Anime Review: Hikaru No Go

Review Hikaru No GoWritten by WarpshadowRating very good/ excellent

To make a silly comparision Hikaru No Go is sort of like Yugi Oh or any other card game commercial show Except for the fact that the creators realized that the audience isn’t going to be as interested in a lecture about a card game as a detailed show about real people even if they all do love to play a game.

Hikaru was just a normal boy until the day while searching around his grandfather’s attic he met a ghost. That ghost is Fujiwara no Sai, the spirit of a thousand year old go player. It has been quite some time since Sai has gotten a chance to indulge in his favorite game so he pesters Hikaru until the boy takes him to a go salon and plays a game for him as Sai has no physical body. As people mistake Sai’s skill for Hikaru’s they figure he is some sort of genius as he beats everyone there including Akira Toya, a child prodigy and soon to be lifelong rival of Hikaru.

The idea of a an anime show about go may sound like a terrible idea. Fortunately the creators of Hikaru No Go understood this and made a show not about a game but instead the love of a game. This is not to say that the show avoids terminology but it cares far more about the results of a given games and it’s effect on the characters than the actual play of the game. The result is a unque show that is driven by a cast of colorful characters. Even though the show has characters in near constant competition Hikaru No Go Go never really resorts to one dimensional villans but instead makes most of the cast likable. This is a show that I would recommend to everyone who likes anime.