Anime Hikaru no Go

[Dagger]

Hikaru no Go proves that a good story can make anything exciting. It's structured like your typical Shounen Jump action title--except that instead of revolving around a young boy saving the world or slaying monsters or playing ridiculously unrealistic tennis, it takes place in a modern-day setting and revolves around the ancient Chinese board game called Go.

The protagonist, Hikaru, stumbles across an old Go board and discovers that he is the only person who can see & converse with the ghost (Sai) who haunts it. While still alive, Sai was a master player; once he and Hikaru become acquainted, he begins using Hikaru (who starts off without any knowledge of the game) to play Go for him.

This is easily one of the most addictive anime I've encountered--without intending to see more than one or two episodes a day, I ended up watching the first 40 episodes in less than a week. I could go on and on about how thrilling HikaGo is, but that would probably get sort of tedious. I will say that it manages to infuse the important matches with an incredible amount of emotion--pretty much every other episode has my heart pounding, and the only thing going on is a bunch of junior high school kids (and some adults) placing black and white stones on a wooden board.

I'd buy the graphic novels, too, if they weren't edited. But that's a story for another thread. :animesigh

The Hikaru no Go anime is currently unlicensed; I hope it gets picked up soon. I'd be particularly happy if FUNimation got it.

~Dagger~

[Silent Whispers]

[QUOTE=Dagger]Hikaru no Go proves that a good story can make anything exciting. It's structured like your typical Shounen Jump action title--except that instead of revolving around a young boy saving the world or slaying monsters or playing ridiculously unrealistic tennis, it takes place in a modern-day setting and revolves around the ancient Chinese board game called Go.

The protagonist, Hikaru, stumbles across an old Go board and discovers that he is the only person who can see & converse with the ghost (Sai) who haunts it. While still alive, Sai was a master player; once he and Hikaru become acquainted, he begins using Hikaru (who starts off without any knowledge of the game) to play Go for him.

This is easily one of the most addictive anime I've encountered--without intending to see more than one or two episodes a day, I ended up watching the first 40 episodes in less than a week. I could go on and on about how thrilling HikaGo is, but that would probably get sort of tedious. I will say that it manages to infuse the important matches with an incredible amount of emotion--pretty much every other episode has my heart pounding, and the only thing going on is a bunch of junior high school kids (and some adults) placing black and white stones on a wooden board.

I'd buy the graphic novels, too, if they weren't edited. But that's a story for another thread. :animesigh

The Hikaru no Go anime is currently unlicensed; I hope it gets picked up soon. I'd be particularly happy if FUNimation got it.

~Dagger~[/QUOTE]




I believe that your avatar says it all....you like Hikaru No Go! i like to read it it the ShounenJump books...i believe that it has a good plot to it and the charater designs are something to be admired :animesmil ....but i have one question for you...why would you be happy if FUNimation got it versus all of the other companies? :animestun

TwoMoons

[Dagger]

[quote name='TwoMoons']why would you be happy if FUNimation got it versus all of the other companies? :animestun[/quote]
One thing first: If you're just replying to the post above you, you don't necessarily need to quote all of it. Usually it will be quite clear who you're referring to.

Anyway, FUNimation is currently the most proactive anime company out there, in that they plan on actually trying to do something about the current market saturation rather than simply whining about it 24/7. Their recent releases (such as Fullmetal Alchemist & Spiral) have been Geneon-quality--albeit slightly cheaper, once you factor in steeper online discounts. Plus, I love their dubs. :animesmil

But to sum it up, I'm confident that Funi would treat HikaGo well and would stick with the series from start to finish.

~Dagger~

[Posthumous]

More HikaGo fans!

I've loved HikaGo since I read the first page translated by TW back in 2002. After finishing the manga I started watching the anime (subbed). I loved it since the characters looked exactly the same as the did in the manga (what I'm trying to say is when some group makes the anime, the characters sometimes have eyes that are too small, or different hair etc..etc..) . I agree with Dagger, I wouldn't mind FuNi doing dubs, as long as it's dubbed with GOOD voice actors (remember the whole fiasco about how Freezer sounded like a women back in the DBZ dubbed days?) . There isn't much to cut out of HikaGo since it wasn't THAT violent.

