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Hikaru No Go
    Keywords: Culture & History

Introduction

Hikaru No Go is a manga, a Japanese comic strip about a boy who discovers the ancient game when he finds an old board in the attic and meets the spirit of a past Go master. Thanks to the comic, Go has come into fashion again with the Japanese youth. Published by [ext] Jump, the hilarious storyline is by Hotta Yumi; the gripping art is by Obata Takeshi; and photogenic pro 5-dan Umezawa Yukari gets credited for go technical advice. Below are a link where you can download the English version of the comic (zipped), and an article about it in a Japanese newspaper.

WARNING: If you follow this link, you may become another Hikaru No Go Junkie. Use at your own risk.

Where to find it:

English translation
[ext] http://www.toriyamaworld.com/hikago/
[ext] http://toriyamaworld.chambergate.com/hikago
(the links change from time to time; currently both of the above seem to work, at least for some browsers)
French translation CLOSED
[ext] http://www.chez.com/blorer/index1.html
Chinese translation
[ext] http://www.psc-a.org/go/QiHunManHua/QiHun.html (redirects to acwind, see below)
[ext] http://www.acwind.com/main/download/books/qh.htm
Polish translation
[ext] http://strefa.animenet.pl/animeshon/index.php3?d=5

Related pages:

Hikaru No Go Junkie
Some readers of the comic are in denial about becoming a junkie.
Hikaru No Go Problems
Sensei's Library has a separate shelf devoted to the study of the various go problems and interesting game positions that appear in the manga.
Hikaru No Go Games
Some (if not all) of the game positions that appear in Hikaru are from real games played by professionals. Can you add to the list of identified?
Hikaru Omake Background
Names In Hikaru No Go
Hikaru No Go - Questions And Answers

Hikaru No Go News and Spoilers
DON'T READ if you are happily progressing through the series and want to maintain the suspense. That page discusses what happens later in the story. (I warned you :-)
HikaruNoGo - Archive
the anime files

In Chapter 119/120, Hikaru plays One Colour Go for the first time in his life. Actually this is also an interesting way of playing Go.

Elsewhere

An English fansite about Hikaru No Go manga can be found at [ext] http://www.geocities.com/thegoinstitute/ --waya26

2 August 2002: There are six new wallpaper HNG images at [ext] http://www.just-text.org/artofgo/, including montages of Touya Meijin, Akira, Honinbo Kuwabara, and two new Sai images. -- Scartol

Also, there seems to be a collectible card game (a la Magic the Gathering/Pokemon) coming out, check [ext] this page) for a preview! The official site is [ext] here, but it's in Japanese. The prophecy in the article at the bottom of this page seems to be coming true...

The go club that Hikaru, Isumi, and Waya play at in chapters 69 and 70 is real - the [ext] Dogenzaka Igo Salon near Shibuya station in Tokyo. There are some [ext] pictures but I can't find Hikaru anywhere! DaveSigaty

Article in Newsweek: [ext] http://www.msnbc.com/news/780055.asp

Article on BBC-site: [ext] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2164532.stm


DVD

HNG was released (in Japan) on DVD in March 2002. Each DVD has 3 episodes. It looks like it's a Region 2 DVD. I don't know if they will have English Subtitles. It's also available on VHS. See: [ext] http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/Listups/anime/hikaru-no-go.html

reviews of the first three dvds here: [ext] http://www.abcb.com/hikaru/index.htm

Apparently Different DVD release (Region Free, with English Subtitles): (I'm a little unsure of the episodes per DVD)

Also see: [ext] http://www.seikaianime.com/F-J.html Or visit ebay.com and type "Hikaru DVD" in the search box.


Talk

dnerra: If anyone here can read German: If you would be interested in a published German translation of any specific Manga, you can vote for it at the page [ext] Mangas fuer Deutschland.

No, this is too much. So this link will take me to news about Hikaru... But it will spoil the fun of reading the episodes on Toriyamaworld. But they are released at a really slow pace for a junk like me... Aaah!

Must... resist...... temptation............

