[Hikaru no Go] Touya Akira /Shindou Hikaru Pseudo-Manifesto/Overview [revised +reposted]
About this overview:
I tried my best to summarized the series in chronological order, but I'm afraid I might have missed some things. To get this out of the way-- there are spoilers. Lots of them. You've been warned. :D Um, for newbies... you should probably familiarize yourself with the series beforehand otherwise bits of what I say won't make sense because I kinda suck at explaining simple things.
This was originally posted at my personal journal (before everything became flocked) and it's been revised and reposted because a) looking back, some of my wording was pretty bad (and it is still is, but whatevs) b)bookshop, meitachi and zoesque have asked me about making it public.
Also, disclaimer: I don't own Hikaru no Go; I'm merely a bored sixteen year old junior with far too much spare time on my hands.
Hikaru no Go: The Series
Shindoh Hikaru, a 6th grader, finds an old go table in the attic of his grandfather's house. He sees some blood stains on the go table, and tries to wipe it off... when a ghost dressed in Heian period clothes pops out, and takes over his body.
The ghost happens to be Fujiwara no Sai, a member of the court during the Heian period. Sai was one of the two men who was assigned as the go tutor to the emperor. The other tutor was envious of Sai, and challenged him to a go match -- whoever wins gets to stay as the court's go master. Sai's opponent cheats during the match, and before Sai could say anything about it, the opponent accused Sai of cheating. Sai was banished from the court, and because of regret and anger, he committed suicide. But as with all unrepented souls, Sai was unable to leave the material world... until he is able to master go, and get one step closer to "kami no itte," or god's hand.
Summary taken from AnimeNfo. (Quick note: “God's Hand” is more commonly known in the fandom as “Hand of God” and in the English Viz translation, “The Divine Move”. I'll use "Hand of God" because it's the one I see most in fics and fandom.)
Shindou Hikaru x Touya Akira [The Lion and the Dragon]
The Lion:
Shindou Hikaru is the protagonist of the series (“Hikaru no Go” literally translates as “Hikaru's Go”). In the beginning of the series, he's a typical sixth grader-- he's loud, brash, a bit naive, not the greatest student ever, he finds girls annoying even though his best friend is one... and he practically inhales ramen. (Remind you of anbody?) He likes shounen jump and video games, wears sporty/casual clothes, and has an unusual two-tone hairstyle. (As the series progresses and Hikaru goes from silly-looking sixth grader to one downright hot sixteen year old-- you'll also come to realize that Hikaru Would Be The Best Boyfriend A Girl Could Ask For If You Ignore The Fact That He's Totally Gay For Touya Akira.)
Hikaru's an only child; naturally, he seems to get his way most of the time. His mother is often concerned about him but she allows him to be pretty independent and make his own choices even though she worries. She doesn't understand anything about Go, same with his father. Hikaru's father is hardly ever mentioned in both the manga and anime; so it's pretty much assumed that's he a typical salaryman who isn't very active in Hikaru's life. Hikaru seems to be pretty close to his grandfather (grandmother never mentioned), who is a amateur Go player and refuses to let his grandson get arrogant about his skills.
This is never confirmed, but it's a popular theory among the fanon that Hikaru's into sports; particularly soccer. This is probably due to a) soccer being a popular sport in Japan b) many fans of Hikaru no Go are also fans of another shounen manga, Whistle! c) in one of the manga opening picture chapters, Hikaru is shown hugging a soccer ball and d)ahsirakhsays: The part where he is "into sports" is canon. In chapter 3, Akari wonders why Hikaru is no longer excelling at Physical Ed, his "specialty".
Hikaru also sucks at baseball in the canon.He broke a window when he tried playing it once.So, baseball is safely ruled out and I think he's too short for basketball.
The Dragon:
We meet Touya Akira almost immediately into the series. At first glance, he sort of looks like a weird hybrid of Ken Ichijouji from Digimon and Haku from Spirited Away (see Misc.). Actually, that impression is still prominent throughout the entire series, and a few fans have incorporated the Spirited Away resemblance into their work. :)
Touya Akira's the polar opposite of Hikaru. While Hikaru flounces about in bright t-shirts and cargoes, Touya's usually dressed in his jailbait school uniform (which looks eerily like Ken Ichijouji's. Haha, see Misc below) or in some hideous sweater or suit. (I'm not being biased here. Really.)
On a side note, Touya's questionable fashion sense is at the butt end of many a joke in the Hikago fandom. It makes fans wonder if he's color-blinded or if he just gets dressed in the dark to conserve electricity. He has worn black, yellow and lavender together and his sweaters are usually the type you see on retired senior citizens. Touya appears to be pretty damn smart (he attends the prestigious Kaio private school), polite, mature, patient, and a bit shy as he doesn't have a lot of friends his age. Lightly put; he's kinda socially retarded. No wonder since he's usually hanging around adults.
(Meanwhile, Hikaru makes friends quite easily, judging from how Kaga, Tsutsui, Waya, etc. seemed to warm up to him.)
