Hikaru no Go - Characters
This page features biographical information I've translated from Go-rgeous Characters Guide, as well as my thoughts on the characters. This page is currently incomplete, but will be updated as I go. A few things worth noting:
- I tend to sort of randomly go back and forth between Western or Japanese name order, but for the purpose of this page, I'm using Japanese order. That means family names come first, and then personal names.
- Main characters have multiple pages of the guidebook dedicated to them. I've chosen only to translate the small bio panels that include stuff like birthdays, etc.
- All of the bio images are put together by me, and are not the ones from the guidebook, mostly because scanning the book would be a pain in the ass.
- Some minor characters have no names and/or pictures. That's not on me, lol.
- Gorgeous Characters Guide came out before the Hokuto Cup arc, so sadly, characters like Yashiro or Yeongha don't appear.
Contents
Click on any of the names below to jump to their profile.
Shindou Hikaru・Fujiwara no Sai・Touya Akira・Fujisaki Akari・Tsutsui Kimihiro・Mitani Yuuki・Kaga Tetsuo・Kaneko Masako・Natsume・Koike Hitoshi・Tsudaku Miko・Kishimoto Kaoru・Hidaka Yuri・Itou, Kojima, and Okumura・Yun-sensei・Other School Characters
| 進藤ヒカル Shindou Hikaru | |
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What can I even say about Hikaru? He's just a wonderful protagonist. He may not be my favorite character, but that's ok; He plays a very specific role, and he does it well. He really feels just like a middle schooler. He can be selfish, and impulsive, and clueless, but he's also good-natured, driven, and wonderfully optimistic. He goes through all kinds of ups and downs and struggles, but always makes it through.
I first read Hikaru no Go when I was about Hikaru's age, so I got to mature alongside him; As an adult, I feel proud every time I watch his journey. Like Sai, Kuwabara-sensei, Kurata, and countless old dudes at go salons, I feel like I want to watch Hikaru grow into a wonderful and talented young man, and every time he overcomes an obstacle I'm so proud of him :) And of course I love his 5-themed wardrobe, lmao.
| 藤原佐為 Fujiwara no Sai | |
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SAI!!!!!!! My most specialest of guys, one of my all-time favorite fictional characters (second only to Alphonse Elric). I love him so, so much. He's actually the reason I got into the series; Before I read the entire thing at the library, I'd happened to come across an old issue of Shonen Jump, and I wasn't really interested in most of it, but I ended up reading that issue's chapter of HikaGo (the one where they go to the go convention and meet Kurata for the first time). I was captivated by everything about Sai: His looks, his personality, and of course the fact that he was a ghost, lol. If it weren't for him I wouldn't have been as interested in the series.
I'm sure there are other Sai fans out there who want to know things like his age, which is the entire reason I bought the guidebook in the first place, but alas... We're always suffering. Amusingly, Sai is the only character in Gorgeous Characters whose gender is specified, because there's a long history of him being mistaken for a girl even by Hotta's own publishers, lmfao. I've got some thoughts of my own on Sai's gender, as well as some other things, which I'll cover in the future on a separate page.
| 塔矢アキラ Touya Akira | |
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Akira, too, is like a son to me, and probably my second favorite character in the series. Some of my friends refer to him as my "baby dickhead", lol. I love how he's so polite and sweet most of the time, but then as soon as Hikaru's mentioned he loses it. Gorgeous Characters Guide has an entire page that's just a compilation of the "SLAM" sfx being used after Akira hears Hikaru's name lmfaoooo
Man, the anime did his design so dirty, though! The use of color is just awful. Why would they give him fucking forest green hair and then keep most of his wardrobe like, lavender? He looks perfectly fine in the manga, but in the anime he looks like such shit that now he's got a reputation for a horrible fashion sense. Although, to be fair... Even in the manga there's still no forgiving the garbage bag fit (from the international amateurs tournament) or that time he wore shorts in the middle of winter (from his shinshodan match against Zama), but other than that, he just looks like a nerdy rich kid. Not the crime against color theory he's got going on in the anime.
By the way, I've got an Akira Touya or Haku Spiritedaway quiz. Take it here, if you dare...
| 藤崎あかり Fujisaki Akari | |
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Akari is a sweet kid. I'm glad Hikaru eventually stops being such a jerk to her. I love seeing her involvement with the go club; It's nice to see characters have a life outside Hikaru, and it's cool to show that even if you're not at a pro level, you can still have fun and be passionate about go.
Really funny that she has the same hairstyle as Misa Amane though lol
| 筒井公宏 Tsutsui Kimihiro | |
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I love Tsutsui. He's a great senpai character. For some reason the GBA game gave him really fucked up and evil sounding theme music??? lmao
| 三谷祐輝 Mitani Yuuki | |
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I guess I don't have too many strong feelings about Mitani, although I definitely enjoy his character. One thing that's interesting to note about him is that he apparently draws influence from "Wild Touya", a scrapped prototype Akira.
| 加賀鉄男 Kaga Tetsuo | |
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One of the bastards of all time! In the manga, Kaga smokes, and is introduced by putting out a cigarette on a go board. In the anime, however, they removed underage smoking, and instead he chews gum and stuck a piece onto the go board.
| 金子正子 Kaneko Masako | |
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Kaneko!!!!!! I love her :) Definitely my favorite minor character. She's so cool. I wish we got to see her more.
| 夏目 Natsume | |
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???? Why does Natsume not have a first name? Weird...
