Today, on things we found on the internet: the hit manga series “Hikaru no Go” is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its equally popular TV anime, and Studio Pierrot — which produced the anime adaptation, has unveiled a special website featuring an all-original illustration just for the occasion!

“Hikaru no Go” is a shounen manga series based on the traditional Japanese board game “Go”, written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, with professional player Yukari Umezawa as a game consultant. The series was serialized in Shounen Jump from 1999 to 2003, for a total of 23 volumes, with over 25 million copies sold all over the world in many different languages. The series also won the Shogakukan Manga Award in 2000 and Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2003.

“Hikaru no Go” follows the story of the eponymous Hikaru Shindo, who awakens the spirit of Fujiwara-no-Sai — a Go player from the Heian era, who was inhabiting his grandfather’s old Go board. Hikaru decides to help Sai play Go, by following his instructions to achieve the “Divine Move”. Along the way, Hikaru meets other Go players — such as the child prodigy Akita Touya. Hikaru begins to sharpen his own unique skills as well as learns to love the complex game.