Touya's family situation is different from Hikaru's, attitudes about Go and social standing. Touya's family is most likely pretty well off because of Touya Meijin's title and his winnings (and they have a huge-ass house), and Hikaru seems like he's in upper middle class. Not a huge difference, but something I thought I would remark on.
While Hikaru's parents don't know anything about Go, Touya's father is a highly respected Go player and is considered to be the closest person to achieving the Hand of God. Touya's mother(Akiko) has been shown maybe twice in the series and Hikaru's mom is featured only a little bit more. (Hikaru no Go as a series has a habit of introducing characters for a short while and letting them fade away which is a shame.)
Touya's a prodigy and good enough to be a professional. Ever since he was old enough to understand the game, he has played Go. He was confident that he was the best Go player in his age group in all of Japan before Hikaru waltzed in; claimed he has never played before, and turned his world upside down.
Touya doesn't have many friends as Go takes up most of his time. As mentioned before, most people he hangs around are adults. (Ashiwara has been quoted that he's the only friend Touya had that was close to his age.)At school, or at least in Kaio's Go Club, his peers either resent him or are in awed of him (mostly the former). Adults trip over themselves over him.
Seriously, Touya acts like a mini-adult. Of course, Hikaru changed all of that... eventually.
Stacy's Inaccurate and Long Summary of What Happened After Touya and Hikaru's First Meeting and To The End of the Series
After their initial meeting in which Hikaru (with Sai's help) completely trounces Touya, Touya becomes obsessed.
(Really, he does. You can't get any more obvious than that.)
He scares Ichikawa-san (a young woman who works at Touya's Go salon where he hangs out. Yes, his father owns a Go salon. Deal.) and the rest of the customers by becoming Emo!Touya who broods and replays his game with Hikaru constantly.
(If you haven't ever read/seen Hikaru no Go before, Sai played all of Hikaru's games in the beginning. Sai is teh shit (TM) at Go but lost at the game with Touya because he was a little out of practice and he wasn't aware of the new rules. Even though Sai lost, Touya felt like Hikaru (Sai) was trying to play a teaching game against him and it pretty much enraged/confused/and really really freaked him out big time.)
Touya stalks chases after Hikaru in a totally canon obsessed manner that almost becomes sort of a motif or metaphor by the end of the series. It's that bad. Hikaru is beyond freaked at Touya being touchy-feely with his hands (Touya wants to check for himself if Hikaru was telling the truth of never playing Go before). He ends up accidentally insulting Touya by saying he might try playing Go just as an easy way to earn money.
Touya stomps away after that.
Hikaru reluctantly gets interested in Go and gets conned and ends up joining a Go Club even though he's an elementary school student, and plays at a tournament that just happens to be the school Akira's planning to attend. Hikaru gets Unneeded Attention. (Touya just Happened To Be At The Tournament.) Akira gets all misty-eyed and “I wish I could have played you”. Hikaru wants to play an even game with Akira (Sai's Inner Monologue: Fat chance! Hiikarrruuuuuu! I wanna play! I wanna play-- ooh, fishies!).
Hikaru tries to play an even game with Touya and loses miserably. :/
Touya is Disappointed and Angry. He wants to forget about Hikaru. He can't. There is a rumor circulating around the Go world about a very powerful NetGo player with the screen name "Sai" who can even beat pros although he seems like an amateur player (this is Hikaru allowing Sai to play games online). Touya hears from someone that they saw Hikaru at an internet cafe, and he runs all the way there, and sees Hikaru and almost all Hell breaks loose-- but thankfully, our favorite protagonist (and, well, our only) was checking out the Shounen Jump page. Oh, Hikaru.
Touya is Disappointed-- again. He and Hikaru have a dramatic departure scene in which Hikaru can be seen wearing Tights. Guess Touya's not the only one with questionable fashion sense... Oh, and Hikaru becomes more cautious about NetGo. Good boy. He learned a lesson.
(Check this by chibichula for a hilarious spoof. Images Work Safe-- the text... not so much.)
Hikaru wants Touya's attention and becomes an insei and eventually a pro. Touya finds himself being curious about Hikaru's skills and how everyone has High Expectations for him. (It's like a game. Everyone keeps mentioning Hikaru's skills to Touya, not knowing how much it's messing Touya up.) Hikaru gains lots of attention from Important Pros and Titleholders.
Then...
Spoilers
Sai leaves Hikaru. Hikaru stops playing Go, thinking that'll make Sai come back. Touya freaks out. He's all “WTF SHINDOU WHY DID YOU STOP” until Hikaru has an epiphany and decides to play Go again. The first thing Hikaru does is go to Touya and informs him that he's chasing after him. :)
Touya acknowledges him (finally), and soon, they play against each other in a match.
I don't remember who won, but that doesn't matter. (...Really. It doesn't. *shhh!*)
So, all is good.
Oh, and the two of them matured too. They become indecently good-looking and Hikaru becomes slightly more mature (slightly). At the end of the series, he's able to scare his opponents shitless just by opening his spiffy fan and he seems to have learned from Touya how to make his green eyes all intense and scary.
