Anime: Hikaru no Go

Review: Hikaru no Go

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I had a huge desire of watching this years ago but I never had time or the guts to do it until now. It took me around one full month to do it but after this, and even watching the special that partially continues the story of the entire adaptation of the manga, I can say that I made it and I'm not entirely disappointed even if I hoped it to be a bit better near the end.

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Review

I knew nothing about Go before watching this, and I still don't know much after watching 75 episodes and a special. I knew that it was similar to Othello (like probably many others because of old cellphones with it even if I started playing it on NES) but that's all. To be even more fun about this little piece of knowledge, they even joke about this at some point during an episode.

Hikaru no Go tells the story of a kid that ends being followed by one of the greatest Masters of Go - Sai from Fujiwara, someone who excelled at it centuries ago but has no knowledge of its modern and current version. It starts in his 0 knowledge age of 11 until he steps into the pro scene.

I could be here talking for hours about it but I will be brief because of n factors that made me hate this near the end:
- it's amazing until episode 63, lots of emotions in the air with Go here and there mixed
- it's a piece of crap 63-68, side-stories with no point of being there and most of the episodes have lazy animations (I like Isumi but come on ... it's poorly animated and directed. You can clearly see that someone lacked ideas to write those episodes). They clearly didn't know what to do after what happened in episode 60 and you can see that here.
- it's average 69-75 and there is no real end to the story. This probably happened because the anime was close to catch the manga that was still ongoing at the time they were producing the episodes. This also shows that they stopped trying at some point.
- special is junk, special in terms of animations, aside the final Go match. It still doesn't give an end to the story but at least continues what was left open. A tiny bit of it. You will have to read the last 3 volumes of the manga to know the rest.
You may think that I'm being a bit terrible to it but the reality is that after that episode 63, everything lost quality. Even the good parts that could be exploited later and make the entire story jump to a higher level, like Akari being after Hikaru and stuff, aren't. In the end we've an Akira, Hikaru's rival, with a better development, past and present compared to Hikaru! But hey, I do like the way they gave a past and a present to a lot of secondary characters that probably could be fine without. It makes the entire story a lot more lively even if at the same time it only happens during the first 63 episodes ...

Well, at least they did music right. And the same can be said from Go (or at least looks like because I can't say much about this since I understand almost nothing about it besides what I learned from watching this anime).
- Music: I may not like the last OP & ED but besides that, everything is perfectly well done. They use a lot the same BGMs over and over -- and they even use remix a few tracks to fit their needs -- but everything is so well used that you don't mind. Heavy music to create tension, enjoyable music to create a happy moment, everything looks perfect.
- Go: The way they did Go is also quite good for me: Rules start really soft with small explanations from the characters (and there is even small lessons after the episode ending from a pro Go player!) and later on they start talking about specific movements and strategies. This all gives you a bit of what Go is all about because, even if you don't understand most of the moves like yose, death & life problems or even basic things like atari, most of the time you will understand what's happening by the look and thoughts of the ones around.

What could have been one of the best sports anime ended being average. What a shame :\

Random thoughts: I don't consider the cigarettes pulled here and there a bad thing. I don't smoke but it gives a clever way of making the scene heavier than it would be without even if they focus a bit too much on some occasions.

Tell someone that you liked a 75 episode series about some kids playing with black and white pebbles and chances are he will think you are kidding.

Hikaru no Go is an anime made to promote one of Japan’s oldest and most famous games, that of Go. Now I wouldn’t want to go into details of how the game is played; basically you place black pebbles, while the opponent places white pebbles, on a big squared board, and the objective is to take the opponent’s pebbles by surrounding them from all four sides with your own. I could mention how it resembles Siege or Othello but both are quite simplistic to count. For there are various sub-rules, such as specific areas granting extra points, the second player being given a few points just for playing second, and so on, and so on. The point is this is not a game that it’s as simple as it looks.

Game-based anime are nothing new at the time it came out. Six years ago there was Pokemon, and around the same time there was YuGiOh!, both prompting people to learn and buy the games. But the thing is, all such anime are to the most part nothing but propaganda, as the actual games have nothing to do with what you see in the series. Pikachu never levels up and Yuugi keeps using cards that don’t work like that in the actual game. But in the case of Go, that is not possible because there is no optical trickery. The pebbles don’t have superpowers; they are just positioned in a cross-section and remain there permanently, unless surrounded, where they become the opponent’s points. So what you see is really what you get. There is of course a ghost of an ancient Go player following the main hero around and telling him ways of how to win, but that is not cheating in the longrun because even that is following the rules of the game down to the tiniest detail.

Which is another thing that makes this show great. Unlike Pokemon or YuGiOh!, where the opponents cheat all the time or don’t play as the normal rules dictate in general, in Go there is no way to be unfair. The pieces are not hidden or moving around every time you turn your head, cards don’t drop out of sleeves and dices are not fixed to always show 6s. There is even an official referee and many on-lookers that further prevent you from even trying to move around the pebbles. That creates an extremely realistic and fair game.

