[Guardian Enzo]

Any Tar Heels out there?

The American Go Association announced on Monday that the Hikaru no Go manga creator Yumi Hotta will attend the 2012 US Go Congress. The go board game tournament event will take place in Black Mountain, North Carolina on August 4-12.

Hotta will sign autographs, meet fans, and answer their questions on Sunday, August 5. She will also judge a Hikaru no Go trivia contest on Monday, August 6. The author learned about the international popularity of her manga when she visited the European Go Congress two years ago.

Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine serialized the original Hikaru no Go manga with Hotta's story and Takeshi Obata's art from December 1998 to July 2003. The series won at the Shogakukan Manga Awards in 2000 and received the Shinsei Prize in the 7th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize awards in 2003. Viz Media published all 23 compiled book volumes in North America. The television anime adaptation first aired in Japan from 2001 to 2003, and Viz also released the series on DVD in North America.