The Show:
Sports anime are pretty popular in Japan but it doesn't stop with physical sports. There are anime and manga devoted to board games too.
The most popular is Hikaru No Go, a manga series that originally appeared in Shonen
Jump (the Japanese version of course)that sparked a renewed interest in the game in Japan. As with
most popular manga, an anime series followed, this one running for 75 episodes!
Now Viz has brought the adventures of Hikaru and the ghost of a Go master,
Sai, to the States with their release of the Hikaru No Go anime.
An oddly engrossing show, it is very easy to get caught up in the characters
and in the Go games that they play.
Series background:
In the Heian era (about 1000 years ago), Fujiwara-no-Sai was one of
two Go teachers who instructed the Emperor in the fine points of the game.
One day the two instructors played against each other and Sai lost after
his opponent cheated. He was disgraced and took his own life over
his Go board.
In the present day, a young boy named Hikaru discovers an old go board
in his attic that has a brown stain on it. The only thing is that
no one else can see the stain. When Hikaru tries to clean the board
and get rid of the stain, he hears a voice in his head...the ghost of Fujiwara-no-Sai.
It's been 150 years since someone with the same passion for the game
of Go has touched the board that Sai took his life over and was able to
see him, and now he's raring to play the game again. The only problem
is that Hikaru has no interest in the game. He's a slacker who gets
poor grades and has never played Go.
After Sai pesters him enough, Hikaru goes to a Go club and lets Sai
play a game. Sai tells Hikaru where to place the stones, and the
boy follows his instructions. Unfortunately Hikaru challenges Akira
Toya, son of the reigning Go champion of Japan and a boy who is planning
on becoming a professional player soon...and Sai manages to beat him.
Now Hikaru has a rival, one that doesn't realize that he actually has little
skill.
This disc:
Hikaru joins a fledgling Go club at the middle school he'll be attending
next year so that they can enter a Go tournament. They need three
players in order to enter and Hikaru would complete the team. When
the day of the tournament arrives though, Hikaru informs Sai that he wants
to play by himself, to see how he'll do on his own. Sai throws a
minor fit about this naturally, but there's not a lot he can do.
Everyone is surprised at how poorly Hikaru does in the first round.
His teammates have seen him play a much stronger game, but of course that
was Sai playing. When things get tough and his team is really counting
on him though, Hikaru does let Sai help. Soon he's the talk of the
tournament, and as luck would have it Akira happens by and sees the final
game where Hikaru, letting Sai dictate the moves, trounces his opponent
in a good match.
After this Akira doubles his efforts to defeat this mystery boy.
He joins the Go club in his middle school, something he previously declined
to do because of the his greater skill, and plans on meeting Hikaru once
again.
This was a very entertaining volume, with a good amount of drama and
some rather fun moments too. The scene where Hikaru, without Sai's
help, replays a Go game that he watched move-for-move was both funny and
important. Just how much natural ability does Hikaru have?
The story is moving at a good pace, with a lot happening in every episode.
Games don't takes episodes and episodes to play, the way the boxing matches
in Fighting Spirit sometimes carry on, and the plot advances nicely.
One of the nice things about this show is you don't have to know anything
about Go in order to enjoy it. They mention the basic rules over
the course of the program, and there are Go playing tips for youngsters
at the end of every episode, but you can easily follow the plot even if
you don't know the difference between a komi and a star point.
The animation is about average for a TV show. There's a fair amount
of detail, but not a lot, and the movements look natural and smooth.
This isn't a show with a lot of impressive battle scenes, so the images
aren't astounding, but the style fits the tone of the show.
The DVD:
Audio:
This show comes with the original Japanese soundtrack and an English
dub, both in stereo. I alternated tracks while viewing the disc and
preferred the original language over the English track. Some of the
English voices were a little exaggerated and unnatural sounding, especially
those of the minor characters. Both tracks were free of defects and
sounded nice and clear.
Video:
The full frame image looked pretty good overall. The colors were
bright and solid, and the lines were clean and strong. The only real
problem was a fair amount of aliasing that appears when the camera pans
across the grid of the go board. Aside from this defect, the show
looks good.
Extras:
There are only a few extras on this disc. First off is a "Know
your Go" glossary which defines some Go terms and gives brief biographies
of historical people mentioned in the show. There is also a
20 image art gallery, and a preview of the manga.
Final Thoughts:
This is a very interesting anime show, which is a bit surprising.
I never would have guessed that I'd enjoy a show about a board game, much
less one that I don't play like Go. It's the characters that really
make this show, from the effeminate and humorous Sai and slacker Hikaru,
to the obsessive Akira the cast of characters are very interesting and
enjoyable to watch. Even if this doesn't sound like a show that's
up you alley, I encourage you to give it a chance. This disc gets
a strong recommendation.
Buy: