Go – or
chess in general – is not exactly my cup of tea. And yet one manga series that
I return to again and again is Hikaru no
Go. It is a coming-of-age story starring Hikaru Shindo, a boy who
accidentally released the ghost of Fujiwara no Sai from his grandpa’s Go board.
Sai was a Heian-era Go master who committed suicide after being (wrongly)
blamed of cheating. Hikaru reluctantly took up to Go to appease the ghost
haunting him, then gradually learnt to love the game and grew up both as a
player and a person. Hikaru no Go is
a quintessential sport manga, despite the action being very low-key and lacking
the hot-blood you would expect in a Weekly
Shōnen Jump series. I would argue that is exactly what drew so many Western
anime fans to the series in the first place.
Of course, having a banger of an opening helped too. Hikaru no Go’s first opening song is Get Over by the idol trio Dream consisted of Matsumuro Mai (松室麻衣), Tachibana Kana (橘佳奈), and Hasebe Yu (長谷部優). They were the winners of a talent contest named avex dream 2000. Interestingly enough, Koda Kumi also cut her teeth at avex dream 2000 and came in second. All four of them signed with avex, with Dream debuted as an idol unit in 2000. It took six singles for them to finally crack the Oricon chart, with the sixth one My will also be the first ending song of Inuyasha. Get Over is Dream’s eleventh single and peaked at #12 on the Oricon chart.
Get Over is a
fight song by all measures, with lyrics fill with recognition of pain and
regret as an inevitable part of an arduous journey, but also hope that personal
perseverance and friendship can help you overcome anything. Marry that to a
catchy slow dance tune and you have a certified hit that can transcend the
language barrier. Even if the listener do not know a lick of Japanese or Go
rules, Get Over is sure to intrigue
them enough to stay and watch Hikaru no
Go, and maybe fall in love with the show just like how the protagonist fell
in love with Go./.
