When I first heard about Hikaru no Go, I was underwhelmed. A show about Go? If I wanted to watch people play Go I could just log into Yahoo. Much to my pleasure, Hikaru no Go was a fantastic anime. Although it could be classified as a "competition" anime (like Angelic Layer, BeyBlade, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc.), there is so much plot and so many twists in Hikaru no Go that you don't even care. Also, the competition part of HnG is really in the background. It doesn't really even matter that much at all in this anime.

Where Hikaru no Go really excels at though is the character development. You've never seen development like this before. Spanning over the course of five years, we watching Hikaru and everybody else grow before our eyes. Their physical and mental states change so fluidly that you don't even notice it until you see flashbacks or you watch an older episode. Also, how many anime do you see where all of the characters change their clothes on a daily basis? The attention to detail in HnG is astounding. Each character is totally believable with unique personalities and relationships. Fans of love stories would be pleased to see the relationship between Akira and Hikaru grow slowly over their years through middle and high school.

Another high point of HnG is its total lack of filler episodes. There aren't any. Each of the 75 episodes further the plot and do not disappoint. Also, at the end of each episode is a segment called Go Go Igo, which gives step-by-step lessons that teach us how to play Go. For those of you who don't know what Go is, it IS a real-life game where you try to surround your opponent's stones and capture them. There are white and black stones. It doesn't seem like a very exciting topic for an anime, but HnG somehow SOMEONE has made it interesting.