Hikaru no Go
So combining my Go binge with my otaku-ness, I've been reading lots of Hikaru no Go, the shounen manga about the game. For years I rolled my eyes at the application of shounen tournament tropes being applied to mundane activities (taken to its zenith/nadir in Yakitate Japan, the pun-filled manga about competitive bread-making), but having read about 8 volumes of Hikaru no Go, I have to say it's pretty good.
As a preface, the fan-translation I'm reading is atrocious: the translator repeatedly translates 手 as "hand" rather than "move", which turns this boardgame manga into a garbled mess.
Hikaru no Go is actually a peep not only into the game of Go, but into the world of competitive Go in Japan, where professionals dedicate their lives to the game from a very young age, and reside in a strange parallel world. So far we've had Go clubs at school, Go classes, amateur Go clubs, blindfold Go, simultaneous Go, Go hustling, cheating, playing to tie, handicaps in both directions, Honinbo Shusaku (one of the best players in history), Go on a young internet, Koreans and Go, dedicated Go students, Go auditions, Go study groups, Go exams, Go tournaments, and lots more.
The manga departs from its expected shounen trajectory quite early: Fujiwara-no-Sai, the ghost who triggers Hikaru's interest in Go is actually a very peripheral character, and Hikaru soon ditches his school Go club to become an "insei" (a dedicated Go student who isn't allowed to participate in school club tournaments). The manga doesn't explain more than the gist of the games, but all of the board positions are realistic, consistent throughout multiple shots through time, and correspond to how they are described. Basically, they are treated with the utmost seriousness, and actually designed by a Go professional. Annoyingly tantalising for me is when characters declaim the brilliance of a particular move and a board position is shown, but I'm too newbie to understand why that strong move is so good!
The characters are not depicted in any great depth; like most shounen manga and anime (I think it's contractually required in Jump), the protagonist is something of an amiable simple-minded buffoon. The art is clean in the typical shounen style (though it lacks pretty girls for my taste); once again I praise the accurate depiction of Go boards, even when presented incidentally in oblique shots. Oh, I found it hilarious how Japanese characters are depicted in the typical round-headed large-eyed anime style, but Korean characters suddenly looked craggy and realistic.
There are a billion volumes left for me to read; the extraordinarily deep game of Go matches quite well the shounen crescendo structure (continually powering up). Who knows whether I'll stick around to read the end, but it's been fun so far.
As a preface, the fan-translation I'm reading is atrocious: the translator repeatedly translates 手 as "hand" rather than "move", which turns this boardgame manga into a garbled mess.
Hikaru no Go is actually a peep not only into the game of Go, but into the world of competitive Go in Japan, where professionals dedicate their lives to the game from a very young age, and reside in a strange parallel world. So far we've had Go clubs at school, Go classes, amateur Go clubs, blindfold Go, simultaneous Go, Go hustling, cheating, playing to tie, handicaps in both directions, Honinbo Shusaku (one of the best players in history), Go on a young internet, Koreans and Go, dedicated Go students, Go auditions, Go study groups, Go exams, Go tournaments, and lots more.
The manga departs from its expected shounen trajectory quite early: Fujiwara-no-Sai, the ghost who triggers Hikaru's interest in Go is actually a very peripheral character, and Hikaru soon ditches his school Go club to become an "insei" (a dedicated Go student who isn't allowed to participate in school club tournaments). The manga doesn't explain more than the gist of the games, but all of the board positions are realistic, consistent throughout multiple shots through time, and correspond to how they are described. Basically, they are treated with the utmost seriousness, and actually designed by a Go professional. Annoyingly tantalising for me is when characters declaim the brilliance of a particular move and a board position is shown, but I'm too newbie to understand why that strong move is so good!
The characters are not depicted in any great depth; like most shounen manga and anime (I think it's contractually required in Jump), the protagonist is something of an amiable simple-minded buffoon. The art is clean in the typical shounen style (though it lacks pretty girls for my taste); once again I praise the accurate depiction of Go boards, even when presented incidentally in oblique shots. Oh, I found it hilarious how Japanese characters are depicted in the typical round-headed large-eyed anime style, but Korean characters suddenly looked craggy and realistic.
There are a billion volumes left for me to read; the extraordinarily deep game of Go matches quite well the shounen crescendo structure (continually powering up). Who knows whether I'll stick around to read the end, but it's been fun so far.