Hikaru no go

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Hikaru no Go ( Japanese. ヒ カ ル の 碁 ) is a completed manga series by the author Yumi Hotta and illustrator Takeshi Obata . The work is about the 2000-year-old Chinese (and later also represented in Japan ) board game Go and young Go players.

action

The 12-year-old Hikaru Shindo brings bad school grades home and gets the pocket money canceled. That's why he's looking for clutter in his grandfather's attic that he can turn into money. He finds an old Go table. A spirit lives in this go-table, Fujiwara no Sai , who seizes the chance and lodges itself in Hikaru's consciousness in order to come closer to the "hand of God", a game of go that is perfect in all aspects. Hikaru is not at all enthusiastic about this as Go is considered a game for old men. For Sai's sake he goes to a go club and meets 12-year-old Akira Tohya , the son of Koyo Tohya, who was three times the title holder at the time . Akira is a natural talent and could have been a professional player long ago, but he doesn't beat Sai's game. Driven by the idea of ​​becoming as good as Akira himself, Hikaru's interest in Go grows so that he delves deeper and deeper into the old Asian board game.

characters

Hikaru Shindo ( 進藤 ヒ カ ル Shindō Hikaru )
At first, Hikaru is not particularly enthusiastic about Go or Sai. But over time he feels the urge to play himself. And Sai is slowly realizing why he ended up with Hikaru of all places.
Fujiwara no Sai ( 藤原 佐為 )
Sai lived in the Heian era (794–1185). He was the Emperor's Go teacher and did not have a bad life, but the Emperor's second teacher competed with him. Ultimately, Sai was challenged by him to the ultimate game that would decide who remains a teacher. The other teacher was able to win it by cheating, with the result that Sai was banished from the palace. He now had no more reason to live and drowned himself. As a spirit, however, he continued to exist because he had not yet succeeded in playing with "the hand of God". As a ghost, he also accompanied the legendary Go player Honinbō Shūsaku .
Akira Tohya ( 塔矢 ア キ ラ Tōya Akira )
Son of Koyo Tohya, the four-time title holder. His whole life is focused on Go: when other children are romping around, he plays Go.
Koyo Tohya ( 塔矢 行 洋 Tōya Kōyō ), honorary title: Meijin ( 名人 )
He is probably the strongest Go player after Sai. Just like Sai, he is looking for the "hand of God".

publication

The manga was created with the advice of Go player Yukari Umezawa . Hikaru no Go was published in Japan from 1998 to 2003 as a single chapter in the manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump from Shueisha- Verlag. These individual chapters have also been summarized in 23 edited volumes.

Part of the manga series was published in German from November 2003 to December 2005 by Carlsen Comics in the now discontinued BANZAI! -Magazine. The publisher has also published the series in 23 anthologies so far. In addition, an English version was published by Viz Media , an Italian version by Planet Manga and a French version by Editions Tonkam .

Adaptations

Anime

Television series
Original title ヒ カ ル の 碁
Hikaru no Go
Country of production Japan
original language Japanese
Year (s) 2001-2003
length 23 minutes
Episodes 75
genre Shons , sports, drama , comedy
idea Yumi Hotta , Takeshi Obata
music Kei Wakakusa
First broadcast October 10, 2001 - March 26, 2003 on TV Tokyo
synchronization

Based on the manga series, an anime television series with 75 episodes was created at Studio Pierrot . Directed by Susumu Nishizawa , the character design was created by Hideyuki Motohashi and the artistic director was Sawako Takagi. The series was broadcast from October 10, 2001 to March 26, 2003 on the Japanese television station TV Tokyo . After each episode, the Go Go Igo! Course, which lasted a few minutes, followed . with the professional player Yukari Umezawa and two students, who get to know the game of Go better together with the audience. It was later repeated at Kids Station .

Since the anime series has an open ending, an additional 77-minute New Year's special called Hikaru no Go: Hokuto-hai e no Michi ( ヒ カ ル の の 碁 北斗 杯 へ の 道 ) was shown in January 2004 , which also showed the anime does not clearly conclude.

The series has been translated into English, French and Tagalog , among others .

synchronization

role Japanese speaker ( seiyū )
Hikaru Shindo Tomoko Kawakami
Sai Fujiwara Susumu Chiba
Akira Tohya Sanae Kobayashi

music

The music in the series was composed by Kei Wakakusa. The opening credits are

  • Get Over from dream
  • I'll Be the One by HAL
  • Fantasy by Nana Katase

The following songs were used for the end credits

  • Bokura no Bouken from Kids Alive
  • Hitomi no Chikara by Mizuki Arisa
  • Sincerely ~ ever dream ~ by dream
  • Days by shela
  • Music is My Thing by Dream
  • Get Over ~ Special Mix ~ by dream

Video games

Of Hikaru no Go several were video games produced for different consoles.

Awards

Hikaru no Go won the 45th Shogakukan Manga Prize in the Shōnen category in 2000 . In 2003 the manga won the seventh Osamu Tezuka Culture Prize in the Newcomer Prize category , after it had already been nominated for the prize the previous year.

reception

According to Irene Salzmann from Splashcomics, the manga offers an exciting, realistic plot and likeable characters, despite the low expectations of a work about Go players. In addition, there are the beautiful drawings by Takeshi Obata and an introduction to the game of Go tailored for beginners. Hikaru no Go is an often underestimated work that is aimed primarily at boys aged ten and over.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 小学 館 漫画 賞 ： 歴 代 受 賞 者. Shogakukan, accessed August 19, 2007 (Japanese).
  2. ↑ Irene Salzmann: Review of Volume 11. Splashcomics, January 19, 2008, accessed April 27, 2009 .

Web links

Commons : Hikaru no Go  - collection of images, videos and audio files