In this volume, Hikaru finally realizes that Sai still exists – through all of the Go moves Sai taught him. With this encouragement Hikaru jumps back into the Go world with a vengeance. Everyone is happy about this, especially Akira. Akira and Hikaru finally have their first complete match – no Sai involved at all. Izumi finally passes the pro exam:) With all these new players with potential the Go world in Japan is starting to look more interesting. They’re even talking about having a junior game with younger pros from Japan, China, and Korea. Toya Mejin (okay so he isn’t the Mejin anymore, but I doubt anyone will stop calling him that) has signed up with a Chinese league which is probably an interesting change for him.
One of the many things I really like about Hikaru no Go is at this point it’s been about two and a half years since Akira and Hikaru last played, and probably another year since the series started as far as the story goes. And it looks it. Akira, Hikaru, Akari, Toya Meijin, they are all looking older. And while I miss Sai, it is nice to see Hikaru standing completely on his own now. And just because he hosted Sai’s soul for a while and had the benefit of his teaching doesn’t mean that Hikaru doesn’t still have a lot to learn.
