effex: default (Default)
Effex ([personal profile] effex) wrote2010-09-08 03:04 pm

The Totally Epic HikaGo Reread - Vol. 18



~Volume 18 of Hikaru no Go~

Side Stories 1 - 6

(Did anyone end up reading volume 19 as well?)
onkoona: (Default)

reading vol 19

[personal profile] onkoona 2010-09-08 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
No, I did not read vol 19 yet, but I'm contemplating reading 19-23 this next week so I can then sort out the Special.
And also, I'm going to be more busy from now on as I've signed up for a Japanese course.
lacygrey: (Default)

[personal profile] lacygrey 2010-09-08 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi, no I didn't make it to vol 19: too much competition from work and my attempts to write for Blind Go.

Im struck by the change in pace in these stories. Its funny reading short-stories in this universe; not that many of them really are separate - most of thm feed into the main storyline in places we recognise. Only Sai's steory seems truly self-contained.
lacygrey: (Sai B&W Profile)

Side stories: Sai, Kaga, Nase

[personal profile] lacygrey 2010-09-09 08:54 am (UTC)(link)
I find there's a lot of theatric over-reactions in Hikago, which is part of its appeal.
Sai is especially good at this as no one can see him but Hikaru

But its not just Sai: take the reaction of the baseball team to Kaga:



(What is it about Kaga anyway? What's more, there's four (or more) of them and only one of him.)



Could Kaga's implied deliquence be a veiled comment about Shougi (as a rival game to Go)?

Another of these reactions is Nase's date in Go salon they visit. Hikaru no Go is such a gentle story that it provides little opportunity for such terrified expressions.

Sai's phobia of toads*. I do wonder why. I wonder if I should suggest it as a writing prompt on the 'Kifu_archive' - I'm sure someone could think of a good idea for a story about this.



At times in his story it looks as though Sai were really there in the shop and even like he's about to get in a fight at one point.



Another funny thing as they graphic style in the manga, notably in Sai's and Touya Akira's side stories. Its Obata's later drawing style but with the characters back younger as they were in an ealier part of the timeline. At this point the first time through Sai had larger eyes and a more ponted nose and Hikaru too seemed less detailed.

There's more reference to the past in Sai's side story than in any part of the manga I think. Perhaps that also is why the tone seems so different. Interesting that he thinks the world has changed more in the last 150 years than in the last 1000.

The anime shows considerable more of the Go than the manga does (though I still find it hard to follow) and those bowls look great in color.





*or frogs, depending on the translation (or else localisation has struck again: its toads in the French version - toads are worse, after all they're inedible ^_^)