Review Statistics

Times Read

937

Comments

6

Reviews

Tv

Plot Synopsis

Shindou Hikaru is a lazy, under-achieving 6th grader until the day he finds an old goban in his grandfather's storage shed. The goban is haunted by the ghost of the greatest Go player of the Heian era, Fujiwara no Sai, who has spent a thousand years seeking the Hand of God; the Divine Move. Sai's soul attaches to Shindou's, so only Shindou can see or hear him, and Sai wants only one thing: to play Go.

Shindou has no interest in Go, but he takes Sai to a go salon to allow him to play. There Shindou and Sai meet Touya Akira, the same age as Shindou and a gifted Go player. Shindou is fascinated by both Touya's intensity and Sai's love of the game. Soon he develops his own desire to walk the path of Go and become a great player... and Touya's rival.

Written by thefourthvine.

Story & Characters

Well the theme of this anime is simply straight forward....playing Go, a Japanese board game that looks similar to "opposite" but is kind of more complicated so i won't waste time here explaining how the game is played.
Okay, this anime is about a boy name Shindou Hikaru who doesn't know anything about Go until he found a Go board in his grandfathers attic, which possessed a spirit or ghost name Sai Fujiwara, a Go player from the Heian period in Japan which dates back in the B.C.E period. From there on, Shindou and Sai started an exciting journey, for Shindou to chase his so called rival in Go by the name of Touya Akira, while Sai is searching for the ultimate move in Go which is called “the hand of God� but things don’t seem to go all so well. Of course all journeys are tough. But the only problem is…. Shindou doesn’t know how to play Go at all. So how are Shindou and Sai going to cooperate together? Will Shindou ever chase his so called rival, or will Sai ever reach his goal of finding the ultimate move in Go?
This anime is very intense and exciting in accordance to the story as you would want to watch more and more, it also has a good concept in terms with the theme of Go. So overall, I’ll give it a very substantial rating for the story.

Rating

8 (good)

Art

The drawing for this anime is very good, although it’s a 4 year old anime. Hikaru no Go is just basically just like other anime series. It has the basic colours, textures and sketches that make Hikaru no Go stand out. But this particular anime does have a lot of facial expressions intergraded in their drawings which makes this anime very amusing. Every single detail wasn’t missed at all.
The only thing I found that wasn’t to my liking is the night scenes. I don’t know for some of you, but for me, it tends to get a bit dark, especially on CRT monitors, but I found this problem on my LCD monitor as well. But I mostly watch anime on the computer rather than on TV via the dvd player.
But there was no glitches whatsoever that I found. The background especially was done very well in terms of expression wise. For example there are some scenes that some characters get frustrated and show their expression which in turn changes the background to fit the mood. Now this was well done.
So overall, the art and animation put into Hikaru no Go was well done.

Rating

8 (good)

Sound

I've just got the OST of Hikaru no Go and it was very excellent. Although the album doesn't have a lot of songs compare to other OST's the music collection is impressive taking music from the anime series as well as the intro and outro music.
The most noticeable theme song has got to be DREAM – Get Over. This is a very catchy song which in fact I replayed in a lot of times, it has rock in it which I like and just a tinny bit of ballad, but I really didn’t notice it. Anyways this song is cool.
The music taken from the Hikaru no Go OST is very cheerful, with songs such as ‘Warm Day’ and ‘Intersecting Roads’. But there are just a few piano pieces such as ‘Before Facing’ which although sound depressing, but plays an important part within the series.
These soundtracks are produced by Wakakusa Megu, while the songs for the intro and outro are from the respective artists.
So overall, it was a fine brilliant audio presentation.

Rating

9 (very good)

Presentation

Well what I like about the presentation of Hikaru no Go is the last part of the episode where there is a host teaching you how to play Go. This was very educational and so each episode teaches a move or a principle which was watched during Hikaru no Go. So for example in one episode, Shindou does a cool move in Go. At the end of the episode, the host teaches the move that Shindou done previously during the episode. This, I found very interesting.
Now the enjoyable parts of Hikaru no Go is the actually playing of Go. Each time two people verus in Go during the episode, it just gets too intense and very exciting. It will make you not leave your seat. Each move is fully emphasised by the music and the visual. It is just that good.
And finally, its originality is kept in place. The anime tries not to make it unrealistic as playing Go so be normal. There is no need to add fancy magic or tricks. It is just playing Go.

So in terms of presentation i'll give it a 10!

I'd say that even though you don't know anything about playing Go or you want to know how to play, then this is the anime to watch!

Rating

10 (excellent)

Final Verdict

8.83 (very good)

Reviewed by andRox, 3y 5wk ago