The Totally Epic HikaGo Reread - Vol. 1

[effex]

Happy Wednesday, everyone!
ARE YOU READY FOR SOME HIKARU NO GO?

Yes? Excellent. Let's get this party started - to the comments with your thoughts, observations, revelations, etc!

(A reminder - there are several people who are reading the series for the first time, let's try to keep spoilers to a minimum.)

A question - how did the one volume/week work for you? Was it doable, difficult, ridiculously easy? Do we want to stay with it or kick it up to two volumes a week (or down to chapters a week)?

Comments

To get things started:

[effex]

* Boys! Ahaha, Hikaru, I forgot what a snot-nosed brat you were. And how instantly you and Akira got emotionally entangled. And how much of a drama queen Sai is (I <3 you, Sai!).

* It's always so interesting to go back to the start (or near the start, I know Obata did a couple of things before this) of someone's artistic career and look at the progress they've made. The start of HikaGo looks nothing like the end of HikaGo (or, say, DeathNote).

* Although, early art or not, the man knows how to make a game of Go exciting.

* I continue to be super amused by Ogata's nosejob + makeover.



* I need more HikaGo icons.

Re: To get things started:

[dancing_serpent]

* I need more HikaGo icons.
Urks, yes. Most definitely!

Re: To get things started:

[effex]

[goes to track down icons]

Re: To get things started:

[troisroyaumes]

lucathia_rykatu just posted a whole bunch here if you haven't seen them yet.

Re: To get things started:

[effex]

Oooh, thank you! I hadn't seen these yet, they're so, so pretty.

Re: To get things started:

[zanzando]

YES! Icons from the Complete edition. Thank you!

Re: To get things started:

[lacygrey.livejournal.com]

Its true that early Sai is very different also. I think he has a similar face to Ichikawa* here. Kouyo looks more like Akira early on in the manga, they have the same turned up nose! I read the manga before the anime and so these pages were the first time I saw the characters. Its only looking back that I see how different they sometimes are. Of course the children grow up but the adults change too as the story develops and we, and the artist, get to know them.

When I was reading vol 1. for the first time I got completely off track when Hikaru started to want to play for himself. I like to try to guess where a story is going and here I guessed wrong: I believed Hikaru when he accused Sai of possessing his body:

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/hikaru_no_go/v01/c000/167.html

From then on I imagined all sorts of crazy outcomes (I knew nothing of the manga beforehand and had no idea what to expect), particularly as I wasn't certain that Sai was a 'good guy' (haunting by force, Go by bribery etc.). So I imagined Sai possessing Hikaru and then perhaps going after Akari, who he notices even though Hikaru himself couldn't care less, and who is obviously interested in Hikaru (and perhaps would therefore be in Sai disguised as Hikaru). In Heian times she would have been of marrying age of course. Then I started to wonder what this book had been doing in the children's manga section of the library where I'd found it ° _°

I was happily completely wrong but, as one of the stranger ideas that the story left me with, it has stayed with me.



Thank you for organizing the reread!



*A descendant of the Fujiwara? ^=^

Re: To get things started:

[effex]

That... is an excellent idea for an AU. And also ~creepy~, holy cow, Evil Sai would be a thing of wonder.

Thank you for participating!

eeee!

[nan]

D'awww, Hikaru is the exact character archetype I'm going to like, I can tell! He's so little and cute and tooootally uninterested in this pretty ghost showing up to make him play Go. And eeew, projectile vomiting, omg, I laughed so hard at that last guy who was covered and was like "eww, Hikaru vomit :( :( :(".

Sai is very pretty! I love how he kind of hovers over Hikaru. It's awesome - those scenes are beautiful. And he really loves Go. That guy who cheated was a total douchebag. :|

Akira is very cute! But I really haven't seen enough of her to make a real impression. *G*

Re: eeee!

[effex]

<3 <3 <3 Hikaru is a doll, he really is, and watching him grow into himself is one of the best parts of the manga.

Sai just gets prettier - it'd be ridiculous if it weren't so... pretty. And yeah, his death sucked. A lot.

And speaking of pretty boys, Akira's one! And he also gets prettier with age, heh. Watching him grow into himself is another one of the series' joys.

Re: eeee!

[nan]

Oh yay, I can't wait! I might, uh, end up reading ahead a little bit! XD But then I will read it as we go along and it will actually be a reread for me! So, yeah.

And uh, by Akira, I meant Akari, hahaha. Letters are fun! But yes, Akira is quite pretty too. *G*