The Epic Hikago Rewatch: Episodes 1 and 2

[hostilecrayon]

It's time!



Note: I am using a fansubbed version of the anime, so some terms or titles may be different than the official translation.

This week’s Character Spotlight is: Fujiwara no Sai!

Sai’s official title is “The Ghost”, which is pretty self-explanatory.

In addition to this week’s episodes, let’s celebrate Sai!





Sai has many facial expressions - more than anyone in the show, as far as I can tell. Do you have any pictures of Sai making silly faces? Post them in the comments!


Brief Recap:

Episode 1 - The Eternal Rival

Hikaru meets Sai. Sai tells the story of his origins, 1000 years ago. Though Hikaru has no interest in Go, he takes Sai to play anyway. Hikaru meets Touya. Sai plays Touya via Hikaru and wins. Touya realizes it was a tutoring game, and when he finds out Hikaru claims to have never played before, he freaks out, wondering who Hikaru is.


Episode 2 - The Weakpoint Revealed!!

Hikaru starts taking Go classes. He learns of Touya-Meijin. Akari goes to a Go class with Hikaru, but Hikaru gets kicked out for dumping stones on Akota's head and pulling off his wig when he finds him bullying other players. Hikaru goes to the Children's Tournament to watch, but gets in trouble for repeating a comment on a game that Sai said to him. After refusing games, Touya finds out Hikaru might be at the Children's Tournament and runs off to find him. Hikaru runs into Touya-Meijin in the hall, and Sai recognizes him. Touya-Meijin is apprised of the situation and though Ogata protests having not gotten Hikaru's name, Touya-Meijin says that if he is truly that strong, he will appear before them eventually. Outside, Touya meets up with Shindou, saying, "I've finally found you, Shindou Hikaru."


Possible Discussion Questions:

Most of us here are watching this for the second, third, fourth, or even tenth time. But at some point, we all watched Hikaru no Go for the first time. What were your impressions of Hikago that first time watching these episodes? What was it that compelled you to keep watching from these two opening episodes? How is it different than watching it now?

In the second episode, we already see the beginnings of Touya’s obsession with Shindou because of Sai’s Go. What do you think of this? Is his obsession purely related to Sai’s strength, or is there something more (IE desire for friendship/intrigue/other interest)? They make it clear that Touya has no equal in his age bracket – does his loneliness factor into how easily he falls into his obsession with a boy his age who appears to be stronger than him?

We’re only given some brief glimpses of Akari in these episodes, though it’s clear that she’s close with Hikaru, as is most easily seen by how she calls him Hikaru instead of Shindou. What kind of relationship do you think they have at the start of the series? Is she a good friend to Hikaru? Is he a good friend to her? If you had only ever seen these two episodes of Hikago and knew nothing else of the series, what direction would you see their friendship going in?

Those of you who have read the manga know that while the anime mirrors the manga almost perfectly, the sequence of the beginning events are different. Why do you think they chose to change just this part? Do the missing events change anything about the series for you?

Let's discuss it! Also, feel free to suggest other discussion questions to add to this list!

Also, check out the fabulous meta post on the first three episodes - Manga vs. Anime by llamabitchyo!

Remember, please use ROT13 for spoilers!

EDIT: For those of you in the US, remember, you can watch Hikago for free at Hulu!

Comments

[onkoona]

Quite frankly when I watched it for the first time I was very worried that Sai might turn out to be a malligment spirit. The whole thing with the nausea was what worried me, and I sincerely feared worse. Luckily they only did the nausea thing only once in ep 1&2.

I did like the dynamic between Hikaru and Sai, and Hikaru's very naive jealousy of the Sai and Touya Akira rivalry (however unequal). Basically Hikaru was jealous/in awe of Sai's & Akira's concentration and pinpointed energies. I've seen in other Anime/Manga/Dorama that the Japanese tend to be very impressed by that sort of thing; be it skill, concentration or raw (male) emotion (and I don't mean love here).

