Hikaru No Go 1 [ペーパーバック]

As a long time fan of Hikaru no Go, I am excited that this excellent series is now being translated and that Americans can be introduced to this ancient and strategically complex game.

Hikaru no Go is somewhat of a coming of age tale about young Shindo Hikaru, who unleashes the spirit of a long deceased Go master from the Heien era when he is able to spot a blood stain on a go board that is invisible to everyone else. This ghost, Fujiwara no Sai, occupies a part of Hikaru's mind, playing go through instructions given to Hikaru.

Initially, Hikaru is an average child who likes sports, is failing his classes, and has little interest in playing go, but soon he has a fateful encounter with Touya Akira, another child his own age. Hikaru, playing as Sai completely beats Touya, a prodigy at go and the son of a Master. Hikary earns himself a rival when Touya learns that Hikaru has never played a game before in his life. Sai and Touya's passion for the game eventually begins to change Shindo's mind and he begins to wish to learn to play for himself. In the meantime, Sai's games played through Hikaru have begun to attract the attentions of some of the top professions of the game who suspect Shindo to be some sort of mysterious prodigy.

Despite the prominence of the Character Sai, the subject of this manga is, as the title suggests, about Hikaru (Hikaru no Go means Hikaru's go). Through the course of this story, Hikaru will learn what it means to have meaning in his life, to be focused on something larger than himself, and to deal with both the joys of victory and the sorrows of defeat and loss, both in front of a go board and in his life. The manga is over 20 volumes in length, and over the course of two and a half years, we get to see him mature from a boy to a young man through Igo.

This series is one of my favorites and I highly recommend it. If it were possible to give it a higer rating, I would. It was also quite popular in Japan as well, where it served to introduce a whole new generation of Japanese children and teens to a game that had become stereotyped as something their grandfathers played. There are many explanations in the story both by the author, and as commentary by the characters that explain the moves in a game so that one can follow it and understand the importance of each play relative to the story even if one has never touched a go stone in his life.

I got hooked on Hikaru No Go a few years ago, back before it was licensed in the US. But, I've been following along with this translation of it in Shonen Jump, where it's currently being serialized. I have the entire series in Japanese, so I probably won't collect the English version. But, if you haven't tried this series yet, I highly recommend that you pick up this volume for yourself.

This manga revolves around a game called go, an ancient strategy board game that originated in China, thrived in Japan for a time, and is played in Asia and all over the world today. Now before you walk away assuming that you have to be interested in go to enjoy this manga, let me assure you that you don't need to know much about go at all in order to enjoy this manga.

The true strength of this manga lies in its characters. Almost all of them are quite likeable, and even the minor ones are well developed. Yes, most of them are a little obsessed with go, but that's to be expected. The main characters grow and mature as the series develops, but there's not much time for them to grow much in just the first volume.

The other element that makes this manga one of my favorites is the story. As I said earlier, this manga revolves around the game of go. The title translates to Hikaru's Go. Hikaru is the main character, and just as the title suggests, this manga follows his development as a go player. The story begins as Hikaru reluctantly takes up go in order to appease a whiny ghost named Sai with amazing talent for the game and a couple lifetimes of experience. This, of course, leads to problems as Hikaru makes the moves that Sai tells him to make, playing well beyond the level someone who has never touched the game should be able to reach. When Hikaru starts wanting to play himself at his own level, things get even more complicated.

I said earlier that you do not have to be a go player in order to enjoy this manga. You don't need to understand the game to tell who's winning or losing and what moves are good or bad. The character's reactions are enough. But I must say, a good number of people who play go started after reading this manga. There's something about the story that makes you want to learn more about the game and start playing yourself. Maybe that's just the way go is. Just like Hikaru, if you watch people play enough, you suddenly want to play yourself. Personally, I started this series because I already had some interest in go, but reading it really gave me the motivation to start improving my game.

Of course this review wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention the art work. Unlike most manga, this manga has a separate author and illustrator. While the author, Hotta Yumi, weaves a great story, the illustrator, Obata Takeshi draws some great images to match. In this volume, while his work is very good, his style isn't quite as detailed and polished as it is by the end of the series.

Although Hikaru No Go is my all time favorite manga, I can't give it more than four stars because of the translation. The translation might not be that bad if this is your first exposure to Hikaru No Go, but if you're a long time fan, prepare to be a little disappointed in the names. First of all they are flipped so that a character's given name comes first so that Shindo Hikaru becomes Hikaru Shindo. (In Japan the family name usually comes first.) It might not be that big a deal if you're not used to seeing the names the other way around, but it drives me crazy. My other complaint about the translation of names is that all the characters refer to each other by their given names. It seems incredibly out of character for some of them when you know a little about social relationships in Japan, and it gets a little confusing when the more minor character who are almost exclusively referred to by their given names in the Japanese (like Tsutsui and Kaga) are suddenly being called by their given names. I know minor complaints like these are common among people who fall in love with a series before it gets liscensed and that I should be grateful that the characters weren't entirely renamed, but I still feel that the translation detracts at least a little from the series.

Finally, a warning: This series does have it's ups and downs. It gets rather depressing for a while in later volumes, and there are many ups and downs throughout. But, part of what makes the story great is that the main characters don't always win. In my opinion, the losses just make the victories even more satisfying and keep the story realistic (or as realistic as a story with a go playing ghost can be). Unfortunately, the series also stops rather suddenly after 23 volumes with a less than satisfying finish. There are some one-shot chapters that were released after the final chapter that round things out a little, but this is still one series I was sad to see end. Still, I highly reccomend giving it a try.

I am amazed at how powerful an effect these books have had on my children. I mean that now that they have been reading these books they have developed an interest in playing go. They knew I played and have seen my go board but they never asked me to teach them until after they started reading these books. Within two weeks of the purchase of this book my 14 and 10 year old sons were playing go and I had never given any lessons to my 10 year old. They are continually asking me to get more of the series. It is great. I am very happy.