Hikaru No Go

[Zeus]

I just started watching this a few weeks ago. I'm done ep 22 now.

Pretty good series. I never thought I'd like an anime based around the game Go with a "ghost" attaching itself to a kid and forcing/teaching it to play, but it's a pretty entertaining show. As with most anime I've seen, it has the whole rival thing at its centre and it's pretty well done.

Good thing is, it's only 75 eps long, so only 53 to go :-)

Good thing to pass the time while waiting for real Naruto to come back. Man, that stupid OAV (#3) that was nothing but a glorified advertisement for the new game was a new low point for the show. Even the AonE translation, which is usually very strong, was bad on that one.

[Eric]

Yeah I was hooked to the manga. I felt the ending sucked mind you, but Don could go into a much larger rant about that, then I.

[M'k'n'zy]

I very much enjoyed the series as well, though I agree that the ending could have been much much better.

[Don]

HNG peaked with Koyo Toya vs Sai and then plummeted into oblivion shortly after. Koyo Toya vs Sai is THE perfect game and things can only go downhill from there, and they did, though they managed to so in an incredibly spectcular fashion.

The most annoying part of HNG is that Hikaru Shindo with his infinite potential, has never beaten anyone who is of any importance without Sai on his side. Every game you see him get creamed by some random loser but that guy will say "OMG the potential of Hikaru is unbelievable", and then repeat this for another 20 games. HNG turns into a pretty boy show with all the useless pretty boys of infinite potential who never did anything important, not even Akira Toya. It's almost as if the whole thing is a twist on the 'hero never loses' theme and instead you get 'hero never wins' except it's hard to take the series seriously when Hikaru Shindo has never won anything of importance, and Akira barely better.

[Zeus]

Well, I'm at ep 33 now so I haven't even hit the peak yet. I'm waiting for Sai vs Meijen as well, I think that would be the ultimate game (they've been doing nothing but leading you towards that). I'm in the middle of Shindou chasing Akira now so obviously I'm looking forward to that (hopefully) eventual battle. As a standard anime protaganist, Shindou has infinite potential and a ridiculously stong rival but has his growing pains along the way. That better be a good battle or they've wasted a great deal of time.

I did find it odd that it was a 75 ep series. Generally they're in multiples of 13 (13, 26, 52; or 51 for FMA) so I was curious whether or not they stretched/condensed it or if the manga was long enough to justify the extra length.

[Eric]

As a standard anime protaganist, Shindou has infinite potential and a ridiculously stong rival but has his growing pains along the way. That better be a good battle or they've wasted a great deal of time.

HAHAHAHAHAHA. >_<

[Don]

I don't know why it's true, but when Koyo Toya or Sai makes a move on the board, the whole atmosphere is fundamentally different from when Akira or Hikaru makes a move. The Grandmasters guys actually look like Grandmasters when they play, while Akira and Hikaru looks like wild animals trying to scowl their opponent to scare them into making a mistake. I believe this is because the illustrator of HNG loves his Grandmasters and doesn't care for the pretty boys so he illustrates them with the appropriate aura/atmosphere, despite the author's wishes to turn everything into a pretty boy manga.

[Zeus]

Question about this anime: is there filler in it? I just watched ep 50 and it was a reflections episode by Sai. It didn't feel like a manga-based one, more like a filler ep, kinda like the first ep of Southern Cross was in Robotech (it was just a bunch of clips from the Macross Saga grouped together in a clip with very little scenes with Dana and Bowie commissioned by Harmony Gold to piece it together; it wasn't a part of either original anime and feels out of place).

[Don]

I haven't watched the Anime version. It is almost impossible to have an Anime without what you'd call 'filler' because if it's 100% accurate to the manga, then why not just read the manga? But HNG isn't like Naruto where it's gotten so popular they want to drag it out to 200 or whatever episodes, and it's not like Bleach where they caught up to the manga and ran out of stuff so they have to make their own, so I'd expect the filler content to be pretty minimal.

I don't remember Sai doing much after Hikaru started go to the training school for Go until his match against the Meijin. If it involves him playing Go it's probably filler stuff, or it could be one of the random 'extra' arcs from the manga that might as well be fillers to keep the Sai fans from complaining.

[Eric]

Question about this anime: is there filler in it? I just watched ep 50 and it was a reflections episode by Sai. It didn't feel like a manga-based one, more like a filler ep, kinda like the first ep of Southern Cross was in Robotech (it was just a bunch of clips from the Macross Saga grouped together in a clip with very little scenes with Dana and Bowie commissioned by Harmony Gold to piece it together; it wasn't a part of either original anime and feels out of place).

There's no filler. The manga actually ended before the anime.

[Zeus]

Good. I was just wondering if they put in some stuff in the middle to stretch it out to 75 eps. Guess they just added it to the end instead.....

[Zeus]

There's no filler. The manga actually ended before the anime.

Then what are these eps which are "side stories"? Are they actually a part of the manga (63 or 64 and 66)?

[Don]

You can think of those stories similar to Kakashi Gaiden of Naruto. It's considered canon but it's not something that'd make sense in the middle of the current arcs. A lot of the Sai stuff goes under that.

Edit: I never watched the anime version so I don't know what episodes you're referring to. It is possible the anime added their own things, but there are stuff in the manga that is tangent to the current story too.

[Eric]

There's no filler. The manga actually ended before the anime.

Then what are these eps which are "side stories"? Are they actually a part of the manga (63 or 64 and 66)?

What Don said.

[Zeus]

k, so they did do some side stories in the manga. Just makin' sure as these eps were just out of the way and slowing down the real story

[Zeus]

SPOILERS (in case someone other than Eric and Don are reading this)






Just finished it last night. I liked everything about it, even how it ended, aside from the anti-climactic battle between Akira and Shikaru. It should have been a 2 or 3 year jump with them fighting for the Meijin title or something. Then it would have been great.

I'm not so against the whole idea of having an ending where the characters still have more to do. Six Feet ended that way and it ruled. Both Shikaru and Akira had reached a certain point in their lives where they were recognized and there way no obstacles anymore (like Shikaru's desire to play Go disappearing after Sai left) so really, all that's going to happen from then on is them just competing at a high level in Go.

But because the final match between them was really a nothing match, it did feel unfinished. I didn't even mind how they didn't show the ending of the match, just that the two of them had a friendship/rivalry forged after the fact. And it was a nice touch to have Akira come to grips with Sai and the whole buying a fan thing. It tied up that part of the story very well.

But they really needed a better ending match. Screams of a sequel series.

[Don]

I prefer the fan ending where Hikaru becomes the Honinbo and starts adopting little boys with exceptional Go ability hoping to find the next guy Sai possessed and got confused as a child molester.

I believe Hikaru has never actually beat Akira in a serious match without Sai's intervention. He beat him a few times in speed Go but that's obviously not anything official.

[Zeus]

That's a pretty cool ending as well. The lookin' for the new Sai part fits perfectly within the storyline. In fact, it's something they could easily do (and may have been planning on doing) in an OAV. It really wouldn't require more than about 3-4 eps worth of material. Although the child molester part is silly IMO. Not really necessary.

That was the entire point of the whole show, that Shikaru hasn't yet reached Akira's level but it's the two of them together that are ushering in a new wave of players and that they're the two most capable of the Hand of God. It's his desire to reach Akira's level and their mutual rivalry that's the continuation of the path to the divine move. That's the whole reason Sai left. He realized that he no longer has a part in that and that it's been passed on to Hikaru and Akira.