With this post, I'm starting a new series of occasional posts on animes that seem to have been touched by a curse, starting with an old favorite shonen series - Hikaru no Go.
Hikaru no Go, based on the manga of the same name, is about Hikaru Shindou, an average 12-year-old schoolboy who has no particular interest in the ancient board game Go until Fujiwara no Sai, a Heian-era Go master in ghost form, comes out of his grandfather's haunted Go board.
Nobody can see Sai but Hikaru. Now that he's back among the living, Sai wants to play Go again so badly that he forces Hikaru to start learning how to play the game.
One day, Hikaru plays a game of Go with Akira Touya. Touya's father is a Go master and Akira practices playing Go obsessively. He's good enough to beat most adults, which is why when Hikaru beats him (actually Sai playing through Hikaru), Akira goes into a spiral of self-doubt.
Throughout the series, which spans a number of years during which the boys grow into teenhood, the heart of Hikaru no Go focuses on the rivalry between Hikaru and Akira.
The anime ran for 75 episodes, and the manga for 23 volumes. The manga was published from 1998 to 2003.
Now, why do I say that Hikaru no Go is touched by a curse?
1. The Anime Is Unfinished
Okay, a lot of anime series never get finished. This first reason is the least compelling reason to say Hikaru no Go is cursed, but I still have to mention it. Because, although the last episode of the anime ends on a makeshift, somewhat satisfying "ending," it's not where the manga ends. At the end of the anime, Hikaru and Akira start to become friends, but Hikaru still hasn't spilled the beans to Akira about Sai - which is the main mystery that has kept the boys at odds throughout the entire story.
I haven't read the manga, but I know it continues past that point because there is actually an OVA anime, Hikaru no Go: Journey to the North Star Cup, which was based on later chapters from the manga. The story of the OVA involved Hikaru and Akira preparing to play in a Japan/China/Korea Go tournament.
... Which brings up the second reason why Hikaru no Go is touched by a curse.
2. The Koreans Got Upset
One of the rumors going around about why the Hikaru no Go anime came to an abrupt end is that Korean people got upset at the portrayal of the Korean players in the North Star Cup section of the manga, citing Japanese racism towards Koreans.
This is just a rumor. I don't think it's been substantiated as fact. But again - it's not every anime/manga that gets called "racist" that also - perhaps coincidentally? - comes to a sudden end.
And saddest of all...
3. The Seiyuu Who Played Hikaru Passed Away
Tomoko Kawakami, a successful and well-respected anime seiyuu, passed away of ovarian cancer in June of 2011.
And the final reason (and possibly the only real true reason) Hikaru no Go is a cursed anime...
4. The Writer and the Artist Had a Falling Out
Let's be honest here. Seiyuu who are unavailable usually can and do get replaced, and the Koreans are probably over their snit by now, but the Hikaru no Go anime series was based on the manga series written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, and if the writer and artist can't work together - the manga, as well as the anime based on it - dies.
Again, like with the Korean issue, this one's just a rumor as well, but it's a rumor that has persisted for years - that Hotta and Obata stopped being able to work together.
Hotta has only done one manga since then, a short shonen manga series about speed skating called Yuuto. And of course, Obata went on to great success partnering with writer Tsugumi Ohba on Death Note and Bakuman.
In the end, who knows if it was Hotta and Obata, or the Koreans, or Kawakami's sadly early passing, or a combination of all of these. It just seems that Hikaru no Go was destined to remain unfinished. It's unfortunate and frustrating for us fans of the series. It's like it was touched by a curse.
