Hikaru no Go: Thoughts
First things first. Never EVER read 191 chapters in less than 24 hours. It is the most painful thing. You start feeling dizzy, and your eyes feel like they might fall out of your sockets. So 191 chapters in 24 hours? BAD.
Onto the main topic. Now actually I didn't really have interest in HNG ( As we will use to refer to Hikaru no Go though I know there's some other abbreviated name: Hikago? Hinogo? I don't know. Makes me look like a bad fan.). It started off with my reading Death Note fanfiction, and someone commenting in their AN that nobody knows the gender of the writer of Death Note (Tsugumi Ohba). Quite frankly I always thought Ohba was a man. So I did some research. Lo and behold, it was true. The identity of Ohba was a mystery. Did some more net surfing and realized that the artist of Death Note, Takeshi Obata, was renowned for his work. Hikaru no Go was on the list. I had definitely heard of it, and vaguely remember trying to watch the first episode of it. However that artwork just doesn't remind me of Death Note. So I looked on onemanga, looked at the later chapters, and was like "Woah! This looks like the beginning of Death Note." The transition really is amazing.
Sadly that is how I happened upon HNG. I started reading. Quite frankly the manga starts off kind of slow. It was kind of difficult to get past the first 50 or so chapters. Personally I have trouble accepting the plot in which the character has a huge advantage that is not a product of their own effort at the beginning. Corda d'Oro for example. I mean she has a magical violin! Although strangely I think this plot is better than when the main character is established as an unchallenged genius like in Prince of Tennis. Anyway HNG pulled it off rather well in any case because it later becomes a shadow that Hikaru has to overcome, and in that aspect, it was well established.
The rivalry was interesting between Akira and Hikaru. Pretty standard, but that doesn't mean not good. I fan-girl giggled every time they came up together. There's something about a good rivalry that just makes me jump up and down with anticipation. However I'm a little disappointed because I don't think we ever see Hikaru once beat Akira with his own skill. As a writer, I can see how that keeps the rivalry going after the series stops in the sense that it seems Hikaru will always chase after Akira. As a reader, I would have liked more closure as Hikaru's skill as a go player. If he had beaten Akira once, I would have gotten that satisfying impression that they were at least on the same level.
I liked Sai, but apparently not as much as the popularity polls did. First in the first poll and second in the second poll. He was cute, entertaining, and at times very deep, but he can't snatch my favorite position from Hikaru. The move to make Sai disappear was a good one (I was about to say brilliant but quite frankly it was inevitable). Sai was Hikaru's mentor and friend. Most importantly, he was a shadow and a saving rope. Since Sai establishes everyone's initial views of Hikaru's abilities, Hikaru has to struggle to overcome Sai's shadow. A great plot device. However, while Sai was there, Hikaru essentially had a little safety net. A match that Hikaru couldn't handle? Sai was there. By letting Sai move on to the next world, Hotta essentially cuts that umbilical cord and let the readers and the world see what Hikaru (not Sai, not Sai and Hikaru, but HIKARU) is capable of.
The progression of the story after Hikaru becomes an insei really picks up, and that's when it pulls you in. It's a great example of a coming-of-age story. I think this story goes over like what... 3 years? Hikaru steadily becoming a master in his own right.
Now one that wasn't particularly clear to me is the meaning of Sai's existence. Sai says it was to show Hikaru the game between himself and the Meijin, and at that instance the reader gets this sense that Hikaru will be the one to reach the Hand of God. Essentially Sai exists to teach Hikaru so that Hikaru can reach the ultimate game. That's one interpretation. However, it slowly changes a little over the course of the last 50 or so chapters. They focus that it takes two people to create the Hand of God. Obviously if Hikaru is one person, then Touya is the other. Yet, it changes a little more when Sai says that Hikaru exists for someone else and with the final chapter. Essentially the message becomes Sai and the Meijin existed to teach Hikaru and Touya, who in turn exist to teach those upcoming insei (the two kids in ch. 191), who probably exist to teach others. It echoes Hikaru's words that he exists to link the far past with the far future. It's one of those things that goes on forever, and it makes me wonder if they'll ever reach the Hand of God. In any case, it was a good way to tie up the story, an overall theme to link the past and the future.
Now besides the theme, the ending left me pretty unsatisfied. While Hikaru has advanced so much, I never got that closure that everyone realized how amazing he was. I kind of wished he won at least one of his games at the tournament. Since Akira won both, I felt he was still so much further off than HIkaru. Essentially I feel that Hikaru had not completed his growth. As a writer, I understand that would be used to imply that he will always continue to grow. As a reader, I would have liked some profound huge sign that Hikaru had grown so so much, and while the final match kind of did it for me, it fell short. Eh, what can you do?
So enough on the story. I'm sure all of that was pretty incoherent, but leave me alone. I'm just writing as I think.
The art was great. Obata gets the job done and then some. I was partly reading Hikaru no Go to see the progression in art. I would comment to myself, 'Oh there's a sign of Death Note' or 'Oh that's really Death Note like!" Really though, there's a jump in the art style after the Sai-saga. It just screams Death Note after that jump. The detail is really fine and clear. The determination and concentration in eyes are really reminiscent to Obata's style in Death Note.
So... That was a pretty long post. I would give Hikaru no Go a 4 1/2 stars out of five. Definitely worth the read. Everything I said above is pickiness on my part, and some things I just noticed as a wannabe writer. Honestly, the fact that I read 191 chapters of this manga in less than 24 hours should speak for itself.
