• Air date: 10 Oct '01 30 episodes
      Hikaru Shindo is just a normal 12 year old boy, but one day he's rummaging through his Grandfather's things to see if he can find something to sell and pulls out an old Go board. A ghostly apparition appears out of the board and tells Hikaru his sad story. His name is Sai Fujiwara, a man who was a Go instructor to the emperor of Japan a thousand years ago. However, because of bad sportsmanship of his opponent during a game, Sai was accused of cheating and banished from the city. With no livelihood or any other reason to live, Sai committed suicide by drowning himself. Now, he haunts a Go board, and wants to accomplish the perfect Go game, called the "Hand of God" which he hopes to do through Hikaru. If Hikaru will be able to do it or not (or even wants to) will have to be seen.
  • List of Episodes (30)
    • 1. Eternal Rival

      10 Oct '01
      Sixth grader Hikaru Shindo stumbles upon a mysterious Go board with a blood stain on it. Before he knows it he's hearing voices, one voice to be exact. The voice of an ancient Go instructor, Sai of the Fujiwara. Sai occupies a space in Hikaru's mind. Hikaru is the only one who can see, hear, or talk to Sai. Sai's one and only desire is to play Go. But he can only do that via Hikaru's body. However, Hikaru has no interest in playing Go. Will Hikaru allow Sai to play? And who is this mysterious yo
    • 2. Discovered Weakness!!

      17 Oct '01
      With the recent defeat of the Meijin's son, Hikaru goes about his day normally. However, Akira is obsessing over the game he lost. He won't do anything but stare at the Go board and replay the game that he lost. When he gets word that Hikaru is at a Children's Go Tournament, he rushes there hoping to confront Hikaru and ask for a rematch.
    • 3. Akira Bears His Fangs

      24 Oct '01
      After confronting Hikaru, Akira challenges him to a rematch. As they sit down to play, Sai notices Akira's fangs bearing down on him. Will Sai go easy on Akira, or will he crush him? And, what will happen when the Meijin challenges Hikaru to a game?
    • 4. Kaga in Shogi Club

      31 Oct '01
      Akari invites Hikaru to the Haze Junior High festival. Hikaru reluctantly goes, but cannot find Akari anywhere. So, while walking around he stumbles upon a group of kids around a Go board. Tsutsui, the head of the Haze Junior High Go Club, is holding a competition. The prize is a book entitled "Assorted Tsumego from Touya Meijin's Matches". After seeing this Sai is eager to win it. But, can he with the sudden appearance of the Shougi captain, Kaga?
    • 5. Prediction of an Awakening

      07 Nov '01
      After loosing the game to Kaga, Hikaru is forced into joining a Jr. high school Go Club Tournament. He is to join Tsutsui and Kaga as the third member for the Haze Jr. High Go Club team for the tournament. But when Hikaru insists that he wants to play for himself, will he come out victorious?
    • 6. The Beautiful Match

      14 Nov '01
      The finals of the Third Annual Junior High Go Tournament - Kaiou Junior High V. Haze Junior High. With a score of 1-1 it is up to Hikaru to win it for Haze. Can he do it? And what will happen when Akira spots Hikaru playing?
    • 7. I Won't Play Against You

      21 Nov '01
      Hikaru is now in Haze Middle School and joins the Go club. Akira Toya is now in Kaio. He pays a visit to Haze and challenges Hikaru to a match. Will Hikaru accept to play him?
    • 8. The Scheme in the Rain

      28 Nov '01
      Akira is too good against everyone at Kaio's Go club. The members don't take this sitting down, as three of them plan to take him down.
    • 9. An Irritating Presence

      05 Dec '01
      Akira is still loathed in the Go club, but he doesn't care. Even the club's sensei has bad feelings about him being there. How long will Akira stay in the club?
    • 10. The Third Member

      12 Dec '01
      A boy named Yuki Mitani solves a challenging problem on the Haze Go club's posters. Hikaru knows they need a third member really badly, and tries to convince Yuki to join. However, he soon discovers Yuki's true strength.
    • 11. The Most Inconsiderate Act

      19 Dec '01
      The Go Sallon Yuki goes to doesn't mind giving him money for winning games, but they are tired of him cheating to get it. They hire a skilled player who pretends not to know anything about Go to teach Yuki a lesson. Unfortunately, Yuki falls for the trick and ends up betting 10,000 yen (about $90). Can Yuki manage to defeat this skilled player?
    • 12. You Are The Third Board

      26 Dec '01
      After Hikaru gets back Yuki's money, Yuki decides to join the club, but refuses to play in the tournament. Tsutsui explains how strong Kaio is and Yuki changes his mind. But will he play without cheating? Meanwhile, Akira discovers that Hikaru is the third board in the tournament and begs the club sensei to put him there. Is Akira willing to give up all his pride and his reputation, just for this one spot?
    • 13. Each of Their Decision

      09 Jan '02
      Hikaru, Tsutsui, and Yuki all manage to defeat their first round opponents. But, the next next round won't be so easy as they face of against Kaio. Hikaru is excited about facing Akira, but wishes he had more time to get stronger. However, Hikaru soon learns during the break that Akira was treated very harshly in Kaio's Go Club, but he never quit because he was chasing after Sai. Touched by the story, Hikaru informs Sai that he will play Akira instead of him.
    • 14. The Third Match

      19 Jan '02
      Akira is quite tense at the fact that he is finally facing Hikaru, or rather Sai. All is going well, until Hikaru notices a point that he thinks should be played and Sai doesn't play it. Determined to find out why, Hikaru takes over and plays it. Sai reveals that the move might have worked, if Hikaru was good enough to back that move up. How will Akira handle the situation when he sees Hikaru really play?
    • 15. The Player On The Net

      26 Jan '02
      Hikaru let's Sai play Go online, that way nobody will think Hikaru is really good when in reality he's not.
    • 16. Who Is Sai?

