It’s comforting and escapist to slip into a world where the worst villains you encounter are salespeople trying to pass off spruce go boards as kaya wood. Since my first anime love was the, uh, other shonen series about a boy with goofy blond bangs cheating at a game by being possessed by an ancient spirit, I had a huge soft spot for Hikaru no Go from the beginning - I love the particular genre trappings, the earnest intensity, the slightly pretentious forays into game theory.
