Hotta Yumi and Obata Takeshi - Hikaru no Go, vol. 01-03 (Eng. trans.)

[oyceter]

I picked these up because rilina was talking about them so much, and because the person who plays Fujiwara-no-Sai on campfuckudie had the most adorable post on discovering how to use a laptop.

Shindo Hikaru is a normal sixth grader. That is, until one day, he finds an old go board in the attic, with what looks like a bloodstain in the corner. Turns out that Fujiwara-no-Sai, a ghost from the Heian era, has been haunting the board for centuries, waiting so that he can finally play the Divine Move (I have no idea what that is).

Sai eventually convinces Hikaru to learn go, largely because whenever Sai gets really, really sad (not playing go makes Sai really, really, really, really, really sad), Hikaru throws up.

The current plot seems to be centering around Hikaru and Toya Akira, a child prodigy at Go who loses to Sai.

I never thought I would really love this series. I mean... go! So far, I'm not completely drawn into the plot, but I adore the characters so much that I'm reading on eagerly anyway. I absolutely love Sai. He is so cute! He's just bouncy and curious and has this wonderful innocence to him, and I love how much he loves go!

Also, I really love Obata's art in the series. His lines are very simple and very clean, and while the panel layout isn't as dynamic as most shoujo series, given that this is shounen, they're still fairly easy to follow (I think). I don't quite know how to describe it, but I find myself just staring at the images of Hikaru and Sai and etc. They're not gorgeous, but they're balanced and clean and really nicely done and full of personality. The expressions of all the characters are particularly fun, especially Hikaru, who's a slacker and really not very disciplined at all, and Sai, who is full of wide-eyed wonder.

Comments

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Hikaru no Go will EAT YOUR SOUL. Just mentioning.

The anime is very well done, too.

[oyceter]

I just see Sai geeking out over go, and it makes me so happy!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I could bring the Hikaru no Go anime to Mariposa, though we'd have to watch it on my laptop, especially since Netflix does not appear to have Ultraviolet. Though I could also rent the latter.

[oyceter]

We should totally do that!

Netflix doesn't have Ultraviolet? That's weird... I swear I got it off them in the first place.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Netflix runs out of DVDs periodically, which I find quite annoying. You can check your complete rental history to see if it shows up if you really want to know.

P.S. I was excited about the recent movie Ultraviolet because I was hoping it was a remake of the mini-series and was directed by the guy who did Equilibrium, which I liked a *lot* (cool action *and* a plot -- see, it *is* possible!). Then I found out it was totally unrelated and crappy :(

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Yay!

As I've said before, it took me a few more volumes to go from charmed to MUSTREADMORENOWNOWNOW. :)

My vols. 4-6 are out on loan, but I can pass them along as soon as I get them back. (Or I can get them to you via YSI.)

[oyceter]

Eeeeee Sai is so cute!!!

I am so totally charmed though.

And ooooo YSI would be lovely! How many vols. are out?

[rilina.livejournal.com]

The series is complete at 23 volumes. 6 official volumes have been released by Viz.

[oyceter]

Oooooo, ok.

Sigh, it needs to come out faster!

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does.

I should warn you that the scanlations I have are pretty low-quality at times.

[oyceter]

Oh, that's totally fine. I'm just dying to read more right now.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Okay, sending in progress. Each volume is a .rar archive.

[oyceter]

YAY!!!!!!!

Thank you so much! (I'm already up to vol. 8, heh heh heh)

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Cool. Um, let me know where I stopped last night--I can't remember which one was the last to go through. I'll send more this weekend.

[oyceter]

I think you stopped at vol. 10, but no worries.

Eeeee Hikaru is so cute!

[rilina.livejournal.com]

You see, by not sending you all of it, I am saving you from repeating my error of staying up to 4:30 am to read more HnG. Hee.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Make sure to have a hanky or tissue nearby as you get further into the series. At least, it made *me* tear up.

[oyceter]

Will do!

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

It took me a while to get hooked -- I think it was around v.5 or 6 -- but suddenly I realized there was actual character development! Hikaru was growing up! It was amazing!

[oyceter]

Ooo, even better! Right now I'm not that interested in the plot (go goes right over my head), but I am so charmed by the characters.

Yay!

Oh, also, telophase's comparisons of kid!Hikaru and older!Hikaru really made me want to read as well.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I know some Go, but not much, so I treated the Go in HikaGo much like I treated the poetry in A S Byatt's Possession: Something the characters care a lot about, but whose details I don't need to know, not even to enjoy the plot.

[greenapple2004.livejournal.com]

Man...I got hooked on this while I was in Japan (only a few short months after a boyfriend taught me to play go!), and I started stalking my local used manga store for new volumes. I left the country and went back to school in the mountains before it was concluded though, so I had to bribe a friend to mail me the final few books. :-) Great, great series.

[oyceter]

I really love it so far, even though I can't wrap my head around the go at all!