Karakter & Staf

Hikaru Shindou

Utama

Male

Hikaru is a sixth grader in elementary school. An important factor in the development of Hikaru's passion for Go was an encounter early on where Hikaru becomes the rival of Akira Toya. At first, he thinks that Go is just for oldsters and he is annoyed at Sai's demand to play, but little by little his passion for Go increases as he plays more and more. From being a member of a school Go club to being an insei and finally becoming a professional Go player (at 14 years old) a year after Akira, Hikaru matures throughout the course of the series. Throughout the series, Hikaru gradually gets taller because the manga volumes are around when he is getting older and playing Go at the same time. Hikaru is often portrayed wearing clothing having the numeral "5". This is a pun on the Japanese common name for five: go. Part of his strength is his ability to read far into the game very fast, and to make seemingly stupid moves. These moves in fact lure the opponent to doing stupid moves, which Hikaru then traps them by.

Tomoko Kawakami

Fujiwara no Sai

Utama

Male

A spirit from the Heian era of Japan and mentor of Hikaru Shindou. Once the Go instructor to the Emperor, Sai continually plays Go, his goal being to one day play the divine move. Sai's ghost had previously possessed the real-life figure, Honninbou Shuusaku, who became a renowned Go player. He is an extremely emotional person, who often acts childish and has great mood swings. While playing Go however, his behaviour changes completely as he controls himself and his emotions to play to the best of his ability. Sai has a high sense of honor, abhorring cheating and bullying.

Susumu Chiba

Akira Touya

Utama

Male

Hikaru's biggest rival and Kaio Middle School student. The son of Koyo Toya, Akira is already a very strong Go player when Hikaru first begins playing and is amazed by Hikaru's seemingly impossible strength. Since his first game with Hikaru, Akira has been obsessed with discovering the secret behind his strength. Akira has faced Hikaru again and won, but still sees a lot of strength within him. As the series progresses, they continue to play each other, but it always ends in an argument.

Sanae Kobayashi

Akari Fujisaki

Pendukung

Female

Hikaru's childhood friend. She begins to learn Go as well when Hikaru becomes interested and later joins the Haze Middle School Go club, serving as vice captain of the girls' team, despite her being a weak player. She also seems to have feelings for Hikaru, as noted by her two friends in the carnival, though the two remain friends throughout the course of the series.

Yumi Kakazu

Yuuki Mitani

Pendukung

Male

A player at the Go Club at Haze Middle School who overcomes his cheating habit. He is angry at Hikaru for choosing to be an Insei rather than stay at the school Go club when they have a tournament around the corner. Yuuki and Hikaru are no longer seen as friends. Yuuki remains in the Go club, but only after much convincing.

Yuu Asakawa

Tetsuo Kaga

Pendukung

Male

President of Haze Middle School's Shogi club. Kaga hates Go and prefers Shogi better because his father forbade Shogi and forced him to play Go from an extremely early age, and he could never please the old man no matter how well he did, because he always loses to Akira. He also says he hates Go because Akira is better than him, while keeping a completely detached attitude towards the game. He still plays Go from time to time to keep his skills limber. He along with Kimihiro has graduated from Haze Middle School.

Kentarou Itou

Kimihiro Tsutsui

Pendukung

Male

Tsutsui is the nerdy and kind hearted Haze junior high school Go club president who uses a play book while playing in tournaments. While he is not a strong Go player and doesn’t play too well, he loves the game and plays with a positive attitude. Hikaru first meets Tsutsui in a “Terakoya” fair (it’s Japanese food; octopus dumplings) where he would give out prizes to individuals who solved Go puzzles in Kouyo Tonya’s book. At that time, Tsutsui was the only member of the Go club and was trying to recruit other members so his Go club can compete in tournaments with other junior high schools.

Makoto Tsumura

Yoshitaka Waya

Pendukung

Male

Hikaru's "big brother" insei. Like Kaga, he has a dislike for Akira Toya because he can never defeat him and because of Akira's detached attitude towards the game. He has once faced Sai in Internet Go as Zelda for his nickname. He becomes a pro (at age 15) in the same year as Hikaru. He is also known to be very reckless and short-tempered, even punching former insei Mashiba in the face because the latter rattled Isumi.

Reiko Takagi

Shinichirou Isumi

Pendukung

Male

Another insei friendly with Hikaru, he appears to be doing very well in the first pro exam shown in the manga, going undefeated, until his match with Hikaru. During that match, rumors about Hikaru's incredible strength add to the pressure of time constraints, and as a result, he misplaces a stone; his attempt to move the stone after letting go of it ends up with his resignation before Hikaru can accuse him of cheating. As a result, he is defeated in his next two games and loses his chance to become a pro. He later learns to control his emotions and passes the next year's pro exam without a single loss. Isumi also unknowingly helps Hikaru get over his loss of Sai when their practice game makes Hikaru realize that by playing, he can find Sai within his moves, the Go that Sai passed on to Hikaru.

Kenichi Suzumura

Kousuke Ochi

Pendukung

Male · Umur 12

Another insei in the same group as Hikaru, Ochi is one of the youngest players, yet very outspoken about his ability. His bragging about his strength hides his insecurity; after each loss he is known to disappear into the restroom for long periods of time. Akira tutors him to find out about Hikaru's current strength. Ochi is unnerved by Hikaru because Akira's obsession with him seems to suggest there is more to Hikaru than what Ochi knows. Ochi is also angry that Akira acknowledges Hikaru as a rival, but not Ochi himself. He demands that Akira view him as a rival if he can defeat Hikaru in the pro exam. Ochi loses to Hikaru, but does pass the pro exam. He comes from a wealthy family, as evidenced by the number of pros that come to his household to tutor him privately in go.