As for Touya, well, his fashion sense still sucks and he's still more or less socially retarded around people his age but he seems to be happier. Um. Right. Let's go with that.
Why AkiHika?
(Credit: Tokyo Rox)
I was never really into the instant “rivals automatically equals OMG SEXUAL TENSION” thing everyone liked... well, until Hikago, anyway. :)
Hikaru and Touya are rivals-- no question. They're friendly rivals, really, but still, they're rivals and it's quite likely that they'll be eternal rivals and that's actually kinda of sweet when you look at it right way.
The entire series is full of metaphors. Each Go player is determined to reach “The Hand of God” and the path to it is a long and hard journey. There's lots of metaphors involving “chasing” , “running”, “soft footsteps of those close behind”, etc. There's also talk about Touya Akira in the lead with the “new wave of young pros”. There's probably a lot more, but I can't watch my Hikago episodes... so these are the ones at the top of my head.
Also, I just love the chemistry between the two. They're rivals. They're almost polar opposites. Their personalities both clashes and mesh together well. They come from completely different backgrounds and they're very pretty together. They're Go prodigies-- but in different ways. Hikaru's a prodigy by how quickly he picked up Go and how good he became in such a short period of time. Touya, on the other hand, had been playing Go his entire life. He was practically born with a golden goban on his lap. While Touya's still a Go genius, he's been surrounded by it his entire life. Hikaru's the one who came onto the scene and surprised the entire Go community, and Touya's the one who's been the spotlight all his life.
tiara_hikari has mentioned that Touya and Hikaru have such different playing styles. From the very start, Hikaru has this natural instinct for Go-- he wasn't very good in the begining, but he showed a lot of promise (and then made silly errors which made Ogata and Sai go "... maybe his brilliant move was a fluke.") Hikaru's playing style is aggressive, eractic, unpredictable, a bit old-fashioned, and it has elements that reminds people of Sai/Shuusaku (Waya certainly thought so) yet with something that's altogether his. His moves are daring (and sometimes, borderline to idiotic, but hey, if it works... right?) and catches people off guard, while he depends on his ability to keep reading ahead.
Touya's been taught to play conventionally, and I think he's more of a defensive player. He's a strategist and his moves are brilliant, but they lack the irresistible eccentricity that Hikaru projects. Even so, they're effective. I always feel as though Touya has a better understanding of Go, just because he's been learning ever since he was young.
The interactions between the Touya and Hikaru are great. After they have Go matches, they're infamous for having loud arguments while discussing them (especially in Touya Mejin's Go Salon) that could extend to public places and important Go tournaments. It gets to the point where Ichikawa-san already has Hikaru's bag ready for when he storms out of Touya's salon "never to return again!" ... only to show up the next day or the following week for their match. (They're such boys, I know.)
Kuwabara; as old as the dinosaurs but more importantly-- is creepy as fuck, a highly respected Go player who ultimately refuses to die and give up his goddamn title (I think my English teacher would have shot me by now if he read this sentence) has commented that “It takes two to reach the Hand of God” or something similar to that effect.
Hikaru's the only person who can ruffle Touya's perfectly groomed feathers and cause him to act his age, while Touya causes Hikaru to grow up a little and he's the reason Hikaru became serious about something for once in his life-- and who got him into Go. Plus, those two really are obsessed. They're constantly trying to get ahead of each other while still maintaining a somewhat friendly rivalry. (Oh, and snark. Lots and lots of snark.)
divinepocky pointed out that Touya (as further proof that Touya's Obssessed With Shindou Hikaru) said something like "It's been exactly two year and four months since we've last played..." to Hikaru when Hikaru confronts him after deciding to play Go again.
Anyone want to place bets on whether or not Touya kept a journal a la The Very Secret Diaries Style?
Day 456
I don't understand why Ogata-san gave me such a strange look today. He murmured something about my sweater and whether or not I had accidentally shopped in the girls section again (again?). Very strange. I think Ogata-san is just stressed out because Ashiwara won't stop returning his calls after the Great Bathroom Incident.
Still ignoring Shindou.
Day 534
My hair looked especially nice today. I could tell all the girls in class were jealous. For some odd reason, I have that song by the American artist "Kelis" stuck in my head. It goes something like "My milkshake bring all the boys to the yard, damn right, they're better than yours..." Ogata-san has appalling taste in music.
Shindou seems to be doing well in his matches, according to the Weekly Go. Not that I care because I wasn't looking for his name or anything. I don't care about Shindou. Nope. Don't care. In fact, I'm not even thinking about him right now.
...
Oh, Mother called. Dinner's ready. We're having potluck tonight.
Still ignoring Shindou.
Misc. (aka Random Stuff I Couldn't Fit Anywhere Else)
... Um, in case you were wondering why I called Hikaru “The Lion” and Touya “The Dragon”, I think it's from something Sai mentioned in the first episode.
Besides, Akira--> Haku resemblance--> Dragon! (He has the personality for one too!)
Hikaru---> Bright blond hair---> Lion! (You know, his blond bangs= lion's mane!)
