It's the final volume, and the exciting moment for the final Hokuto Cup matches has arrived.

Akira emerges victorious, while Yashiro and Hikaru taste defeat. Hikaru loses by a mere 1/2 point, which is quite frustrating. Finally, Hikaru finishes expressing what he had intended to say earlier about the reason he started playing Go. He proclaims, "I started playing Go so I could link the distant past to the far future!" Yong Ha responds, stating that he isn't alone in that aspiration. Another player chimes in, commenting that this isn't just what drives Go but also life itself.

The volume concludes with seven bonus sketches of prominent characters in the series. There is also a short flashback manga titled "Fujiwara no Sai vs. Akira Toya," which might be their second game. In this match, Akira manages to surprise Sai, although Sai ultimately prevails. Additionally, there is a short manga set after the end of the series, called "Shoji! Oka!" where two insei characters, Young Lions, play matches against Hikaru and Akira and are inspired.

The artwork in this volume is truly beautiful. However, I deeply missed Sai. I believe Hotta must have felt the same way, as Sai keeps making appearances in dreams and flashback manga.

While this volume does wrap up the series and provides a proper ending, I still can't help but feel a tinge of disappointment. I had hoped that Hikaru's desire to face off against Ko Yong Ha would have led to something more significant. I understand that his loss wasn't the end of the world, and he may have future opportunities to face Ko Yong Ha. The series, especially the final extra chapter, does a great job of showing that the life of a Go pro continues, and there are always more matches to play. But still, I can't hide my disappointment.

I had mixed feelings about Akira's dad's theory that if Shusaku returned in the form of Sai, then he came back to face him. This is the closest any characters have come to guessing, on-page, what actually happened to thrust Hikaru into the world of Go.

Well, that's it. I have finally completed this series. Now, I have a strong urge to rewatch the anime.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Not going to lie, this one really disappointed me.

Here we have the situation where there is a certain "dis" towards Sai, and Japan's reputation is basically on the line. Given these circumstances, I had high expectations for different results.

I thought that with so much at stake, there would be a more intense effort and a better outcome. However, what actually happened was far from what I had anticipated. It makes me wonder what went wrong and if there were any factors that could have been controlled better.

Perhaps there were unforeseen circumstances or mistakes made along the way. But regardless of the reasons, the fact remains that I am disappointed with the current situation. I hope that in the future, things will improve and we will see a better performance that lives up to the expectations and protects Japan's reputation.

Wow, I finally completed my Hikaru-no-Go reading marathon. From 1998 to 2003, Takeshi Obata created over 4,500 pages of highly detailed art about the game of Go. It's still难以置信 that a series like this exists, and I didn't know about it until just a month ago.

The story starts with young Hikaru finding an old blood-stained Go board that holds the spirit of Fujiwara-no-Sai. Sai, a Go master, then inhabits Hikaru and begins to teach him the game. This forms a very charming storyline. After all, what reader wouldn't wish to have Sai in their head? The rest of my comments contain spoilers, so click the link (below) to continue.



While the two are close, Hikaru doesn't always treat Sai very well. This makes it even more disheartening when, two-thirds of the way through (volume 15), the spirit of Sai, who had possessed Hikaru, is taken away. A despondent Sai knew this was coming, but it caught Hikaru by surprise. As Hikaru mourns, so does the reader. In fact, I found that I never really got over the loss. All the subsequent volumes, although good, are filled with this empty longing. It was almost worse to briefly see a silent Sai one last time in Hikaru's dream (volume 17). Even when the last volume (volume 23) looks forward hopefully, it ends in a double defeat for Hikaru.

As with every manga series I read, I save my full review and rating for the last volume. This one was a 3.5 - 3.75, rounded up to a 4. Apologies for any poor grammar, as I am quite heated.

Boy, do I have a lot of feelings about this series.

Let's begin with a rumor or theory. I read on a forum that this series ended as it did because fans were harassing Yumi Hotta to bring Sai back. I'm not certain how true that is, but a part of me believes it could be about 45% of the truth. Another part of me thinks this was the original plan for the story, and Hotta took a risk that didn't quite pan out. There's also the possibility that Hotta was ill and didn't disclose it to the public, and felt that for her health, the series needed to end. If she was also receiving hate from fans, she might have been mentally exhausted and come to dislike her own story. We may never know for sure. For now, I want to discuss Sai.

