The Totally Epic HikaGo Reread - Vol. 3

[effex]

~Volume 3 of Hikaru no Go~

(Is a little late today)

To the comments!

Comments

[effex]

Humm - the thing I wanted to comment on this volume was how the artist and author handle the kids like kids - a lot of shonen manga treat/draw their junior high/high school characters like they're in their late teens and I'm glad HikaGo avoids that. Sai calls a lot of people (mostly Mitani) 'child' in this chapter and it really drove it home.

Also, is it just me or has Obata's art already markedly improved?

[bookshop]

OH LOOK AT THAT BEAUTIFUL COVER *__*

[effex]

It really is striking <3

[onkoona]

Obata's really got the art down now, I love it!
I've been watching the anime in conjucntion with reading the manga, and it's starting to show that in the anime they've upped the angst and downplayed Sai's whiny-ness. (works for me; I don't like whining much, even though it doesn't bother me too much from Sai...)

I did make screencaps, but I can't post untill tomorrow; there's just too few hours in one evening!

[zanzando]

WAAAAAH, AKIRAAA . . . ♥♥♥

[zanzando]

Re: the art.

I've noticed that just yesterday when I was browsing Yesasia for the new complete editions, and the old covers, starting roughly with this one, were impossibly pretty ALREADY. <333

[onkoona]

Akira...
Talk about high-strung! At some point I thought he was going to blow a fuse, literally! Boy he'd better calm down or he's gonna be the youngest Go player to die of a heart attack!
Still love m tho'....

[onkoona]

[zanzando]

HEE.

Well it's not easy having Hikaru as your rival. If it were me, I would have felt the distinct urge to throttle him on a few occasions.

[onkoona]

[onkoona]

too true!
I really thought he was gonna in the next volume, when I read it the first time!

[effex]

What Zan said - Akira seems like a prtty mild mannered kid when he's interacting with anyone who's not!Hikaru - a little intense and obsessive, maybe. It's only when he's around his ~eternal rival~ that he gets all worked up.

[effex]

It's been a long, long time since I saw any of the anime - my first thought is lol, angst, well. They had to do *something* to pad it for tv.... I have no idea if this is actually true.

[effex]

Yeah, I was reading along and thinking, wow, this is a big difference. And I don't think it's just the improved scan quality.

[onkoona]

Hey, I like angst, so I ain't complaining!

[zanzando]

LOL DOOOOOOOM. XD

[zanzando]

That's part of why they're so OTP. Akira would have very little true emotional interaction with his environment if not for Hikaru.

[onkoona]

Then it's a very good thing Hikaru showed up, otherwise Akira would be deadly dull.

(gratuitous picture of Akari, for no reason whatsoever!
)

[onkoona]

Screencaps are up!
---------------------
9-1
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/8406.html

9-2
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/8636.html

10-1
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/8898.html

10-2
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/9166.html

11-1
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/9463.html

11-2
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/9701.html

12-1
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/9802.html

12-2
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/10050.html

[esmenet]

I'd forgotten how determined Akira really is. He's like this little angry tornado. *_* And how much I wanted to strangle Mitani -- the way Sai strangles Hikaru, with headlocks and love. Sure, Mitani, keep cheating just to be an asshole and not letting your friends trust you. That's the way to win 'em.

Yuri, ILU. ♥ Even though Hikago doesn't really do major female characters, the minor ones are pretty damn awesome. (Although I'm really sad she didn't come back the way Kishimoto did. She could have verbally bitchslapped people around some more!)

[invitan.livejournal.com]

Rereading this vol makes me want to pet Akira. Poor kid, got misunderstood all the time. You really need to be more sociable! And look at the way he sat while talking to his father. The formality really chills me out.

I totally didn't realise until now that Kuwabara first appeared in this vol! The geezer looks kinda tame though, so no wonder.

[effex]

<3 screencaps and also Hikaru's little round face.

[effex]

[ponders] I can't remember if we ever learn more about Mitani's home life - his behavior says something besides a cut-off allowance is up. Hmmmm.

Yuri is so kick ass! I love how quickly she took charge of the situation.

[effex]

Yeah, Akira has absolutely no idea how to act his age [pets him] It's hard to be a child prodigy! Especially in middle school, where there's so much pressure to conform.

And I was excited to see the geezer - yay Kuwabara!

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

So, that scene where Hikaru's wondering who his opponent in the Kaiou match will be, and suddenly we see these black shoes in a small frame on the bottom of the page and "It's me."... Very well blocked (is that the word?) in my opinion.

I didn't quite get why the girl with the glasses was getting so flustered at Hidaka in Game 25, though... Is she the "Sempai" that Hidaka says was telling her all about last year's game?

[lacygrey]

~The art. I agree totally, the art takes on a different style here. I don't know many other shonen series to compare it with, but I did remark that the older characters in HnG are also drawn more 'realistically' than the younger ones. I find the go salon owner Shuu particularly well done: he shows the reader so much on his face without saying anything. Sai seems less ethereal in this chapter, more masculine too and, possibly, a bit younger. In fact Sai and Hikaru start to resemble one another more and more as the story goes on.

Does anyone know whether Obata's drawings are solo work or the work of his team?

~Sai and Mitani: I enjoyed rediscovering a part I'd forgotten here in the manga, where Sai is very positive about getting Mitani to change his ways ("above all because he's still a child"). I remembered Sai being harsher (perhaps he was harsher in the anime) because of his own experience with a cheater.

[lacygrey]

There is a Mitani side story in volume 18 where we get some background on his playing for money.

Yes Hidaka is such a perfect prefect about it all!

[lacygrey]

The geezer looks kinda tame LOL
And Kouyo looks kinda young. http://www.onemanga.com/Hikaru_no_Go/24/03/

In one of the 'Days with the draft' pages by Yumi Hotta (No 7, not in the scantilations), she talks about the draft images of the characters that she sent to Takeshi Obata and how he would either remain very faithful to her idea or totally transform them. Thus, Ichikawa was originally a grandmotherly type in Hotta's sketch but Obata rejuvenated her; Kaneko remained virtually unchanged and Kubawara also - although Hotta says she regretted this as her draft made Kubawara look like a 'some strange kind of ape' and Obata kept him just the same.

[lacygrey]

I like the irony of Mitani finally deciding not to cheat because the Kaio team think he's a false captain and Kishimoto is so snarky to him.

[lacygrey]

Perhaps the girl with glasses thinks that Hidaka has overstepped the mark of politeness - its difficult to say, but she is being very 'direct' here.