English-language Adaptations
Hikaru no Go is published in English in Shonen Jump magazine, and in individual graphic novels. Viz Media also licensed the anime and contacted The Ocean Group to produce an English voice dub. The anime was shown in English on ImaginAsian TV to USA residents and the first 72 episodes were available for streaming on Toonami Jetstream. DVDs are also available from Viz, although only 10 volumes were released (covering 50 episodes) before they were canceled due to low sales. The remaining 3 English dubbed episodes not released to either DVD or streaming were finally released when the series was put up for download on iTunes in February 2011. The manga is unedited in the Shonen Jump version and the manga chapters that can be read on the Shonen Jump website. Unlike the earlier Shonen Jump versions, instances of cigarettes are removed from the Hikaru no Go graphic novels so that they can be labelled as appropriate for everyone. For instance, the cigarette that Tetsuo Kaga puts on a Go board is changed to a wad of chewing gum in the graphic novel. Other changes include removal of clothing designs (e.g. vol. 5) and actual trademarks.
The cigarette habits were edited in 2005 Shonen Jump editions along with the graphic novels, though not all were caught before translation. In Volume 2, Sai communicates his outrage about Tetsuo's "dirty cigarette" (graphic novel vol. 2, p. 9), and in another edition Sai says "He put his gum out on the board!" and in another panel Tetsuo is shown in the background smoking. As of September 2006, references to cigarettes and smoking are prevalent in the version seen in Shonen Jump.
Similar changes were made when it was adapted as an anime, inside Japan.
Read more about this topic: Hikaru No Go 3