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hikarunogoI know it’s been a while, sorry about that, but you should all be rested up and ready to answer new questions! Let’s do this!
This week’s spotlight character is Ichikawa Harumi!
Ichikawa is the clerk at the Touya Go Salon and seems quite fond of Akira. What do you make of that? Any theories about her?
Episode 17 – The Match of Revelation
The Japanese amateur mentions Sai and everyone perks up, but he denies being Sai. Everyone starts revealing their experiences with Sai and their hope to find him. Morishita notices the commotion, and Ogata arrives (of course, always in time for a disturbance, heh) and announces that Akira will be coming, too (ahaha, what are the odds) but he wants to know what’s happening. People discuss Sai and their theories about him with Ogata. …Is it just me, or does kid with mushroom hair and round glasses look like a big Ochi? D: Waya steps in to explain his own theories. (Loving this creepy mystery music!) Waya hits it right on the head, saying it’s like Shuusaku learned modern joseki.
In comes Touya, in all his adorable vest and tie with no jacket. Waya is randomly mean to him, heh. Then Waya reveals he thinks Sai was a child, and there goes Akira’s head, straight to Shindou – what a surprise. He denies it, of course, because of the tournament. Some random guy brings out a laptop, and Akira logs on with everyone watching.
Of course, he sees ‘akira’ and can’t help but click it, after denying a bunch of challenges. And Touya accepts, naturally. Shindou thinks it’s great that Touya can play Sai if it’s really him, and Sai tests him, checking to see if he follows the same moves. Predictably, he does. (How many ways can I say OF COURSE? WE’LL FIND OUT, I GUESS.) Touya is shocked and everyone else is like WTF? Hikaru freaks out and tells Sai to move somewhere new, so he does, and Touya has the most disappointed look on his face ever.
Akira requests a rematch on a different day, and Hikaru sets it up for Sunday, which he accepts, and Waya IS PISSED, because he’s going to miss the first day of the pro exams and he didn’t even hesitate to accept. Waya stays upset through the first day of the pro exam, when Touya doesn’t show, because Touya doesn’t know how hard it is to take the pro exam.
The episode ends with Shindou running into the net café, predictably late, and sitting down for the match with Akira.
The Eighteenth Match – Akira vs Sai
For some reason, Mitani’s sister seems to be really fond of Shindou throughout his stay in the net café. Hmm. Anywho, Sai asks if he gets to play him again, and Hikaru tells him as much as he wants, because Hikaru played their match in the tournament.
Akira is waiting (in a cute shirt!) and thinking about what was said at the tournament, thinking about Shindou. The match begins with appropriately awesome music as Akira plays black, wondering who Sai is.
Meanwhile, at the Pro exam, Waya is still obsessing over Touya not coming.
As Touya plays Sai, he feels like Sai is a wall higher than when Shindou played him, and he goes back and forth between whether Sai is Shindou or not. At home, Ogata is watching the match, as are several of the amateurs from the tournament. Touya feels overwhelmed by Sai’s strength, and on discovering the black in the middle is dead, he resigns. Hikaru asks if it was really Touya, and Sai confirms it. Shindou asks if Touya was stronger, and Sai replies that it was him who had grown stronger. Sai also says that by watching his games, Hikaru has grown stronger, too.
At home, Ogata wonders if even he would be a match for Sai, disbelieving that he is an amateur. Eventually, he concludes that the internet is an unknown, but he is not a child, because children make mistakes, and Sai’s play implies a great deal of experience.
Akira continues to fight with himself over whether it is Shindou or not. He thinks it can’t be him because Haze Jr. High was all he had. But he’s not convinced, feeling as if he’s finally caught up to Shindou, then denying it again, saying Sai isn’t be a child.
Ichikawa asks Akira how the first day of the pro exam was, and he tells her he didn’t go because there was someone he wanted to play, and he chose him. But he says not to worry, he’ll go to the second match. Hirose, a regular, comes and tells Akira he saw Shindou at a net café.
CUE FREAKING OUT. He freaks out so much, we don’t even get to hear what he’s yelling in Hirose’s face – instead we’re treated to train noise – and obviously the epic music begins as Akira (in my favorite outfit of his ever!) runs and takes a train and runs some more, and then he sees Shindou, and we get a nice close up of Touya’s SERIOUS EYES before he busts in and just grabs Shindou, wanting to know if he’s Sai. Luckily, Shindou is reading a web comic, which Touya is like, what? Mitani’s sister asks if Touya is a friend, and he says a friend… I think… hahaha, and takes Touya outside.