...Yes, I'm a dork. I also can't bring myself to refer to Touya as "Akira" much. It's always "Touya".However, I can't call Hikaru "Shindou". My logic is strange.
And the Haku/Ken/Touya resemblance? Check this out.
This is Touya (Thanks Izzy!)
This is Ken Ichijouji from Digimon 02. (Um, thank you Google Images?)
And finally, this is Haku from Spirited Away .
Dude... no words. Touya's and Ken's school uniforms are scarily alike.
In conclusion: I have no life.
Moving on.
Fanfiction Recs
The AkiHika fics on LJ are wonderful. We're really fortunate to have such great writers in the fandom. :)
For such a small fandom, we have a lot of fics.
I strongly recommend fics from aishuu, especially Brightly Burning (WIP). You can find a lot of her HnG fics here. Her fic got me interested in Hikago in the first place.
issen4 writes brilliant AkiHika fics too. A lot of her stuff is gen, with a subtle AkiHika undertone. I'm particularly fond of her one-shots; like "Plastics". She also writes a lot of multiparts; “All Strides Lengthen in a Race", "Next to NetGo", "Unfolding Fan", etc. Her works can be found here and on her site.
murinae is a brilliant, brilliant writer... and her AkiHika fics are borderline gen. Her fics can be fond on ff.net and I especially liked Your Hand In Mine.
rageprufrock is a goddess and her writing is gorgeous. Inertia is simply stunning and she wrote some AU one-shots called 19x19 that were amazing.
harukami is a great AkiHika crackfic writer. Her fics never fail to amuse me. Start with The Sordid Truth and its sequel and work your way around. :D Her picture post is priceless. It also contains screencaps that shows you that Akira's fashion statements is every bit as bad as everyone makes it sound.
mousapelli writes great AkiHika fics that are very in character. My favorites are Adding To The Noise (squee!) and Life Imitates Art.
thehoyden writes thoughtful and gorgeous AkiHika smut When He Sees It and One Thing.
Memoirs of a Go Player Part I by flonnebonne. Quoting from her summary, "The diary of Touya Akira--that is, if he were a crazy stalker like in all the BL doujinshi". See, I'm not making the Akira-is-Stalker comments up.
Forgetfulness by starlighter. I'm positively in love with this fic. All the details are fantastic and the last line is perfect.
flowers and go by ametatsu now aboretum is so impossibly good. It's locked, though, but she friends anyone who asks. :)
The Unsent Letter by tarigwaemir is just lovely. It's unsent before someone tries to ask for a sequel! It captures Akira's voice very well.
SailorMac is one of the first AkiHika writers. :D Her stuff can be found on her site. sailormac's smutfics are *____*.
mmmdraco also writes a lot of AkiHika and she updates frequently. Her stuff can be found at quotienscumque.
His Name by K. Huntsman was one of the first AkiHika fics I read when I got into the series and I love her characterization. She also wrote a fantastic vampire!Hikaru fic Bloodstone.
Just Breathe by Ju aka juin is one of my old favorites. There's something about Akira and tight jeans that is so so satisfying. Her fics can be found at reality_is.
silverthunder's fics are awesome. They can be found on her site. I highly recommend "Going Under" because it gave me chills.
Mei writes AkiHika, but not often enough. When she does, it's fantastic. I love In the Darkness cracks me up every time.
bookshop wrote A Whole New Apocalypse which I adore as well as Name. Someone needs to make her write more of this pairing, seriously. :D
I kinda adore Zoe like whoa and her fics are absolutely amazing. ♥ Her fics can be found over at zoesqueities and I'd recommend you start with Lonely Rolling Star because you can't go wrong with Katamari Damacy and Touya freaking out over a video game. You honestly cannot.
I'm probably missing loads. For some more good fics, try my memories or here. (The last one contains links to my own work, er, sorry about that. I didn't think ahead when I started bookmarking all my stuff on del.icio.us).
AkiHika and Hikaru no Go-related links
igo_yaoi is a great community.
blind_go. Brilliant stuff have been posted and the next round's deadline is the 28th! ♥
Hikago Slash is a C2 community on FF.net.
Go-Luvv. 2.0 aka Hikagoyaoi. The best site for AkiHika slash.
Hilarious Episode 18 Spoof by chibichula. This never fails to make me laugh. I love this fandom. (Um, not worksafe for the humor? The pictures are safe, the rest of the thing... no.)
Zoe's Insane Ever-Growing List of Japanese Fanart Sites.
Hikago Manga Downloads. Because Zoe has a lot of spare time on her hands...
Akira/Hikaru fanart. I got almost all of them off of a forum and I tried to credit all I could recognize.
Feel free to recommend some more links. I tend to miss a lot of things.
Credits
Izzy for the gorgeous Akira picture since I was having such a hard time finding a piccie of Akira in his Kaio uniform for the comparison. ♥♥♥
Google Images.
Tokyo Rox for the fanart I used.
Everyone who commented in my former post. :D
Originally posted 7.7.05
Revised and reposted 12.16.06
I hope you guys enjoyed. Constructive criticism and feedback is always appreciated, of course and I'll probably be editing some things soon after I post (when I find typos or when people point out my screw-ups) so don't be alarmed if something changes.