| 小池仁志 Koike Hitoshi | |
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I don't really have much to say about Koike other than that I hope he does well. :)
| 津田久美子 Tsudaku Miko | |
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OH MY GOD SHE HAS A NAME?!?!?!?!
| 岸本薫 Kishimoto Kaoru | |
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I don't know why, but somehow I've always felt like Kishimoto is some sort of... Escaped Tokyo Mew Mew character? Anyway, the bit where Hikaru finds out that he's an insei dropout is. MAN.
| 日高由梨 Hidaka Yuri | |
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When I was younger I used to call her "Yuki Nagato-senpai", lol.
| 伊藤・小島・奥村 Itou, Kojima, and Okumura | |
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The chapter where these three play Akira is so hardcore! I enjoy it every time. I've been rereading the manga recently, and Itou's expression at the end of chapter 16 was the first instance where I went "Oh god, this really is illustrated by the Death Note guy" lol
| 尹先生 Yun-sensei | |
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Yun-sensei is alright. I was surprised to see him show up at that one go salon. I guess the fact that he was Korean kind of went over my head initially when I was younger, so it came as a surprise.
| Other School Characters | |
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青木 Aoki |
| Up until Akira joined, he played third for Kaio. Challenged Akira of his own volition, and conceded the difference in strength between the two of them. A helpful and kind person. | |
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宇野 Uno |
| A member of the Kaio go club who joined at the same time as Akira. Seems to be weak at defending. | |
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Kaio Go Club Member A |
| Told Nakai to keep his composure when he was nervous. A third year (9th grader) at Kaio. | |
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Kaio Go Club Member B |
| One of three students to ask Akira for a teaching game on his first day as a member of the go club. | |
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Kaio Go Club Member C |
| A girl who asked Akira for a teaching game while blushing profusely. | |
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Kaio Go Club Member D |
| Very emotional about having gotten to play a teaching game with Akira, who plays at a pro level. | |
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Summer Go Tournament Kaio Girls’ Team Second Board |
| Participated in the 4th annual north district middle school summer go tournament as the girls’ second board. It’s her job to reign in Hidaka, and since she never knows when Hidaka might go on a rampage, her stress never abates. | |
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Summer Go Tournament Kaio Girls’ Team Third Board |
| Participated in the 4th annual north district middle school summer go tournament as the girls’ third board. She’s never fazed by anything, so she always has a strikingly calm look on her face. Her most charming feature is her broad forehead. | |
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久野 Kuno |
| He’s Kaio’s number two, with a skill level just behind the club president, Kishimoto. Participated in the 4th annual north district middle school summer go tournament as second board. He had a calm victory in his second match against Tsutsui. | |
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Winter Go Tournament Kaio First Board |
| Participated in the 3rd annual north district middle school winter go tournament as first board, and won against Kaga via resignation. | |
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Winter Go Tournament Kaio Second Board |
| Participated in the 3rd annual north district middle school winter go tournament as second board, and lost to Tsutsui after making a careless mistake. | |
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Winter Go Tournament Kaio Second Board |
| Participated in the 3rd annual north district middle school winter go tournament as third board, and put up a good fight against Sai. | |
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中井 Nakai |
| A third year (9th grader) at Kaio Middle School. All too aware of Akira, which stressed him out. | |
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美和 Miwa |
| A third year (9th grader) at Kaio Middle School. He was a candidate for Akira’s first opponent, but was rejected by Yun-sensei. Up until Kishimoto played Akira, he normally played as Kishimoto’s opponent. | |
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山田 Yamada |
| A first year (7th grader) who was chewed out by a senpai for taking longer than 10 seconds to solve life-or-death problems. | |
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森山 Moriyama |
| After all his big talk at the winter go tournament, he got sorely beaten by Kaga in just 10 minutes. | |
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Winter Go Tournament Kawahagi Second Board |
| At the winter go tournament, he was surprised to lose to Tsutsui, who made a comeback in the endgame due to his skill with counting territory. | |
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Winter Go Tournament Kawahagi Third Board |
| Got bored with Hikaru, who wouldn’t resign even though his defeat was inevitable. | |
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池下 Ikeshita |
| Lost to Kaga by resignation in the second round of the winter go tournament, and was criticized by his advisor for it. | |
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Winter Go Tournament Sawara Second Board |
| After some stones were knocked over while he was practicing for the tournament, Hikaru fixed the board from memory. | |
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Winter Go Tournament Sawara Third Board |
| After Hikaru fixed the messed up stones, he was so astonished that he snapped at him! | |
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Summer Go Tournament Iwana First Board |
| In the first round of the summer tournament, he was completely overwhelmed by Mitani’s speed, and resigned. NOTE: For some reason, Gorgeous Characters Guide lists this whole team under the title of the winter tournament, despite being part of the summer tournament rather than winter (which is correctly written in their descriptions). I assume this is an error, so I've corrected it. |
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Summer Go Tournament Iwana Second Board |
| In the first round of the summer tournament, he just couldn’t compete with Tsutsui’s motivated go. | |
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Summer Go Tournament Iwana Third Board |
| After laughing about how he was going to win, he lost to Hikaru, whose determination granted him a comeback. | |
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Middle School Go Club Advisor |
| A middle school go club advisor who talked about Hikaru. | |
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今井 Imai |
| Practiced against Okada for the winter go tournament. | |
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岡田 Okada |
| A girl who practiced against Imai. | |
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岡田 Okada |
| Before the start of the winter tournament, she played against her advisor. | |