Hikaru asks Touya why he appears so suddenly in front of him all the time. Touya cuts right to the chase, as usual, asking if he plays internet Go, which Hikaru denies. Touya pushes, asking if he knows about it, and he says he saw it once at the exhibition with Tsutsui. He thinks to himself that he’s going to lie his way out. Akira declares there’s a strong player named Sai that he played yesterday on there. Hikaru makes a rhinoceros joke because Sai in Japanese is rhinoceros. Touya isn’t letting him off that easy though, and he tells him that it’s a handle and everyone is wondering who he is. Cue Hikaru’s super bad lying skills as he makes obvious face. Then Hikaru starts shooting off at the mouth about how he beat Touya before so it makes sense he’d think it was him (so uncomfortable for Touya here), so Touya mentions the tournament and Hikaru (you failboat) says he played poorly on purpose, which, look at Touya’s eyes pop, man, and Touya yells that he had no reason to. If he was as strong as Sai he’s become a pro and take a title or two, and Shindou says thanks for saying what was on my mind.
Touya says it really wasn’t him, and turns to leave, saying he’ll never appear before him again. Long scenes of Hikaru staring at Touya’s back before he calls out to him. EPIC EYE CONTACT. “If you keep chasing after an illusion of me, I’ll pass you by eventually!” Then Touya just gets mean, saying “You? Do you want to play now and not eventually?” When Hikaru says nothing, Touya turns and walks away. Hikaru says screw you but it all depressed and decides he can’t play on the internet anymore.
Possible Discussion Questions:
Waya seems to dislike Touya before he skips the pro exam – something I always forget. Why do you think this is?
What do you think of Ogata’s assessment of Sai?
How much does Shindou suck at lying? How does everyone not instantly know he’s obviously hiding something? What do you think it was that convinced Touya that Shindou wasn’t Sai?
All the feels for when Shindou calls out to Touya. How hard do you think it was for Hikaru to watch Touya walk away? And how do you think Touya felt about everything Hikaru said to him?
Chat is ongoing, so feel free to stop by anytime - your best bet to find us is after five or so PST, the later the better, heh. Enter chat here! Mostly we write and babble, and occasionally still have rewatches, though I need to catch up with the posts - the last episode we watched was the 25-26 double episode. When we do rewatch, it's always on Saturdays at around 7:30 PST - the standard time - if enough people are there and want to watch. But you'll find us playing and writing and inspiring each other pretty much every night of the week! In fact, on some non-rewatch nights, we've hit nine chatters at one time! Clearly this means the rewatch chat is a total success, even if I dropped the ball a bit. :D
So, without further ado, let's discuss Hikago!
This week’s spotlight character is Ichikawa Harumi!
Ichikawa is the clerk at the Touya Go Salon and seems quite fond of Akira. What do you make of that? Any theories about her?
Episode 17 – The Match of Revelation
The Japanese amateur mentions Sai and everyone perks up, but he denies being Sai. Everyone starts revealing their experiences with Sai and their hope to find him. Morishita notices the commotion, and Ogata arrives (of course, always in time for a disturbance, heh) and announces that Akira will be coming, too (ahaha, what are the odds) but he wants to know what’s happening. People discuss Sai and their theories about him with Ogata. …Is it just me, or does kid with mushroom hair and round glasses look like a big Ochi? D: Waya steps in to explain his own theories. (Loving this creepy mystery music!) Waya hits it right on the head, saying it’s like Shuusaku learned modern joseki.
In comes Touya, in all his adorable vest and tie with no jacket. Waya is randomly mean to him, heh. Then Waya reveals he thinks Sai was a child, and there goes Akira’s head, straight to Shindou – what a surprise. He denies it, of course, because of the tournament. Some random guy brings out a laptop, and Akira logs on with everyone watching.
Of course, he sees ‘akira’ and can’t help but click it, after denying a bunch of challenges. And Touya accepts, naturally. Shindou thinks it’s great that Touya can play Sai if it’s really him, and Sai tests him, checking to see if he follows the same moves. Predictably, he does. (How many ways can I say OF COURSE? WE’LL FIND OUT, I GUESS.) Touya is shocked and everyone else is like WTF? Hikaru freaks out and tells Sai to move somewhere new, so he does, and Touya has the most disappointed look on his face ever.
