25 Years Later, Death Note Artist’s Legendary Shonen Jump Series Teases Anime Return

It’s been 25 years since the artist behind Death Note had an anime taking on a legendary Shonen Jump series, and it seems like the franchise is setting up for some kind of return to commemorate this big milestone. Takeshi Obata might currently be more well known to fans thanks to their work with franchises like Death Note and Bakuman, but the artist has been making waves within Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine long before that with a series that took another non-traditional run for its take on action.

Although Obata had a few hits now and then, the artist truly broke through with the debut of Hikaru no Go back in 1998 with series writer Yumi Hotta. The anime then took the franchise to new heights with its debut in October 2001, and it seems like Hikaru no Go is preparing something big for its comeback to help celebrate its 25th anniversary. Not only opening a new social media account for the occasion, but teasing “We are currently preparing a 25th anniversary project to delight all our fans…!”

Hikaru no Go Teases Return for 25th Anniversary

Hikaru no Go has opened up a new social media account to officially note that October 10, 2001 will mark the 25th anniversary of the TV anime’s original debut. Teasing that there’s a new 25th anniversary project that will “delight all out fans,” it’s yet to be revealed exactly what kind of new project could be in the works. It could range anywhere from a potential exhibition or special merchandise exclusive to fans in Japan, but it could also mark something even bigger than fans are hoping more to see in action.

With how many classic franchises are returning for new revivals, reboots, sequels and more in the recent years, Shonen Jump fans have been hoping to see more of its classic franchises return for new projects too. There have even been some cancelled manga releases that have gotten official anime adaptations too, and a revival for this series could help it gain a new generation of fans. Especially when the first run of the TV anime had chose to come to its own original ending, with the manga continuing with more material after.

What Happened to Hikaru no Go?

Hikaru no Go had an anime run that wasn’t quite as popular outside of Japan than it did in that region. It already had an uphill battle in regions like the United States because it was tackling Go as its centerpiece. Go is not exactly the most popular board game in the United States, so that meant that any viewers of the anime had to learn about its rules as it went on. But watching the show outside of Japan was incredibly difficult considering it never made it to a wider TV broadcast at all.

Hikaru no Go was one of the few anime series that was left exclusively streaming with the short lived Toonami Jetstream platform from Viz Media. Some of the shows here eventually made it to the proper Toonami programming block on Cartoon Network, but many others like this one faded into obscurity once the platform shut down. If Hikaru no Go‘s anime indeed gets another chance with a revival or reboot, it’s certainly to have much wider success now.

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