It's quarantine and there's nothing to do but hang out in the ssmy discord all day listening to people gush about their favourite animes. Hikaru no Go... Hikaru no Go... it's such an old title! It was everyone's childhood (apparently, because I've heard of it but never had enough interest to read it) illustrated by Obata, who then later became famous for Death Note and Bakuman. The art evolution is slow and you wouldn't see his signature style until late into the series. Anyway, what was I talking about???? Right! Hikaru no Go is essentially a sports manga, if you consider playing a chess-like board game sports (it is, in fact sports). There's some supernatural elements in it but not to the level of KnB or puriten if you get my drift. The sport in question is a board game called Go, which is stereotypically depicted to be only played by balding old men.
Our protagonist is 11 year-old Hikaru (Shindou), your average bratty kid who doesn't care for school. He stumbles upon an old goban (go board) with bloodstains on it and awakens an ancient spirit/ghost from the Heian period, Fujiwara no Sai, who claims to be a pro in go back in the day. While he isn't in any history books, he used to possess the Honinbou Shuusaku, who is considered the best Go player in history. Sai possesses Hikaru (more like sticks on to him, he does little other than speak to Hikaru telepathically) and begs him to play Go, which Hikaru does, by going to a Go salon and challenging a kid there, Akira (Touya). Unbeknownst to him, Akira is the son of a professional go player with the Meijin title. Sai beats Akira's ass through Hikaru and the poor kid is left speechless about his own abilities. Hikaru still doesn't have any interest in Go (yet) but since Sai keeps pestering him to play Go, Hikaru gives in and goes to places to observe tournaments and learn proper go moves. Unfortunately, he catches the attention of two big Go players at the time. One is Akira's father Touya Koyo (we'll be referring him as the meijin or just Koyo to avoid confusion), and the other is Ogata 9-dan. The Meijin is a surprisingly good adult and caring father despite his menacing appearance, but Ogata is just eugh. He's just plain creepy but mostly harmless so he gets a pass.
Akira fears Sai's play but he is determined to pursue this overworldly play of his. Hikaru falls in love with Akira's eyes and determination I guess so he decided to up his own Go skills by joining the Go club in middle school. Akira goes to Hikaru's school so that he could confess-I mean declare his fascination towards Hikaru but since the boy wants to be a legit rival he rejects Akira's advances-I mean declarations of rivalry to enter an amateur go tournament between schools. Akira, the loyal rival he is, enters the go club of his school and begs to be made third-board, despite his amazing skills and the envy of the other go club members. Sadly our boy gets disappointed by the match because Hikaru just sucks at Go when Sai isn't playing in his stead. Akira vows to forget about Hikaru and goes pro.
Hikaru is bummed about Akira leaving him in the dust and decides to chase after him, so that he can be a 'rea' rival to Akira. He becomes an insei and meets others like him, mainly Waya the camo bitch who is a year older; Isumi the oldest of the bunch who is in his last years as an insei; Ochi, the too-smart-and-cocky-for-his-own-good sandwich (you'll see why later); Fuku the sweet boy Waya can't seem to beat; and Nase, literally the only girl in the circle. So Hikaru climbs up the ranks as an insei and manages to catch the eye of the old man Kuwabara-sensei, who senses Sai's presence but couldn't put a finger on it. Hikaru improves quickly in a year and half, which impresses his friends and the pros around him. He becomes friends with a young Korean Go player Suyong, demolishes a few go players here and there with Sai, and rises to the pro finals.
Meanwhile, Akira rises the ranks of the professional Go scene undefeated and fairly quickly. He's looking forward and upward, trying his best to forget about Hikaru but just can't seem to get him out of his mind. Fortunately the adults around him are all aboard the ship and 'guides' Akira to the right directions. Ogata, as one of the 'younger' generations (he's only 30+), is eager to see the new wave. Kuwabara may be old, but he looks forward to what Akira and Hikaru can achieve. The meijin may or may not be happy that his son finally has someone his age to keep him happy. Tl;dr, everyone knows Hikaru and Akira has the hots for each other.
The pro finals are the turning point. Only the top three is able to pass and become fully fledged pros, so there is a tension in the air, especially for the insei because they are so used to playing each other causally. More so for Hikaru because he has never played an adult before, as all his Go lessons only involve Sai. He overcomes his nervousness and fear by going to various Go salons and playing against old men and even making a few friends along the way. And then... Isumi makes a mistake that both him and Hikaru will never forget. Isumi resigns, but it costed two games for the both of them. They pick themselves up quickly the next day, but Isumi still had lingering regrets for that game.
