Spoilers ahead -
Also, Rurouni Kenshin live action was horrible. Futurerant/
Just briefly - I don't understand much about the game of Go itself but the series would probably closely resemble the perfect Go game: well balanced players and tactics, a well balanced battle all across the 19x19 squares but intense.
I learnt Go (weiqi) when I was 9. My dad had a cheap, foldable board from his student days and we'd play matches every now and then. I never had the patience for it and preferred Chinese chess because it seemed much more straightforward. I guess there's a curious subtly to a game which you need to "set up" on the empty playing field and then slow carve out areas of "territory" and capture/encircle the opponent's pieces. It certainly lasts long - nothing would be obvious from the first few moves, especially for an amateur, all the pieces look the same, unlike in Chinese chess (losing a pawn is like losing a finger, losing a rook is like losing an arm or a leg).
I was surprised that I enjoyed this - having just finished catching up with the anime about competitive kurata (more shoujo) I was not expecting Hikaru no Go to be this good. But it was. I feel a bit too old for Naruto, Bleach and One Piece or Yugioh..or Prince of Tennis..or Beyblades. So when I found out that this series was about a young kid who learns to play Go competitively, has a rival and competes all the time, I thought I would really only enjoy the first 20 episodes and spend most of the time skipping pointless dialogue. Well, that did not happen. There were no fillers. Every episode was a bloody cliffhanger and left me watching and thinking and getting excited over the next twist in the story... deep into the night.
The manga art is by Obata Takeshi, the creator of Death Note and Bakuman, among many other series. If I had time, I would definitely read it just for the art. The anime was not too shabby either and it ran for 75 episodes.
The main character was quite the brat for most of the story...until his mentor and friend Sai disappears. Then it all changes. It was like having the ground swallowed up from underneath and in its place, a deep, unfathomable vortex appears. Nothing is certain anymore.
HIkaru stops playing and he changes in ways which make all his conceited childishness in the previous 50-odd episodes worthwhile. He was almost likable as a main character in the earlier episodes. Two things I deplore about this series was the portrayal of the young characters and their relationships with their family.
I suppose it might just be Japan but 15 year olds do not move out on their own where i come from. Nor do you disappear for 2 days and 1 night without telling your parents!
Also, the indoor smoking was a bit ridiculous. Maybe Obata Takeshi or the author Hotta smoked as well. But almost every adult character whips out a cigarette at some point, with the exception of Touya Kouyo, who only seems to wear his hakama and glare with a stern face...until his collapse. Then he becomes human. He actually smiles for the first time. It was a relief to know that Akira was related to a human being and therefore human himself.
I love shonen tropes. The rival, the companions, the suffering and hardship for a worthwhile result, learning to become yourself or who you are etc and improving. If only real life was like this!
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A note about ships. There were points in this series where I imagined the dialogue was so serious it actually created a comical effect instead. Mostly, it was the Akira/Hikaru rivalry which left me in stitches every now and then. It was definitely a good series and somewhere in the fandom world, Akira is probably married to Hikaru with three Go-playing children for calling him his "eternal rival" :P
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Thoughts after reading manga and re-watching anime
Apparently Obata Takeshi is very healthy and does not smoke or drink. So I guess he downs black coffee and energy drinks when pulling an all-nighter, like Mashiro Moritaka of Bakuman.
I am still not over the ending. Having pulled me through a roller-coaster of emotions, I feel betrayed at the end. It wasn't a *bad* ending but it was not satisfying either. Either the ratings for Hikaru no Go went down and the editors decided to end it or Hotta Yumi couldn't come up with anything better. At the end, I was wondering if Shindou was ever going to beat Touya or even be evenly matched or if he would ever reach a fraction of Sai's ability in Go. That's a lot to mull over. I mean sure, Hikaru's "evolution" is not yet complete and he's 15 and all...but man. That was just way too much of a cliff-hanger. I don't mind that Sai did not make any come backs, - which is as it should be. His goal in teaching Hikaru the game of Go was complete and Hikaru has come pretty far. It's quite obvious that Hikaru is Sai's successor...(the fan?) but in ways, I wish he ended on better footing with Akira. At chapter 189.2, it was like he would lose again and the most they every do is bicker at the Go salon...
All of this aside, I have much respect for Obata's art style. The attention to the clothes (the anime had some really bad clashing colours and patterns going on) even the growth of the characters - Both Hikaru and Touya lose their baby fat and I had fun comparing their faces from earlier to later sections - mentally and physically were great touches which made this manga so enjoyable. But the ending has still ruined it. RUGHGHGH.
This is seriously interfering with my revision. I can't even think straight...
