Mainstream Go Sightings

[Phelan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_TgM0pCDvI
I don't know how mainstream this is, but you can see people playing Go at the beginning.

[msgreg]

Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles

S02E10 "Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s73zUByBv3A

Sorry if duplicate, hadn't seen this posted. From Jul 9, 2011

[Bill Spight]

Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles

S02E10 "Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s73zUByBv3A

Sorry if duplicate, hadn't seen this posted. From Jul 9, 2011

Thanks, that's hilarious.

[bogiesan]

Randomly looking through books at Barnes and Noble the other day and found "The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick." Randomly opened the book to page 88 and found an obscure reference to a "Go board," capitalization theirs.
Book is by Pamela Jackson and Jonathan Lethem.

http://www.amazon.com/Exegesis-Philip-K-Dick/dp/0547549253/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329058477&sr=8-1

[Inkwolf]

I'm listening to an audiobook of Alison Croggon's The Naming. It's a fantasy about a slave girl who turns out to be the only surviving member of a major house of bards.

In the bards' hall to which she is taken and trained in, a game called Gis is played, and it is surely either actually Go or inspired by it.

I can't post an exact description, since it is an audiobook and I am past that part, but it is played on a hexagonal table, where black and white counters are played on a board of many small squares. The main character enjoys watching the patterns evolve, grow and disappear in the course of the game. She is told that learning the game is a lifetime pursuit. Later, a character described as the hall's best player mentions a book she likes called The Strange Flowers of Gis.

I do not think Gis will be an important plot point (especially since they are about to leave the hall) but it's prominently there. I believe this is the first book in a series, so there may be more later, too.

EDIT: Just found this on the author's website:
"More astonishing discoveries include the fact that the Bards had a working theory of evolution and natural selection, which becomes very clear in the many texts written around the game of Gis, which was very popular in Bardic culture. Many Bards wrote about the game, but it was Intathen of Gent who first theorised Gis as a model of competing populations of species, and even of evolutionary tendencies within a single psyche."

I see a few other references to Gis, so it must be in some of the other series books as well.

[speedchase]

In Code lyoko episode 29 one of the main characters plays go.

[Inkwolf]

Pani Poni Dash!, episode 15: Endure Patiently and You Will Not Wilt.

The class school bus is teetering on the edge of a cliff. Since they are forbidden to interfere, the alien observers find various pastimes as they wait to see if Class 1-C will plummet to a gruesome death.

paniponidash_go.jpg (59.51 KiB) Viewed 28742 times

[tchan001]

Pani Poni Dash!, episode 15: Endure Patiently and You Will Not Wilt.

The class school bus is teetering on the edge of a cliff. Since they are forbidden to interfere, the alien observers find various pastimes as they wait to see if Class 1-C will plummet to a gruesome death.

The picture shows the game up to move 146 of Game 5 of the 6th Japanese Honinbo Final between Hashimoto Utaro 8p (W) and Sakata Eio 7p (B) played on May 31st, 1951.
Guess the aliens are well aware of Japanese go game records and how to replay them. Maybe they even own a copy of GoGOD.

[Tofu]

There's an LA times article on Go today. Well, it's actually about Curtis Tang, a go player in LA. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-holland-20120424,0,2904088.column

[Inkwolf]

In the movie Summer Wars, Matsuki brings Kenji to a family reunion celebrating her grandmother's 90th birthday. We first see the grandmother as she sits replaying a game out of a book. Later in the movie, Kenji joins her at the goban, but just to play cards on it.

summer_wars_go.jpg (88.24 KiB) Viewed 28480 times

EDIT: Whoops, I see Jedo mentioned it in December. Well. Now you have pictures. ^^

[PROVOK3]

In the movie, Sleeping Beauty directed by Julia Leigh there is a brief scene discussing and analyzing a particular game of go.

[lindentree]

This book looks terrible, but apparently the protagonist plays Go. (it's based on Trevanian's Shibumi, which I read a few years ago)

http://www.amazon.com/Satori-Don-Winslow/dp/0446561924

[Redbeard]

This book looks terrible, but apparently the protagonist plays Go. (it's based on Trevanian's Shibumi, which I read a few years ago)

http://www.amazon.com/Satori-Don-Winslow/dp/0446561924

I've read it and it is pretty good, especially considering that it is an unnecessary prequel. I would say that if you liked the Shibumi then Satori is worth the read.

[Inkwolf]

At my anime club, we watched Episode 1 of Night Raid 1931. The team of special agents hold a conference while playing Go outdoors, on a really cool board. (I want it, seriously.)

I'm currently watching Bakuman, which has no actual Go so far, but has the Hikaru No Go manga pictured in the background at least twice in the first two episodes. Heh--Shonen Jump self-advertising: Death Note has also been mentioned and been pictured.

nightraid1931.jpg (57.89 KiB) Viewed 18620 times

[EdLee]

At my anime club, we watched Episode 1 of Night Raid 1931.

x.jpg (22.16 KiB) Viewed 18600 times

Always curious how they "arrived" at the positions on TV shows (anime or live action):

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