Ochi, who is confident with his own Go skills is starting to feel threatened by Hikaru's plays. He plans to go undefeated, but judging by everyone's comments about Hikaru made him anxious. And what's an anxious boy to do? Call up the youngest pro to tutor him. Akira comes in and warns Ochi not to underestimate Hikaru. Ochi doesn't understand what's the big deal about Hikaru the dumb boy, but Akira shuts him up by showing him a game only the both of them know: the very first Sai game. After this, Ochi effectively becomes a sandwich.
This Ochi sandwich is oh so delicious, but he totally deserves it. Akira who-has-totally-forgotten-about-Hikaru uses this method to gauge Hikaru's abilities through Ochi, and the plan was successful. Hikaru passes the exam with Waya and Ochi, and he is now one step closer to Akira. Sadly Akira forfeits his match against Hikaru because...
The meijin suffered a heart attack and is hospitalized! Thankfully it's not too serious but he's forced to stay in the hospital for a week or so. Sai pesters Hikaru to visit the meijin, then they notice he plays online Go. A bright idea comes to Hikaru's usually stupid brain. Sai always wanted to play against the meijin and he almost had the chance during the New-dan series, but in order to not get exposed he had to handicap himself, so it was not a satisfactory game. Hikaru asks if the meijin would like to play against Sai since he's playing online Go. The meijin says yes.
The day arrived and it was a game that shook the Go world. Pros all around the world are shooketh with the real Touya Meijin playing against mysterious Sai from netGo. Their game was beautiful! It was phenomenal! The meijin resigned but it was a spectacular game, and Hikaru gets to witness it real time. As Sai accepts his victory, Hikaru points out a play that would change the flow of the game and it dawns on Sai: God brought him back so that he could show Hikaru this play. Sai knows he doesn't have much longer.
After the game Koyo retires from professional Go. The world is shokeeth again. Ogata has his suspicions about Hikaru and Sai and confronts the poor kid about it, but thank god Akira shows up and Hikaru uses the brief confusion to escape. Akira and Ogata both know Koyo knows something, but the son decided not to pry further while Ogata is still being a creep to children. In addition to all the adults' fascination with Hikaru comes Kurata 6-dan, basically the fun uncle. He acknowledges Hikaru's strength through a game of single-colour Go, and also warns Akira (who by then is still not thinking about Hikaru) about the scary players coming from below. Sai plays one game with a drunk Ogata (since this bitch can't stop asking about Sai) and it all goes downhill...
Sai is gone. Hikaru is devastated as he scrambles to find the ghost by visiting everywhere. The Go Association, Innoshima, Shuusaku's grave in Tokyo, his grandpa's shed, to no avail. Sai is not coming back, and Hikaru thinks it's because he rarely let Sai play Go anymore. Following the Kübler-Ross model, Hikaru stays at the bargaining-depression stage for months, forfeiting all his matches and generally being useless.
Isumi is having the time of his life in China improving his Go only to come back and see Hikaru in this sorry state. The adults can't do anything about him, the younger players tried with no success, Akira even stopped trying to ignore Hikaru and went to his school to confront him only to have him run away. Isumi catches Hikaru in his home, forcing the depressed boy to play one game of Go, a match to overwrite what was the horrible mistake he did during the pro exams. Hikaru yields. With this one match, Isumi did what others tried and failed: persuade Hikaru to continue Go.
In one of the most heartbreaking moments in the story, Hikaru realizes that Sai was never gone. He lives through his Go. All he had to do to see Sai again was to play Go. After this Hikaru rushes to the Go Association to find Akira. He bumps into Kuwabara-sensei and the old man (sly as he is) tells him that Akira's match is on the 5th floor. Hikaru dashes off. The old man is unfazed by Hikaru's previous absences and instead says that Go is a game for two. Hikaru catches Akira just as he finishes his match and declares his return to the Go world in typical shounen fashion. Akira who has stopped pretending to ignore Hikaru, accepts his declaration and tells Hikaru to come get him.
Hikaru spends a lot of time apologizing to the adults for his absences and is very far behind in rank, but he wins every match onward until his very first face off against Akira. Their match is passionate and quick, when the time came for lunch, Akira blurts out that Hikaru is Sai. For a moment, Hikaru is relieved, because while nobody but him knows of Sai's existence, finally someone realizes that Sai was there, in his play. Hikaru smiles. "Maybe I'll tell you some day." With that the tension between Hikaru and Akira melts away.
In his dreams, Sai appeared. He hands his fan over to Hikaru and he awoke in tears. The next time he was at the Go Association, he bought a fan and somehow everyone knows it means a lot to him even when they knew nothing of the reasons for his absence and his return.
