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

[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 :(