I know this may be weird that I'm still blogging a day before the exams, but I just can't help it!
Today, I'm recommending Hikaru no Go.
It is about a boy called Shindou Hikaru, who has part of his consciousness occupied by a ghost who calls himself Fujiwara no Sai.
Now Sai was a great player of a game called Go. He tutored the king of Edo (that's the old name for Tokyo) on Go before along with another man a thousand years ago, but the king thought that one tutor was enough, and made the two play a game.
The winner gets to tutor the king.
Sai was accused of cheating though his opponent was the one who cheated. He lost the game as he was feeling disturbed, then suicided as the only thing that kept him going was Go, but there was nothing left for him after he was banished for losing AND cheating.
Because he had some unknown unfinished business to do, his ghost possessed a goban (a board which Go is playe on) and when a man called Hon'inbo Shuusaku came across the goban 860 years later, Sai shared his conscience and fulfilled his dream of playing Go.
However, Shuusaku died at the age of 34 due to plague.
Sai returned to the goban and was finally able to get out of it when Hikaru came along and Sai shared his consience.
In the beginning, Hikaru had no intention to play Go, but since Sai's depression could actually rub into him because they share the same conscience, Hikaru gave in to Sai and went to a Go salon to satisfy Sai.
He played a kid the same age as he was (6th grade) called Touya Akira. Sai crushed him.
Touya had skills that surpassed many Go pro players, but Sai was far superior. Because Akira did not know about Sai, he though Hikaru was the one that beat him, and chased after him as his goal, greatly affected by the loss.
As the story progresses, Hikaru begins to take a liking to Go after witnessing Sai and Akira's passion for the game, wanting to chase after Akira and catch up to him while Akira chased the Sai within him.
Soon, Hikaru begins to play his own style of Go, leaving Sai just watching from the sidelines. Sai feels left out, but apparently does not know what the feeling was.
After realizing that just as Shuusaku existed for him, Sai himself existed for the sake of Hikaru.
Ah!
The story is just so amazing that summarizing it up all for you guys is not going help get you interested.
Anyway. I think I'm gonna update the links at the side bar for recommendations...
I first started to get interested in Hikaru no Go just a few days back on Tuesday. I went with Zann to browse the bookshop and my eye was caught by the tankouban with a black spine (it always caught my attention, just not strongly enough until Tuesday).
Zann told me that her cousin had that series, and the drawings looked so nice to me that I just wanted to read it. The only clue I got was that it was about a game, and either the artist or author's name started with the Chinese character 'xiao' (as in small).
So I went to check it up on mangafox because it has the largest collection of manga I've ever seen. The name Hikaru no Go was familiar to me, but it never once popped up in my mind while I was searching for the manga.
By chance I found it yesterday, so here I am promoting it. =D
I've just finished reading it before dinner. About 19:30.
