HikaGo!

[xparrot]

(Belated Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans! Hope you had good turkey-days, we had a pleasant time ourselves with friends!)

In the last two weeks or so the brother and I plowed through all of Hikaru no Go (anime version, now I gotta look up the manga to read the end!). It's as awesome a series as anyone ever says, and every bit as slashy. Possibly more so. Shindou/Touya joins BanGin as one of those slash pairings that the brother can only sigh and admit is pretty much canon (heck, by the end the brother was just advising Touya to sex the Sai conundrum out of Shindou. He also suggested that they would be playing Go to determine who'd be on top. And then rolled his eyes when I mentioned that gnine has been telling me the exact same thing.)

He enjoyed the heck out of the series all the same, especially since it actually got me interested enough to try to play Go - the brother is a great strategy game aficionado , and even owns a nice Go set, but has never really had much chance to play for lack of opponents. We've been playing for the past week or so and now I can just about eke out a victory out of him when he gives me a six stone handicap...uh, yeah, I am not what you'd call any kind of game aficianado. (Also we are both the world's worst losers and get incredibly sulky when a game goes badly. Sometimes both of us at the same time, because we'll both have screwed up badly and then we start arguing over who's further behind ^^;;;)

But really, even if you have no interest in Go it's a great, cute series. Has the sports-shounen sort of feel in that there's antagonists but no real villains (even if Ogata deserves some kind of reward for being the Creepiest Glasses-Wearing Biseinen to Never Actually Do Anything Evil Despite Appearing As If He's Plotting Wicked Perverted Things All the Time to appear in an anime. I kind of love him for it.) And even putting aside the slashiness, Hikaru and Akira have to be the most dedicatedly mutual rivals I've ever seen in a shounen - Sai creates this weird triangle situation in which Touya is obsessed with facing Shindou/Sai, but Shindou is obsessed with making Touya acknowledge him, and they can't hardly play a game with anyone without thinking about the other. Awwww! Gotta love it. Especially at the end when they're actually friends and arguing wildly every day and Touya actually is acting his age for the first time ever, socute. And sooner or later one or the other of them is going to realize how they feel and just lean over and end the debate with a liplock...

Though Shindou so needs to TELL TOUYA ABOUT SAI DAMNIT. Especially since he pretty much has figured it out, only he doesn't know it. Really, Touyas Jr. & Sr., Waya, and Ogata need to sit around with a bottle of sake and have a long talk, because if they all put everything they know together they might be able to figure it out...

Comments

[spacealien-vamp.livejournal.com]

Two words: Strip Go

I totally agree with you about Ogata. I kept expecting him to do something horrible, but he was always so nice. Also, Touya-papa/Sai is another practically canon couple, and I wish there were doujinshi about the two of them together.

I also wish the manga had a more satisfying ending. ~_~

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Someone has to have written Strip Go - right? ^^

Poor Ogata, yeah...he's got a few moments that he seems like he might be a bit of an asshole, but really he's mostly a matchmaker, trying to get the chosen couple together!

Haven't read the manga yet so don't know how it ends...the anime had a rather nice ending, I thought, though the special less so...

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

I utterly adore Hikaru no Go, and it makes me laugh, squee and occasionally weep. I keep waiting for a Sai story in which he finds happiness in the afterlife with his first protege...but I may have to write it myself, as nobody's done it so far.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, awww, poor Sai...though Touya SR. can't live forever, and he's gonna need someone to play in the afterlife, so...!

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

I LOVE the idea of that pairing!

[issen4.livejournal.com]

Touyas Jr. & Sr., Waya, and Ogata need to sit around with a bottle of sake and have a long talk

But they won't because they are all super competitive, and each wants to be the first to 'find' Sai.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

That's what the alcohol is for! XD

[shayera.livejournal.com]

I love HikaGo! It was the first manga I ever read entirely in Japanese, back in 2003, and I have very fond memories. It also made me learn how to play go. It is very inspirational. ^_^

And Sai is the most adorable ghost ever. ♥

I'm not sure where the anime ends, but if it ends where I think it does (Hikaru and Akira kind of become friends and they play go together a lot and argue about it, and Hikaru admits that he's still got a lot to learn to be as good as Sai?)... That's the good ending. I kind of regret reading the rest of the manga after that, because it starts up a completely new arc where some of the character development is lost and the ending really disappointed me. :(

On the other hand, if I were you, I'd probably read it even after getting warned, because I'm a crazy completist. XD

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, it is very inspirational, Go-wise (and learning to play also helps make it make a bit more sense, I've found...)

I've been wondering about trying the manga in Japanese, because other than the Go terminology I found a lot of the anime quite easy to understand (a bit of a relief after Gintama, which makes me question whether I know Japanese at all...! ^^;;;)

Three people now have said the end of the manga is disappointing...maybe I won't read it after all. Or only just skim it. The anime ending was very satisfying, and the special started up what I imagine is the new arc (the Jr. Asian tournament?) but was still fun...too bad it doesn't go well...

[shayera.livejournal.com]

Gintama is definitely the most difficult-to-read shounen manga I know, so don't let that get you down. Hikago isn't all that hard at all - and the manga has the pretty pre-Death Note Obata Takeshi art!

