So I'm excited to see a review of one of my all time favorite mangas. However, I've got to disagree with your idea of the ending. Yumi Hotta explains what the Divine Move really is in the last chapters. It cannot be categorized as a move or a technique that someone can use (like the physical "Kamehameha" blasts in DBZ). In fact, when I first started reading Hikaru no Go, it was still being scanlated for English audiences online. One translation of the move is "God's Hand," which I believe is a better translation. Before Sai disappears, he understands what the Divine Move is. It's basically passing on the torch. Sai's existence is allowed by God because without Sai, Hikaru would never have an interest in go. If Hikaru never plays go, Akira would never have his rival. All of the other characters also grow when they play/meet Hikaru. Hikaru even encourages his classmates to start/continue playing go. Not only that (and as you've said yourself) the series encourages many people to take up go. This here is the true Divine Move. It's God's Hand snaking through the hearts of go players, allowing people to pick up a game that, frankly, wasn't very popular in other countries until the series began publication. I believe Sai realized this before he disappeared, which is why a rematch with Toya Sr would have been moot.
Since the end of the manga is when Yumi Hotta explains what the Divine Move is, I was disappointed to learn that the anime ends after Hikaru rejoins the go world. I felt that its ending didn't have as powerful a punch that the manga's ending had.
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Date: 2012-04-17 01:34 am (UTC)Since the end of the manga is when Yumi Hotta explains what the Divine Move is, I was disappointed to learn that the anime ends after Hikaru rejoins the go world. I felt that its ending didn't have as powerful a punch that the manga's ending had.
~Jessie Luna