The series started to decline after Sai's departure. I was a bit disappointed with how it occurred. It felt a little rushed, yet at the same time, it seemed like it had to happen. While the entire premise of the story revolved around Sai and Shindo's connection, the way the plot developed required Sai to leave at some point. Shindo was going to outgrow the need for Sai, and then the question became how Sai's character could help Shindo or推动 the story forward. I do think there was a chance for Sai to return in the story, perhaps with another child or by coming to Shindo when he truly needed him the most and helping him train for a match. What we really needed was to see Shindo beat Sai; I think that would have been very satisfying.

My next issue was the pacing. The story started off rather slowly, and then suddenly, in volume 19, there were only four volumes left, and five new important characters that we had to care about. Honestly, I went on autopilot and just skimmed through the last four volumes because I really didn't care about the story at all. It's cool that it all comes full circle and Shindo is playing in a team tournament again, but with Toya and against Korea and China, who have the best Go players. So what? Why should I really care about the match? Just because Yongha Ko issued a challenge and called Japan's greatest Go player weak and his new modern Go superior? I felt like this could have worked as an arc in the middle of the story, but not as the final match. Also, who the hell is Yongha Ko? His character just appeared out of nowhere, along with Yashiro, whose whole thing is that his parents don't think he can become a pro and he plays similarly to Shindo. Seriously, screw that. I think to really make this rushed ending better, it would have been great to have China play Japan. We only had one Korean player that we really knew and had a history with Shindo. There was an entire volume dedicated to Isumi training in China, and we met interesting characters who could have challenged Toya and Shindo. Isumi could have been in the team match too, or have him train the team since he knew the players. This was really sloppy, and it could have worked if the series hadn't been so slow and we weren't constantly being introduced to new side characters almost every volume, who rarely showed up again.

The first maybe 17 volumes, I think, were well done and had a lot of potential. The problem for me is that a sports series should be at least 30 volumes long, and this one was 7 volumes short of potential greatness and fully fleshing out that final match. I think this is what makes me believe that Hotta made the decision to end this series when she did. Something must have happened, and Hikaru no Go needed to end.

Let me go on a rant about a character who I think was written quite well: Koyo Toya. I think Koyo had an amazing arc, and no one can change my mind. Why? He was just too good. Having Sai be the one to beat him was great; it showed that he had a lot to learn and that he wouldn't grow if he continued to play against the same players in Japan. Koyo needed to go to Korea and China and strengthen his game in a new way. Showing how this master of Japanese Go almost recognized that he needed to make way for a new generation was perfect. This was in contrast to Kuwabara, who wanted to challenge the youth and show that the older players still had it. He was stuck in his conservative ways and was doomed to lose to Shindo or Akira. I think he would have been happy to pass the torch to Shindo because he might have seen how Shindo played in a much older style of Go and was destined to start a renaissance of the old style and continue the old ways. In a way, Akira and Shindo both represented the battle between progress and tradition.

As a historian, there was something I kind of wanted to happen. I wanted Shindo to meet a Go historian who could help him find records of Sai's games or just his existence, or discover some new records of Torajiro's history as a player. This could have been a chance for Shindo to keep learning from Sai and Torajiro. Also, maybe a moment when Kuwabara and Shindo play and he finally hands over his title to Shindo and then declares to the Japanese Go world that Shindo is the return of Torajiro. Then you have the match against the Korean team and their challenge of superiority over Torajiro.

In conclusion, this series was really good, and I think I want to reread it in the future. I think I want to take my time with the ending again and give it some leeway because the final pages, which opened up further discussion of the past and pointed to Sai's presence, were quite interesting.

The great re-read is finally done! It has been an amazing journey filled with countless emotions and wonderful memories. I am truly sad that it has come to an end.

I find myself longing for more, wishing there were 23 more volumes to devour. Each page has been a delight, and I have become so attached to the story and the characters.

Saying goodbye feels almost impossible. I will surely miss this world that I have been a part of for the past few days (or weeks).

