The Totally Epic HikaGo Reread - Vol. 7

[effex]

~Volume 7 of Hikaru no Go~

Chapters 52 - 60

[winces] Have I really not posted anything else in the week since the last one? I suppose moving is an okay excuse but. Still.

Anyway, on to the discussion!

Comments

[onkoona]

I was so sad for Sai when he tried to invite Ogata to a game of Go.

[effex]

Yeah, I really feel for Sai through all of this - he's sticking around because he can't give up playing go... but he can't play go as a ghost.

[onkoona]

I think he's starting to realise he's not going to able to play anymore (other then Hikaru)...

[effex]

[nods] It was different with... his previous protege, who's name I suddenly can't remember - he let Sai play through him. Hikaru's not willing to give up his own go like that (can't really blame him, either).

[onkoona]

Torajiro, aka Shuusaku.
Yes, he let Sai play all the games and never played himself.
But Hikaru is right, if Hikaru wants to play he must play all the games, altenating between Sai and himself really would be cheating.
I think that is why Shuusaku let Sai play all the games; there is just no halfway, is there...

[lacygrey]

Hi there,

Sai forgets he's dead and asks Ogata for a game


At times I find this poignant; at times grotesque (because he killed himself). But if he forgets (and it has been a thousand years) I suppose it means that he's totally invested in his present 'existence'.

Its laid on very thick in the anime.

[effex]

He was, what, in his early 20's when he killed himself? He's been a ghost way, way longer then he was a living man.

Which is a little creepy (how would that affect your world view?) and a lot sad.

[lacygrey]

I wonder if he was watching all the games played on the goban/s he haunted.

This scene is at the heart of the Ogata/Sai ship manifesto too of course!

[onkoona]

The story says people didn't like playing on Sai's Goban, because it was haunted.
Talk about being hoisted with your own petard...

[onkoona]

The fact that Sai killed himself is something that keeos bothering me. To our modern western sensibilities, killing your self because you were banished from court for being a cheater and now you can't play anymore Go, seems, well stupid is not the right word.
But in a world where life expectancy and individuality is not so high, it might make more sense...
Still dead is dead, and you can't play Go when you're dead. Even Sai needs help playing Go this way...