Plot: 4/5
Art: 4.5/5
Characters: 4.5/5
General Interest: 5/5
Onto the main topic. Now actually I didn't really have interest in HNG ( As we will use to refer to Hikaru no Go though I know there's some other abbreviated name: Hikago? Hinogo? I don't know. Makes me look like a bad fan.). It started off with my reading Death Note fanfiction, and someone commenting in their AN that nobody knows the gender of the writer of Death Note (Tsugumi Ohba). Quite frankly I always thought Ohba was a man. So I did some research. Lo and behold, it was true. The identity of Ohba was a mystery. Did some more net surfing and realized that the artist of Death Note, Takeshi Obata, was renowned for his work. Hikaru no Go was on the list. I had definitely heard of it, and vaguely remember trying to watch the first episode of it. However that artwork just doesn't remind me of Death Note. So I looked on onemanga, looked at the later chapters, and was like "Woah! This looks like the beginning of Death Note." The transition really is amazing.
Sadly that is how I happened upon HNG. I started reading. Quite frankly the manga starts off kind of slow. It was kind of difficult to get past the first 50 or so chapters. Personally I have trouble accepting the plot in which the character has a huge advantage that is not a product of their own effort at the beginning. Corda d'Oro for example. I mean she has a magical violin! Although strangely I think this plot is better than when the main character is established as an unchallenged genius like in Prince of Tennis. Anyway HNG pulled it off rather well in any case because it later becomes a shadow that Hikaru has to overcome, and in that aspect, it was well established.
The rivalry was interesting between Akira and Hikaru. Pretty standard, but that doesn't mean not good. I fan-girl giggled every time they came up together. There's something about a good rivalry that just makes me jump up and down with anticipation. However I'm a little disappointed because I don't think we ever see Hikaru once beat Akira with his own skill. As a writer, I can see how that keeps the rivalry going after the series stops in the sense that it seems Hikaru will always chase after Akira. As a reader, I would have liked more closure as Hikaru's skill as a go player. If he had beaten Akira once, I would have gotten that satisfying impression that they were at least on the same level.
I liked Sai, but apparently not as much as the popularity polls did. First in the first poll and second in the second poll. He was cute, entertaining, and at times very deep, but he can't snatch my favorite position from Hikaru. The move to make Sai disappear was a good one (I was about to say brilliant but quite frankly it was inevitable). Sai was Hikaru's mentor and friend. Most importantly, he was a shadow and a saving rope. Since Sai establishes everyone's initial views of Hikaru's abilities, Hikaru has to struggle to overcome Sai's shadow. A great plot device. However, while Sai was there, Hikaru essentially had a little safety net. A match that Hikaru couldn't handle? Sai was there. By letting Sai move on to the next world, Hotta essentially cuts that umbilical cord and let the readers and the world see what Hikaru (not Sai, not Sai and Hikaru, but HIKARU) is capable of.
The progression of the story after Hikaru becomes an insei really picks up, and that's when it pulls you in. It's a great example of a coming-of-age story. I think this story goes over like what... 3 years? Hikaru steadily becoming a master in his own right.
Now one that wasn't particularly clear to me is the meaning of Sai's existence. Sai says it was to show Hikaru the game between himself and the Meijin, and at that instance the reader gets this sense that Hikaru will be the one to reach the Hand of God. Essentially Sai exists to teach Hikaru so that Hikaru can reach the ultimate game. That's one interpretation. However, it slowly changes a little over the course of the last 50 or so chapters. They focus that it takes two people to create the Hand of God. Obviously if Hikaru is one person, then Touya is the other. Yet, it changes a little more when Sai says that Hikaru exists for someone else and with the final chapter. Essentially the message becomes Sai and the Meijin existed to teach Hikaru and Touya, who in turn exist to teach those upcoming insei (the two kids in ch. 191), who probably exist to teach others. It echoes Hikaru's words that he exists to link the far past with the far future. It's one of those things that goes on forever, and it makes me wonder if they'll ever reach the Hand of God. In any case, it was a good way to tie up the story, an overall theme to link the past and the future.
Now besides the theme, the ending left me pretty unsatisfied. While Hikaru has advanced so much, I never got that closure that everyone realized how amazing he was. I kind of wished he won at least one of his games at the tournament. Since Akira won both, I felt he was still so much further off than HIkaru. Essentially I feel that Hikaru had not completed his growth. As a writer, I understand that would be used to imply that he will always continue to grow. As a reader, I would have liked some profound huge sign that Hikaru had grown so so much, and while the final match kind of did it for me, it fell short. Eh, what can you do?
So enough on the story. I'm sure all of that was pretty incoherent, but leave me alone. I'm just writing as I think.
The art was great. Obata gets the job done and then some. I was partly reading Hikaru no Go to see the progression in art. I would comment to myself, 'Oh there's a sign of Death Note' or 'Oh that's really Death Note like!" Really though, there's a jump in the art style after the Sai-saga. It just screams Death Note after that jump. The detail is really fine and clear. The determination and concentration in eyes are really reminiscent to Obata's style in Death Note.
So... That was a pretty long post. I would give Hikaru no Go a 4 1/2 stars out of five. Definitely worth the read. Everything I said above is pickiness on my part, and some things I just noticed as a wannabe writer. Honestly, the fact that I read 191 chapters of this manga in less than 24 hours should speak for itself.
Plot: 4/5
Art: 4.5/5
Characters: 4.5/5
General Interest: 5/5