The Epic Hikago Rewatch Episodes 9 and 10

[hostilecrayon]

This week’s Character Spotlight is Mitani Yuuki!



Mitani’s official title is “the Stray Cat.”

Why do you think Mitani cheats? Is there a deeper reasoning?


Recap

The Ninth Match – An Irritating Presence

In the Kaio Go club, Itou, Kojima and Okumura are missing. Touya is shown the Go storage room as part of the trio’s scheme and told to clean it up. Touya finds old Go books and muses about Shindou’s old joseki. He thinks to defeat Shindou, he must be strong enough to create a new joseki. Touya is then challenged by Itou to play blind while he’s cleaning. Itou complains about him being in the Go club, and asks him if he just wants everyone to know he’s the best. Touya asks if he’s the best, he should easily be able to play blind Go? He takes the challenge. Itou kid taunts Touya, but Touya says “I don’t care if you show off, but do it after you beat me.” Kajima and Okumura are outside, feeling cocky, but to their surprise, Touya has already won. Itou makes Touya play against the other two at the same time. Touya has trouble playing Okumura because his moves don’t make sense. Hitaka shows up and catches them bullying Touya and puts a stop to it. However, she says if he wasn’t there, they wouldn’t do something like this, and by accepting their challenge, he made the bullying worse. As a student of Kaio, he should have pride and crush them properly.

Meanwhile, Hikaru has found a new member for the Go club. He thinks it means they can go to the tournament, but since Kaneko is a girl and the teams are separated by gender, Tsutsui tells him they can’t. Kaneko says she’d play in a tournament, but she has volleyball, so she leaves the club. The tiny club envies Kaio, where there are dozens of members. We find out that Itou has quit the Go club from Kishimoto. He heard the rumor about Shindou and wants to know why Touya joined the Go club instead of challenging him directly. Touya tells him that he refused his challenge, and despite all the problems he causes the Kaio Go club, he is the only one who can play Shindou evenly.


The Tenth Match – The Third Member

Someone solved the Tsumego Hikaru put on the new Go club poster, and Hikaru and Tsutsui plan to try and find them when Akari says she knows who answered it. It was Mitani! Hikaru plans to talk to him the following day. Then Hikaru wonders about Touya and whether he’s in the Kaio Go club, but Tsutsui says no way because he’s too strong. Tsutsui then educates Hikaru on what an insei is, and says that to Touya, even insei are too weak. Sai reminds Hikaru that before he aims for Touya, he has to beat Tsutsui. While Hikaru is eating ramen, Sai hears the delivery boy is going to a Go salon and wants to go because he hasn’t been able to play lately. They hear there’s a good junior high kid there. They go, and Mitani is there, but Sai notices him cheating by moving stones when it’s time to count territory, and he’s also betting, so he’s cheating people out of money. Mitani leaves, and Sai wants Hikaru to invite him to the Go club, because it’s sad that he cheats as a child, and Sai wants him to give him a stern word. The next day, Hikaru asks him to come, but he says he won’t. Hikaru asks him if it’s because he can’t make money at the Go club, and he says yes. Hikaru asks him if he was cheating and Mitani says Hikaru has good eyes. Hikaru asks Mitani if there’s something he needs money for, but he says his parents stopped giving him an allowance, so that’s why. Hikaru tells him it’s free to play at the Go club, but Mitani says he wants shirts and CD’s, and he tries to leave, but Hikaru literally drags him to the Go club. Mitani plays with Tsutsui while Hikaru tries to convince Mitani to participate in the tournament. Sai thinks Mitani has potential, but he thinks nothing is worth cheating in a match. Mitani rushes Tsutsui and while Tsutsui is thinking, he clacks the stone against the side to make Tsutsui go twice, causing him to lose. Mitani leaves and Hikaru tells Tsutsui about the Go club. Tsutsui says he might cheat during the tournament, and can Hikaru really form a team with someone like that? Hikaru declares he’ll make him stop. At the Go salon, there is a drunk customer playing the owner. The customer loses and Mitani moves to play him, getting cocky and bets much more than usual. Hikaru and Sai run to the salon, thinking about how they can make Mitani stop cheating. The episode ends with Hikaru entering the salon and calling Mitani’s name.



Possible Discussion Questions

Though Hitaka stops the bullying, she tells Touya that not only is the bullying his fault, but that by going along with it, he made it worse. Do you think this is fair?

If Mitani had no interest in joining the Go club, why did he solve the poster’s Tsumego?

Sai is upset that Mitani cheats, but he seems to have sympathy for him and wants Hikaru to try and help him. What does this say about Sai? Did you expect him to be angrier because of his past?

Yet again, we see Touya being bullied and told he doesn’t belong. As we discussed before, this seems to be a reoccurring theme for Touya. Though we know he’s pursuing Hikaru, do you think if the Go club was nicer to him that he’d want to make friends? Do you think this enforced loneliness makes him sad?


The live chat for these episodes is tonight at 7:30PM PST! What time is that in the rest of the world? Chat is here! I hope to see you there!