From: kenmlin@aol.com   
      
   Art by Obama Takeshi of Death Note fame.   
      
   Okay, I am averaging two volumes a day and just finished Vol. 16.   
      
   This is about a sixth-grader (at the start of the series) that was   
   "possessed" by the ghost of a go master who lived one thousand years ago and   
   became interested in go, eventually turning pro by fourtheen.   
      
   You will not learn how to play the ancient game of go and after first few   
   volumes, they wouldn't even bother to explain the terminology, which is   
   something they should do even if a term appeared before.  I am reading it   
   straight through and still cannot remember a term that might have been   
   explained one volume ago so I wonder how a reader reading this on weekly   
   installment could understand the game.   
      
   But pretty much nobody without a substantial prior knowledge of this board   
   game would be able to tell who's winning despite (I assume) Obama's   
   assistants meticulously reproducing the current state of a duel.  In fact, I   
   feel sorry for whoever is asked to just draw the boards from different   
   angle.  Go has 19 by 19 grids so there could be more than one hundred pieces   
   on the board as the game progresses.  It doesn't help that the matches are   
   taking places in the shared room with several duels going on simultaneously.   
   I assume that the writer provide the layout but still...   
      
   I just got through with Vol. 16.  In Vol. 15 Ishi, the ghost grandmaster's   
   time on Earth is over and he fades away suddenly and Hikaru travels to   
   Ishi's birthplace looking for him.  The subsequent depression caused Hikaru   
   to not show up for his professional matches.   
      
   Vol. 16 is dedicated to another student go player who lost his nerve in last   
   year's professional exam and contemplating his future.  He had an   
   opportunity to visit China and its go school and found his grooves back.   
      
   And in Japanese, five is pronounced as "go," just like the board game so you   
   will see the main character wearing number five a lot.  I wonder this could   
   cause confusion to readers of the translated editions.  Also, Hikaru's front   
   hair is inexplicably dyed blond.  Just like nobody know what those lines on   
   Naruto's cheeks are, I don't know if Hikaru actually dyes his hair or it's   
   just the artist being dramatic.  (Actually, Naruto has blond hair but he's   
   not European.)  In anime and manga, many characters have pink, purple, or   
   other hair color even though the character is implied to be Japanese.   
      
   Obama is also a very fortunate artist.  I don't think there have been many   
   artists in Shonen Jump that do not write their own materials but Obama is   
   almost exclusively artist only after his debut series.  Hikaru No Go was a   
   massive hit he followed this up with Death Note and Bakuman.   
      
   Ken   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)