Hikaru no Go

While searching through his grandfather's attic, Hikaru Shindou stumbles upon an old go board. Touching it, he is greeted by a mysterious voice, and soon after falls unconscious. When he regains his senses, he discovers that the voice is still present and belongs to Fujiwara no Sai, the spirit of an ancient go expert. A go instructor for the Japanese Emperor in the Heian Era, Sai's passion for the game transcends time and space, allowing him to continue playing his beloved game as a ghostly entity. Sai's ultimate goal is to master a divine go technique that no player has achieved so far, and he seeks to accomplish this by playing the board game through Hikaru.

Despite having no interest in board games, Hikaru reluctantly agrees to play, executing moves as instructed by Sai. However, when he encounters the young go prodigy Akira Touya, a passion for the game is slowly ignited within him. Inspired by his newfound rival, Hikaru's journey into the world of go is just beginning.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Fujiwara no, Sai Main

Chiba, Susumu Japanese

Shindou, Hikaru Main

Kawakami, Tomoko Japanese

Touya, Akira Main

Kobayashi, Sanae Japanese

Waya, Yoshitaka Supporting

Takagi, Reiko Japanese

Ogata, Seiji Supporting

Fujiwara, Keiji Japanese

Isumi, Shinichiro Supporting

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Mitani, Yuki Supporting

Asakawa, Yuu Japanese

Kaga, Tetsuo Supporting

Itou, Kentarou Japanese

Fujisaki, Akari Supporting

Kakazu, Yumi Japanese

Touya, Kouyou Supporting

Tsuda, Eizou Japanese

Yamanishi, Tahei Producer

Nishizawa, Susumu Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Endou, Tetsuya Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Kamiya, Jun Director

Reviews

Jan 19, 2025

Jumpforfarts

Recommended

I can see why this show might not appeal to some. It's about an obscure board game after all, but within that niche this anime tells an insanely compelling story to near perfection. Broader topics that anyone can relate to are illustrated through the narrow but focused lens of Go, and that lens is crafted with an attention to detail that shows an immense love for the game. I think anyone who has found a passion like that, which expands in your heart the more you explore it, will find Hikaru no Go's story just as entrancing as the proclivities themselves. It's entertaining, honest, and ... inspiring all at once. The editing keeps an engaging pace while conveying the nuances of the characters. The art direction is dramatic and inventive, using surrealism and realism tastefully in accordance with the story, which makes the final product feel both grand and grounded. The animation is surprisingly energetic for the subject matter, with choice scenes and movements really standing out. While it's no Demon Slayer level sakuga, it's clear they put in extra effort to engage the audience in each match through the use of animation. The characters are loveable and hateable, and loveable because they're hateable, and I could go on. But all in all, if you have even a passing interest in this show, as was Hikaru's while reluctantly playing his first match, just know that seeing it through to the end could change your life forever.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Oct 11, 2024

Jet_Suzuyaki

Recommended

I must admit that I wasn't expecting to like this anime so much, but the fact is that I had a great time watching it.

The subject is original, the characters are endearing, Obata's designs are very well done, the story manages to involve you quite strongly despite a rather slow pace, which manages to make Go very cool to watch, and there's lots of other really cool stuff.

I'd still like to emphasize two things that I find very successful:
Firstly, the Hikaru/Akira rivalry, which is the main thread running through the anime and which is very well written, with one of them pushing the other to ... take up Go and the other pursuing a chimera that will make him change his way of playing in the presence of Sai's game through Hikaru's intermediary. So both progress in Go and evolve as their rivalry progresses, and that's super interesting.

The second thing is the theme that the anime tackles through its story, talking about many aspects of Go (even the less glamorous ones like the precariousness of amateur players), which gives quite a broad portrait of the profession and that's rare enough to highlight. On top of that, there's a whole subject on the transmission of knowledge and a questioning of where to stop in one's quest for excellence, and what's the point of going so far and regularly questioning the passion and absolutism of the characters in the Go.

In short, this is a truly original and very clever anime, which managed to captivate me on a subject I wasn't particularly interested in from a distance, while at the same time moving me at certain moments (especially the ending, which is bathed in the feeling of looking back at all the ground we've covered so far).

To sum up all this talk: Look at Hikaru no Go, it's super cool and not well-known enough.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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May 9, 2012

ktulu007

Not Recommended

Hikaru no Go was a long running manga written by Hotta Yumi in the late 90s, early 2000s. Of course, it got an anime adaptation. I'll be honest, it's an anime based off of a board game. I don't see much possibility of it being good or interesting. Will it surprise me? Let's take a look at the anime and find out.

Our story begins with a boy with ridiculous, multi-coloured hair, Shindou Hikaru, going through his grandfather's garage. He comes across an old Go board with a stain that only he can see. The ghost of a Go player named Sai from ancient times ... emerges and inhabits a corner of his mind. All Sai desires is to play Go and, being unable to do anything on his own, he quickly drags Hikaru into the game. Hikaru quickly gains an interest in playing and decides to become a professional Go player. The story is pretty boring. There are no real stakes and it lacks any real tension since all they're doing is playing a board game. They try to make up for it with absurd levels of melodrama, but that only makes the story stupid in addition to being boring. Everything also moves far too slowly. I nearly fell asleep on several occasions while watching episodes just because nothing remotely interesting was happening. They could have finished the series in half the time without all the bloody padding.

The series could have been interesting if the characters were capable of carrying the premise. Unfortunately, the characters are really flat. You don't know anything about most of them aside from one or two minor pieces of information. Most of them rely on cliche personalities and just come across as stale. To make matters worse, Hikaru is an insufferable brat and Sai spends a great deal of his time whining. Neither one is well fleshed out or even sympathetic.

The art ranges from fine to sub-par. Most of the time it does its job but characters tend to have borked faces and random motion lines get added to the Go games in a failed attempt at creating excitement. Frankly, the art looks more like it was done in the late 80s than the early 2000s.

The voice acting is pretty standard. No one does an outstanding job but there's no one who does horribly either. The music is the best part of the series and even it isn't great. It's just decent.

The yuri factor is a 1/10. There are some female characters in minor roles but you barely see them interact and they certainly don't have developed enough relationships to be able to identify what kind of relationships they share aside from a very general "friendly."

My final rating for Hikaru no Go is a 4/10. You might enjoy it if you're a massive fan of professional Go, but even that's unlikely given the boring story, bland characters, dull art and uninspired voice acting. You'd think that watching the games might be enough for Go fans, but you don't even see enough of the Go games to get invested in them or to be able to tell how they went aside from knowing who's winning. The end result is a sub-par series.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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