Another plus is how the game is purely based on strategy and not on luck. You don’t draw cards hoping to get what you want or you don’t use electroshock, hoping to get a critical. All pebbles are equal and revealed to you from the start. In this regard, it is like chess where all the pieces are revealed from the start and there is zero chances of winning out of luck.

All the above create a very realistic approach to the game that doesn’t make you think that every match is rigged or conveniently happens as the scriptwriter wants to. Of course, it also means that it lacks too much of superficial entertainment for those who expect lasers and huge monsters o fill the screen all the time. Nope, there is no such thing present to make little kids wowing with brainless battles that have nothing to do with the actual game. It does however have a huge amount of internal monologue and a rather high amount of “depicted mentality”. That means that we are constantly shown what the characters are feeling with weird background colours or told by listening to their strategies and worries. There is a lot of that too in other game-based series as well but the retarded action is eventually making you care more about that than about the characters’ strategies.

Of course, this is still a shonen title and it still has some elements for the target audience to feel a connection to. The main hero for example is Hikaru, a boy who has no idea of how to play Go but after he releases the ghost of an ancient Go player, he is gradually more and more interested to learn and improve in the game. Initially he learns how to play thanks to the ghost, basically becoming its pupil as it can’t play on its own, and later as he learns he can now do his own strategies and thus follow his own path. That is an almost standard procedure for any shonen lead. He even has a permanent platonic girlfriend, a main eternal rival ala Kaiba, and various bystanders constantly interrupting the flow of the matches in order to comment what they think is going on. So it is not exactly a groundbreaking show full of originality; the difference is mainly at how more focused the show is on the characters and not on the promotion of the game. You can see how Hikaru is gradually improving and how he is not a mastermind from episode one. He even grows old later on. Well, all that don’t actually change him as a personality, since he is still the same hyperactive edgy shonen lead as in the beginning. It will probably feel bad for most.

The worst part is eventually the story, since it is too heavily focused on building up tension slowly and eventually ending half-way. Many episodes are made to slow down progress with the scene constantly switching to something other than the match or the main characters, such as commentaries by others or flashbacks and irrelevant every day events. That can count as skyrocketing your interest by feeding on your frustration to know what will happen next. It is like in Dragonball Z, where a whole episode is spent on just powering up and shouting without progressing the battle. It works, although it does feel like it overdoes it at times. This is not a story about the salvation of the universe but a simple journey of a boy going from one match to another, pitted against other Go players and not demons who want to rule the cosmos or something. Plus it doesn’t really end; it is left incomplete as a story. Although one would wonder what the ending could be. Him becoming the Go Emperor of planet Earth?

I leave for last the production values that felt just average for such a show. Nothing great or bad but nothing memorable other than Hikaru’s weird double coloured hair. And I find nothing to write about them.

It is a very good anime at making you care to learn about the game. It even teaches it to you as it really is and not in a way that matters only in-series, thus I consider it the best in its subgenre. Other than that it is not exactly a show with great characters; just colourful ones. And its story is quite tedious and incomplete. Plus years later shows like Akagi and Kaiji took the whole board game to far greater heights of excitement. Still worthy of watching, since there is no other Go-based anime and definitely no other so fair and honest boardgame-based one.

Story

Hotta Yumi's Hikaru no Go is an anime about "Weiqi", an ancient Chinese board game which is now more popularly known in Japan as "Go". Because Go is perceived as neither an easy game to learn, nor an entertaining one to watch, its popularity had been waning in Asia, especially among the younger population. It was beginning to be identified as a game played by elderly men over cigarettes and tea.

It is easy to dismiss this anime as uninteresting and dry, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Hikaru no Go was almost single-handedly responsible for the sharp resurgence of interest in Go all across Asia. The pacing of the story is extremely good and never slows down, except for three rare filler episodes. After all, if an anime is able to make an old man's board game into something young, exciting and compelling to watch, it says a lot about the storyteller's skill.

The story of Hikaru's introduction into the world of Go can be divided into two parts. The first is the one most audiences will appreciate - a straightforward account of a young boy's aspiration and rocky journey to improve his skills in the world of competitive Go. This is a commonly used plot and likely to be familiar territory for fans of Naruto or Bleach. It is, however, the second half of Hikaru no Go to which lovers of quality anime will really be drawn. Hotta Yumi recognises the inherent problem in a "character improvement" story - after the main character becomes all-powerful or all-skilful, there is not much of a story left to tell. Rather than go down this road, she masterfully steers the plot away from Hikaru's technical progression in Go and focuses instead on Hikaru's development into a young adult. At this point, the story turns allegorical. The latter part of Hikaru no Go can best be described as a tale about growing up, the eternal reach for perfection and a young boy's bittersweet encounters with loss and discovery. To me, this is what raises Hikaru no Go far above its peers. The story goes beyond showing the need for constant improvement, to suggest – ever so subtly – a meaning and purpose to the struggle for perfection.

