Hikaru Deprivation Symptoms

Hikaru no Go Deprivation Symptoms

--Stefan: First symptoms of Hikaru deprivation ("mancus icarus", "sensei's syndrome") are restlessness, a general feeling of unease, prolonged periods of fantasising about the contents of the next chapter and an uncontrolable urge to visit the Toriyamaworld website 50 times per hour.

About four to five days after his last Hikaru fix, the Hikaru No Go Junkie enters a phase of depression, marked by loss of appetite and sleeping 12 to 14 hours per day. About 30% of patients waste hours watching brainless pulp on television, particularly American sitcoms involving lawyers, psychiatrists or retired baseball players.

Ten to twelve days into Hikaru Deprivation, the junkie enters the final phase, which is the socially most disturbing one. Typical symptoms are purchasing go-related books and equipment, playing a large amount of games in clubs and on the Internet Go Server, solving lots of tsumego problems, and thoroughly studying magazine articles or other technical go literature. Patients often try to discuss their games and peculiar positions with other junkies in various stages of addiction, as well as with family members, friends, bus drivers, supermarket staff and the anchor on the televised evening news. This phase can last several months and ultimately result in a dramatic increase in playing strength.

Note from ViciousMan: Toriyama's World no longer scanlates Hikaru no Go, so instead our poor patient would be having 50 urges a day to pop open one of the graphic novels :)

MikeNoGo : That's scary...I haven't had a HikaGo fix in almost 3 weeks now thanks to the break between chapter 148 and the special character chapters, and in the meantime I've been doing almost exactly what you described as the final phase. I've been playing so much Go lately and taking it so seriously...but I'm not complaining. It's thanks to that I'm improving. Fortunately for you guys who haven't read all 148 chapters out so far yet, you don't have to wait a whole week between chapters (at least not often). Enjoy it while you can.

--Stefan: We are, rest assured. Other than that: great to see you got the favour returned by being changed into a Go Junkie?^[1]. :-) The good news is that in go, there is an unlimited supply of fixes...

--Bisqwit: The same (first symptoms) seems to very well apply for the anime too. Long delays between episodes (especially longer than a week) are excruciating.

--Rainer: I read the entire manga up to 148 in just a few days and then watched the anime in about the same amount of time and now I'm regretting it...I'm also in the final stage. :-)

--Pasky: Nowadays when you can read the whole manga in 48 hours, you usually get directly to the final stage (as I can confirm from own experience), possibly even reinforced by the fact that you know there are not going to be any more.

[1] Patrick Taylor: Could we consider defining this term as "excessive reader of SL"?