Volume 1 - Spoiler Post

[qem_chibati]

So now that we’ve gone back to our glorious beginnings – for those who have read later on, some starting questions (no need to rot13 in this post, spoil away!)

- Did this start lead to what you were expecting later on?
- How do you feel the art compares to later on.

Comments

[qem_chibati]

-Despite my sarcastic comment about this being a very optimistic start, at the end of chapter one - I actually do think it is optimistic.

Sai's clearly dorking and doesn't think much of anything besides go, and although Hikaru's a rough character there's something just delightful about him that I can't help but warm up to him straight away.

I also liked how at the end in chapter 7, he solves two of the problems on his own - proof of his growth and potential as he's picked up enough of the basics at this point to be able to problem solve out of a match.

- there's also some interesting foreshadowing. One thing that comes to mind, I think that the mejin's comment of "if he's any good he'll join us as a pro" is particularly poignent - not everyone can become a pro, and this is a significant foreshadowing to his own game with Sai - someone he wouldn't of met in an official match. Something he's missed out on.

- OMG the art is so different compared to later on in the series.
- I’m actually amazed we never saw Hikaru’s parents force him to get tutored or something, given how appalling his grades were.

[kexing]

Here are my long rambling thoughts maybe a bit out of order. I think it is best to keep them in the spoiler post since I am pretty unable to talk about Hikaru no Go without basically spoiling the world.

1. Poor Akari. She is really getting ditched by a friend here and my heart aches a bit for her even if I know she will be ok. I saw the anime before reading the manga but one of the things I was surprised over was that I did think that she and Hikaru would either be love interests of the variety of “both know it but isn’t admitting to it” or that they in some way would find their way back to their friendship. Their relationship is a lot more bittersweet than I thought it would be.
2. Poor Torajirō (I just keep feeling sad for people). It has to be pretty hard to spending your whole life playing someone else’s go no matter how much better he is than you.
3. On that note, I notice I like Sai the best when I see him as a big kid. He can be pretty damn selfish even if he didn’t actually choose to haunt a go board or possess people.
4. The aaart. Omg, what is the deal with Ogata’s face?! I can’t look! I mean I do like this early art too, but I think it gets so much prettier as the series goes along.
5. I love that Hikaru start out as such an average kid. He is sweet but undedicated and that is such a contrast to later. He is also very likeable even when he is being an asshole. And, you know, insults every go player in the entire world.
6. Aww Touya! One other thing that I was expecting when I started the series was that the whole Hikaru/Akira relationship would be more… antagonistic I think. Shounen show rival friendships often start out with mutual dislike and turns in to mutual grudging respect. And while Akira’s attitude to Hikaru fits this pretty well later with his “Ahhh, you suck. I totally don’t care about anything you are doing” Hikaru’s attitude to Akira is a lot more positive across the series. As soon as he realizes that he thinks Akira is pretty awesome he sort of sticks a Touya fanboy all the way. He is basically like “Wow, this guy is awesome. Oh no I let him down. Now I must prove myself worthy and then we will be rivals and that will be epic!”. The only time Hikaru is hostile at all is when Akira snubs him at the awards ceremony.
7. And here we have the only time ever when Akira is actually polite to Hikaru. Well that will change fast.
8. Ogata. Seriously. STOP MANHANDLING CHILDREN. IT DOES NOT LOOK GOOD. It is pretty funny that everybody just thinks it is totally cool to drag of a 12 year old because they think he has go potential.
9. The Meijin’s glowing fingertips. Of course :D
10. I wonder how much of this is that Touya Meijin is curious about Hikaru’s potential and how much is that he really doesn’t like when people upsets his son. He is pretty pissed at the Ouza later too. Here I remember that I did also wonder if this would be some sort of actual possession story. That Sai actually did start to take over Hikaru’s body. I am glad I was wrong.
11. Kaga and Tsutsuiii! I really thought that both of them would show up more during the series! Their relationship amuses me endlessly. And I agree. I love that Hikaru really has started to think about go here. I like that he is starting to get serious and is starting to see seriousness as an enviable trait.
12. Oh Hikaru you fanboy!

[verys]

I'm sorry I don't have anything productive to add, other than to say OMG ARE YOU ME??? Pretty much every single observation you made were my initial thoughts too, and it's really interesting how HikaGo, for how incredibly shouneny and Jumpy it is, does actually defy more conventions than you might assume.

[kexing]

I’m preeetty sure I’m not you. If not only because my knowledge of web based techniques and terminology would be so much more extensive if I actually was you:P

Yeah, even if you ignore the ending of the series which is the least shounen jumpy thing I can imagine so many things does not follow the established patterns. I think that one of the reasons for that is that the people in Hikago are closer to actual people so they don’t constantly react in stereotypes. That is probably why it is so easy to get attached to them too.

[chagrined]

I honestly never had expectations, b/c I guess I didn't stop at all while watching/reading it the first time so I never had time to formulate predictions. XD Also, Hikago was the first sports manga/anime I read/watched, so I didn't really have any familiarity w/ sports manga tropes to go on or anything. Anywho, from the perspective instead of someone who has read it already obvsly, I think the beginning was a pretty typical and well-executed set-up. It's obvs Hikaru is going to become interested in go and start playing it himself.

The art is fine imo but it's weird b/c the character designs are so different. Really striking in some cases (like Ogata), but Hikaru's bangs kept weirding me out all the time too. I think it's just b/c I'm more used to how the series looks later.