effex | The Totally Epic HikaGo Reread

From:

onkoona

22-1
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/15521.html

22-2
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/15826.html

23-1
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/16052.html

23-2
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/16190.html

23-3
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/16593.html

24-1
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/16806.html

24-2
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/17049.html

From:

effex

Lolololol - you are fast - I only stopped for a moment to fix some of the html!

Isumi's hair is a lot better in the anime.

From:

onkoona

hihi!
I've been reloading this page for the past hour, waiting for you to post!

I like the secnd version of Isumi better; he was a bid bland earlier on. Maybe they hadn't decided Isumi would be a regular character at first and didn't bother to make him unique...

From:

effex

Or they thought the weird bisected bowlcut would make him unique, idk. He is pretty quiet now, you're right, but you can already see hints of the places he's going. Don't know if they meant for him to be as big a character as he ended up being, though.

From:

onkoona

He is quite passive in this poart of the story, maybe that's why he keeps failing the pro-exam, while being best in class...

From:

lacygrey

I think its amazing that they were still working out the scenarios of the later episodes while the earlier ones were just being published. They knew where they were going of course (The overall story had won a prize before being accepted for publication and before the authors had even met one another) but hadn't worked out the details.

I agree about Isumi. I also think he looks older in the anime than at this point in the manga.

From:

onkoona

Making Isumi look a little older than the others, considering he IS older, was a good idea.
I also like the intro duction of an slightly older character at this point in the story as a peer; it shows that Hikaru is slowly entering the world of the grown-ups

From:

effex

[nods] The boy's almost 18 and acts older, despite his insecurities. He should look like it (I'd forgotten he was that much older and was all 'woah' when he talked about turning 18 soon).

From:

onkoona

Well turning 18 means he has to leave the insei program, thus making that a crunch time moment; if he doesn't make pro this time, he'll have to go it all alone, his entire support and training system will fall away. And he has to ask himself that if he can't seem to pass WITH all the support, how is he supposed to do it without next year!?!

From:

lacygrey

It kind of puts Mashiba's jibes in perspective too.

From:

effex

My favorite things about this volume:

* Akira's moving on, really, he's not looking back, he's not thinking about Shindou and even if he were he'd never let him catch up, he is a memory, unimportant...is he going to watch my game? omg he's going to watch my game. shindou, shindou, watch this!

* Relatedly, how completely the boys are wrapped up in each other. They define each other now and probably always will. [pats their tiny obsessive heads]

* The framing of the two panels where Ogata says he wants to show Akira something. Can you be more creepy, Ogata? I ask this with love and concern.

* The way that Hikaru doesn't quite fit anywhere anymore, not school, not with the insei, not at home, but he's pushing on regardless.

* Isumi's hair.

From:

onkoona

Ogata creeps me out sometimes, with his machinations and his pushing Hikaru around, earlier in the story and later.
I could well see him do some very unsavery things (as far as anyone those unsavery things in the universe)...

From:

effex

Yeah. I'm fond of the guy, but he can be a bit of a creeper. A lot of it's the way he's drawn and how the panel's are framed - the scene I'm talking about wouldn't be half as 0.O if it were shown from a different angle.

From:

onkoona

I find it anoying that there is zero backround info on some of the characters; Ogata amongst them.
It makes it really hard to write them in character if their character is so sketchy.
At the moment I'm writing a story in which I needed a villan and Ogata is volenteering himself. Will I be able to write him in character as a villan?
A lot of people won't see him as one but I can't tell from the canon!

From:

effex

Yeah. We can draw some conclusions from the way he acts and the company he keeps (Touya Meijin seems to respect him) but... [shrugs] It'll be something to watch for on this read through, I guess.

From:

lacygrey

I think that makes him a real wildcard. Ive read him as a hero and as a villan in different fanfic. I think people fill in the blanks with what they like. This absence of detail gives him an attractive mystique. There are not many other characters in his age group either - not that we any precise idea of what his age might be.

From:

effex

You're right - the upside is that it makes him a very flexible character. I've always thought of him as being in his 30's... and there really are no other major characters that age (well, Sai maybe. Give or take 1000 years). Huh.

From:

lacygrey

How old do you think Sai might be?
(without the extra 1000 years of course.)

From:

onkoona

Not yet 30, and probably closer to 25.
I've been researching the Heian period and life expactancy was 20-30 years, so he could even be younger. But I would find it unlikely he's under 20; he wouldn't have had enough time to become one of the two best at court, I would think...

From:

effex

That seems really low... [googles] Wow, okay. I guess ~1000AD sucked no matter where you lived.

From:

onkoona

Hum, yes, Heian period really sucked. I was going to do some more serious research for my story but I got fed-up with the apathy of the period.
Also what they showed in HnG canon of Sai's time there does not jive with the fundamental rules of Heian nobility and court life.
I now feel exempt from having to bore myself and my readers with an accurate discription of the period.

And the filth of it.
Yuk.

From:

lacygrey

life expactancy was 20-30 years
And they were the fortunate cosseted upper classes...