Oh, and Dagger. Do you by chance play Go?

[r2vq]

I love Hikaru no Go and I am surprised that there isn't already a Hikago thread at Otaku Boards.
I just never bothered to check...

[b]Hikaru no Go was one of the series that changed my life.[/b]

It's that simple. The series not only inspired me to play Go (which unfortunately I'm still not that good at ^^) but it helped me meet a lot of current friends. What Hikaru no Go does for Go, CSI does for Forensics. Neither are entirely accurate, but they bring excitement and enthusiasm to the game.

Hatake Kakashi, do you remember when it ended abruptly? That was a shock and pretty sad. Also, when I found out that the manga was licensed right before the end of the series was translated! I was so upset. XD

I love the series so much that most of my WebLog, or Website layouts were centered around it. And I have a Japanese Volume of the Manga. (which I plan to read ^^) Volume 15 - Sayonara (my favourite volume)

[B]a few interesting facts about Hikago:[/B]
"Go" is Japanese for 5.
Hikaru (the main character) wears a 5 on a lot of his clothes.
The series started on May 5 (5/5) which is also "Boy's Day".
When [spoiler]MAJOR SPOILER DO NOT READ --Sai left-- MAJOR SPOILER DO NOT READ[/spoiler] it was also Boy's Day.

If you like Hikago, you should try to read Deathnote, by the same artist.
You might not like Hikago if you don't like series' where they overdramatize situations. ("OMG HE PLAYED THERE!!!!!!!!" gasp gasp gasp sweat sweat sweat gasp gasp gasp)

-ArV

ps. 23k is a compliment for me, but I've gotten a program called "igowin" to 7k. Does anyone else play Go?

[Dagger]

I don't play Go yet, but I'd love to learn it properly. And I just found out that one of my close friends actually owns a Go board, which is pretty awesome. :catgirl:

Last night, I finished the [spoiler]pro exam[/spoiler] arc (I believe that took me up to episode 45 or 46). Personally, I was quite surprised at some of the results. Granted, I figured that [spoiler]either Waya or Isumi would have to fail, but I had thought Isumi would be the one to pass. Although I like Waya a lot, Isumi's situation had much more desperation and pathos than his. I started to become worried as soon as Isumi beat Ochi, because after that the focus seemed to shift over to Waya (which, from my perspective, was a bad sign).

I really, really hope that Isumi will continue to play some kind of role in the show--unlike, say, Mitani, Tsutsui or Kaga. Kaga has got to be one of the most woefully underused characters ever; I love the weird dynamic he had with Tsutsui.[/spoiler] Honestly, that's probably my one big complaint with the show--due to the way the plot progresses, some of the coolest characters are simply forced to drop off the radar.

Speaking of which, Akira is [i]by far[/i] my favorite character in Hikaru no Go, followed by Sai and (of course) Hikaru. I almost have trouble explaining why, but Akira outshines everyone else--although that is, admittedly, more or less the way the script sets things up. I must confess that I tend to like seeing Sai play more than seeing Hikaru play--he just gives off this amazing aura of invincibility. Perhaps that's why I've found the Internet Go arc to be the most exciting part of the series so far.

In reference to the [spoiler]pro exam,[/spoiler] I started to get the sense that they were going out far of their way to make Ochi incredibly unlikeable. I suppose that was sort of necessary for the purposes of the storyline, though.

It's really neat how the artwork subtly changes over the course of the anime. It's sort of jarring to see flashbacks to the early episodes, because Hikaru and co. look so much younger (which, of course, makes sense). On that note, I've got to say that I get a big kick out of HikaGo/Death Note crossovers. Who wouldn't want to see Light lose to Sai in Go, or Sai & Ryuk trade stories about their human companions? It'd be hilarious to watch Akira try to politely deal with L's eccentricities. And so on and so forth.

