Hikaru no cutest thing evar
Mar. 24th, 2005 02:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousapellii've been kind of whiny lately, so for a change I'll spread some love.
I bought the first volume of Hikaru no Go at the mall the other day (DAMN you,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rageprufrock).
Yes, it's about twelve-year-olds. Yes, they play Go. No, there is no reason for this to be the best manga ever.
And yet somehow...it completely is.
The story in brief is that Hikaru Shindou, a sixth grader, finds a Go board in his Grandfather's attic that is haunted by the ghost Sai, a court Go player from hundreds of years ago. After Sai pleads and sobs, Hikaru agrees to play Go, even though he's never done it before. Hikaru's antics get him kicked out of his Go class, and he ends up at a Go salon, where he meets another kid his age, Akira Touya. The difference is that Akira has been training his whole life to follow in his father's professional Go footsteps, and he does not take it well at all when Hikaru, at Sai's direction, beats the pants off him.
For one thing, the art has a very clean, uncluttered look that I don't have any trouble following. A lot of time action stuff, like Saiyuki, gets to be too much, too confusing, and i can't tell who is doing what. Now granted, Go is not action-packed, but i don't feel like Takeshi Obata is trying to jam ten minutes of TV ass-kicking into three panels.
For another, Hikaru Shindou is the cutest. kid. evar. I had to keep rereading pages because i would interrupt myself squealing about the cute. Whensociofemme came home, all i did was hand the book over the table and wait for the squee. He's such a perfect little sixth grader, just plowing on ahead by brute force, ghost or not. He talks a good game, but he's really a soft touch, even trying to make Sai happy.
And for a third thing, you just want to hug poor Touya, because he just has no idea wtf is going on. One minute he was the best thing ever, and the next some kid with highlights who can't even hold a Go stone is giving him a teaching game? There's one panel right after Hikaru beats him a second time where he lays his forehead down on the table, his world clearly crumbling all around him, and your heart just breaks for him and his short pants.
I did comment to ellen that one might wish that Sai was little less...squealing pre-adolescent girl. But Ellen says that I may be asking too much of the Japanese as a people.
I bought the first volume of Hikaru no Go at the mall the other day (DAMN you,
rageprufrock). Yes, it's about twelve-year-olds. Yes, they play Go. No, there is no reason for this to be the best manga ever.
And yet somehow...it completely is.
The story in brief is that Hikaru Shindou, a sixth grader, finds a Go board in his Grandfather's attic that is haunted by the ghost Sai, a court Go player from hundreds of years ago. After Sai pleads and sobs, Hikaru agrees to play Go, even though he's never done it before. Hikaru's antics get him kicked out of his Go class, and he ends up at a Go salon, where he meets another kid his age, Akira Touya. The difference is that Akira has been training his whole life to follow in his father's professional Go footsteps, and he does not take it well at all when Hikaru, at Sai's direction, beats the pants off him.
For one thing, the art has a very clean, uncluttered look that I don't have any trouble following. A lot of time action stuff, like Saiyuki, gets to be too much, too confusing, and i can't tell who is doing what. Now granted, Go is not action-packed, but i don't feel like Takeshi Obata is trying to jam ten minutes of TV ass-kicking into three panels.
For another, Hikaru Shindou is the cutest. kid. evar. I had to keep rereading pages because i would interrupt myself squealing about the cute. When
sociofemme came home, all i did was hand the book over the table and wait for the squee. He's such a perfect little sixth grader, just plowing on ahead by brute force, ghost or not. He talks a good game, but he's really a soft touch, even trying to make Sai happy.And for a third thing, you just want to hug poor Touya, because he just has no idea wtf is going on. One minute he was the best thing ever, and the next some kid with highlights who can't even hold a Go stone is giving him a teaching game? There's one panel right after Hikaru beats him a second time where he lays his forehead down on the table, his world clearly crumbling all around him, and your heart just breaks for him and his short pants.
I did comment to ellen that one might wish that Sai was little less...squealing pre-adolescent girl. But Ellen says that I may be asking too much of the Japanese as a people.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 08:55 pm (UTC)You go "Wait, it's about Go?" and then suddenly you're all pimping it to everyone you know, and reading and going "Eee!" and, uh...
Yeah.
I may have the entire manga translated on my computer. Also, fansubs of the entire series. And a wallscroll. And the official manga books. And, and... they make me happy!
Best manga ever.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 09:12 pm (UTC)I'm going to start working on the fansubs, i think, although i have tons of other stuff to watch, and i'm trying to decide whether i want to read them before I watch them, I'm not sure how different they are. Any advice? which do you like better?
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 09:22 pm (UTC)The first 5 episodes or so are slightly different (things go in a different order), but after that? Literally, almost exactly the same - dialogue, clothing, shot framing, everything. They knew they had a good thing on their hands, and din't mess with it.