I tried my best to summarized the series in chronological order, but I'm afraid I might have missed some things. To get this out of the way-- there are spoilers. Lots of them. You've been warned. :D Um, for newbies... you should probably familiarize yourself with the series beforehand otherwise bits of what I say won't make sense because I kinda suck at explaining simple things.
This was originally posted at my personal journal (before everything became flocked) and it's been revised and reposted because a) looking back, some of my wording was pretty bad (and it is still is, but whatevs) b)bookshop, meitachi and zoesque have asked me about making it public.
Also, disclaimer: I don't own Hikaru no Go; I'm merely a bored sixteen year old junior with far too much spare time on my hands.
Hikaru no Go: The Series
Shindoh Hikaru, a 6th grader, finds an old go table in the attic of his grandfather's house. He sees some blood stains on the go table, and tries to wipe it off... when a ghost dressed in Heian period clothes pops out, and takes over his body.
The ghost happens to be Fujiwara no Sai, a member of the court during the Heian period. Sai was one of the two men who was assigned as the go tutor to the emperor. The other tutor was envious of Sai, and challenged him to a go match -- whoever wins gets to stay as the court's go master. Sai's opponent cheats during the match, and before Sai could say anything about it, the opponent accused Sai of cheating. Sai was banished from the court, and because of regret and anger, he committed suicide. But as with all unrepented souls, Sai was unable to leave the material world... until he is able to master go, and get one step closer to "kami no itte," or god's hand.
Summary taken from AnimeNfo. (Quick note: “God's Hand” is more commonly known in the fandom as “Hand of God” and in the English Viz translation, “The Divine Move”. I'll use "Hand of God" because it's the one I see most in fics and fandom.)
Shindou Hikaru x Touya Akira [The Lion and the Dragon]
The Lion:
Shindou Hikaru is the protagonist of the series (“Hikaru no Go” literally translates as “Hikaru's Go”). In the beginning of the series, he's a typical sixth grader-- he's loud, brash, a bit naive, not the greatest student ever, he finds girls annoying even though his best friend is one... and he practically inhales ramen. (Remind you of anbody?) He likes shounen jump and video games, wears sporty/casual clothes, and has an unusual two-tone hairstyle. (As the series progresses and Hikaru goes from silly-looking sixth grader to one downright hot sixteen year old-- you'll also come to realize that Hikaru Would Be The Best Boyfriend A Girl Could Ask For If You Ignore The Fact That He's Totally Gay For Touya Akira.)
Hikaru's an only child; naturally, he seems to get his way most of the time. His mother is often concerned about him but she allows him to be pretty independent and make his own choices even though she worries. She doesn't understand anything about Go, same with his father. Hikaru's father is hardly ever mentioned in both the manga and anime; so it's pretty much assumed that's he a typical salaryman who isn't very active in Hikaru's life. Hikaru seems to be pretty close to his grandfather (grandmother never mentioned), who is a amateur Go player and refuses to let his grandson get arrogant about his skills.
This is never confirmed, but it's a popular theory among the fanon that Hikaru's into sports; particularly soccer. This is probably due to a) soccer being a popular sport in Japan b) many fans of Hikaru no Go are also fans of another shounen manga, Whistle! c) in one of the manga opening picture chapters, Hikaru is shown hugging a soccer ball and d)ahsirakhsays: The part where he is "into sports" is canon. In chapter 3, Akari wonders why Hikaru is no longer excelling at Physical Ed, his "specialty".
Hikaru also sucks at baseball in the canon.He broke a window when he tried playing it once.So, baseball is safely ruled out and I think he's too short for basketball.
The Dragon:
We meet Touya Akira almost immediately into the series. At first glance, he sort of looks like a weird hybrid of Ken Ichijouji from Digimon and Haku from Spirited Away (see Misc.). Actually, that impression is still prominent throughout the entire series, and a few fans have incorporated the Spirited Away resemblance into their work. :)
Touya Akira's the polar opposite of Hikaru. While Hikaru flounces about in bright t-shirts and cargoes, Touya's usually dressed in his jailbait school uniform (which looks eerily like Ken Ichijouji's. Haha, see Misc below) or in some hideous sweater or suit. (I'm not being biased here. Really.)
On a side note, Touya's questionable fashion sense is at the butt end of many a joke in the Hikago fandom. It makes fans wonder if he's color-blinded or if he just gets dressed in the dark to conserve electricity. He has worn black, yellow and lavender together and his sweaters are usually the type you see on retired senior citizens. Touya appears to be pretty damn smart (he attends the prestigious Kaio private school), polite, mature, patient, and a bit shy as he doesn't have a lot of friends his age. Lightly put; he's kinda socially retarded. No wonder since he's usually hanging around adults.
(Meanwhile, Hikaru makes friends quite easily, judging from how Kaga, Tsutsui, Waya, etc. seemed to warm up to him.)
Touya's family situation is different from Hikaru's, attitudes about Go and social standing. Touya's family is most likely pretty well off because of Touya Meijin's title and his winnings (and they have a huge-ass house), and Hikaru seems like he's in upper middle class. Not a huge difference, but something I thought I would remark on.
