So I just binge-read this entire manga on the new shonen jump site, and I am upset. Extremely upset. So upset that I spent the entire day torturing myself with fan fiction and pixiv fan art of this damn series.

How can something so good just flat out end when none of the major climatic points that have been built up to have been reached? This manga is how.

--Spoilers ahead--

Here we are absolutely riveted to the story of Hikaru's growth as a go player, his intense rivalry with Akira, him learning to go on without Sai. Hikaru is doing so well, on an upward trajectory, and then... it just fricking ends.

Now I get that this is not the fault of the creators. I'm sure there were many extraneous reasons that the manga had to be cancelled.

What I take issue with is the people saying this is okay. That they liked how it ended. People let me tell you THIS ENDING FREAKING SUCKS. Heck, it's not even an ending. The story is straight up incomplete. What about Hikaru actually beating Akira through his own his own skill? Honestly the least you can do is bookend the story with a match against Akira so there's some sense of coming full circle.

In other words, I am upset that what I wanted to happen didn't happen. Okay fine. We don't need to see Hikaru beat Akira. But then what about the whole reason for this story in the first place? WHAT ABOUT THE DIVINE MOVE? This was straight up the reason Sai remained as a spirit after he died. What even is a divine move? Who the heck knows because it seemed like something that would be explained or reached later on, but then the manga got axed. Now it just seems like this bs thing that was brought up to make the plot happen. Is it something that Hikaru is destined to accomplish? Is the whole reason Sai disappeared because Hikaru now has the skills to attain what Sai couldn't?? Who the hell knows.

Hikaru reaching a divine move or whatever would actually give real meaning to Sai's disappearance. Sai is gone, but Hikaru accomplishes his goal. He fulfills Sai's desire and becomes at peace with Sai being gone, knowing that Sai's existence is what lead him to do this amazing thing. Knowing that Sai's existence was incredibly important to the world of go, the world Sai loved but was forced out of. Just give us some validation for Sai damn it.

I mean at this point, all we can do is assume that these things happen. Assume that Hikaru becomes this amazing go player who beats his rival and eventually accomplishes a divine move. But see our assumptions don't mean a darn thing. All that fan art we draw, the fan fics we write, the assumptions we make about what happens after the manga ends are just us trying to cope with the fact that the story is incomplete. Which, honestly what else can we do?

--Spoilers end--

Do I regret reading this manga? No. It's amazing. Sai's mentor relationship with Hikaru and Hikaru's rivalry with Akira are so good that it's worth reading the manga just for those two things alone. I wouldn't be so upset right now if I wasn't deeply invested in the story and the characters.

Yes, reading this is worth it. Yes, you will be very upset that it ends mid-story. But there is still a lot of quality content here to obsess over.

Now it's time to watch the anime and torture myself all over again.