Hikaru no Go 21

Yumi Hotta / Takeshi Obata – Viz – 2010 – 23 volumes

I got this and Bakuman in the same box, and had a brief argument with my roommate, who did not believe the same person drew both. I love Takeshi Obata’s artwork, in all the series that I’ve seen drawn by him, and I’ve really loved watching his style evolve over the years. The difference between Hikaru no Go and Bakuman is pretty significant, but both are equally good.

The beginning of this volume was great. The match results were quite a surprise, and I loved that Ochi acted the way he did. Ochi isn’t a very likable character, but he is fairly realistic and true to himself. A narcissist and completely confident of his abilities to the point of rubbing it in, I was happy to see that he was willing to put his money where his mouth was. He was right, though. Nobody would have been satisfied unless he did that.

The rest of the volume, plot-wise, was mostly a waiting game to the start of the Hokuto Cup. But unlike the filler in other series, this stuff was pretty good. I loved seeing Akira and Hikaru squabbling over a board in the Go parlor, and I liked the practice rounds at Akira’s house even more than that. There is a cute chapter image of all three of the boys on Team Japan sleeping that just made me grin from ear to ear. Again, it’s really the characters that make this series great, and seeing the three members of Team Japan squabble and compete against each other while they train is a big part of why this series is so amazing.

Admittedly, it’s lost some of its edge with this tournament. It jumped the shark. I think that’s an okay thing to say. It’s still good, and there are still crazy intense matches, but all the characters in the Japanese Go world, with all their individual hopes and dreams and plans for the future, playing their earnest game of go, is what gives the earlier parts of the series the advantage over the Hokuto Cup. Moving out from a loved cast of characters to battles with a bunch of guys we don’t really care about? Meh. In the context of what’s going on (an international tournament), this sounds vaguely racist (“I only care about Japanese characters!”), but it’s true. There’s just not much here for me to look forward to. A faceless opponent, even one that we’ve seen before, turns this into a regular boring game of Go. Well, faceless opponents and the fact that none of the characters are really pursuing a personal goal. There is the ambiguous “Divine Move,” but quite honestly, Hikaru and Akira seem to have settled down pretty well in professional go life. There’s not a whole lot of potential for character development here.

It still keeps the personal, humanizing touch that makes it special, even among all the new people. One of the new characters comments on how lucky Hikaru is that his mom supports his career, and throughout the book, there are reminders of how hard the teen’s life is while having to fight his parents for all the time he needs as a professional Go player, and Hikaru even takes a minute to invite his mother and Grandfather to the tournament. I like his mom a lot. She supports him, even without knowing anything about Go. She’s a great mom.

So yes, the Hokuto Cup is not nearly as good as the other tournaments in the series, but even then, there is still plenty to like in this volume. The characters have matured and are noticeably older, and are ready to compete on an international level. Two volumes left!

This was a review copy provided by Viz.