Hikaru no Go

Hikaru no Go (ひかる　の　ご) is a shōnen manga and anime by the makaga-kas Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata.

Hikaru no Go is a coming of age story based on the oriental board game Go. It recieved the Shogakukan Manga Award in 2000.

Story
While exploring his grandfather's shed, Hikaru stumbles across a Go board haunted by the spirit of Fujiwara-no-Sai, a fictional Go genius 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 Hon'inbo Shusaku, an ingenious Go player of that period. Sai's greatest desire is to attain the "Divine Move", or the "Hand of God," or a perfect game. Because Hikaru is apparently the only person who can perceive him, Sai inhabits a part of Hikaru's consciousness as a separate personality, coexisting, although not always comfortably, with Hikaru. Urged by Sai, Hikaru begins playing Go despite an initial lack of interest in the game. He begins by mimicking the moves Sai dictates to him, but Sai tells him to try to understand each move.Eventually he decides to start playing solely on his own. He is a complete novice at first, but has some unique abilities to his advantage; 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 professional, meeting various dedicated Go players of different ages and styles along the way.

Main characters
Hikaru Shindou
 * The main protagonist of the story, he found the Go board containing Fujiwara-no-Sai's consciousness and is as of 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 or boring people and he is annoyed at Sai's demand to play (At cost to his health), 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. Part of his strength is his ability to read far into the game very fast, and to make seemingly stupid moves. These moves in fact lure the opponent to playing what looks like the obviously correct move, which Hikaru then uses against them.

Fujiwara-no-Sai (Sai)
 * A spirit from the Heian Era and mentor of Hikaru Shindou. Once the Go instructor to the Emperor at the time, Sai continually plays Go in attempt to one day play the divine move (also known as the Hand of God or Kami No Itte) or a perfect game. In the manga and anime, Sai's ghost had possessed the real Go player Hon'inbo 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 his place in God's plan was to 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. Hikaru then 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.

Akira Toya
 * 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.

Koyo Toya (Meijin)
 * Akira Toya's father. Meijin is one of the titles he earned, and is what most of the characters call him. He rivals Sai and like Sai he also pursues the divine move. Later he retires from playing go because Sai beats him. He has an interest in Hikaru and requested to play him in the Beginner Dan series after Hikaru becomes a pro. He is always pictured in traditional Japanese dress.

Minor Characters
Akari Fujisaki
 * 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 vice captain of the girls' team, despite her being a weak player. She also seems to have feelings for Hikaru, as noted by her two friends in the carnival and various other characters, but Hikaru does not return her interest. The two remain friends throughout the course of the series.

Kimihiro Tsutsui
 * Captain and founder of the Haze Middle School Go Club. Initially he relies on a strategy book, though he has excellent Yose (end game) skills. Kaga persuades him to abandon the book in favor of trusting his strength. When he founds the Haze Middle School Go club he is the only member, but through the efforts of Hikaru and Akari the club grows. Kimihiro graduates from Haze Middle School before his dream of defeating the Kaio Middle School Go club can be realized.

Tetsuo Kaga
 * President of Haze Middle School's Shogi club. Kaga hates Go and prefers Shogi because his father forbade Shogi and forced him to play Go from an extremely early age, and he could never please the old man no matter how well he did, because he always lost to Akira Toya. In a flashback to Kaga's childhood, he is not only defeated by Akira, he feels disrespected by Akira's detached attitude towards his opponents. He still plays Go from time to time to keep his skills limber. During the course of the series, he (along with Kimihiro Tsutsui) graduates from Haze Middle School.

Yuki Mitani
 * A player at the Go Club at Haze Middle School who must overcome his cheating habit. He is angry at Hikaru for choosing to be an Insei rather than stay at the school Go club when they have a tournament around the corner. Yuki and Hikaru are no longer seen as friends. Yuki remains in the Go club, but only after much convincing.

Waya Yoshitaka
 * An insei and friend of Hikaru Shindou. Like Kaga, he has a dislike for Akira Toya because he can never defeat him and because of what he perceives as Akira's disdain for his opponents. He has once faced Sai in Internet Go using the nickname 'zelda.' He becomes a pro (at age 15) in the same year as Hikaru. He is also known to be very reckless and short-tempered, even punching former insei Mashiba in the face because the latter rattled his friend Isumi.

Shinichiro Isumi
 * Another insei friendly with Hikaru, Isumi is the eldest in Hikaru's peer group, turning 18 during the series. He appears to be doing very well in the first pro exam shown in the manga, going undefeated until his match with Hikaru. During that match, rumors about Hikaru's incredible strength add to the pressure of time constraints, and he misplaces a stone; his attempt to move the stone after letting go of it prompts his honorable resignation before Hikaru can accuse him of cheating. The match weighs on his mind and he loses his next two games and the chance to become a pro. He later goes to study Go in China in one of the few character arcs in the series that does not center on Hikaru. There, he learns to control his emotions and passes the next year's pro exam without a single loss. Isumi also unknowingly helps Hikaru get over his grief for Sai when their practice game makes Hikaru realize that by playing, he can find Sai within his moves, the Go that Sai passed on to Hikaru.

Kosuke Ochi
 * Yet another insei in the same group as Hikaru, Ochi is one of the youngest (12 years old when introduced), yet very outspoken about his ability. His bragging about his strength hides his insecurity; after each loss he is known to disappear into the restroom for long periods of time. Akira tutors him to find out about Hikaru's current strength. Ochi is unnerved by Hikaru because Akira's obsession about him seems to suggest there is more to Hikaru than what Ochi knows. Ochi is also angry that Akira acknowledges Hikaru as a rival, but not Ochi himself. He demands that Akira view him as a rival if he can defeat Hikaru in the pro exam. Ochi loses to Hikaru, but does pass the pro exam. He comes from a wealthy family, as evidenced by the number of pros that come to his household to tutor him privately in go.

Yuta Fukui (Fuku)
 * An insei and classmate of Waya who is known for his extremely fast-paced style of play. Although Waya is the stronger player, he cannot seem to defeat Fuku. Hikaru loses one game to him during the pro exam

Asumi Nase
 * Nase is another one of the first class insei Hikaru studies and plays with. She often wears a sweatshirt that has "LSU" printed on it.

Media info
Hikaru no Go has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine since 1998. Currently, 23 tankōbon have been released in Japan by Shōnen Magazine Comics. 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. Hikaru no Go airs on ImaginAsian TV in the United States. It premiered on the online streaming service Toonami Jetstream on July 14, 2006. In the April 2008 issue of Shonen Jump, it was revealed that this was the last chapter to be published in the Shonen Jump magazine. However, the series was not dropped, it is just going to be finished out in Shonen Jump graphic novels.

Reception
The manga has sold more than 22,000,000 copies in Japan. Hikaru no Go has also dramatically increased the popularity of Go in Japan and elsewhere, particularly among young children. Go professional Yukari Umezawa served as the technical advisor for the manga and promoted it on behalf of the Nihon Ki-in. She had a short one-minute special at the end of every episode instructing kids how to play Go. One of the reasons that she helped make Go so popular was because she was called "best looking Go professional". The manga also spread Go throughout the United States. As a result, many high school and middle school Go clubs were started by students influenced by the manga.