to make seemingly stupid moves, which, in fact, lure the opponent to playing what looks like the obviously correct move, which Hikaru then uses against them.

Fujiwara no Sai-A spirit from the Heian era of Japan and mentor of Hikaru Shindo. Once the Go instructor to the Emperor, Sai continually plays Go in attempt to one day play the divine move (also known as the Hand of God or Kami No Itte). In the manga and anime, Sai's ghost had possessed the real-life figure Honinbo Shusaku who became a renowned Go player. Sai holds a rivalry towards Koyo Toya (a.k.a. Toya Meijin) and through Hikaru persuades Toya to have a game with him. His wish is realized when Toya accepts the challenge and plays a game through the Internet. After the legendary match that ends with Sai's triumph, Hikaru discovers another move which would have turned the game around. While witnessing the maturity of Hikaru, Sai comes to feel that his one-thousand-year time in the world is going to end and he won't fulfill his wish of obtaining the divine move, but that perhaps he was to awaken and teach Hikaru, who might obtain it in the future. A few days after the game with Toya Meijin, Sai suddenly disappears, neither terminating his last match with Hikaru nor saying goodbye to him. Sai is gone, leaving Hikaru depressed and wanting to quit go. When Hikaru plays Isumi, Hikaru realizes that he will continue to play go for Sai lives on in Hikaru's go. Extremely effeminate by today's standards (as is appropriate for a high-born Heian man), Sai is often drawn with traditionally feminine features and mannerisms. Yumi Hotta has joked about fans mistakenly calling him a "she" in the "intermission" pages of the manga. Sai's extremely emotional behavior is also proper for a Heian male; he sometimes cries copiously in chibi style (usually in an episode introduction), soaking his long sleeves with tears, which in his own time would be respected as a sign of intelligence and sensitivity. His name Fujiwara suggests that he is related to a noble family of extremely high prestige in the Heian period, the Fujiwara clan.

Touyo Akira-Hikaru's biggest rival and Kaio Middle School student. The son of Koyo Toya, Akira is already a very strong go player when Hikaru first begins playing. Akira is amazed by Hikaru's seemingly impossible strength and becomes obsessed with discovering the secret behind Hikaru's strength. Meanwhile, Hikaru is impressed with how serious and focused Akira is for being only a 6th grader like him when they first meet. As the series goes along, the plot brings these two characters together to play each other under many circumstances, each time adding to the mystery. Like Hikaru, Akira also gets taller throughout the series. His birthday is December 14.


Those are the main characters. There are tons of other characters too but I'm too lazy to worry about them. Sorry.


Well, you're probably all waiting for this part now! Pictures! Yay!

Don't forget....

Akira x Hikaru