I am loath to discuss the original manga story in an anime review, but truly, my deepest regret about Hikaru no Go is that the anime finished a few episodes short of the manga ending. This is extremely tragic because Hotta Yumi's original conclusion was, in my opinion, a magical and memorable one, befitting the high standards set by the rest of the story. Alas, this was not to be, and as such, I can only rate the anime story as it stands. Even so, the story in this state is still excellent and quite entertaining. It is one I would have no hesitation recommending to anyone.


Animation

Attention to detail was definitely a hallmark of the visual quality and animation in Hikaru no Go. The time elapsed in the anime spans about three to four years, and during this time, there is a distinct change in appearance of the young characters. For example, Hikaru grows from being shorter than his peers and slightly chubby to being tall, slim and lanky. The growth does not happen over the period of one or two episodes, but rather stretches over all 76 episodes and is barely noticeable from one episode to the next.

It is not uncommon in anime to have characters in the same clothing all the time, to simplify the drawing and ensure visual consistency. Yet Hikaru no Go does not fall back on this safety net: characters in the anime rarely wear the same clothes from day to day, and each character's wardrobe is well considered to complement their personality and even their mood! For example, when Hikaru is feeling very much passionate about learning Go, you will see him wearing T-shirts showing the number 5, which in Japanese is pronounced "Go", just like the game.

The urban scenery is well-drawn and quite detailed. Often, as characters move through the city, the background will include little details (newspapers, coffee vending machines, subway ticket machines) which reveal what city life feels like in modern Japan. In fact, there are quite a few references to popular Western franchises like McDonald's and Starbucks - these add to the authenticity of the background scenery.

The use of shadows and shading was extremely effective in the anime as well - enough so that I actually took notice of this level of detail. Clothes and hair interact very well with bodies and faces in all many types of lighting conditions, and actually added to atmosphere of the scene.

The only disappointing aspect of the visual quality was the occasions on which a character is drawn differently than he or she normally appears, resulting in a slightly distorted look (though it is not glaring). Thankfully it does not occur frequently enough to detract significantly from any enjoyment from watching the anime.


Sound

The anime has a decently wide selection of music to complement the dramatic moments in the story. While it amounts to many variations of a few main tunes, I do not believe this to be necessarily negative, as too much variety leads to overload, and detracts from the moment. When watching the anime, I never felt music to be out of place. In fact, I noticed that there was quite a bit of thought invested into selecting the soundtrack to maximize the intensity of each match of Go.

The seiyuu of the main characters all pull off very decent and convincing performances, especially during dramatic moments. A particularly standout performance was that of Naya Rokuro portraying the old and crotchety Kuwabara Honinbo. I do however recall one or two instances of overacting by the seiyuu of secondary characters, which were unfortunate mood breakers.


Character

The characters of Hikaru no Go are unique and imaginative, but remain compellingly human and genuinely believable. Apart from their distinctive personalities, each character also reacts deeply to the changes in the other characters around them. Though this sounds like a basic requirement for a story, I am continually surprised at the number of anime which present characters completely insulated from each other, and whose actions do not garner much more than a superficial response from those around them.

The characters seem to be quite deep and well-researched too. The lives of aspiring and professional Go players cannot be normal, as they must revolve around the all-important examination and tournament schedules, often having to put aside their school, work, or families in order to attain their goals. This is a problem that is recognized and addressed in Hikaru no Go; even in her eagerness to promote the game, Hotta Yumi does not neglect to acknowledge the sacrifice necessary to achieve success in the Go world.

Since there seems to be a lot of general confusion and controversy about the character of Sai, I will also add my own take on this issue. Because he hails from the Heian era of Japan, it should be no surprise that Sai is dressed in effeminate attire, including purple lipstick and earrings, as this was perfectly normal and accepted in that time. In fact, Sai's feminine mannerisms and exaggerated weeping are an accurate reflection of the behaviour expected of an intelligent and cultured man in the Heian period. Therefore, it should go to credit Hotta Yumi for her appropriate portrayal of Sai; whether the audience is of open mind to accept a man behaving like a woman is an entirely different issue.


Overall

Among the anime I have watched, in terms of overall quality and polish, I believe Hikaru no Go to be the only long anime having the potential to rival Monster. I cannot help but feel that Hikaru no Go was the victim of a single poor production decision to leave the story unfinished, as compared to the original manga. I feel that the anime community has been robbed of an exceptional finished product. But even incomplete, Hikaru no Go stands out as truly special anime, and well worth the time to watch.