Akira requests a rematch on a different day, and Hikaru sets it up for Sunday, which he accepts, and Waya IS PISSED, because he’s going to miss the first day of the pro exams and he didn’t even hesitate to accept. Waya stays upset through the first day of the pro exam, when Touya doesn’t show, because Touya doesn’t know how hard it is to take the pro exam.
The episode ends with Shindou running into the net café, predictably late, and sitting down for the match with Akira.
The Eighteenth Match – Akira vs Sai
For some reason, Mitani’s sister seems to be really fond of Shindou throughout his stay in the net café. Hmm. Anywho, Sai asks if he gets to play him again, and Hikaru tells him as much as he wants, because Hikaru played their match in the tournament.
Akira is waiting (in a cute shirt!) and thinking about what was said at the tournament, thinking about Shindou. The match begins with appropriately awesome music as Akira plays black, wondering who Sai is.
Meanwhile, at the Pro exam, Waya is still obsessing over Touya not coming.
As Touya plays Sai, he feels like Sai is a wall higher than when Shindou played him, and he goes back and forth between whether Sai is Shindou or not. At home, Ogata is watching the match, as are several of the amateurs from the tournament. Touya feels overwhelmed by Sai’s strength, and on discovering the black in the middle is dead, he resigns. Hikaru asks if it was really Touya, and Sai confirms it. Shindou asks if Touya was stronger, and Sai replies that it was him who had grown stronger. Sai also says that by watching his games, Hikaru has grown stronger, too.
At home, Ogata wonders if even he would be a match for Sai, disbelieving that he is an amateur. Eventually, he concludes that the internet is an unknown, but he is not a child, because children make mistakes, and Sai’s play implies a great deal of experience.
Akira continues to fight with himself over whether it is Shindou or not. He thinks it can’t be him because Haze Jr. High was all he had. But he’s not convinced, feeling as if he’s finally caught up to Shindou, then denying it again, saying Sai isn’t be a child.
Ichikawa asks Akira how the first day of the pro exam was, and he tells her he didn’t go because there was someone he wanted to play, and he chose him. But he says not to worry, he’ll go to the second match. Hirose, a regular, comes and tells Akira he saw Shindou at a net café.
CUE FREAKING OUT. He freaks out so much, we don’t even get to hear what he’s yelling in Hirose’s face – instead we’re treated to train noise – and obviously the epic music begins as Akira (in my favorite outfit of his ever!) runs and takes a train and runs some more, and then he sees Shindou, and we get a nice close up of Touya’s SERIOUS EYES before he busts in and just grabs Shindou, wanting to know if he’s Sai. Luckily, Shindou is reading a web comic, which Touya is like, what? Mitani’s sister asks if Touya is a friend, and he says a friend… I think… hahaha, and takes Touya outside.
Hikaru asks Touya why he appears so suddenly in front of him all the time. Touya cuts right to the chase, as usual, asking if he plays internet Go, which Hikaru denies. Touya pushes, asking if he knows about it, and he says he saw it once at the exhibition with Tsutsui. He thinks to himself that he’s going to lie his way out. Akira declares there’s a strong player named Sai that he played yesterday on there. Hikaru makes a rhinoceros joke because Sai in Japanese is rhinoceros. Touya isn’t letting him off that easy though, and he tells him that it’s a handle and everyone is wondering who he is. Cue Hikaru’s super bad lying skills as he makes obvious face. Then Hikaru starts shooting off at the mouth about how he beat Touya before so it makes sense he’d think it was him (so uncomfortable for Touya here), so Touya mentions the tournament and Hikaru (you failboat) says he played poorly on purpose, which, look at Touya’s eyes pop, man, and Touya yells that he had no reason to. If he was as strong as Sai he’s become a pro and take a title or two, and Shindou says thanks for saying what was on my mind.
Touya says it really wasn’t him, and turns to leave, saying he’ll never appear before him again. Long scenes of Hikaru staring at Touya’s back before he calls out to him. EPIC EYE CONTACT. “If you keep chasing after an illusion of me, I’ll pass you by eventually!” Then Touya just gets mean, saying “You? Do you want to play now and not eventually?” When Hikaru says nothing, Touya turns and walks away. Hikaru says screw you but it all depressed and decides he can’t play on the internet anymore.