While Hikaru's parents don't know anything about Go, Touya's father is a highly respected Go player and is considered to be the closest person to achieving the Hand of God. Touya's mother(Akiko) has been shown maybe twice in the series and Hikaru's mom is featured only a little bit more. (Hikaru no Go as a series has a habit of introducing characters for a short while and letting them fade away which is a shame.)
Touya's a prodigy and good enough to be a professional. Ever since he was old enough to understand the game, he has played Go. He was confident that he was the best Go player in his age group in all of Japan before Hikaru waltzed in; claimed he has never played before, and turned his world upside down.
Touya doesn't have many friends as Go takes up most of his time. As mentioned before, most people he hangs around are adults. (Ashiwara has been quoted that he's the only friend Touya had that was close to his age.)At school, or at least in Kaio's Go Club, his peers either resent him or are in awed of him (mostly the former). Adults trip over themselves over him.
Seriously, Touya acts like a mini-adult. Of course, Hikaru changed all of that... eventually.
Stacy's Inaccurate and Long Summary of What Happened After Touya and Hikaru's First Meeting and To The End of the Series
After their initial meeting in which Hikaru (with Sai's help) completely trounces Touya, Touya becomes obsessed.
(Really, he does. You can't get any more obvious than that.)
He scares Ichikawa-san (a young woman who works at Touya's Go salon where he hangs out. Yes, his father owns a Go salon. Deal.) and the rest of the customers by becoming Emo!Touya who broods and replays his game with Hikaru constantly.
(If you haven't ever read/seen Hikaru no Go before, Sai played all of Hikaru's games in the beginning. Sai is teh shit (TM) at Go but lost at the game with Touya because he was a little out of practice and he wasn't aware of the new rules. Even though Sai lost, Touya felt like Hikaru (Sai) was trying to play a teaching game against him and it pretty much enraged/confused/and really really freaked him out big time.)
Touya stalks chases after Hikaru in a totally canon obsessed manner that almost becomes sort of a motif or metaphor by the end of the series. It's that bad. Hikaru is beyond freaked at Touya being touchy-feely with his hands (Touya wants to check for himself if Hikaru was telling the truth of never playing Go before). He ends up accidentally insulting Touya by saying he might try playing Go just as an easy way to earn money.
Touya stomps away after that.
Hikaru reluctantly gets interested in Go and gets conned and ends up joining a Go Club even though he's an elementary school student, and plays at a tournament that just happens to be the school Akira's planning to attend. Hikaru gets Unneeded Attention. (Touya just Happened To Be At The Tournament.) Akira gets all misty-eyed and “I wish I could have played you”. Hikaru wants to play an even game with Akira (Sai's Inner Monologue: Fat chance! Hiikarrruuuuuu! I wanna play! I wanna play-- ooh, fishies!).
Hikaru tries to play an even game with Touya and loses miserably. :/
Touya is Disappointed and Angry. He wants to forget about Hikaru. He can't. There is a rumor circulating around the Go world about a very powerful NetGo player with the screen name "Sai" who can even beat pros although he seems like an amateur player (this is Hikaru allowing Sai to play games online). Touya hears from someone that they saw Hikaru at an internet cafe, and he runs all the way there, and sees Hikaru and almost all Hell breaks loose-- but thankfully, our favorite protagonist (and, well, our only) was checking out the Shounen Jump page. Oh, Hikaru.
Touya is Disappointed-- again. He and Hikaru have a dramatic departure scene in which Hikaru can be seen wearing Tights. Guess Touya's not the only one with questionable fashion sense... Oh, and Hikaru becomes more cautious about NetGo. Good boy. He learned a lesson.
(Check this by chibichula for a hilarious spoof. Images Work Safe-- the text... not so much.)
Hikaru wants Touya's attention and becomes an insei and eventually a pro. Touya finds himself being curious about Hikaru's skills and how everyone has High Expectations for him. (It's like a game. Everyone keeps mentioning Hikaru's skills to Touya, not knowing how much it's messing Touya up.) Hikaru gains lots of attention from Important Pros and Titleholders.
Then...
Spoilers
Sai leaves Hikaru. Hikaru stops playing Go, thinking that'll make Sai come back. Touya freaks out. He's all “WTF SHINDOU WHY DID YOU STOP” until Hikaru has an epiphany and decides to play Go again. The first thing Hikaru does is go to Touya and informs him that he's chasing after him. :)
Touya acknowledges him (finally), and soon, they play against each other in a match.
I don't remember who won, but that doesn't matter. (...Really. It doesn't. *shhh!*)
So, all is good.
Oh, and the two of them matured too. They become indecently good-looking and Hikaru becomes slightly more mature (slightly). At the end of the series, he's able to scare his opponents shitless just by opening his spiffy fan and he seems to have learned from Touya how to make his green eyes all intense and scary.
As for Touya, well, his fashion sense still sucks and he's still more or less socially retarded around people his age but he seems to be happier. Um. Right. Let's go with that.