~Dagger~

[Bloodseeker]

It sounds like Jumangi meets a lugi board. Eh... at least it sounds better than Yu-Gay-Oh!

[Dagger]

[quote name='Bloodseeker']It sounds like Jumangi meets a lugi board. Eh... at least it sounds better than Yu-Gay-Oh![/quote]
I think the key difference between Hikaru no Go and, say, Yu-Gi-Oh is that Hikaru no Go is basically rooted in reality. The plotline has nothing to do with saving the world or monsters or whatnot. Part of what makes people object to YGO, in my experience, is that it turns a card game into a matter of life and death. That's not at all the case in HikaGo--pride and status and money are usually what's on the line. It does exaggerate some things for the sake of drama, but for the most part it's pretty down-to-earth (Sai is pretty much the only supernatural element in the story).

~Dagger~

[Billy Shears]

[SIZE=1]I was reading the series in Shonen Jump, but I can't afford the subscription any more. I got as far as [spoiler] Hikaru beating the old guy in the Go parlor that cheats all the time.[/spoiler].

I like it because its different. Like Dagger said Sai is the only real supernatual element in the series, and the characters seem more down-to-earth. No one is doing named attacks, just playing a really old board game.

One more thing: I can never tell if Sai is a man or a woman. Can someone clarify? In the manga, they say "He", but s/he still looks a little like a woman.

-the one and only[/SIZE]

[Kitty]

[quote name='Billy Shears][SIZE=1']One more thing: I can never tell if Sai is a man or a woman. Can someone clarify? In the manga, they say "He", but s/he still looks a little like a woman.[/SIZE][/quote] [color=blue][size=1][i]Thank[/i] you. I had been waiting for someone to bring this up as I scrolled through the thread. ^__^;;

My only access to Hikaru-no-Go is through the Shonen Jump magazines. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you. But when HikaGo was first introduced into the line-up of comics, I had several "issues" with the characters. As Billy Shears mentioned, Sai is quite womanish. What with the lipstick and the large kimono (I'm not sure if that's exactly what he's wearing, but whatever) and the long hair, it can be quite confusing.

Also, my first glance of Akira made me automatically think he was a she! Many manga artists, as I'm sure you've noticed, tend to make some boy characters a bit feminine (ie. very thin, almost curvy in shape, long hair, etc.), but I mean.. Come on. Give us block headed Americans a break.*

But other than a few misconceptions, I have no problem with this particular manga. I enjoy the story, all the characters are likable (with a few intended jerks), and I can easily see most of this particular story actually happening. I believe I'm up to [spoiler]Hikaru/Sai's game with Akira over the internet[/spoiler]. Or maybe a little pass that. I really like reading it and I can't wait for my next issue of SJ to come in the mail next month. ^_^

*When I say "block headed Americans", I do not refer to all Americans in general, nor do I intend to offend any one particular group. I just meant those that aren't as open-minded. Just making this clear so nobody thinks I'm attempting to hurt somebody's feelings. =D[/size][/color]

[Dagger]

Hey, I appreciate the fact that HikaGo is practically swimming with bishounen. :animesmil

When it comes to sheer gender ambiguity, Sai doesn't have anything on Kazuki (from Get Backers) or Okita (from Peacemaker Kurogane). In the anime, his seiyuu has a soft yet distinctly masculine voice--cultured rather than harsh or overly deep, but not at all androgynous. So that probably helps a bit.

Same goes for Akira... speaking of which, finding out that Akira was played by Sanae Kobayashi is what originally sparked my interest in the show. I totally loved her as Lucy/Nyuu in Elfen Lied and Canon Memphis in Fafner. Although both of those roles are female, she used a very low, dark voice for them, which suited the characters involved quite nicely and convinced me that she'd be brilliant at playing young males. Interestingly, Sanae Kobayashi also took the role of "Akira" in Mai-Hime--and Mai-Hime's Akira looks extremely similar to the one in HikaGo.

