The Totally Epic HikaGo Reread - Vol. 6

[effex]

~Volume 6 of Hikaru no Go~

Chapters 44 - 51 + Bonus Chapter

Happy Wednesday, folks! It's time for more Hikaru no Go, hurray!

Comments

[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.

[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)...

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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.

[lacygrey]

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

[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...

[effex]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[onkoona]

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

[lacygrey]

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

[onkoona]

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

[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.

[onkoona]

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

[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

[onkoona]

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

[esmenet]

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

[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.