▪	RELEASED BY:		VIZ MEDIA
		▪	ASPECT RATIO:		4:3 FULL SCREEN
		▪	AUDIO:		ENGLISH AND JAPANESE DD 2.0
		▪	RUNNING TIME:		100 MIN
		▪	RATING:		A
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		09/25/2007
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		09/23/2007
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		HOLLY ELLINGWOOD

Hikaru begins the Pro Exams. He must win this to have any hopes of catching up to Toya. With a strong beginning due to his new more mature competitive attitude, it looks like he’s off to a good start. However, upon hearing of Hikaru’s advancement, Toya takes a reckless step and helps Ochi, one of the top Pro Exam contenders. What can Toya hope to gain by helping Hikaru’s competition? Find out in the latest exciting volume of Hikaru no Go!

Only three people can win and become pros in the exams so the competition is fierce and the stakes have never been higher for Hikaru. As the exams progress, he learns about the other players and just how much they have on the line. Contenders have had to quit their jobs, pay a lot of money to travel to Tokyo to take the exam from out of town, and others have been striving for this goal for years. For these people, Go truly is a way of life and they have devoted their lives to it. Will this affect Hikaru’s desire to win?

In the tenth round of matches, Hikaru faces off against Isumi who has to win or else he’ll no longer be able to compete. This is his final year of eligibility for the Pro Exams so he has to give it everything he has. However Toya’s attentions have given Ochi a distraction he can ill afford, wondering about Hikaru while still having to win his own match. Meanwhile Ochi’s pre-game words seem to have made Isumi nervous. Things are tense on all sides, but when Isumi does something potentially illegal, Hikaru has to decide on how he truly wants to win or if his sympathy for his opponents may be his undoing.

There are plenty of tense moments and hard ethical questions in the latest episodes of this particular volume of Hikaru no Go. The vested interest that Hikaru has in his fellow teammates is a credit to him not only as a competitor, but as a decent human being. However, that could prove a liability in his match that went wrong with Isumi. Now both players’ games are suffering. Hikaru will have to dig deep to find the answers he needs when dealing with these hard situations in this latest volume. Ochi however, is shown to be a very unsympathetic character. His attitude is aggressive and inconsiderate if not outright mean. It will be curious to see how things turn out as the Pro Exams near the final matches.

The other thing this volume offers is a cultural inside look into the Pro Exams, what it entails and how much some people invest of themselves to attain Pro status. It’s a fascinating look inside a community (Go players) that very little is known about outside its circles.

EXTRAS:
Bonus features in this volume include previews of other Viz titles, “Know Your Go” glossary, and storyboard and sketch gallery.

IN SUMMARY:
The latest volume of Hikaru no Go poses some hard ethical challenges for Hikaru as the Pro Exams begin. Hikaru no Go is a show that constantly surprises with its strong and suspenseful story telling as well as its insights into the world of Go.