But perhaps this is the beauty of a great book. It leaves such a lasting impression that we never want it to end. I know that I will be thinking about it for a long time to come.

Until then, I will cherish the memories of this re-read and look forward to the next time I can embark on another literary adventure.

One of my favorite mangas ever

First off, I will say that the rest of the series was truly GREAT!

However, I am just not a fan of the finale.

To begin with, they don't win the tournament. If you skipped past the spoiler warning, please read it before you continue! Anyway, everyone spends approximately four books training intensively for the big tournament, and yet they don't even emerge as the winners in the end? What on earth? They really deserved to win!

Secondly, we never find out what happened to Akari, or any of Hikaru's other friends. Some sort of explanation would have been nice.

Finally, the reason that Hikaru played Go was to "link the far past with the far future"? No, it was because Sai possessed him in the first place! Hikaru wouldn't have had another reason to play Go in the first place.

Once again, the series was awesome. There is no doubt about that. It's just that the finale failed to meet expectations.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

I reread all 23 volumes of this series this March. It was a truly remarkable experience. To mark this occasion, I'm giving this final volume a well-deserved 5-star rating. I simply can't be bothered to go through each volume individually and analyze them one by one. However, I must say that I love this series as a whole. It was an absolute treat to reread it.

I had my doubts initially. I worried that it might not stand up to the test of time or my expectations. But to my pleasant surprise, although there are indeed some problems with this series, most significantly the complete lack of women characters, it still manages to be an engaging and clever series. The characters are interesting and well-developed, and the plot is truly gripping. It has the ability to draw you in and keep you hooked from start to finish.

Overall, I would highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys a good read. It may not be perfect, but it has its own charm and appeal that makes it a worthwhile investment of your time.

The ending was better than I had initially expected.

I had heard rumors that the last arc wasn't well-received and that it led to a rushed conclusion of the series. However, as this volume unfolded, it seemed that the authors managed to provide a fitting ending on their own terms. It was an ending that the series truly deserved and one that adhered to the theme of the overall story and the spirit of the game of go.

The open-ended nature of the ending reflects the very essence of the game. In a go board, life and death situations occur, but the players continue to live on, striving and aiming for that divine move. Hikaru and Akira are not yet in the realm of achieving it, but they are firmly on the path. Their remarkable exploits have also served as an inspiration to younger go players and future rivals. Undoubtedly, those two will continue to face each other on the board for the remainder of their lives.

Nevertheless, there are several plot threads that will remain unresolved. The reader will never find out if Ogata finally got his chance against the ancient Kuwabara. Another mystery is the ultimate fate of Hikaru's middle school classmates, especially Akari. I suppose the reader will have to come to terms with this ending and use their imagination to fill in the blanks.

Please provide the article that needs to be rewritten and expanded so that I can help you.

Man, I really don't have anything new to say that hasn't already been said. However, that ending was indeed rather abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying.

Honestly, it should have ended with Hikaru's dream in volume 17. That dream had the same open-ended nature as the one in volume 23, but it was far more meaningful.

In that dream, it was Hikaru's goodbye to Sai and his acknowledgment of his own deep love for Go. It was a powerful moment that captured the essence of Hikaru's journey and his connection to the game.

Ending the series with that dream would have left a more lasting and profound impression on the readers, rather than the somewhat rushed and underwhelming conclusion we got in volume 23.

Overall, while the series had many great moments and was a wonderful exploration of the world of Go and the relationship between Hikaru and Sai, the ending was a bit of a letdown.

We truly deserve a better ending!!

I really hope that the current nostalgia boom for remakes of popular manga and anime series will bring about an ending that offers a bit more resolution.

Personally, I adored the ending as it was, but there's still a part of me that craves for more.

Hikaru never reveals his secret to Touya, and Touya and Hikaru definitely need more matches to be shown on-screen.

Also, we're left wondering if Sai manages to communicate with Hikaru from wherever he ended up when he disappeared. It's only implied, perhaps, that he still exists in some way.

The series was unfortunately cancelled before the author had the opportunity to properly conclude it.

I sincerely hope that one day, we'll get to witness more of what she had originally intended for this wonderful story.