~Dagger~

[Guest FuruChan]

[FONT=Century Gothic][COLOR=Black]Heh, it's so hard for me to find other HikaGo fans. I'm glad I get an imported DVD of it for my birthday (which is in a few weeks!). ^^ Personally, I would like ADV Films to dub HikaGo. [/COLOR][/FONT]

[r2vq]

[quote name='Dagger']//snip// Sai doesn't have anything on Kazuki (from Get Backers) or Okita (from Peacemaker Kurogane). //snip//[/quote]

XD My Get Backer-liking friends talk about the dress-wearing-man-with-boobs all the time.

Sai is definately a guy. A clue for those that don't watch the anime: There were very few female professionals in the Heian period.
Most nobles were very dainty, especially if they were closer to The Emperor. Sai interacted directly with him so he'd naturally be very cultured.

[quote]Honestly, that's probably my one big complaint with the show--due to the way the plot progresses, some of the coolest characters are simply forced to drop off the radar.

//snip//

It's really neat how the artwork subtly changes over the course of the anime.[/quote]

It definately is a shame. You never see Tsutsui play again. ;_; ^^ Though, he shows up at Hikaru's last tournament the same we he showed up at the first tournament Hikaru visited. That was pretty cool. I also want to see more of Chinese Waya! XD

Reading the ending chapters of Hikaru no Go had me appreciating the artist so much. The style at that point is very similar to Deathnote. It was absolutely shocking for to compare the art for the first chapter after finishing the series.

-ArV

[RizaHawkeye]

yeah it's one of my favorite animes. I have 6 DVDs and 3 manga. My favorite character is Kaga.

[Dagger]

Episode 60... :animecry:

[spoiler]Sai~~!! And he only got to play Akira's dad once. The worst part of it is that he and Hikaru (well, it was mostly on Hikaru's part) were so [i]mean[/i] to each other in some of the previous episodes. That was the first time I ever got seriously frustrated/angry with Hikaru--it should have been obvious that something was up with Sai, but he completely brushed it off. And now there's nothing he can do to make up for it. Gah.[/spoiler]

Actually, this subject is a little too distressing. Let's see... what else? Oh, yeah--I was sort of unsure about Ogata at first, but now I favor him over the other top pros (although Akira's dad is also rather cool). He's at once interesting and kind of scary. Plus, I can't help but love that awesome red car. I'm glad he was able to [spoiler]get a title.[/spoiler]

~Dagger~

[Silent Whispers]

doesnt it make you wonder how the creators can come up with anime like HikaruNoGo and GetBackers and ect. :animesigh personally i used to think that they
[COLOR=Black]pulled colored pieces of paper out of a hat!!![/COLOR]
pulled colored pieces of paper out of a hat!!! :animeswea isnt that a ridiculous thought? :animesmil


TwoMoons

[r2vq]

[quote name='Dagger']Episode 60... :animecry:[/quote]

I was wondering when you would get there. ^^

My favourite part of the series because it's just so sad.
I liked it to so much I went out and bought the Manga Volume in Japanese.

What happenned afterwards almost made me cry...

Bweheheheheh. Click the attachments to see how Sai and Ogata grew from Volume 1 to Volume 15. ^^ (crappy scans because I didn't want to ruin my only volumes -.o)

-ArV

[Dagger]

Whoa, that's a huge difference. Especially in Ogata's case. Must... control... urge to buy the manga... :animeswea

Once I hit the first side story episode, I started to worry that the show would end really abruptly--which made me so sad that I went out of my way to avoid it for a while. Of course, this sort of backfired, since I ended up just moping around and wondering what the heck was going to happen.

But [spoiler]Isumi-san's return and his game with Hikaru[/spoiler] definitely brightened my mood. I just loved episode 70--it made me cry (again) and I thought it was very cathartic/theraputic, both for the characters and for the one watching. Now I can go into the final stretch with a little less trepidation. And now I understand your earlier comment about Le Ping... poor Isumi is plagued by Wayas wherever he goes, haha.

