Hikaru no Go

Now back when I was a kid and manga was new to these shores manga for boys mostly consisted of harem manga, with full fan service, and giant robots with people in them beating each other up. Things have changed since then and there are a lot more options and genres available.

One genre I see a lot of now is sports manga like Prince of Tennis, Whistle, Rebound and many others. These generally consist of one Joe average who loves the game but isn't really very good at it and often is the worst player on the team. They usually end up succeeding through some special inner skill and a whole boat lad of determination and love of the game. I'm sure you recognize the plot from any number of western sports movies.

Hikaru no Go is a little different than most of this genre; firstly because Go is more like chess then football, and secondly because Go is usually played by old men and not boys. To get around this the main character, a punk kid named Hikari Shindo, is haunted by the ghost of a great Go player named Fujiwara-no-Sai. In order to get his life back Hikari starts to learn to play Go, mostly to keep Sai off his back. He unwittingly starts to love the game and eventually finds himself playing against the strongest player in his age group as Sai. This starts a rivalry between the boys and Hikari vows to reach the other young man so that they can play as equals.

For someone who could easily have Sai switch in whenever he starts to lose Hikari is surprisingly honest. He never cheats except by ignorance of the game and often has to keep Sai from playing when he shouldn't. Unlike other boy types there is almost no violence 9other than a few school yard scraps) and no sex or other things you might like your young men to avoid. It's manga like this that proves you can tell a good story, and keep boys engaged, with out resorting to an "R" rating.