23 Years Later, Legendary Shonen Jump Series Returns With New Release From Creator

One legendary artist behind a major Shonen Jump series has made their return to the franchise after 23 long years with a new special gift for fans. Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine might be in a current era of trying to kick off a whole new wave of releases of potential hits to come, but it’s also been celebrating some of its biggest hits from the past. The last few years have seen plenty of franchises celebrating their historic milestones one after another. And one of Takeshi Obata’s legendary franchises is celebrating another.

Hikaru no Go was originally created by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine back in 1998, and introduced a whole generation of fans to the intense world of Go. It might not have been the biggest hit worldwide compared to Obata’s later works like Death Note or Bakuman, but it’s still fondly remembered by fans all these years later. Now Obata has returned to the franchise 23 years after it ended with some special new art to commemorate its ongoing exhibition this Summer in Japan. Check it out below.

Hikaru no Go Artist Returns With Special Art After 23 Years

This new exhibition celebrating Hikaru no Go‘s art will be running in Japan beginning later this July as part of a commemoration of the series’ legacy with Shonen Jump. It’s one of those franchises that feels ahead of its time, but also helped pave the way for a lot of other action series we would get later. It’s main Go board game might not be action intensive, but it was able to inject a shonen flavor that fans loved that made it feel like there was a lot of action happening with each and every single chapter anyway.

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It’s kind of a non-action, action based series that a lot of other Shonen Jump hits would model themselves after. It’s what we saw in releases like Obata’s other franchises Death Note and Bakuman, but more recently with hits like Akane-banashi. It takes something that you wouldn’t necessarily think would have a lot of intrigue, but then adds even more with tournaments, mystical powers, and much more at the core of it all. It’s why all these years later it’s still a big deal to many.

What Happened to Hikaru No Go?

Hikaru no Go had a steady enough run in Japan, but it really didn’t have a chance in the United States. Although it had a shot when it was revealed to be one of Toonami’s upcoming releases in the United States, it never actually made it to TV screens. It had an 80 episode run, but unfortunately was exclusively streaming its episodes with the failed Toonami Jetstream platform. In fact, the final episodes of the series never got an official release in the United States when the platform went under.

Hikaru no Go remained a niche series thanks to its lack of a wide release, and its niche central topic only further pushed it to the sidelines. Obata would go on to much more significant success with the artist’s contributions in other series in the years to come, but there are likely still many fans that have no idea that the legendary artist has an entirely different series to enjoy.

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