Character Profile: Hikaru Shindo

Hikaru is a boy in Hikaru no Go ("Hikaru's Go"). He's very much like Yoh Asakura from Shaman King! To put it straight, he's sort of a slacker.

Eventually, he's possesed by Sai, a ghost who wants to return to the real world to play Go. Unfortuneatly for Hikaru, Sai's mood swings upset his stomach so much that he keeps throwing up!

While it is true that in the beginning of the series Hikaru is "sort of a slacker", that changes rapidly when it comes to Go. Hikaru will become one of the Go geniuses as he grows (he's twelve in the beginning, sixteen in the end). And to give just the comment that Sai's mood swings gets Hikaru to throw up covers only the first two episodes/chapters of this long anime and manga series. He throws up twice in the beginning, then there's over 70 episodes of anime and more volumes of manga about how Hikaru starts to learn about the Go world, wants to learn to play on his own, not just channel Sai, gets a rival, becomes a Go pro, and when Sai unwillingly has to vanish from Hikaru's conscious and life, he gets depressed, but later on is able to get his act together for he finds Sai in the Go.

Even when there is a comical side to the manga, it becomes more serious and philosophical with every volume.

Hikaru is in 6th grade until about the 7th episode.

Hikaru was in a Go tournament when he was told that if he loses, Kimihiro will never return to school and continue to get picked on. Hikaru then asked Sai to help him out. He really gets upset when someone gets on his nerves. When Hikaru said there were no ghosts one time, he had his eyes shut and didn't realize that he was in front of one.

Editor’s Note:

I was told by someone that in volume 5, issue 1 of the manga, Hikaru, Waya, and Isumi meet a 12 year old boy, and Hikaru states that he is two years older than the boy. This would make Hikaru 14 years old at that time, which appears to be about 2 years since his debut, making him 12 years old at the start of the series. If you can confirm this or have additional information (such as if his age was stated to be different in the anime), please contact me.