Hikaru Reread: Game 37, Fall Semester

[lacygrey]

A confrontation

 


Chapter Synopsis with pics
 
Its time for one of the biggest turning points in Hikaru's journey: The moment where he starts chasing Akira  This chapter starts with an intense exchange between Hikaru and Akira with plenty of emotional facial close-ups, all starting when Akira catches Hikaru in the cybercafe.


Even if he's only looking at a manga site, Hikaru's still got to explain himself...


In talking his way out of it he's quite cruel to Akira



His hopes are raised and dashed more than once



But Hikaru can't help but throw out a challenge*
*He uses the word 'shadow' in the print version I have.  'Ghost' seems a bit obvious, even for Hikaru.



Unfortuately its one he isn't ready to rise up to just yet






And so Akira goes away disapointed, but perhaps not wholly convinced that Hikaru isn't Sai. 
He might still suspect that Hikaru is Sai and take his fear for a rejection - that's the face he looks like he's making.


Something that gets more attention in the manga than in the anime.  Is how this near discovery is going to affect Sai.





Hikaru goes back to the Go club with renewed enthusiasm




And offers Sai a solution



So he goes to try to 'win' a Goban from Grandad.



But they are in for a surprise



Is Sai in the dark here or is he trying to look innocent when he's been deliberately appearing to people for centuries in the hope of a game?


Notes.  Choosing the pics for this was so hard.  I wanted to put the whole chapter.  I find the part at the beginning to be just about the slashiest part of the whole Manga, despite their young age.  That said, if I was looking for a good analogy for rivalry to describe it to sometone who had never known the intensity, I think that a romantic attraction would be a good choice. Was that the authors' intention?  Was it a clever observation or a complete accident? The romantic message has already been much discussed, for example see stirring-still.livejournal.com/4687.html

Finally, sorry I am horribly late. I have resorted to the fanscantilated version as I also had a scanner problem.  I'm doing my best to catch up now.

Comments

[tuulentupa]

I really like this chapter - the scene with Hikaru and Akira is just ♥ (so... sad for both of them, but still), and Hikaru starting to play with Sai, and that story of a ghost in the goban...

...one would imagine Sai should know he's been seen. But that leads me to wonder exactly who it is who has seen him, how many times this happened, and just what it was like for him to be in the goban - was he awake all the time, or only when someone who had the ability to see him approached?

[lacygrey]

Perhaps the degree to which you can perceive him depends on your ability. We never know if Akari was able to see him because she out the attic before he appeared to Hikaru, though its clear she couldn't hear him,which was what freaked her out I think: Hikaru talking to someone who 'wasn't there'. There is an AU (otherwise pretty sad) where this idea is developed with another character(Lindra's A Mast Without a Sail: http://answer-key.livejournal.com/97067.html#cutid1)

If Sai was awake all the time, then the Heian Era must seem a very long time ago to him.

He must have been overjoyed to find someone.

Although he doesn't give Hikaru a lot of choice in the matter, Sai is hardly outright malevolent. But if he was, and he could possess anybody, what a different story it would make.

[flonnebonne]

This is one of my favourite chapters of the whole manga! I love the fakeout at the beginning when Shindou is looking at the Jump homepage. :D The Sai rhino! Shindou's lies upon lies! And then the epic serious stuff when Shindou finally gets serious! Eeee!

I like both "ghost" and "shadow" for the translation of that line. I checked the Japanese version and Shindou uses the word gen'ei 幻影, which translates literally as "vision/illusion/phantom." 幻 = phantom/vision and and 影 = shadow. So really, it's all pretty close.

The whole line is "俺の幻影なんか追ってると ほんとうのオレにいつか足元すくわれるぞ!"

[lacygrey]

I love the fakeout at the beginning when Shindou is looking at the Jump homepage.

I wonder what would have happened if Akira had caught him red-handed playing NetGo. Would he have still tried to talk his way out of it? Might he have told the truth (I doublt it)? And would Akira have bought it or dismissed it as Hikaru spinning him a yarn?

So there's no one exact word for the Japanese meaning here - or at least not one that will fit the bubble. I like the idea of 'vision' in gen'ei, its like its saying 'the idea/picture you have of me'.

[flonnebonne]

I too doubt that Hikaru would tell the truth if caught red-handed! The boy is a compulsive liar by this point. I think he would just run away sputtering - that's his secondary defence.

I also wonder what Touya would do! He kind of decides to stop chasing Shindou here, but I bet if he found Shindou playing Netgo as Sai he'd probably do some drastic stalking.

[kexing]

Aw, I love this chapter <3 It is so intense and it is so important for the procession of the manga. And both their faces at the end!

Right here I actually do think that Akira is pretty convinced that Hikaru is not Sai. He basically has his heart broken and that is sort of what I am reading on his face. Utter disappointment. I mean, a lot of his actions after this chapter seem to indicate to me that he is trying to give up on a childish dream.

And Hikaru is heartbroken because Akira is not only telling him he sucks, but also that he lost all his interest in ever playing him again. Right now in the manga Hikaru is more invested in the thought of Akira’s rivalry than he actually is in go, I think.

It is really hard to describe Hikaru and Akira’s rivalry. I think it is pretty unique even for shounen manga (and shounen is the best at soul defining rivalries). I continue to maintain that Hotta Yumi is pretty fond of romance and shoujo tropes and simply shifts them a bit to fit the shounen manga format. They are sort of breaking up here, they are just, you know, breaking up in go.

[lacygrey]

I continue to maintain that Hotta Yumi is pretty fond of romance and shoujo tropes and simply shifts them a bit to fit the shounen manga format.

I haven't read any shoujo. So there's probably a horde of references I'm missing here.

I just find the expressions amazing in this sequence and Hikaru's ability at lying well nigh terrifying (even though the truth is pretty implausible). What will be be like a twenty if he carries on like that!