Most long series are, well, too long. Rurouni Kenshin should have stopped after the Kyoto arc. Sailor Moon (and the subsequent seasons) could have been twice as emotional in half the episodes. Inuyasha just goes in circles, as does DBZ, Prince of Tennis, etc. Yet I can't help but feel that HikaGo could easily use another 75 episodes. It just seems like there's so much left to tell.

~Dagger~

[r2vq]

[quote name='Dagger']Yet I can't help but feel that HikaGo could easily use another 75 episodes. It just seems like there's so much left to tell.[/quote]

I'm not sure if the series ever got repetitive. I felt that it could have continued. It ended pretty abruptly. I guess the Mangaka had more sense than the producers of the previously mentioned anime in that respect.

Aw shwell. Dagger-dono, if you finish the Anime I'd like to know how far they got, if it's not too much trouble. hanashite mo ii desu ne? ^^

-ArV

[Dagger]

I take back everything I said before. The ending was great! I mean, they leave it pretty obvious that Akira & Hikaru still have their entire lives in front of them, but I think the anime's writers chose the best possible stopping point, given the circumstances.

I loved how the final episode concluded. They played a super-extended cut of the first OP, while showing glimpses of pretty much every single character in the show. There were some really funny bits, like the brief scene of [spoiler]Morishita-sensei's daughter surprising Waya with a "Congratulations on being promoted to 2-dan!" banner.[/spoiler] But the best part by far was when [spoiler]a motorcycle-riding Kaga saw Tsutsui walking down the street, looking all tall and confident and chatting with a pretty woman. Kaga stared after him with this expression of utter shock and horror, then did an exasperated face-palm.[/spoiler] It was nothing short of priceless. :animesmil

[quote name='r2vq']Aw shwell. Dagger-dono, if you finish the Anime I'd like to know how far they got, if it's not too much trouble. hanashite mo ii desu ne? ^^[/quote]
The last three episodes are all about [spoiler]Hikaru's first professional match against Akira.[/spoiler] As I mentioned earlier, this was a nice stopping point, since [spoiler]Hikaru had been totally focused on chasing Akira for pretty much the entire show prior to Sai's disappearance. So in many ways it worked well to wrap up the beginning chapter of Hikaru's career.

The biggest sign of progress appeared when Akira figured out that Sai was someone dwelling "inside of" Hikaru, and Hikaru suggested off-handedly that he might tell Akira the truth about it someday. This led into what was presented as the main emotional climax--a dream in which Sai silently handed Hikaru his fan. Naturally Hikaru went out and bought a fan for himself later on. During the credits, he was shown intimidating people with it during matches--an amusingly incongruous (but still heartwarming) image.[/spoiler]

So I was actually very much satisfied with the end. Granted, it does seem more like the end of part of a story than the end of a whole story, but it was very well done and went far above & beyond my expectations. In that respect it's sort of comparable to the ending of Fruits Basket--which is emotionally satisfying and somehow seems to offer closure, even though it doesn't cover even half of what happens in the manga.

As for HikaGo, all I have left now is the 2004 New Year's special. I've heard that it briefly touches on some later parts of the manga, but I'm not sure about the details.

~Dagger~

[r2vq]

It's good to hear the ending was good.

It's a shame it doesn't extend further than that. I find that Hikaru makes his most major improvements after that point. It was also the part of the series that made me want to get my own fan.

The New Year's Special, from what I remember, does one of the short stories from the manga. It's an escapade of when Hikaru has to buy Kaga a tea cup. It's been a while so I may be wrong about it. The ending of the episode, I believe, was a match...

hm.

And you know Chinese Waya's cute. XP
If you liked the Anime, Dagger-dono, I wouldn't totally ignore the Manga. At least from the point the Anime left off. ^^

-ArV

[Dagger]

I'm a little puzzled about the specials, actually.