The French editor [ext] Tonkam will shortly publish the French translation. This is the announcement:

Hikaru no go de Yumi Hota et Takeshi Obata. L'un des mangas phare de Shonen Jump, il est actuellement adapté en série télé animé. Hikaru, douze ans trouve un jeu de Go dans le grenier de son grand-père. Bien qu'il ne sache pas y jouer, il le prend et se fait posséder par l'âme de Saî un noble champion de jeu de Go. Il va accompagner Hikaru dans de grandes aventures.

The article:

Do Not Pass Go

Hikaru, a cartoon character with attitude, gives an ancient strategy board game fresh appeal for Japanese youngsters

By YOKO SHIMATSUKA

Like many Japanese 10-year-olds, Mizuki Ito is going through cram-school hell that his parents hope will propel him into the right school and university. But when he's not hitting the books, Ito has one great passion: learning the mysteries of the game of Go. He has even dropped out of baseball sessions with friends. Instead, Ito takes Go lessons three times a week, watches professional Go competitions on TV and plays in the occasional weekend tournament. "I love the feeling when I win," he says. "It would be great if I could become a professional player in the future." Schoolboys across Japan have similar aspirations - an inexplicable development given that Ito's generation was reared on fast-twitch Nintendo duels. Go is an ancient, contemplative board game played not with joysticks and headsets but with smooth black and white stones. To Japanese youth, it should have all the appeal of a tea ceremony. But the kids have a new hero: Hikaru (pictured left), a bleach-blond comic book character who plays a whup-ass game of Go, aided by the spirit of a long-deceased Go master (Obi-Wan Kenobi, please call your copyright attorney).

Thanks to the popularity of Hikaru No Go, a manga (comic) that started out two-and-a-half years ago as a serialized cartoon in the magazine Shonen Jump, the game and its strategies are being studied, replayed and debated in schoolyards and on the Internet. There are no official figures on how many young fans the comic has inspired. But Go masters are suddenly in demand. "The size of my class has doubled to 100 (over the past year)" says Noriaki Oohashi, a retired Tokyo computer programmer who teaches the game as a volunteer. Critical mass may be imminent: an animated TV series featuring Hikaru (think of him as a hand-drawn David Beckham) is expected to be released later this year.

For the Shueisha publishing house, producers of Hikaru No Go, building a story around a game that moves at the speed of rice germinating was a gamble. "Not many kids can relate to Go," says a company spokesman. "It's not like soccer or baseball. There weren't many positives when we launched the series." Nevertheless, 7.5 million copies of the comic have been sold in Japan to readers wanting a glimpse into the cloistered world of professional Go players. Like other sports, pro Go is rife with jealousies, accusations of underhanded tactics and the emotional swings of competition. (Some 500 pro players in Japan contest 23 tournaments a year.) "The story captures the lives of professionals very well," says teacher Oohashi. "Even adults can enjoy it."

Hikaru No Go's true-to-life storyline (true-to-life if you discount the existence of Sai, Hikaru's spirit advisor) is the result of consultation between the publishers and the Japan Go Association. Expertise is essential to the story. Go is so complex it has been described as making chess look as simple as checkers. The aim is for players to encircle as much territory as possible on a 19 x 19 grid.

The association helps the manga editors with information about life on the professional circuit; affiliated players provide advice on winning moves. "We get calls from kids asking what they need to do to become professionals," says Japan Go Association spokesman Tadao Sakamaki. "We never got any calls before."

Hikaru's exploits are carefully monitored by his young fans, who consume the series as they would an instruction manual with a plot. "I learned the basics of the game from the comic," says devotee Ito. Now he routinely beats his father, but still has lots to learn about sophisticated strategies. "It will be difficult (for Ito) to become a professional," says his mother. "But I'm not against him trying. Even if he doesn't become pro, he can have fun." The association's Sakamaki says the game offers timeless lessons in diligence and perseverance. "Go teaches responsibility," he says. "Unlike computer games, you can't just hit the 'reset' button and start again when you lose."

There is no official talk of a digital version of Go. Trendy now, it is still a board game and its shelf life may be running out. "There is potential for another boom, but if there is one, it will be only gradual," says Norio Kamijyo of the think-tank Dentsu Institute for Human Studies. But don't write off Hikaru too quickly. The parent company of the publishing house came up with another animated series with considerable staying power: Anyone remember Pokemon?



This is a copy of the living page "Hikaru No Go" at Sensei's Library.
(C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.