YMMV / Hikaru no Go

• Awesome Music:
  • The first opening theme, "Get Over" by Dreams is just amazing. This song is one of the main reasons why Hikaru no Go is popular even in countries that do not have regular Go tournaments.
  • The first ending theme, "Bokura no Bouken" by Kids Alive is so full of energy and keeps the audiences excited about how the next episode would play.
• Cargo Ship: Sai and a Go board. He's completely in love with the game.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Shinichiro won one of the Japanese manga character polls by an absolute landslide. ^note  For non-obsessives, "Shinichiro" is Isumi's given name.
• Foe Romance Subtext: Hikaru and Akira early on. See Ho Yay below.
• Ho Yay:
  • Hikaru & Akira's mutual obsession frequently tips the line into subtext and much of the dialogue could easily be seen to support this pairing. As analyzed in this essay: Intentional Ambiguity - coded references to same-sex attraction in Hikaru no Go.
  • The opening and ending music prominently features Hikaru and Akira, and barely qualifies as "sub"text.
  • Kaga & Tsutsui also danced around this trope occasionally.
• Memetic Molester: Ogata-san. A creepy guy with Scary Shiny Glasses who is awfully obsessed with playing a game with little boys. His rape face here◊ after he had dragged Hikaru over to a dark room where they can play Go alone (while drunk) helped this idea.
• Paranoia Fuel: A dead person's spirit can randomly possess you at any time and demand that you do all sorts of things. If you refuse he can probably make your life a living hell, considering the fact that he's with you all the time. Sure, Sai is pretty nice, but imagine what it could have been with a nastier person.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • Sai is probably the most unintentionally effeminate male characters in all of manga. His effeminacy is perfectly in line with the sensibility of Heian period nobility, but that doesn't make the experience of watching an adult man giggle like a schoolgirl any less jarring. In fact, the author had to correct the English translator(s?) when they used "she" to refer to him.
  • Touya Akira looks strangely girly too, with his jaw-length bob hairstyle and rather ambiguous clothes. There is lots of fan-art around which puts him girl's clothes.
• Wangst: After Hikaru realizes that Sai has disappeared, probably forever, he goes into a state of complete moping. He ignores his scheduled pro games (even vowing to quit Go altogether, even after coming so far), he ignores his friends, he ignores his family, he just locks all his emotions up and mopes.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: Akira's pink sweater-vest and lavender suit. His clothes were always a bit... unique, shall we call it, but this◊ was going too far for some people.
• The Woobie:
  • Sai. In his backstory, he was Driven to Suicide after he was framed for cheating at a Go match and lost his job and reputation. Since then, he has been haunting an old Go board waiting for someone through which he can play his beloved Go once more, but the first person he found (Honinbo Shusaku) died young, and his next "vessel", Hikaru, initially didn't want to play Go at all. As Hikaru finally relents to his wishes and starts growing as a fine player on his own right, Sai realizes that he's the tool to lead Hikaru to the path of "the Hand of God" instead of the other way around, and starts disappearing. His desperation to play more games before his time is truly up, and Hikaru not believing and/or getting annoyed with him, makes his eventual departure even more heartbreaking.
  • A milder case than most (characters don't really suffer horribly in this manga): Hikaru after he realizes that Sai is gone for good and sinks into depression.
  • And an even milder case: Isumi during his emotional breakdown.

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