Why AkiHika?
(Credit: Tokyo Rox)
I was never really into the instant “rivals automatically equals OMG SEXUAL TENSION” thing everyone liked... well, until Hikago, anyway. :)
Hikaru and Touya are rivals-- no question. They're friendly rivals, really, but still, they're rivals and it's quite likely that they'll be eternal rivals and that's actually kinda of sweet when you look at it right way.
The entire series is full of metaphors. Each Go player is determined to reach “The Hand of God” and the path to it is a long and hard journey. There's lots of metaphors involving “chasing” , “running”, “soft footsteps of those close behind”, etc. There's also talk about Touya Akira in the lead with the “new wave of young pros”. There's probably a lot more, but I can't watch my Hikago episodes... so these are the ones at the top of my head.
Also, I just love the chemistry between the two. They're rivals. They're almost polar opposites. Their personalities both clashes and mesh together well. They come from completely different backgrounds and they're very pretty together. They're Go prodigies-- but in different ways. Hikaru's a prodigy by how quickly he picked up Go and how good he became in such a short period of time. Touya, on the other hand, had been playing Go his entire life. He was practically born with a golden goban on his lap. While Touya's still a Go genius, he's been surrounded by it his entire life. Hikaru's the one who came onto the scene and surprised the entire Go community, and Touya's the one who's been the spotlight all his life.
tiara_hikari has mentioned that Touya and Hikaru have such different playing styles. From the very start, Hikaru has this natural instinct for Go-- he wasn't very good in the begining, but he showed a lot of promise (and then made silly errors which made Ogata and Sai go "... maybe his brilliant move was a fluke.") Hikaru's playing style is aggressive, eractic, unpredictable, a bit old-fashioned, and it has elements that reminds people of Sai/Shuusaku (Waya certainly thought so) yet with something that's altogether his. His moves are daring (and sometimes, borderline to idiotic, but hey, if it works... right?) and catches people off guard, while he depends on his ability to keep reading ahead.
Touya's been taught to play conventionally, and I think he's more of a defensive player. He's a strategist and his moves are brilliant, but they lack the irresistible eccentricity that Hikaru projects. Even so, they're effective. I always feel as though Touya has a better understanding of Go, just because he's been learning ever since he was young.
The interactions between the Touya and Hikaru are great. After they have Go matches, they're infamous for having loud arguments while discussing them (especially in Touya Mejin's Go Salon) that could extend to public places and important Go tournaments. It gets to the point where Ichikawa-san already has Hikaru's bag ready for when he storms out of Touya's salon "never to return again!" ... only to show up the next day or the following week for their match. (They're such boys, I know.)
Kuwabara; as old as the dinosaurs but more importantly-- is creepy as fuck, a highly respected Go player who ultimately refuses to die and give up his goddamn title (I think my English teacher would have shot me by now if he read this sentence) has commented that “It takes two to reach the Hand of God” or something similar to that effect.
Hikaru's the only person who can ruffle Touya's perfectly groomed feathers and cause him to act his age, while Touya causes Hikaru to grow up a little and he's the reason Hikaru became serious about something for once in his life-- and who got him into Go. Plus, those two really are obsessed. They're constantly trying to get ahead of each other while still maintaining a somewhat friendly rivalry. (Oh, and snark. Lots and lots of snark.)
divinepocky pointed out that Touya (as further proof that Touya's Obssessed With Shindou Hikaru) said something like "It's been exactly two year and four months since we've last played..." to Hikaru when Hikaru confronts him after deciding to play Go again.
Anyone want to place bets on whether or not Touya kept a journal a la The Very Secret Diaries Style?
Day 456
I don't understand why Ogata-san gave me such a strange look today. He murmured something about my sweater and whether or not I had accidentally shopped in the girls section again (again?). Very strange. I think Ogata-san is just stressed out because Ashiwara won't stop returning his calls after the Great Bathroom Incident.
Still ignoring Shindou.
Day 534
My hair looked especially nice today. I could tell all the girls in class were jealous. For some odd reason, I have that song by the American artist "Kelis" stuck in my head. It goes something like "My milkshake bring all the boys to the yard, damn right, they're better than yours..." Ogata-san has appalling taste in music.
Shindou seems to be doing well in his matches, according to the Weekly Go. Not that I care because I wasn't looking for his name or anything. I don't care about Shindou. Nope. Don't care. In fact, I'm not even thinking about him right now.
...
Oh, Mother called. Dinner's ready. We're having potluck tonight.
Still ignoring Shindou.
Misc. (aka Random Stuff I Couldn't Fit Anywhere Else)
... Um, in case you were wondering why I called Hikaru “The Lion” and Touya “The Dragon”, I think it's from something Sai mentioned in the first episode.
Besides, Akira--> Haku resemblance--> Dragon! (He has the personality for one too!)
Hikaru---> Bright blond hair---> Lion! (You know, his blond bangs= lion's mane!)
...Yes, I'm a dork. I also can't bring myself to refer to Touya as "Akira" much. It's always "Touya".However, I can't call Hikaru "Shindou". My logic is strange.
