Hikaru no Go is certainly a great drama. Good story, good pace, great main characters, deep themes and even the special effects are well done. I enjoyed it a lot, but there is one thing they did really really badly: the treatment of female characters.

Obviously, if you are looking for feminist content you should´t be in this corner of the virtual world. We all know that 95% of Asian dramas are somewhere between quite sexist and disgustingly misogynistic. By now I should be used to it, but it makes me very angry and sad that such a careful and beautiful pruduction makes such an horrible representation of women (even for a Chinese drama). The world of go is probably particularly retrograde and I guess the original manga won't help in this respect either, but still, at this point in the 21st century this kind of representation of women should not be allowed. Was it so difficult to at least include one decent female character?

Despite the extensive casting, none of the women on screen have any goals or interests of their own (beyond seducing and pleasing the man around them). They exist only to clean the practice room, make the boys' meals or console them in their suffering (and are of course very stupid). Friends, mothers, girlfriends... none of them have their own voice. I feel so sad for the poor Chinese actresses relegated to these shitty characters.

With this I don't want to stop recommending the drama. But I would like people who watch it to be aware of this huge flaw.
We deserve better.