Hikaru no Go is a drama with a primary theme of passion for the game of Go. However it goes beyond your regular sports based story and explores important slice-of-life themes such as friendship, perseverance, teacher-student relationship, hardships faced while trying to achieve your dream, bi-directional family support (between children and parents) and many others.

Strengths of this drama:
- Fantastic screenplay (pulls you in from the first episode and keeps you engaged throughout its runtime)
- Enlightening short story arcs in the middle of the drama (drifting painter, temple monks)
- One of the best child actors i have ever seen (the kid who played ML was so charismatic)
- Support characters add such great depth to the story and each one contributes something significant to the main lead's journey
- Great bromance between the main leads (true to adage 'bringing out the best in each other')
- Peppy and 80s/90s nostalgic music is a bonus as well

If I had to nitpick, the only thing this drama was lacking was some romance. However that doesn't take away anything from this wonderful story.

It's a pity not many people know about this drama. It certainly gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling. You may not love it as much as I did but it definitely deserves a watch from anyone who is looking for something sweet and fulfilling.