I tend to watch the anime, and then pick the manga back up when the anime stops. The anime is 75 episodes (plus two specials), and there's a bit of manga left after them.
But I dearly love the anime - the animation is fantastic, the music is well done... It was one of the most popular series in Asia for a reason.
So, it's pretty much - do you want to read it, and go through it quickly? Or watch it, and get voices and such, and go through it slower. Exact same story.
(Also, if you don't have time to download the fansubs, I have the entire series burnt to VCD, if you'd like me to copy them and send them to you.)
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 09:49 pm (UTC)that's actually kind of a relief, because i prefer to watch things rather than read them, but then i always feel like i should go back and read them anyway in case i'm missing things.
Also, if you don't have time to download the fansubs, I have the entire series burnt to VCD, if you'd like me to copy them and send them to you.
ooh, really? because that would be the most amazing thing ever. I theoretically possess the capability to make VCDs and such, but as you may have noticed, I'm having trouble finding a workable solution on my ibook that doesn't take days.
you would be the most amazing person on earth, if it wouldn't be too much of a hassle.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 09:59 pm (UTC)(I could also burn my scanlated copy of the entire manga if you want it. *coughs*)
My e-mail is ladysorka @ gmail.com, if you want to send me your mailing address, and I'll get to copying them for you.
(This fandom is so tiny that I do anything in my power to pimp it. Anything. *g*)
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 10:13 pm (UTC)*emails you like whoah*
no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 10:25 am (UTC)Is there a place that I can download the fansubs because I bought the series, and one of the dvds HAS NO SUBTITLES AT ALL, and it's killing me trying to get by with only rudimentary Japanese. If you know any sites/IRC/torrent that still have the fansubs up, please share (either the entire series, or specifically from ep 50 to about 65). THANK YOU.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 12:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 12:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 05:34 pm (UTC)Which is... a pain, to say the least.
I don't know of any other place to get the torrents, unfortunately.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 08:58 pm (UTC)And if you think Hikaru is cute in volume one? He grows up! Plus Sai does get rather less squeal-y as the manga gets going.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 09:14 pm (UTC)he grows up? *SQUEE* I can't even imagine. and aw, sqealy-Sai is okay, i just think that probably 300-year-old spirits might have gained a little gravity during their tenure of being trapped in a Go board.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 10:29 pm (UTC)We've only done the very first flashback, where he tells Hikaru how he died and then a little about the other person he inhabited.
and also, his hat? cracks me up. even more than Touya's pants.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 10:34 pm (UTC)The hat? Brilliance (and actually funny whereas Touya's pants are just...there are no words)
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 10:37 pm (UTC)that tears it, i'm so making myself a Touya icon.
and it might say "I am pants at fashion"
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 11:18 pm (UTC)(Actually he gets rather better at it later but this is not saying much and basically means he stops wearing short pants)
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Date: 2005-03-25 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-25 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 09:34 pm (UTC)I'm borrowing it off Sabina, because I buy too much manga as it is.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 09:50 pm (UTC)i don't understand how this woman is making you care what happens in a board game with pebbles, but good god is she managing it.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 10:00 pm (UTC)Wait until the first time someone plays a Go stone and you start fanning yourself and thinking, That was damn sexy. (The anime does this really, really well.) Also, the anime music is fantastic.
I love how, ghost notwithstanding, HnG is so incredibly real-feeling. He's a shounen protagonist who loses! Believably! A lot! It's also fun watching everyone else react to his talent, even as you feel kind of bad for people like Saeki and Morishita-sensei, because well, there's this punk little fifteen-year-old shodan in their study group, but they can already feel the pressure of being surpassed. Plus good god, Touya and Hikaru's interaction is absolutely delicious. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 10:09 pm (UTC)Wait until the first time someone plays a Go stone and you start fanning yourself and thinking, That was damn sexy.
I'd like to claim that this will never happen, but I know about myself and fandoms, and I think that it's likely it will happen in the incredibly near future.
I'm sort of looking forward to Hikaru losing a few, if only so that poor Touya will stop looking suicidal.
lol, i love how you talk about fandoms, it makes me so happy to see other people squeeing with just as much quasi-incoherence as me!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 11:37 pm (UTC)XD Welcome to the daaaark side.
Oh, he does. Hotta somehow struck that perfect balance of losing just enough that it isn't pathetic, but you still really really want Hikaru to win the next game.
Always happy to please. ^__^
no subject
Date: 2005-03-25 05:58 am (UTC)oh, i'm lovin the dark side. *wallows*
Hikaru! so cute! and then he grows up and is hot like woah! can't wait!!!
*wave*
Date: 2005-03-25 05:10 am (UTC)-Matilda Baggins
Re: *wave*
Date: 2005-03-25 05:55 am (UTC)and i haven't forgotten about the watch-twirling ficlet either, i swear. It's all in my head.
Re: *wave*
Date: 2005-04-01 02:54 am (UTC)-Matilda Baggins