Possible Discussion Questions:
Waya seems to dislike Touya before he skips the pro exam – something I always forget. Why do you think this is?
What do you think of Ogata’s assessment of Sai?
How much does Shindou suck at lying? How does everyone not instantly know he’s obviously hiding something? What do you think it was that convinced Touya that Shindou wasn’t Sai?
All the feels for when Shindou calls out to Touya. How hard do you think it was for Hikaru to watch Touya walk away? And how do you think Touya felt about everything Hikaru said to him?
Chat is ongoing, so feel free to stop by anytime - your best bet to find us is after five or so PST, the later the better, heh. Enter chat here! Mostly we write and babble, and occasionally still have rewatches, though I need to catch up with the posts - the last episode we watched was the 25-26 double episode. When we do rewatch, it's always on Saturdays at around 7:30 PST - the standard time - if enough people are there and want to watch. But you'll find us playing and writing and inspiring each other pretty much every night of the week! In fact, on some non-rewatch nights, we've hit nine chatters at one time! Clearly this means the rewatch chat is a total success, even if I dropped the ball a bit. :D
So, without further ado, let's discuss Hikago!
no subject
Date: 2012-06-03 10:27 pm (UTC)First Ichikawa: I have no idea. It is a bit unfair that Ogata always get stuck with the creepy pedo label when Ichikawa also seems a bit too, uh, involved. She has probably known Touya for a long time, but the fangirl thing. I have no idea.
Waya and Touya. Actually I think they sort of explain that in the manga. The very first time Waya sees Touya in the pro exam he is like “oh, he’s the kind of passionless person I don’t like” (at least in the Japanese version, in the fan translation they seem to have skipped the instant dislike bit, I don’t know why. I can’t find my official copy of volume 4 so I can’t say exactly how it was translated there). Anyway, my point about Touya and Waya is that Waya who so desperately want to pass sees everybody else who also desperately wants to pass and then he sees Touya just sitting there like he doesn’t care and isn’t even nervous (which of course is unfair because Touya is depressed since he just got his go heart broken by Hikaru). I think Waya sees it as arrogance; that Touya is so sure that he will pass and that he is above everyone in the room so he doesn’t have to care, and I think that is what really pisses Waya off. That and of course the whole rivalry between the Morishita and the Touya study group. Waya has probably been forced to hear about Touya for as long as he has been playing go (it amuses me infinitely that he is close friends with Hikaru since that is the worst way possible to avoid Touya talk).
I think Hikaru gets away with the lying (at least around Touya) because Hikaru has until now always been a total dumbass around Touya. You can’t really expect Touya to get that Hikaru is playing dumb when saying stupid stuff (like oh insulting the entire go world) is what Hikaru DOES when he meets Touya.
Man, I love that walking away scene. Personally I have always thought that this is the point where the scale tips and Hikaru really starts on the road to Touya and really feels his inadequacy next to Sai. I think it broke his heart that Touya came looking for Sai and has absolutely no respect for Hikaru himself. Seriously if Hikaru go broke Touya’s heart then this is Hikaru getting go dumped by Touya. Sometimes this show is so close to Shoujo manga.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-15 11:36 am (UTC)THIS. SO MUCH THIS.
The walking away scene is one of my very favorites. There's so much lurking just beneath the surface, and Touya is trying so hard to stop caring and forget about this boy that he doesn't understand at the same moment that Hikaru is trying to make sure Touya knows that Hikaru is coming for him - Hikaru, not Sai - and demanding that Touya see him; demanding that Touya's fierce gaze never wanders. And then, oh man, Touya, feeling slighted and disappointed and so very upset challenges Hikaru in such a condescending way, trying so hard to convince himself that Hikaru is not worth his time, lashing out at the boy who caused all of these overwhelming and painful emotions, and then, and then Hikaru just has to swallow his pride and take it because he knows he is no match for Touya as he is, and that has to hurt. He wants Akira to see him, really see him for his own merits, not Sai's, but he has no way of proving to Akira that he's serious, that it's only a matter of time before they're standing on equal ground, and on top of that, he's completely overshadowed by Sai - the Go that Akira is searching for is not his own, and Hikaru's Go had already been rejected by Akira at the tournament, and here he is, looking for the Sai inside Hikaru, and coldly dismissing him when he doesn't find him.
Man, I could go on and on. It's such a complex and tragic scene, and it is one of the most important of the series of events that sets everything in motion. <3