I was very glad when it became clear that ghostly Sai wanted nothing more than play Go and that he would back down when Hikaru couldn't let him play (because of school and having a life) or really didn't want to. I think if Sai had turned out to be a poltergeist in these two eps, I would have stopped watching, 'cause I really don't like that kind of thing.

I like Sai best (this will not be news to those who know me) but it's really the dynamic of Hikaru & Sai, and Akira and all the others that makes this show interesting. After all Go is a social game; it's two people 'talking' by means of black and white pebbles on a grid.

Screengrabs

[onkoona]

My screengrabs:

Opening credits:
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/2642.html

Closing credits:
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/2898.html

Ep1:
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/3130.html
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/3451.html

Ep2:
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/3700.html
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/3876.html

For those people who'd like to know this: eps 1-4 cover volume 1 of the Manga.

(Index of all eps:
http://onkoona.livejournal.com/55710.html)

[lacygrey]

Watching these again made me SO happy, so thank you, thank you for suggesting a rewatch and putting together this mail.

I realise Ive never watched the eps. in chronological order before. I read the manga first and just kind of dipped into the anime when I fancied an episode.

Now, seeing them like this the events all seem to happen so quickly.

The first time I saw this first episode I remember being taken aback by the color (after the b&w manga): but WOW...Akira has green hair! My first watching was also the French dub. Hikaru sounds about thirty in it and when he goes in the Touya Go salon for the first time and Ichikawa asks for 'three euros fifty'. Of course Hikaru freaks out a bit - its not about having to pay, its about being asking for a currency from another continent that wont exist for another three years.

After that I watched the fansub.

[verys]

When I was watching HikaGo for the first time, I thought Hikaru was going to have to spend more time pretending he wasn't haunted by a ghost. I keep thinking it would be a neat special feature to be able to watch HikaGo with Sai visually removed from the picture; I think it would make it even more clear just how much Hikaru physically interacts with Sai--even small things like how he's always turning and tilting his head would strike people as weird. I anticipated that we'd see more of Hikaru's mother, and that he'd have to struggle to keep her from finding out about his "imaginary friend" and to keep her from thinking he's schizophrenic.

Akira's obsession is definitely due to being so easily and casually crushed by someone so close to his own age, but I think he was originally looking for a friendship, before Sai's overwhelming strength made itself known. At twelve, Akira is welcoming to others his own age (nf jr frr yngre va gur synfuonpx/fvqr-fgbel rcvfbqr jvgu gur Puvyq Zrvwva--gur Puvyq Zrvwva vf n pbybffny qbhpur, ohg unq ur orra crefbanyyl sevraqyvre V guvax Nxven jbhyq unir sbetvira uvf yrffre fxvyy va snibhe bs aheghevat n pbaarpgvba jvgu fbzrbar rira erzbgryl pybfr gb uvf bja ntr oenpxrg.) and while the dynamic would have been very, VERY different, he seems hungry for some kind of personal connection.

One of the things I really enjoy in these earlier episodes is getting to see Akira smile, and without any sort of artifice.

One of my favourite sentiments that you see pop up a lot in fic is that go is a game for two, not three, and the fact that Sai stands between Hikaru and Akira does a lot to set up the tension in the series. Thinking about it, I think this is what snagged me in: Hikaru's a little adrift and Akira's so hungry but Sai's who Akira really wants and this feeds the flames of Hikaru's insecurities for years.

[verys]

Yeah, I too read the manga first, and I think they did a good job distilling the intro down to a manageable length and focusing on the heart of the series.

Oh lord, that GREEN. It's just awful, awful. The colour of his eyes is absolutely beautiful, though, and so changeable--the later episodes, especially after he gets a bit older, give him some passionate moments when they go this bright, brilliant cerulean, so bright it almost feels poisonous.