The first special (from 2002) is, if I remember correctly, just a re-cap. It also has a short segment featuring Hikaru & Sai interacting with the live-action cast of "Go Go Igo."

The second New Year's special (from 2004), which I watched yesterday, takes place after the television series. It's a little over 70 minutes long, and it basically sets things up for the Hokuto Cup--which is kind of weird, given that the Hokuto Cup was never animated. But it's still a great feature.

In addition to [spoiler]introducing Yashiro, it also shows Hikaru's graduation from Haze. Among the games shown are Akira vs. Ogata (I took a perverse pleasure in his loss) and Hikaru vs. Morishita. The main focus was Hikaru's match with Yashiro. My respect for Ochi shot up dramatically when he demanded to play Yashiro for the chance to be on the Japanese team.[/spoiler]

It pretty much ends there, [spoiler]once the Japanese team has been finalized,[/spoiler] but there's a nice epilogue of sorts with Hikaru & Akira and a couple of old folks talking about the god of Go.

Two side stories were animated as regular episodes of the series (I think they were episodes 65 & 66--somewhere around there). One was about Hikaru replacing Kaga's tea cup; the other was about Akira before he met Hikaru. The weird thing is that I've also come across some other feature that told the tea cup story--except that the script and animation were slightly different in some places. It confused me.

~Dagger~

[r2vq]

Bwahahaha I am faster than Anime News Network.

At Anime North, voice director Rob Bakewell officially announced the license of Hikaru no Go.

According to Bakewell, Hikaru will be played by Sam Vincent (Martin Mystery's [B]Billy[/B] and [B]Martin[/B], Gundam Seed's [B]Athrun[/B], and Hamtaro's [B]Dexter[/B])

Touya Meijin will be played by Paul Dobson (Reboot's [B]Matrix[/B], Ranma's [B]Happosai[/B], Inuyasha's [B]Naraku[/B], Transformer's [B]Sideways[/B], and Fatal Fury's [B]Krauser[/B])

and Touya Akira will be played by a new voice actor.

[quote name='Anime North Booklet']Bakewell was the Talent Coordinator on "Gundam Wing", "Mobile Suit Gundam", and "Zoids". He was voice Director on "Trouble Chocolate", "Project ARMS", "Infinite Ryvius", "Galaxy Angel-season 3 and 4", "Popotan", "Earth Defense Family", and the future "Junkers, Come Here".[/quote]

>.< I hope he wasn't mistaken when he said "official announcement" otherwise I might get burned...

-ArV

[Dagger]

*runs around the room screaming*

Thanks for the news! :animesmil

Based on the talent pool described in your post, I'd assume that the series has been licensed by Bandai (or possibly ShoPro/Viz, but I'm really [i]really[/i] hoping that's not the case). The actors involved aren't exactly favorites of mine, but I like the director's work; Infinite Ryvius's dub is really stellar, for example, so I think this could have potential.

EDIT: [url=http://www.animeondvd.com/][u]AoD[/u][/url] has reported that Viz will release the first Hikaru no Go DVD on 9/27/05. Now that's what I call fast. While I dislike many of the company's practices (bad disc counts, no song subtitles, etc.) I can't help but be excited about the quick turnover. I hope they include the live-action segments.

~Dagger~

[r2vq]

[quote name='Dagger]EDIT: [url=http://www.animeondvd.com/][u]AoD[/u][/url'] has reported that Viz will release the first Hikaru no Go DVD on 9/27/05. Now that's what I call fast. While I dislike many of the company's practices (bad disc counts, no song subtitles, etc.) I can't help but be excited about the quick turnover. I hope they include the live-action segments.[/quote]

It's a shame they didn't release it in September, but ANN posted a release date.

[quote name='"ANN"']On December 27, Viz will release Hikaru no Go volume 1. The DVD will contain 4 episodes, in English and Japanese with English subtitles and will cost $24.98.[/quote]

I have decided to waste my savings on HnG DVDs and English Manga. xD

-ArV