The emperor (what we see of him) also looks young, Sugawara (the cheater) somewhat older.

I think its fitting that Sai looks timeless throughout.

From:

onkoona

Actualy I would not be suprised to learn that being a person in Heian country life would not give you a better life expectancy than court life.
Apathy kills, it really does.

From:

effex

[nods] That's what I was thinking - people outside the court, especially out by the ocean, would at least have better access to fresh food and might bathe more often. Still be subject to a lot of the same diseases, though.

From:

onkoona

Yeah, but they'd still have better health and maybe not such an easy victims for disease.
But you know, my father said it best: History? I wouldn't want to live there!

From:

onkoona

30+ not yet 40.
And yes he seems to be in an age group of his own in the story...

From:

lacygrey

Hence the fangirling: not much competition, at least not yet in the story

From:

onkoona

Maybe they meant him to be fangirl magnet, though I don't see it myself...

From:

lacygrey

I wonder if this scene is the artist having a little visual joke. In any case it has certainly spawned a lot of creepy!Ogata fic.

It must be said that Ogata has some impressive accessories: flash car, expensive suit etc. He could also be considered more 'classically handsome' than many. I wonder if its these things that have led to his quasi 'alpha-male' status in the fandom.

From:

onkoona

It's pretty easy to be a physical alpha male in that lot. Go really is nerd central!

From:

lacygrey

From Yumi Hotta's character notes in the new edition it appears that
Ogata is not exempt from Nerd-dom, despite his playboy trappings!

Link to character notes translation by

hkfoot

From:

onkoona

Well there you go; the coolest guy in the show is a nerd afterall.
Too funny!

From:

esmenet

He and Kishimoto should meet up for coffee sometime. They really seem to enjoy manipulating those middle-school kids. :D

From:

lacygrey

That's an interesting picture: Ogata and Kishimoto going for a coffee. I wonder if Kishimoto would let Ogata smoke?!

Actually, I can't decide whether I really like Kishimoto. He certainly tries manipulation on Mitani - with surprisingly positive results. As for Hikaru, he's a lot harsher in the fansub than in the manga ('You make me sick' etc).

I wonder if he's really as glad he left the insei as he says he is.

From:

onkoona

Finaly they're getting to the real fighting!

I love the way Hikaru grows in this vol.

But the saddest part was where he tried to go back to the Haze Go club. You really can't go back you know....

From:

effex

Yeah, that made me sniffle a bit, especially Akiri's 'You shouldn't come here any more.' Poor kid...

From:

onkoona

It's kinda intersting that that scene is not in the anime (at least not in the eps covering this volume, nor the next 2 eps.) I've forgotten if they are going to do it later.....

From:

lacygrey

Ive definately seen this in anime, I remember seeing her lay out the handicap stones.

From:

onkoona

Ah! Then they're probaly going to group it with Tuitsui & Kaga's graduation moment; I do remember that being in tha anime.

From:

onkoona

It looks like the end of any relation Hikaru has to Akari, Mitani and the go club.
I don't remember if we see Akari much after this but certaily not Mitani...

From:

effex

Is it really? It's been a while since I read the whole series, but I thought they all popped up from time to time. Could just be the fanfic messing with my memory, though.

From:

onkoona

I could be wrong, I'm talking from memory; I don't recall seeing Mitani after this.

Pretty much I recall that life at Haze jr high was not depicted much after this point. It's even unclear to me if/when Hikaru drops out to persue a go career; which I think he must do the moment he turns pro.

From:

lacygrey

I have the feeling that the story pays occasional visits to the Haze junior high Go club for a while.
There was also a later episode where both Mitani and Akari appear, which I discussed (spoilers) here. Older!Mitani is bigger and scarier!

From:

effex

I don't think we're done with the 'Haze Middle School Actors present' ether... [checks wikipedia] Yep, it shows up again in volume 8.

From:

onkoona

oh cool, always did like them but the pro go world does over shadow those that are left behind.

From:

lacygrey

Its nice. It shows a group that's easier for most people to relate to, i.e. kids that enjoy playing the game but don't put all their energy into studying it, are not prodigies and do not have supernatural mentors goading them into playing.

From:

lacygrey

Yes its scantilated at onemanga here: Fire at Honnou-ji temple but not mangafox.

Its great for:
Mitani as a Samurai: awesome costume
Kaga (once more in conflict with Mitani)
Akari as a boy

I feel that they chose to retell this story as it emphases Go in in Japan's past - as does the choice of Sai's origins.

(deleted comment)

From:

effex

[nods] Which is why I hope we come back to visit them once in a while - it provides both a break and a contrast. Explains why they pop up so often in fanfic, too.

From:

lacygrey

Oops, sorry about the false manoeuvre with the comment, I deleted it by accident while trying to move it. For the record I'd said:
Its nice. It shows a group that's easier for most people to relate to, i.e. kids that enjoy playing the game but don't put all their energy into studying it, are not prodigies and do not have supernatural mentors goading them into playing.

every dawn gets its day like

The Totally Epic HikaGo Reread - Vol. 6

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