And the Haku/Ken/Touya resemblance? Check this out.
This is Touya (Thanks Izzy!)
This is Ken Ichijouji from Digimon 02. (Um, thank you Google Images?)
And finally, this is Haku from Spirited Away .
Dude... no words. Touya's and Ken's school uniforms are scarily alike.
In conclusion: I have no life.
Moving on.
Fanfiction Recs
The AkiHika fics on LJ are wonderful. We're really fortunate to have such great writers in the fandom. :)
For such a small fandom, we have a lot of fics.
I strongly recommend fics from aishuu, especially Brightly Burning (WIP). You can find a lot of her HnG fics here. Her fic got me interested in Hikago in the first place.
issen4 writes brilliant AkiHika fics too. A lot of her stuff is gen, with a subtle AkiHika undertone. I'm particularly fond of her one-shots; like "Plastics". She also writes a lot of multiparts; “All Strides Lengthen in a Race", "Next to NetGo", "Unfolding Fan", etc. Her works can be found here and on her site.
murinae is a brilliant, brilliant writer... and her AkiHika fics are borderline gen. Her fics can be fond on ff.net and I especially liked Your Hand In Mine.
rageprufrock is a goddess and her writing is gorgeous. Inertia is simply stunning and she wrote some AU one-shots called 19x19 that were amazing.
harukami is a great AkiHika crackfic writer. Her fics never fail to amuse me. Start with The Sordid Truth and its sequel and work your way around. :D Her picture post is priceless. It also contains screencaps that shows you that Akira's fashion statements is every bit as bad as everyone makes it sound.
mousapelli writes great AkiHika fics that are very in character. My favorites are Adding To The Noise (squee!) and Life Imitates Art.
thehoyden writes thoughtful and gorgeous AkiHika smut When He Sees It and One Thing.
Memoirs of a Go Player Part I by flonnebonne. Quoting from her summary, "The diary of Touya Akira--that is, if he were a crazy stalker like in all the BL doujinshi". See, I'm not making the Akira-is-Stalker comments up.
Forgetfulness by starlighter. I'm positively in love with this fic. All the details are fantastic and the last line is perfect.
flowers and go by ametatsu now aboretum is so impossibly good. It's locked, though, but she friends anyone who asks. :)
The Unsent Letter by tarigwaemir is just lovely. It's unsent before someone tries to ask for a sequel! It captures Akira's voice very well.
SailorMac is one of the first AkiHika writers. :D Her stuff can be found on her site. sailormac's smutfics are *____*.
mmmdraco also writes a lot of AkiHika and she updates frequently. Her stuff can be found at quotienscumque.
His Name by K. Huntsman was one of the first AkiHika fics I read when I got into the series and I love her characterization. She also wrote a fantastic vampire!Hikaru fic Bloodstone.
Just Breathe by Ju aka juin is one of my old favorites. There's something about Akira and tight jeans that is so so satisfying. Her fics can be found at reality_is.
silverthunder's fics are awesome. They can be found on her site. I highly recommend "Going Under" because it gave me chills.
Mei writes AkiHika, but not often enough. When she does, it's fantastic. I love In the Darkness cracks me up every time.
bookshop wrote A Whole New Apocalypse which I adore as well as Name. Someone needs to make her write more of this pairing, seriously. :D
I kinda adore Zoe like whoa and her fics are absolutely amazing. ♥ Her fics can be found over at zoesqueities and I'd recommend you start with Lonely Rolling Star because you can't go wrong with Katamari Damacy and Touya freaking out over a video game. You honestly cannot.
I'm probably missing loads. For some more good fics, try my memories or here. (The last one contains links to my own work, er, sorry about that. I didn't think ahead when I started bookmarking all my stuff on del.icio.us).
AkiHika and Hikaru no Go-related links
igo_yaoi is a great community.
blind_go. Brilliant stuff have been posted and the next round's deadline is the 28th! ♥
Hikago Slash is a C2 community on FF.net.
Go-Luvv. 2.0 aka Hikagoyaoi. The best site for AkiHika slash.
Hilarious Episode 18 Spoof by chibichula. This never fails to make me laugh. I love this fandom. (Um, not worksafe for the humor? The pictures are safe, the rest of the thing... no.)
Zoe's Insane Ever-Growing List of Japanese Fanart Sites.
Hikago Manga Downloads. Because Zoe has a lot of spare time on her hands...
Akira/Hikaru fanart. I got almost all of them off of a forum and I tried to credit all I could recognize.
Feel free to recommend some more links. I tend to miss a lot of things.
Credits
Izzy for the gorgeous Akira picture since I was having such a hard time finding a piccie of Akira in his Kaio uniform for the comparison. ♥♥♥
Google Images.
Tokyo Rox for the fanart I used.
Everyone who commented in my former post. :D
Originally posted 7.7.05
Revised and reposted 12.16.06
I hope you guys enjoyed. Constructive criticism and feedback is always appreciated, of course and I'll probably be editing some things soon after I post (when I find typos or when people point out my screw-ups) so don't be alarmed if something changes.