Don't know what the special does, but yeah, that's the tournament in the final manga arc. It's kind of tucked on at the end like an afterthought, and a bad one at that. After the very satisfying ending in volume 17 (which is probably where the anime ends), it really left a bad aftertaste in my mouth. On the other hand, you could try volume 18! It's a "番外編" - a volume filled with short untold stories centering on various characters and taking place at different point in canon. It's cute! But volume 19-23 is better skipped.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Heh, yeah, Gintama is uniquely difficult (as well as uniquely a lot of other things!) but HikaGo just seems fun (if only I had the money to buy it ^^;)

The anime included a couple of the sidestories, I believe, but I'll check out the others! Yeah, looking it over, the anime ended near the beginning of v.19 (or rather, compressed some of the first chapters of v.19 into a few minutes - it shows Hikaru buying the fan and such, and a "where all the chars are now" montage) - it was a really nice, satisfying ending. Then the special did the beginning of the final tournament, only showing the prelims, which were fun...shame it lost that. (someone below says there might have been creative differences or somesuch that got the series canceled prematurely?)

[ah-chan.livejournal.com]

Oh Hikaru no Go <3!

Although I warn you, if you go on to read the rest of the manga, it's a bit disappointing, because the series should have really ended where the anime does - thematically, it's perfect, and the last arcs feel kind of like filler. However, the art is absolutely gorgeous by that stage, so I can't really complain...?

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee - you're the third person to warn me about the end of the manga...maybe I'll just skim it to find out what happens. The anime had such a nice ending, too...!

[ah-chan.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, it is a pretty common opinion! Well, it seems pretty certain that the manga got axed before the last arcs were properly finished, although rumours as to why vary (The Koreans sued over the depiction of the Korean team! The writer and artist had creative differences/personal drama! @_@)

Yeeeees, skim it just to look at the pretty pretty art!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I didn't realize there was ~drama~ about the cancellation! That would explain a sudden and disappointing ending. Might wait a bit and then read the whole manga, but I'll take the end with a grain of salt ^^;

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

Three all-time fic recs:

Left-Handed Go, by tsukikoushi, general hilarity
A Proof by Contradiction (Eight Primary Sources), by petronia so you know it's good, futurefic maybe angst
Sam Shindou, Private Five, also by tsukikoushi, wild and clever AU

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, thank you, will have to check those out!

[gnine.livejournal.com]

OH, SCORE, thanks for the links! ^__^

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

I forgot to add everything by cest_what. :D

[amalthia]

If you'd ever like to play go I have an account at KGS. :) I learned how to play but I'm not very good. However, lack of partners has been a problem.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I, uh, would be too embarrassed to play now, but maybe if I keep at it...(can't say that I will, though, my patience for strategy games often runs its course quickly ^^;)

[amalthia]

Well if you ever change your mind. You know where to find me. :)

[immicolia.livejournal.com]

I used to read the manga back when I was subscribing to Viz's Shonen Jump (which I have since redubbed "the Naruto Magazine" and stopped buying in a fit of annoyance years ago XD) since it ran a couple chapters every month. But I'll admit my interest in it waned after Hikaru decided to start on his pro test or whatever it was. There was a pair of side characters (those two guys Hikaru formed a Go club with at school or whatever) that I loved more than anything and sort of shipped like mad who essentially vanished after that point and I got annoyed at the lack of them and stopped reading. I hate when lovable supporting characters are inexplicably thrown on the bus in exchange for a new batch as the hero moves on. Anime and manga is always terrible for that.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, yeah, Tsutsui and Kaga were awfully slashy, but they did vanish from the series later (especially since so much time passed that they graduated from the school partway through the series...)

I actually kind of like the way side chars come and go in anime; it reflects the tidal relationships of real life (especially life when you're a kid, and someone moves or goes to another school and you pretty much never hear from them again.) But it can be frustrating when it's your favorite chars that go away...

[rubysp720.livejournal.com]

*crawls out of lukerdom

Yes! Another joins Shindou/Touya fandom~

Fic rec ++++
Brightly burning:
In a different world, Hikaru never steps into Touya Kouyo's salon. When he is fifteen, the Go world starts to take notice of a terrifying new insei with amazing strength...
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1387722/1/Brightly_Burning
Note: the best Hikaru no Go fic with plenty of plot development but is slow on the update. Very very recommended :D

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, thanks for the rec, will definitely check it out!

Go

[beautifuljoe.livejournal.com]

All right the use of Live Journal for personal ends. I am after all in the forgiveness business.

One of plans for next year for me is to learn ta dah! Go and Mahjong (have you read Jane Lndskold's new series based in Mahjong, first book, Thirteen Orphans?)

All hinting to your mother would be acceptable.

Re: Go

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Heh, I don't know how much luck you'll have getting Mom into Go; she's not much for straight strategy games and Go is about as strategic as it comes. It's not that difficult to learn, though (the original "minute to learn, lifetime to master" game!)

Mah-jonng - no, haven't heard of those books, worth looking up? All I know about Mah-jong is that it's fiendishly complex. Harder than bridge from what I know, and I've never learned bridge, either...! ^^;