Sunday, February 08, 2004
Finished the manga Hikaru no Go (HnG) yesterday night. Wonderful manga and anime. Was addicted to the anime last year, then started to read the manga last month. I can really recommend this one.
It's about a boy, Shindou Hikaru who finds a goban (a board to play the game 'Go' on) which has a ghost in it, Fujiwara Sai, one of the greatest Go players in history, who has been in the goban for years and is now able to have a place somewhere in Hikaru's mind. Hikaru let's Sai play Go in a Go salon where they play against Touya Akira, a boy of the same age as Hikaru (about twelve). Touya's dad is a famous Go player and Touya has been playing Go for years. He asks himself who this Hikaru is who doesn't even hold the stones well and doesn't know anything of Go but beats him as if he was nothing, not knowing that he was actually playing Sai. And so the story begins, Touya chasing after Hikaru but actually after Sai, and Hikaru getting interested in Go because of the intensity of Touya and ending up chasing after Touya.
I still don't understand anything of the game except for the minimal basics but it's such an intense, amazing and wonderful manga and anime that Go becomes really interesting, and surely you want to play Go too. Because of HnG the children in Japan have become more interested in playing Go.
The characters and relationships of the characters of HnG are profound, the drawings and details of the drawings are beautiful, the story is really well written, funny and just let's you keep asking for more, wanting more. There were a lot of moments I had to laugh or felt sad.
Sai can be so funny (especially the 'chibi' moments :D)... Hikaruuuuuuuuu
I feel really sad that they stopped with the manga and anime, but maybe it's for the best...
There is so much to say about this anime/manga, but you better see it for yourself. Or you can visit this amazing amount of websites on HnG, just google some :)
or visit: this site and webring
About the game:
Go is a game played using white and black stones strategically placed on a board that has either 9x9 or 19x19 squares. The objective of the game is to capture as many of the opponent's stones as possible.
Go is really complicated but there are plenty of sources on the web where you can learn the basics of the game. As for example on this or this site (with links to other Go sites, Go on the Internet, Go software etc)
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