hikarunogo | Reread: Volume 02: Game 010 (Reply)

初陣
Debut Match

This chapter originally appeared in the 13th issue of Weekly Shounen Jump in 1999.

Material from this chapter was adapted into anime episodes 5 (覚醒の予感, "An Inkling of an Awakening") and 6 (美しい一局, "A Game of Beauty").

This chapter takes place in February of 1999.

Chapter Summary

The first round of the Third Kita-ku Middle School Winter Term Go Tournament begins.

First round matches:

Boys

Kaiou Middle School vs. Hamachi Middle School
Tai Middle School vs. Iwana Middle School
Ayu Middle School vs. Sawara Middle School
Haze Middle School vs. Kawahagi Middle School

Girls

Kaiou Middle School vs. Iwana Middle School
Ayu Middle School vs. Kawahagi Middle School
Hamachi Middle School vs. Sawara Middle School

Hikaru, Kaga, and Tsutsui sit down in preparation for the match. Hikaru sees a game clock, and since he's never seen one before, presses down the plunger on the top to see what happens. His opponent yells at him, and Tsutsui explains the purpose of the clock and how it is used to keep track of the 45 minutes each player is allotted for the game.

When the game begins Kaga opens his fan. The fan says "Oushou" ("king general"), referring to the shogi piece, and his opponent mocks the Haze go club for not even having three people to take to the tournament. Kaga promises to defeat his opponent within ten minutes.

The first boards nigiri, resulting in Kaga and Shindou playing white, and Tsutsui playing black.

After the game begins, Kaga is appalled to see Tsutsui using a book of joseki as a reference. Tsutsui defends himself by saying there isn't a rule against it. Kaga and Tsutsui argue, and Hikaru worries that they're drawing attention to themselves.

The Kawahagi team thinks the Haze team is full of idiots: a guy who doesn't know about the game clock, an idiot with a book open, and a person borrowed from the shogi club.

Kaga wins his game handily, wringing a resignation from his opponent within the promised ten minutes. He goes to check up on Hikaru and flips out when he sees that Hikaru sucks.

Hikaru's opponent intimates that Hikaru should resign, so he does. Sai wonders if what he saw in Hikaru was a fluke, and is unsure whether Hikaru truly does have the same potential as Touya Akira.

Sai wonders what Akira is doing now. It turns out that he is being interviewed by the principal for a prestigious school. The principal asks him if he won't join the go club when he begins in the spring, as his presence may inspire the other students. Akira demurs, and is overwhelmed by thoughts of Hikaru.

Games Played

Kaga Tetsuo vs. Moriyama
Result: Kaga Tetsuo wins by resignation
Inspiration: unknown

Kawahagi Middle School Second Board vs. Tsutsui Kimihiro
Result: in progress
Inspiration: unknown

Shindou Hikaru vs. Kawahagi Middle School Third Board
Result: Kawahagi Middle School Third Board wins by resignation
Inspiration: unknown

Featured Characters

Fujiwara no Sai
Kaga Tetsuo
Kaiou Middle School Principal
Moriyama
Shindou Hikaru
Touya Akira
Tsutsui Kimihiro

First Appearances

Kaiou Middle School Principal
Moriyama

Featured Locations

Kaiou Middle School

Commentary

This is adorable! The names of the schools in Kita are all themed: Ayu, Hamachi, Haze, Iwana, Kawahagi, Sawara, and Tai all sound like types of fish (though they're written with different kanji). "Kaiou" is written with the characters "sea" and "king", the same as the kanji for the planet Neptune ("Kaiousei" in Japanese). No subtlety here!

Hikaru's little fussy face here is SO ADORABLE. Also it's a good thing Hikaru starts getting over his everyone-else-is-to-blame-for-my-problems deal soon because holy shit is he ever a little dick; somehow I always manage to forget this T.T

KAGA YOU LOOK SO MIGHTY AND AWESOME; AHHHHHH HOW COOL!

boner deflated

Aww, the adaptation lost a pretty cute joke here. After Kaga tells him to nigiri to determine who goes first, Moriyama counters by asking him if furigoma wouldn't be better. Furigoma is how you determine who goes first in shogi; it means "game-piece throw" and is performed by the senior player, who picks up his five centre pawns, shakes them in his hands like dice, then throws them upon the board. If most of the pawns are unpromoted-side-up, he goes first. If most of them land promoted-side-up, his opponent goes first. Since shogi has even less North American cultural penetration than go it'd require a lot of explanation so I can see why they cut it, but it was a pretty funny joke :(

Kaga pulls goofy, exaggerated faces and does unsophisticated stuff like this all over the early manga, and yet despite all that you never seem to lose the impression that he is TOTALLY SMOKING HOT and then ages later your faith is rewarded because then Obata-sensei treats us with shots like this:

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn.

First of all, Mommy and Daddy are totes adorable here.

Second of all, I love it how Kaga uses his fan as an aid. I can just picture a slightly older Hikaru, perhaps a wee bit arrogant and cheeky from his wild success, using his own fan to gesture about <3

Oh Sai, you really are adorable!

I love how the translator, who pretty much universally has been translating the sound effects and other pheno- and psychomimes, just threw his hands up into the air and gave up with Sai here XD

Akira, sweetie, the tie goes UNDER the vest.

The shot of the principal's hands here is pretty cool and I like it a lot.

Also, those socks almost look like athletic socks, which are seriously not doing this outfit any favours, Akira.

One thing I find consistently hilarious about poor little consumed Akira is that his mental images of Hikaru are never intimidating or gloating or smirking or darkly oppressive or anything like that--no, they're always of Hikaru looking cheery and charming. Which makes sense to us the reader because we know Hikaru's like that, but if this were any other manga, I'd expect Akira's memories to be coloured and warped by his distress, so it still seems a little out of place.