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Hikaru no Go
ヒカルの碁
2001 · TV series · 23 min episodes · 3 seasons
AnimationScience FictionFantasy
Hikaru Shindo is like any sixth-grader in Japan: a pretty normal kid with a two-tone head of hair and a penchant for antics. His life completely changes when he finds an old bloodstained go board in his grandfather's attic. The ghost of an ancient go master named Fujiwara-no-Sai was trapped in the board and soon becomes a part of Hikaru's consciousness. Together Hikaru and Sai make an unstoppable go-playing team!
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There is already a series of Hikaru no Go, albeit animated (from 2001 to 2003, running for 75 episodes)
This reminds me of the anime Hikaru no Go. In one episode, prodigy named Touya Akira (the main rival of the main character) is being bullied by his schoolmates. They challenge him to a 3-board match (he has to play three games simultaneously, each against a different person) with his eyes closed. Because of his reputation, he accepts the challenge. He calls out his moves and the opposing player places the stone. The opposing players also call out their own moves so that Akira can know what's happening in each of the games. he has to construct and track what the three boards look like constantly using only his memory. The one game of the three where he starts losing is the one where the opposing player is the least experienced. It's not the skill that starts defeating Akira. Rather, it's the idiocy of the amateur who doesn't know what he's doing, making it more difficult for Akira to track what the game actually looks like, because it's harder to remember and track nonsensical moves.
Was obsessed with it back in high school. Death Note, Hikaru No Go, and Miyazaki movies I still rewatch sometimes (also the anime based on the Persona and Danganronpa games), but in general I got out of the habit and don't really seek out new stuff much anymore.
I also used to prefer watching it subtitled, but nowadays I'm usually trying to do something else while I'm watching TV, so it's too hard to keep up with subtitles most of the time.
I, and I suspect a lot of other people, was introduced to Go by the tv show Hikaru No Go.
> While exploring his grandfather's shed, Hikaru stumbles across a Go board haunted by the spirit of Fujiwara-no-Sai, a Go player from the Heian era. Sai wishes to play Go again, having not been able to since the late Edo period, when his ghost appeared to Honinbo Shusaku, a top Go player of that period. Sai's greatest desire is to attain the Kami no Itte (神の一手?, "Divine Move") – a perfect move. 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 young boy.
> Urged by Sai, Hikaru begins playing Go despite an initial lack of interest in the game. He begins by simply executing the moves Sai dictates to him, but Sai tells him to try to understand each move.
It's a fun series, especially if you have a fast-forward button and don't have to fumble around with discs
Today I decided to learn about Go. I knew nothing prior. I read a few chapters of Chikun's "Go: A Complete Guide to the Game." I really like how he goes back and forth between introducing a game mechanic, and then some historical element.
The chapters look like: http://i.imgur.com/qcnWUng.png
I even went so far as to watch the first couple episodes of Hikaru no Go, which is honestly really awesome.
Once you're good enough, the tactics melt away and you just think about the strategy. This is true with any competitive game. It takes a long time, and a lot of effort[1] to get to the level where you can have this "fairness epiphany", though. Strangely enough, a good documentary on the process exists in the form of a manga/anime series, Hikaru no Go, following a Go player as he is first guided through games, then plays, struggling, himself, until he finally has the epiphany and realizes he needs no help from a computer (or, in this case, ancient spirit) to make him better.
[1] http://www.sirlin.net/ptw