|
Nicky Townsend Reviews – Hikaru no Go At first I wasn’t sure home much I would enjoy watching a series about 12 year old boy, a dead guy, and board game I knew nothing about. This notion was slapped out my head so hard and quickly that my ears are still ringing. First allow me to introduce Fujiwara Sai- A Go Master and Instructor to an Emperor during the Heian Period. (Note: Heian Period lasted from 794AD to 1185AD) After being challenged to a match by someone who coveted his position, he is framed for cheating and cast out of the Capital (Kyoto) In his misery at no longer being able to play Go, he threw himself into a river and commited suicide. However, his spirit lingering- He wanted to continue to play Go so badly that he could not rest until he had reached his goal- The Hand of God. Enter Hikaru- A fairly normal 12 year old boy. He had gone to his grandfather’s house with a friend in order to locate things to pawn off because his allowance has been cut. In a dark storage room he came across a beautiful old Go board. Hikaru remarks to his friend that it will be worth a lot of money if he can just get the water and blood stains off of it. His friend, who is unable to see the stains, bolts out of the room. Sai is still lingering waiting for someone who can hear him, who will let him play Go again- He realizes that Hikaru can hear him! Sai possesses Hikaru, causing Hikaru to pass out. Hikaru, after getting over the initial shock of having a 1,000 year old ghost hanging out in his brain, decides to give in to Sai, and let him play Go at a local Salon. Upon entering the Salon, Hikaru jokingly remarks to the lady behind the cash register that though he has never played before he thinks he is a good player! Looking around the salon he looks for a boy his own age and spots one, sitting alone. Exclaiming happily at finding someone his own age, he charges off to challenge the young boy, as the lady follows him warning him that he shouldn’t challenge Touya if he’s never played before! Hikaru, who knows nearly nothing about Go, let’s Sai do all the work, not realizing that the boy he’s playing is incredibly good. Hikaru/Sai’s opponent, Touya Akira is so good he’s almost ready to become a professional Go player. He watches Hikaru’s incredibly clumsy fingers, thinking at first that Hikaru is a complete amature, but quickly realizes that although the boy holds his Go stones like a country bumpkin, his strategy is perfect, though the style is very old. Touya loses. This starts a rivalry that will most likely continue through the entire series. At this writing I have seen 26 episodes- I believe (though I may be wrong) that there are 64 episodes. Hikaru no Go has not yet been licensed for distribution in America. All the episodes can be located via KaZaA or KaZaA Lite in the digi-fansub format. You will need a DivX player to watch them. I highly recommend this series- I liked it enough to start learning to play Go myself. |