*To those who feel like they want more of the series after Episode 76 (the New Year's Special), I would recommend reading the manga from Chapter 166 onwards.

Hikaru No Go... One of my favorite series...
Since I am a Shounen-type, I quickly read this
and watched this series.

As for the anime.

ANIMATION
Great. I only see two kinds of animation; Super
Xtreme crap or normal/good. This was good. As for
character design, good, keeps origional manga
design and sucessfully is created into an anime.

SOUND
Good. I like the voice actors. People comment
on poor voice acting, that usually pisses me off,
probably because they're english who could care
less since they read subtitles, yet comment on
the voice actors anyway, although this is not
in every case. But trust me, I have heard tons
of times when they flat out said "voice actors?
They suck!", even if it is personal opinion, it
just seems so wrong sometimes.

STORY
Doesn't end like anime(or has/did it?-forgets/
unsure). SPOILERS///SPOILERS -- in the manga, Hikaru plays in the Hakuto cup. After this, they
had a few special chapters, one including Akira
and Hikaru beating two of "their" fans and then
continueing to play each other in the "YounG LioN
TournamenT". The story is good. It is really
exciting even if you hate Go. I don't follow the
game well, and I'm not interested, but it's very
entertaining and a few of my friends started playing Go(poorly) after they read/saw the series. Overall, the story is grade A and I think
this is a must see//read.

CHARACTER
Funny. Cool. Very likeable. I liked all the characters highly. All of them were likeable, it
was hard to pick just one. Hikaru, Akira, Touya
Kouya-Meijin, Sai, Mitani, Akari, Kaga, Tsutsui.
All very likeable, out of the bunch, there should
be at least ONE character you like who makes you
want to see the rest of the series just to see
more of them, although some characters go on
absent streaks, like most series with large character counts.

VALUE
Highest thing I can reccomend next to Hunter X
Hunter and Naruto(manga only lol)... Although this goes down in history as one of my favorite
series ever, I have to admit, that some--SOME,
will be disappointed with some of the series, I
was disappointed because several things I wanted
to happen didn't happen and because Hikaru lost
SPOILER--SPOILER--SPOILER both of his Hokuto
matches.

ENJOYMENT
Would value and enjoyment be the same? I highly
enjoyed it. I think I liked the manga better,
somehow. I think I always prefer it... But like
many, a series will disappoint when you have
certain things in your mind that you want to
happen--especially when the ending is rather--no
ending-ish. So high, must watch and is worth
watching.

This is one of the best sports anime ever that ive seen.

The story was well based by the intro of a kid who will one day find out about himself and show every one his true potential.

The Animation is alright with the way it looked and it could have been better.

The sound was awesome of the back ground music they played and the voice acting was good too.

The Characters all did a good job i liked the one Hikaru and Sai did it was kind of funny in a way of what Sai does to play and Hikaru just obeying all the time.

The enjoyment i say is one of the best that ive seen from all the anime i have wathced so far.

I recommended this anime to every one who like sports and you'll get hooked trust me.

When I first saw this anime was one of the best ranked on AniDB, I thought what was it doing here. I read a few reviews and it talked out GO, well I had no real idea what GO was until I watched this, and I had no idea it was about a board game of all things XD None the less, HnG (Hikaru no Go) is what anime is all about.

I was finally able to see this after such a long time, luckly I was able to get a good set of batched eps for it and I was surpised how good it was.

The animation is really a wonder, at first you don't notice anything out of the ordenary however after you see Hikaru grow you realize how many changes they made to the characters and you wont even realize it until you see a flashback.

The sound is wonderful, all of it is some of the best background music I have ever herd, I love all of the OP/ED and "I'll be the one" is one of the best songs I've ever herd.

The story is wonderful, you wont see a better story, its that simple. You would never expect such an anime to be so good but from ep 1 to 75 you will love every minute of it.

The characters are wonderfully well done, Hikaru is a great leading role and develops well, Akira is even better becuase he is introduced as a rival, any anime/RPG vet knows how screwed up rivals tend to be in storylines but this one was done perfectly, Akira's character is how a rival should be, not evil and everything but a competitor, something that makes the hero continue to go on, Akira is that person and then some, he is still his own person, and just as Hikaru is chasing him, he is chasing Hikaru back. The sub characters could be developed more (mainly Akari and Mitani) but I wont complain about it, if that developed those characters it would be so much longer then 75 eps XD

I greatlyed enjoyed this anime, you will laugh, cry, be embarrised and be amazing with every character in it, and you will love this anime, if you can't then you don't know what a good anime is.

The only fault within this anime is that it could have continued on, even in the final eps you could see that they had some idea of a storyline that could develop even more, however it did end and its left open to what happens next although its fairly obvious what would happen, in the end you know that it does end right now matter how much you want more.

A first class anime and in my personal top 10.