The next arc is the Hokuto Cup, a team tournament between Japan, Korea and China professional Go players under 18. Akira is of course already in the roster, but the other two players are still undecided. Hikaru manages to enter with his skills alongside a new Go pro from Kansai, Yashiro. There isn't much to the Hokuto cup but here's the gist of it: Korean pro Yongha's interview went badly because of one stupid reporter, Hikaru misunderstands, he faces him in the tournament to defend Shuusaku (Sai)'s legacy, got his ass beat. The story ended right here in the most unsatisfactory fashion imaginable, so go read fanfics, they do a better job at ending the story than the manga imo.
My thoughts:
Well that was a long ride! I read the manga, watched the anime and I still have no idea how to play Go. This is life I guess.
I say I read this for the Go plays but let's be honest as someone who has 0 idea on how to play this game the real reason is none other than Hikaru and Akira's 'rivalry', heavy emphasis on the quotation marks. Look, we know they're rivals but are they really??? It looks more like exes trying to get back together but are too stubborn to do so. Akira trying his best to ignore and not pay attention to Hikaru in any setting is just hilarious. "Clearly you're not worth my time Shindou." Akira thinks while reading about Hikaru's wins and loses in Weekly Go. "I'm not thinking about him." He says when Ogata asks, and episodes later there he was in Ochi's house, making an Ochi sandwich. "I don't care about Shindou." He thinks as he dramatically strides over to Hikaru to make it clear that he was ignoring him. LMAO this kid is just no thoughts head full of Shindou. When Hikaru forfeits his matches for months Akira finally drops his petty ex act and goes full on distressed spouse on him! And immediately after Hikaru snaps out of his depressive episode who does he go to? AKIRA! These two couldn't be subtler if they wanted! As mentioned before after their first match in 2 years and 4 months (yeah Akira counted he is that stalker-ish, though to be fair both of them are), the tension between them seems to go away so easily. It's just gone like that, and they go to bickering like an old married couple in the Go salon owned by the Touyas. The Ochi sandwich is such a good arc to me I'm just doing the chef kiss all the time. Sometimes I feel bad for Ochi and then I remember what a jerk he was to other people so he kinna deserved the sandwich treatment. The other better third wheel is Yashiro, he's such a good sport about being squished between them, and he probably knows it, unlike Ochi.
I would say I like Waya the most out of everyone. Kurata is what Hikaru would grow up to be in the future - a fun uncle who is very good at Go. Isumi is also one good and smart boy. When Hikaru is down in the dumps and everybody is generally being a shit detective, Isumi, bless this smart boy, gathers information from Waya and the other adults and actually manages to find Hikaru's house, ambushes him there so there is no escape for him, then successfully persuades Hikaru to continue Go, when he just came back from China! While it may be strange that Isumi of all people would be the one to snap Hikaru out of his depressive episode, it is believed that Isumi is the only one that could do this because he's old enough to be rational but also close enough in age so that Hikaru could relate and confide in him. Hikaru not drinking any respect juice also makes everyone ship Akari with Mitani, as Mitani does drink respect juice, especially the tasty respect women juice. There is also the great dynamic between Kaneko and Mitani, with the former being the only person in the club able to irritate and bring Mitani down his high horse. Touya Koyo, despite being the father figure in a shounen series is actually very supportive and nice to his son and other people. He may look intimidating but that's just his face, he has never once belittled Akira or his decisions, even when said decisions involve not going pro so that he could play in amateur matches, and praises his son quite a bit. The real creepy adult here is Ogata, even though it raises the red flags for stranger danger with all his interactions with Hikaru and Akira, I still like him! He's a 30+ year-old with aviator eyeglasses, always dressed in white double-breasted suits, has a sports car, keeps fish in a tank and uses his PC in a dimly lit room with no regard for his fucking eyes like how creepy can this bitch get???? Obata really doubled down on Ogata's design in the later chapters and made him a fucking Death Note villain. In realty this bitch is most likely a sad single man in his 30s who spends waaaaay too much time thinking about Go and Sai and Hikaru and Akira's relationship, I still love Ogata anyway.
I'm still bummed that we never get any real conclusion to the story, that it ended right as the Hokuto Cup wraps up. Yes, we connect the past to the far future, but that isn't good enough. Thankfully there are so many fanfics out there that fix this for the fans. Unfortunately this manga is so old the fanbase might as well be half-dead. But! Recently there was a collab and we were all speculating about a possible reboot or spin-off or something. Highly unlikely but let us dream... Here have a handsome 10-years-later of our favourite couple!
Overall I would say this is a good read, especially to introduce people to Go and for the shipping. The anime is also recommended because the songs are so good and the soundtrack is just chef's-kiss. After that read the fanfics, there used to be so many on LJ, but there's also a good amount on AO3, so... more food???
No comments:
Post a Comment