Amadan na Briona

This oddly addicting series manages to put the drama of a Shaolin showdown in a middle school go tournament. It's starting to turn into more of a bildungsroman, as the theme of Hikaru and Akira's growing maturity begins to be repeated, always referenced through the lens of their go-playing. Akira is still obsessively pursuing Hikaru for a rematch, so much of the drama remains Haze middle school trying to put together a line-up for the tournament while Kaoi has to deal with its star player who's only there to beat Hikaru Shindo.

Sai, the ancient ghostly go master, is still kind of a silly character who exists only as a plot device. There is only one mention of his meta-arc, when the cheating behavior of another child prodigy reminds him of his old rival.

The cheater is the new character introduced in this volume, Yuki Mitani, a little go shark.

Overall, a very amusing series, though I wonder how long it's going to drag out the whole Akira-vs-Hikaru contest without an actual decisive game. Also, Hikaru's little girlfriend who obviously has a crush on him is getting on my nerves: all she does is watch games with wide-eyed incomprehension and bake the boys cookies.