4 Jul 08 |Hikaru no Go( ヒカルの碁) and Takeshi Obata(小畑健 )
Even you are not a person who like to read comic/manga, you probably heard of / watch the movie of “Death Note”. Which originally, the manga was illustrated by Takeshi Obata(小畑健 ). Takeshi Obata is an AWESOME comic artist, but he doesn't write story like majority of the Japanese comic artist does. He mainly does illustration – but never think only illustrated and not to write the story is easy, such as “Death note”, the story may be good but it could be really boring if the artist didn't know how to express it well (mainly talking to explain the story, no action), but Takeshi Obata is able to design the story board with the script perfectly with his art skills, not only his assistance to illustrate the background as details, the characters (that illustrated by the comic artist) were also as details and … just really pretty.
But “death note” is not the comic that I wanted to talk about today. I wanted to talk about “Hikaru no Go” ( ヒカルの碁 in Japanese, ' 棋靈王 'or ‘ 棋魂 ' in Chinese) , his previous works before ‘Death Note'. (announcement : I like Hikaru no GO better.)
I sometime complain how annoying why The States never translate the comic from Japanese name to proper English but Japanese-English (like “Yuyu Hakusho” should either translate to ‘Ghost Files" or "Poltergeist Report”, etc.) but “Hikaru no Go” is like… almost no way to translate to English. Why? “Hikaru” is the name of the main character (I hate when the anime go to other countries they change the name of the character), “GO” is a traditional chess board game from China (but Japanese and Korean also play that time since ancient time) … so if “Hikaru no Go” have to translated to “Hikaru's Go” then it wouldn't make a big different…
Takeshi Obata's work were really amazing, he is very famous but never really popular before “Hikaru no Go”. You can actually say this is really unfair (but well, can't help it) for him, since his works are actually one of the top for Manga industry. The first comic I've read that illustrated by him was when I was in primary school, “Arabian Majin Bokentan Lamp Lamp( 魔神冒险譚 ), start around 1991”, it was already a big shock some new artist could be as good as this – ironically his assistant got more popular then him afterwards (some of his assistant were: Watsuki Nobuhiro [work such as Rurouni Kenshin, or some translated to ‘Samuri X'], Oda Eiichirō [work such as one piece] …. Etc) when his works were actually REALLY amazing. Its just the luck I think …
No one would think he is not good enough, he was known by almost everyone who read Japanese Comic, just he never was very popular. After ‘Hikaru no Go' (manga illustrated and publish timeline :1998-2003) it fix him as a popular master never as before. When it come to ‘Death note', push his career into another top level in his life.
Let's back to “Hikaru no Go”. At first I sometime saw it on comic magazine but never really chase the story – the art work are great yeah but … I'm not interested in Go. But then actually, most fans are not interested in this game, even the main character, “Hikaru”, a 12 years old kids (at the beginning of the story). The story was written by Yumi Hotta, a Go professional and this comic disturbuted a lot for the Go industry : most kids/teenager think this is an old fashion old man game, after this comic, almost the whole Asia and some western country childern learn to play Go. I got so addicted reading it later on, I know nothing about the game, I'm not interested still, but the comic just make you want to watch it (and its prefectly okay even you can't understand the game). What's awesome was even the story isn't about sport / fight (no actions) but it was still really exciting, thanks for Obata's skill and the awesome story line by Yumi Hotta, the characters were drawn / design well, and if you askl me,l what's most attractive of the story were the relationship bewteen the characters and how the comic descript them, also seeing how Hikaru growth up.
Talk so much, what's the story is about – it gotta be a spoiler but even you know how the story goes it won't matter – the great thing in it was the detail. Its simple: “ While exploring his grandfather's shed, Hikaru stumbles across a Go board haunted by the spirit of Sai, a fictional Go player from the Heian era. Sai's greatest desire is to attain the "Divine Move", or the "Hand of God" – a perfect game. Because Hikaru is apparently the only person who can perceive him, Sai inhabits a part of Hikaru's mind as a separate personality, coexisting, although not always comfortably, with the child. Urged by Sai, Hikaru begins playing Go despite a lack of interest in the game. He begins by mimicking the moves Sai dictates to him, but Sai tells him to try to understand each move. In a Go salon, Hikaru defeats Akira Toya, a boy his age who plays Go at professional level, by following Sai's instruction. Akira subsequently begins a quest to discover the source of Hikaru's strength, an obsession which will come to dominate his life.”
Below are some more images from the manga and animation.
There's too much to talk about but I picked some of my favorite and some deeper impression scene …Oh yes btw, beside FMA (Fullmetal Alchemist) I think I cried the most watching Hikaru no Go. (yeah tell me I'm childish if I cried over an anime, don't you cry over watching sex and the city :-P )When Sai was gone it was really depressing … I feel like my best friend dies! it was really crap but it was expected to happens. Sai was a best friend to Hikaru and not only a friend, but a teacher who teach him everything and they separated without saying goodbye to each other (time up, Sai have done all he should and there's no reason to stay and ‘god' take him) at first Hikaru didn't understand (well, he is a kid) and when he realized Sai was gone forever and cried out like screaming was really killing me … then when he found Sai actually were always with him in the board game if he play and tears again I cried again. At the end when Sai appears in the dream I cried AGAIN. I recently watch the anime on youtube (I read the manga, but never watch the anime, which the anime is almost the same with manga) I was like … damn my eyes need a break I keep crying from episode 59-75.
Another thing amazing was how they growth up without reader actually notice it .. when you finished the whole 23 volumes and look back at the first volume, I was like .. wow they were really small kids and were so cute! Also you can tell Otaba's works were already amazing when the comic start, but at the end it go to a … divine level!
Only one scary thing … when I compare the growth up Hikaru and “Light” in “Death note”, they look kinda a like somehow… I don't like Light very much :-S and by the way again … “Hikaru” and “Akira” both means “Light” in Japanese … doh.
The anime stopped at Sai gone but Manga was going on another chapter. But that chapter actually ended in rush and kinda imcomplete, rumours said it was because of the comic has a Korean character which extremly simplier to a real life Korean Go Professional and Korean Go Department was complaining - to show apologize Jump (the Comic company manga lines) have to End it fast and make Hikaru lost to that Korean player to end the story (waoh ... so politics) ... so the Anime ended there wasn't a bad thing.
Oh one more thing I wish to menstion ... all the Chinese are so ugly in this manga. Must be Japanese's impression ...
And ONE more thing … I don't like J-pop much but the anime song were always pretty good. “Hikaru no go” has 3 OP and 5 EP, I like the 1,3 OP. see below with the lyrics…I found those OP has English subtitles, watch it before the user might delete it.
1st OP (I love the song, but I couldn't tell it was 3 person ... it seems all Jpop Female singers has the same voice)
3rd OP ... I love the scene of Hikaru and Akira in the sky, and that they put the 'Hikaru found Sai on the Go board" picture there :'(
English and Japanese subtitle
4th EP ... talk about Hikaru and Sai ... this one even with English/Japanese/Chinese subtitle. The ending was BEAUTIFUL!
