Hikaru no Go 11
Posted: December 28, 2007 Filed under: Hikaru no Go 8 Comments »Bah. I was so happy that we were finally through the pro tests, and then I got to the last page and found out that I have to wait until May to read the next volume. I know I took forever to read the volume before this one, but I’m still pretty bummed that Hikaru no Go runs so slowly in Shounen Jump.
I also still hate Ochi. He’s a real little brat. He’s like a much less funny Jan Akiyama, and he doesn’t even have the skills to back up his bragging like Jan does. He has to enlist secret help from Akira Toya, then refuses Akira entry into his house when he loses his matches. Ochi’s just a bad kid.
Waya and Hikaru aren’t bad kids, though. It was fun watching them play their games. Sai also gets a bit of a spotlight in this volume, and he starts to ponder his existence. There are hints that he’s not too sure how long his lifespan as a ghost is, and he isn’t sure why he assumes he’ll just be with Hikaru til he dies then go back into the board. It’s also clear that Hikaru has been learning a lot from Sai, and that Sai may be running out of things to teach Hikaru.
Mostly though, there is a lot of intense Go battles going on. That’s what makes this series great. If I’m not mistaken, the next part is where new Go pros play older pros, and then there may be a story arc where Sai finally gets to play Toya Meijin. I’m really looking forward to the next 4-5 volumes, which is about how long I think the series should have been. It has a very clear Death Note-like threshold where, once it passes a certain plot point, it’s clear that it shouldn’t keep going. Up to then though, it’s fantastic.
[...] Reviews: Julie checks out vol. 9 of Moon Child and vol. 1 of Camera Camera Camera at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson enjoys vol. 1 of High School Debut but is less enthusiastic about Pop Japan Travel. Greg Hackmann gives vol. 1 of Aventura a qualified thumbs-up at Anime on DVD. Tiamat’s Disciple posts an overview of With the Light. At Active Anime, Scott Campbell reviews vol. 1 of I, Otaku: Struggle in Akihabara, Davey C. Jones reads vol. 2 of Atelier Marie and Elie Zarlburg Alchemist, and Sandra Scholes reviews vol. 2 of Operation Liberate Men. Julie Gray reviews The Manga Bible at The Comic Book Bin. Ferdinand checks out vol. 1 of Hanami: International Love Story at Prospero’s Manga. Tangognat is hooked after reading vol. 1 of Venus in Love. It’s another manga-thon at Slightly Biased Manga, where Connie reviews vol. 28 of Dragon Ball, vol. 10 of Iron Wok Jan, vol. 2 of Moon Child, vol. 5 of Stray Little Devil, vol. 15 of Tsubasa, vol. 14 of Astro Boy, vol. 2 of Berserk, vols. 9 and 10 of RG Veda, and vol. 11 of Hikaru no Go. [...]
I’ve seen the whole anime, so I reckon I know which plot point you’re talking about. I liked seeing the aftermath of that. Unless you’re talking about the actual /end/ of the anime, which I felt was a very logical place to stop.
I don’t know enough about the manga to know whether it continues or not. There /was/ an anime special that took place beyond the end of the original series, and it wasn’t that great.
Oh, also — I’m loving that you’re updating so frequently. I haven’t made any progress on reading in several days. Woe.
I haven’t been doing anything BUT reading, unfortunately. I took a ridiculous amount of stuff with me over my vacation. I thought I wouldn’t get through 8 volumes, and not only have I read it all, it looks like I’m not going to have anything to read on Saturday and Sunday, and I’ve still got so much at my apartment that I could be catching up on.
The event you’re thinking of and the event I’m thinking of are probably the same. I did love the aftermath and I remember really liking how Hikaru came to terms with the situation, but I felt like that’s where the manga should have stopped.
I may be a bit foggy about the events in the manga after that (it’s been awhile), but I think there’s at least one, maybe two volumes, dedicated to stories about side characters, mostly dominated by a story about Isumi trying to find himself or something. Then the manga goes into a story about a tournament between kids from China, Korea, and Japan. The series ends really, REALLY abruptly, but I can’t remember if it actually stopped in the middle of the tournament, or if it stopped in the middle of something else and the tournament was over.
Yeah, it sounds as if we’re thinking of the same thing. Does the manga have the horrible bit where Isumi goes to China and meets a kid that looks just like Waya? That was lame.
Yeah, that was in the manga, unfortunately. I forgot he found the kid that looked like Waya. He made such a big deal out of it, too.
So, can you actually read Japanese? If so, that buzzing you feel is my Jealousy Ray ™. :)
Not really. My vocabulary is pathetic, so it’s hard to puzzle through volumes, and it takes awhile. The only two series I follow are Tsubasa (which is fairly simple, but if something complicated happens I usually have to refer to a translation elsewhere) and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (which I can read only because not making any sense is its nature). Anything not written for 10-year-old boys usually proves beyond me, though.
Hikaru no Go I read in scanslations years ago ^_^; It finished up in Japan shortly before Viz licensed it.