Playing against Isumi helps Hikaru realize that Sai is now in his Go - if he wants to see Sai, even just a shadow of him, he must play. And so he does, and proceeds to win. There are rumors of a Japan-China-Korea Junior Cup, and players like Akira, Hikaru, and Ochi would be Japan's best chance. Meanwhile, Hikaru has his first match against Akira in two years and four months. Hikaru loses, but it's a good match, and Akira sees Sai in his game, leading Hikaru to say that he might tell him the whole story about what happened to him one day. That night, Hikaru dreams of Sai.

Oof. This is technically a slow volume, and I got a bit tired of older dudes talking about the up-and-coming youngsters, but the beginning was great - seeing Hikaru cry and realize he must play in order to see Sai (if I were Isumi, the way Hikaru was acting would have made me assume there was a death in Hikaru's family). So was the ending, with Sai silently passing his fan on to Hikaru.

I loved that Akira could see Sai in Hikaru's playing style but also appreciate Hikaru as his own player. He's no longer chasing after Hikaru because of the player he thinks he is (Sai) but truly seeing him as he is. If I remember right, this is where the anime ended (not counting the special), and it's a nice stopping point for those who liked Hikaru and Akira but also really liked (and really miss) Sai.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

This is probably the point in the series, where the phrase "Too bad it didn't end here" seems to be the most apt.

It's here where all the major threads of this series seem to resolve itself nicely: Sai's disappearance, Shindo's maturity, and Shindo's rivalry with Toya. But I guess, in the end, if a series were to end at their natural potential, then publishers wouldn't be able to sell as many volumes as they'd like.

Unfortunately, it's as if this volume was filled with unnecessary 'padding', that really had nothing to do with the main plot of the series. Most were of the same theme of "the next generation" which segued to the buildup for the next (and final) arc of the series, the Junior Cup. ( )

Termina con questo albo una parte importante della storia; potremmo definirlo un primo finale. ( )