This comic shouldn’t be good. But is.

The comic series Hikaru no Go is about a kid playing the ancient strategy game Go. That doesn’t sound like a great idea for a comic even though I am almost a fan of the game. The series features an spirit that inhabits a Go board and then a kid and teaches him how to play Go. I’ll admit, concept wise, this comic doesn’t sound that good.

Guess what? It’s amazing. Sure it might not be deep or on the level of great but it’s more entertaining than most titles coming out today. I haven’t studied the Japanese comics scene that much so its possible that this level of quality is standard across the board.

What makes it more incredible is that I’ve never really heard anything about this comic except from Go fans. That made me think that it might just be good to people who didn’t really know comics. No, its good no matter who you are. It’s one of those titles who have no knowledge of comics would probably enjoy.

I know the basic rules of Go, but you don’t even need that to enjoy this. The books themselves explain the rule particulars that are needed for any individual scene. I found myself getting into who was going to win each game. Some of the games were more intense than action scenes in other comics.

It was this comic, as well as a few others that I’ll go into later on, that made me realize that concept and plot are important but not that important. Just hearing the plot of this comic sounds only okay. Go ahead, try it out and you’ll see that its more than that.