The Totally Epic HikaGo Reread - Vol. 21

[effex]

~Volume 21 of Hikaru no Go~

Chapters 166-174

Comments

[effex]

Only two more volumes to go! We should have some kind of party at the end of it.

vol. 21

[onkoona]

(I'm not quite finished reading.)

The prelims should have been a round-robin tournament. It would have been much fairer. Even if Waya would have ended up having to play Shindou and Yashiro.
Poor Waya, he's falling behind and he knows it.

[onkoona]

okay! sounds like fun.
Who's buying the booze?

Re: vol. 21

[effex]

Hmm, you're right. Unless they're not worrying about fairness? One shot and you're out, etc.

[pets poor Waya]

Re: vol. 21

[lacygrey]

With this few players a round robin would be perfectly practical, except for the plot: Ochi gettting to challenge Yashiro like that. I love this, its totally him, and done with a good dose of arrogance, but you can also see his point: whats all the fuss about Yashiro.

[lacygrey]

LOL. But, seriously. I don't think an HnG online re-read has been done before thats made it all the way to the end.

Grabs!

[onkoona]

Special, part 9
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/53137.html

Special, part 10
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/53290.html


Here endeth the special.

[onkoona]

I'll be here till the bitter end.
And I happily join the dead dog party.

[onkoona]

Well there's two more floating eps around. I can cap those; one for each volume.

[lacygrey]

Here's where the manga finally leaves the anime behind.

I tried watching the 'special' in one go, as though it were a movie, but I prefer shorter episodes - it suits the story better. If the 'special' is framed by something I suppose its the falling out (I won't play you again for 4 months etc) and reconcilliation of Hikaru and Akira over the Hokuto cup selection. In the anime we are left with a scene where they are getting along peaceably - those who read he manga know that their bickering continues to be as legendary as thier Go ^_^

The art is by this point IMHO, far nicer in the manga than the anime. The manga scans though, by this point, are pretty rough; some at 'the spectrum' seem to have their order scrambled; and I read a comment by one of the translators of it somewhere, saying they were improvising based on the pictures alone for certain scenes.

And so we finally meet Yeongha Ko!
(with canon improvising translator)

[effex]

Ha - 23 volumes really is a long haul. We deserve virtual cake or something.

[effex]

[nods] And we can post a bunch of pictures, or link to our favorite fanfic/fanart... maybe I can make some icons.

[effex]

The art at this point is fantastic - it's been amazing watching Obata grow as an artist. I like most of his work here better than DeathNote, even, but I'm biased.

[lacygrey]

More great double acts:

[lacygrey]

Ive only read the first 2 volumes of Deathnote, but I kept half 'recognising' characters in it from HnG

[lacygrey]

I was worried you had been swallowed by Blind_Go, or Japanese lessons

[onkoona]

I did the whole Deathnote anime. And yes, it's very much the dark version of this story. Quite annoyingly so.

Re: vol. 21

[onkoona]

I always find it weak plot writing if you make them do whatever in the less likely way, to create the situation you want to see happen.....

[lacygrey]

What are these ones?

[onkoona]

More likely my back or just being ill; it's getting to be the season for it.
Anyway the big time swallower is Blind Luck 2; it's already 3 time the size of part 1 and I need to add at least another 30% to it!!

Re: vol. 21

[lacygrey]

I was bothered by the cliffy about who won out of Shindou and Yashiro. It was a cross chapter cliffhanger - I felt a bit emotionally manipulated ^_~

[lacygrey]

Wow

[lacygrey]

There is really a lot about Kouyou in this volume: his beong retired lets him free up time to play...some retirement!

Re: vol. 21

[onkoona]

Yeah, me too. But it's not the first time they've break a game in the middle to provide a cliff hanger towards the next volume.
It's getting to be a little lame.

[onkoona]

I'm betting he's playing a lot more now he's retired. And traveling further afield!