      30 Jan '02
      Everyone is anxious to find out just who this mysterious user named "Sai" is. How long can Hikaru keep playing before he gets caught?
    • 17. The Match of Revelation

      06 Feb '02
      Players who have been following Sai's net matches attended the 20th International Amateur Go Tournament in Japan. A commotion occurs at the mention of Sai's name as everyone is trying to who out who he is. The commotion caught the attention of Ogata and Akira. When Akira and Sai engaged in a match over the net, the former is reminded of his first match with Hikaru. Akira discontinues the match so as not to disrupt the ongoing tournament but fixes a date for a match with Sai which happens to be o
    • 18. Akira vs. Sai

      13 Feb '02
      Akira skipped his first match of the Pro exams in order to play the match against Sai on the net. Akira is perplexed over the identify of Sai which he thinks might be Hikaru while Ogata has his own thinking. Players all over the world are observing the match. Though Akira lost the match, he feels as though he had finally caught up with 'Hikaru'/Sai. When Akira heard from a Go cafe customer that Hikaru was sighted at an internet cafe, he races to the site thinking that he might be Sai. Hikaru den
    • 19. Hikaru's Strength

      20 Feb '02
      Hikaru is slowly, but surely, getting better as evidenced when he beats Mitani in a game though with a handicap as well as Tsutsui. To play go with Sai, now that they decided not to play internet go anymore, Hikaru tries to get his gramps to buy him a go board/stones. When Hikaru beats a strong opponent at the go school, even to the astoundment of the teacher, he finally understands that one can only judge how strong others are when he's strong himself. He bumps into Kaio's first board when he's
    • 20. The Road to Becoming a Pro

      27 Feb '02
      Kishimoto (Kaio's first board) played a match with Hikaru to find out his real strength and expressed his puzzlement as to why Akira sees Hikaru as a opponent when he's not as strong. Through Kishimoto, Hikaru realises the widening gap between Aikaru and himself and that it would be impossible to catch up with Akaru with Hikaru's current pace. All fired up, Hikaru decides to start off with enroling in the Insei program with becoming a Pro and defeating Aikra as his goal. However, he failed to re
    • 21. The Haze Jr. High Go Club

      06 Mar '02
      Hikaru is torn by the decision he has to make. An unlikely saviour came in the form of Kaga who proposed that Shindou quit the club after showing them how strong he is - by playing three of them at once (Mitani, Tsutsui and Kaga). Hikaru prepares to take the Insei exam. Having bumped into Hikaru at the institute, Waya's interest is piqued by Hikaru who declared to surpass Akira and remarked to Isumi that Hikaru will most probably pass the exam.
    • 22. The Insei Examination

      13 Mar '02
      Hikaru is losing the game in his anxiousness to win it. He freaks out when he realised that he didn't necessarily have win the game to pass as the purpose is for the examiner to gain an idea of his strength/potential. In reading the kifu, the examiner is amazed that Hikaru played the way he did during the 3-way match (with Mitani, Tsutsui & Kaga) and passed him. Hikaru unwittingly blurted out that Akira pursues him as a rival and received a cold reception from the Inseis who then see him as a th
    • 23. The Room of Yuugen

      20 Mar '02
      Hikaru aims to progress to the first class of the Insei program where Waya and Isumi take the top spots. Both of them wanted to pass the Pro exams quickly this year, due to various personal reasons. Ogata feels that Akira doesn't seem to have much of a fighting spirit recently and bring him to the insitute to show him that Hikaru had gotten into the Insei program. It succeeded in provoking Akira to rev up his pace. Hikaru learns of the new dan series that is to take place in The Room of Yuugen a
    • 24. Ouza vs. Akira

      27 Mar '02
      Although Ouza initally contemplated letting Akira win the match as a form of encouragement, he is angered by Akira's nonchalent attitude and decided to crush him completely. Akira forgot the safer strategy which could have won him the match, in order to show Hikaru his play. While the first snowflakes that mark the arrival of winter fell, Sai muses on the symbolic link between Hikaru and Akira and likened the presence of Akira as being placed there by God to help Hikaru on his path.
    • 25. Sai's Sword Unsheathed (1)

      10 Apr '02
      HIkaru can't seem to get any better at Go, despite the fact that he plays with Sai every day. If he wants any chance to get into a tournament and face Akira, he needs to get stronger. Sai reveals the ultimate weakness of Hikaru, he's afraid of Sai, and every other opponent he faces.