Despite being Canadian I have almost zero French (not that learning a Quebecois dialect would have helped me much with France-French, I understand) and I find it more difficult to judge age/acting ability when I'm completely lost to sea. I like the sound of Akira's voice in the French dub, although I also like it in the English dub, which I think makes me a terrible person because quite honestly the Viz dub is embarrassing for pretty much everyone involved. I'm very grateful to France for putting out such an affordable box set, though; I understand HikaGo was never a money-maker for Viz but it's a huge shame they never put out box sets, especially since they did finish dubbing the series past where they released physical discs.

[onkoona]

Akira's green hair is an anime thing; if you watch more anime you get used to it. All it means to do is make each character look different, a problem the Japanese do have in their land of all black hair and all brown eyes. The green is meant to represent a kind of color hair that, by a very long stretch of the imagination, can be called green, but really is black.

For that same reason, Sai's hair is purple, Akari's has dark magenta & Kaga's red. At this early stage only the less important characters seam to have black hair.

This problem is even worse in Japanese Live Action series. There's a lot of bleaching and dying of hair in that, to offset the characters a bit.

It would have been interesting to see a live action version of Hikaru no Go...

Do the missing events change anything about the series for you?

[lacygrey]

In the manga there's more of the attitude that 'Go is an old person's game' being shown, along with Hikaru griping about it.

The first (living) Go player we meet is Hikaru's grandfather. Later the old woman* at the class says to Hikaru 'Well I guess you'll be my rival.'

We get the impression that Go was unfashionable among the young in Japan, at least before 'Hikaru no Go'.

*She tells Hikaru about the 'Go salon near the station' in the manga, but is busy fangirling Touya Kouyou in the anime!

Interesting that Hikaru's grandfather frequented the Touya salon in the anime. So there was a prior Shindou-Touya connection.

[onkoona]

There's an English dub out there? Oh dear...

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, now that I think about it, it may have just been a horrible nightmare I had one day after watching too much Death Note.

(It is a very good thing I watched Death Note first, because otherwise I would have never, ever taken Brad Swaile seriously in anything ever again.)

[(Anonymous)]

It's a bit of an appalling shade, though, especially when paired with his parade of baby blue, lavender, pink, blue and purple ><

That would be awesome! How would you cast a live-action version? Dream casting; you can pick actors at any age in their careers.

Sai

[lacygrey]

Sai is so many things.
He's a tragic character and a comic one. He's childish and yet he's in the role of a mentor.

He represents the long history of the game but also the invisible influence of teachers and past generations.

I think the reason I feel for him so much at this point in the story is that while he continues to exist in the world of the game he loves he's not truely able to play himself or be recognised for the games he plays via others.

[diorama]

I think my first impression was how young they were. It took me about eight months to read the manga because I borrowed every volume out of the library one at a time (I also find it way more fulfilling to force myself to read that way, if I had the entire series on hand I'd probably read it all in one fix and it wouldn't be quite as good.)

Anyway, to go from the end of the series to the anime at the beginning I was like 'aww they are babies'.

It's also fun (having read the manga) gb frr punenpgref gung jvyy orpbzr zhpu zber vasyhragvny va gur shgher va cnffvat, yvxr Btngn naq Gfhgfhv. Uv Gfhgfhv, lbh'er fb phgr, V jvfu lbh unq n ovttre fgbelyvar.

[hostilecrayon]

Bu zna, V xabj. Gfhgfhv vf fb nqbenoyr, naq V whfg ybir frrvat uvz urer.

[diorama]

I think it would be difficult to do a live action because of long the series goes for (in years) and how much the characters grow.

[diorama]

Bu zna, V xabj. Gfhgfhv vf fb nqbenoyr, naq V whfg ybir frrvat uvz urer.

Nyy gur xvqf ng gur Unmr Zvqqyr Fpubby znxr zr abfgnytvp naq jvfgshy, orpnhfr V xabj gurl ner bayl n fubeg fgntr va Uvxneh'f wbhearl naq nf fvqr-punenpgref jvyy tb bss naq qb gurve bja guvat va yvsr. Gur frevrf vf ernyyl tbbq ng chyyvat gur urnegfgevat nobhg gurzrf yvxr gur cnffntr bs gvzr, gur raq bs puvyqubbq. V pna'g uryc ohg srry irel fnq rirel gvzr V frr Nxnev (V jvfu V qvqa'g) orpnhfr nf fbba nf Fnv nccrnef lbh xabj gung Nxnev naq Uvxneh'f shgher ner frg ba n qvssrerag pbhefr.

