Hikaru No Go is one of my favorite animes of all time. If you’ve never heard of it, the story is, get this, about a boy learning how to play Go, a seemingly simple board game. That’s pretty much it. The fate of the universe doesn’t hang in the balance over a victory or a defeat. There’s no mortal peril (I think there’s 1 sword in the whole show, and it’s a visual metaphor). It isn’t even a game that the average Westerner knows how to play. But when I first saw it, 5ish years ago, I was completely drawn in by the story.
The anime left a large impression on NNFB. At every opportunity Ina’s uncle, Yukizane, is depicted playing Go (he originally played Xiangqi – Chinese Chess). And we’ve made Go an integral part of Ina’s training as a strategist.
I know a lot of our readers already play Go (a fact that is made painfully clear every time it is depicted in the comic with less than 100% accuracy), So I was thrilled when I saw we were advertising VIZ Media / VIZ Anime, which offers online streaming of several anime series including Hikaru No Go.
If you’ve never watched it before, now is a great opportunity to check it out. In fact, I’ll make it even easier for ya:
Enjoy!