Youko Matsuoka

Seiji Ogata

Pendukung

Male

A Go professional 9-dan and student of Touya Kouyo. He first took notice of Hikaru when the latter explained a go move during a children's tournament that even professional Go players would take some time to see (which was actually Sai's doing) and later, as the rivalry between Hikaru and Akira emerged, catalyzed its development for several times, such as helping Hikaru to be accepted into the Insei test and occasionally reporting Hikaru's progress to an uninterested and disillusioned Akira. After the Net game between Touya Kouyo and Sai, Ogata also became obsessed with playing Sai and constantly nagged Hikaru. Unbeknownst to him, his request was finally granted just before Sai disappeared, during a game with Hikaru when he was too drunk to notice Sai was playing. Ogata is one of the best young Go pros of Japan, having been the challenger for many titles throughout the series and finally winning the Gosei and Judan titles when Touya Kouyo retires. He's frequently after the Honinbo title Kuwabara currently holds and this sparks a rivalry between them.

Keiji Fujiwara

Shigeo Morishita

Pendukung

Male

A 9-dan pro who is Waya's go teacher and leader of the study group which Hikaru also frequents on Waya's invitation. He considers Toya Meijin a rival, since the two of them became pros at the same time. Morishita also mentors Michio Shirakawa (7-dan), the community Go leader. (Source: Wikipedia)

Katsuhiro Kitagawa

Honinbou Kuwabara

Pendukung

Male

The current holder of the Honinbo title in Hikaru no Go. Kuwabara is friends with Toya Meijin, but rivals Ogata. He also has an interest in Hikaru and bets on Hikaru in his Beginner Dan series game. (Source: Wikipedia)

Rokuro Naya

Kouyou Touya

Pendukung

Male

Akira Toya's stoic father. As the holder of five titles (Meijin, 10-dan, Tengen, Gosei and later Ouza), he's regarded as the best Go player in the world, and, among the Japanese, is believed to be the only player capable of holding his own against the Go Saint Shusaku (aka Sai). Like Sai, his ultimate goal is to reach the Kami no Itte (Divine Move), and Sai, recognizing his strength since the first times he returned to the living realm, wholeheartedly desired to play against him.

Eizou Tsuda

Yuuta Fukui

Pendukung

Male

An insei and classmate of Waya who is known for his extremely fast-paced style of play. Although Waya is the stronger player, he cannot seem to defeat Fuku. Hikaru loses one game to him during the pro exam. Source : Wikipedia

Wasabi Mizuta

Suyong Hong

Pendukung

Male · Umur 12

Suyong is a a Korean Go professional. During the month before the pro exam, Hikaru, Waya and Isumi traveled to go salons to sharpen their skills, and in one of them they met Suyong, whose uncle runs a go salon, while Suyong was on vacation from Korea. At the time, Suyong was a first-rate Kenkyuusei (the Korean equivalent of an insei), but was disillusioned with his recent consecutive losses and subsequent drops in rank.

Miyako Itou

Toshirou Tsubaki

Pendukung

Male

An older go player who applied for the Go test. He plays against and defeats Hikaru during the test. Tsubaki has a large beard and is very loud; Tsubaki easily intimidates people. Hikaru and Tsubaki become friends and later asks Hikaru to carry on his dream.

Tomomichi Nishimura

Asumi Nase

Pendukung

Female

Asumi Nase is one of the first class insei Hikaru studies and plays with. She often wears a sweatshirt that has "LSU" printed on it.

Atsuko Enomoto

Hai Yang

Pendukung

Male

A Chinese pro player. Outwardly an amicable man with a relaxing attitude, Yang Hai is in fact very mature-minded and extremely keen on Go psychology. He's also known for his language hobby (he can speak Korean, Japanese and English fluently) and his immergence in computer Go programming.

Kenichi Sakaguchi

Mitani no Ane

Pendukung

Female

A girl who works at an internet cafe and lets Hikaru play go on the computers for free during her shifts.

Eriko Kawasaki

Atsushi Kurata

Pendukung

Male

First mentioned as a prominent 4-dan player, Kurata doesn't make an appearance until later in the story as a 6-dan. Despite being only in his early twenties, Kurata (together with Ogata 9-dan) is widely considered as one of Japan's best professionals and has been the challenger for multiple titles (although he has not win a single one). One of Kurata's most prominent abilities is his keen 6th sense, something he believe that above all else, will present solution to the problem. Although good-natured, Kurata is overbearingly confident and takes a liking to signing autographs, which he often adds would-have titles to his names and is fond of passing around to fans (or who he thinks his fan, like Hikaru - much to the boy's dismay). One of the rare successful Japanese players in international Go tournaments, Kurata is referred to as "Japan's Ahn Tae-seon", another similarly famous young player in Korea (later selected as team manager for Korea representatives in the Hokuto cup). Ironically, Kurata holds a rivalry with Ahn Tae-seon in person after he lost to the Korean player in the Samsung cup's quarter final (more precisely, when Ahn Tae-seon amiably and rather bluntly asked him if he had been in a slump) and is particularly competitive when the other man is concerned.

Mitsuo Iwata

Mitsura Mashiba

Pendukung

Male

Hiroyuki Yoshino

Akiko Touya

Pendukung

Female

Rei Sakuma

Mitsuko Shindou

Pendukung

Female

Yurika Hino

Hikaru no Chichi

Pendukung

Male

Susumu Chiba