And yes, he's very adorable!

[onkoona]

Oh good, I feel so much better.

Akari

[lacygrey]

I was worried at first that she was put there just to be 'decorative'. But her later role is more interesting.

For now I think she's there as a concerned friend who doesn't know what's going on and to contrast with Hikaru - she's a normal kid who isn't possessed by a Go mad ghost.

But there is one fundamental thing here I like less about Hikaru no Go overall: Hikaru has inherant Go talent even though he never played. We know this because he can hear Sai and Akari cannot.

I think I would have preferred it without this 'chosen one' trope.

Akari and Hikaru. I imagine them like friends who argue a lot: like Calvin and Suzie from Calvin and Hobbs.

[onkoona]

Dream casting for HnG?
Hmm, that's not easy.
I'd have no prob with casting western kids for all the kids, but Sai would have to be a real Japanese person. And Touya Kouyo too.

Geez, I'm afraid that all the people I'd want for a live action version, are all rather obscure and I wouldn't know all the names either...

For those that know anything about Japanese actors, I think the boys from Arashi would have been good as some of the kids. Not that they were ever child actors (or if they were, I never saw them act in anything), but they are quite good actors now.

[onkoona]

Actually, I think the Japanese might have less of a problem with that; they do have the patience.

No, the big problem is that there are very few child actors between the ages of 6 and 18. Japanese school curiculum is so heavy (what with all those Kanjis to learn) that the children simply can't take out time to act in anything but one-offs etc.

Re: Sai

[onkoona]

Sai.
One of the things I'm not happy with in this show is how they quickly gloss over the fact that he committed suicide. In a time when that was neither fashionable nor necessary.

As a westerner suicide bothers me. And putting is as a cute fairytale in a kids show (ages 6 and up) also bothers me.

[onkoona]

11 years old. That IS very young.

What were you doing when you were 11? Well I sure as anything was not focusing on any one thing like Akira was. I was mostly like Hikaru and Akari, just coasting on the flow of things, and trying to dodge homework.

Hikaru is a representation of us, the reader, who know sod-all about Go and falls down the rabbit hole into the wondrous world of pro Go.

And even though Sai's a Ghost from the Heian period, he is as much a part of this wondrous world as Akira is.

Re: Akari

[onkoona]

I'm going to disagree with you there. Go is a little bit like ballet; if you start earlier you have a much better chance of getting further in it, just on limberness of the body (in ballet) and of the mind (in Go).

To become truly great you need more of course. But if you had the talent for that 'more' but started late, chances are good that that you are simply too late.
(This is actually not my opinion, but it is one I've seen come up in Japanese things from time to time. In HnG I see it too.)

So any kid would have done as Sai's host, with similar results (possibly depending on the kids own aspirations); those results are very much a sign of the times in modern Japanese society.

And there is the Japanese bias towards a male kid of course, so Akari was never a candidate. Unfair, yes. Very. Japanese modern society has a little ways to go before Akari, and those like her, get their chance.

[hostilecrayon]

Oh, there's an English dub. I've managed to avoid it at all costs, but I've heard it's TERRIBLE.

[hostilecrayon]

Ahaha, I am the Akira exception. I was spending all of my free time reading and writing (and playing video games). I was very VERY focused with my obsession of the written word.

Re: Akari

[hostilecrayon]

I think it's actually a mixture of what you have both said. Hikaru is not quite the chosen one, but it's also not quite any kid would do. I think it actually falls somewhere along the lines of potential. Hikaru has the potential to be a great Go player based on what his mind is capable of, and thus, sensing that latent potential, Sai appears.