Fate, the Hand of God and Yaoi: Shindou Hikaru and Touya Akira [free month]
Fate, the Hand of God and Yaoi:
Shindou Hikaru and Touya Akira [free month]
Written by: Snaphappy_FMA
Series: Hikaru no Go
Pairing: Shindou Hikaru and Touya Akira
Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go was created by Hotta Yumi and Obata Takeshi. Not mine.
Warnings: Yaoi. Spoilers for the entire anime series. Writing that’s full of squee and not much else. Image heavy.
Hikaru no Go is a manga and anime series ostensibly just about geeky boys who play Go (a traditional Asian board game somewhat similar to chess), and indeed it is that, but... how do I explain that it is so much, much more...?
It’s full of great dramatic moments, comedy, poignant scenes of heartbreak, and...
...SCREAMING YAOI SUBTEXT between its two main characters.
The story begins when Hikaru becomes possessed by the spirit of an ancient Heian-era Go master named Sai, who begins to play Go games through Hikaru’s body. In other words, it looks like Hikaru is playing the games, when actually it’s Sai playing. When Hikaru, channeling Sai, beats Akira, who is a child Go prodigy, the chase begins. The two boys obsess over each other for the rest of the 75-episode series. (A complete rundown of the story can be found in elektra3’s excellent ship manifesto, “Eternal Rivals.” The link for this piece, as well as other links, are at the end of this essay.)
Shindou Hikaru
Shindou Hikaru is a bratty, fun-loving boy who wears loud colors like yellow and orange, has dyed blond bangs, and loves ramen (really - it’s canon). Sound like a certain main character from another anime?
Touya Akira
Touya Akira is pale, beautiful, from a rich upper-class family, is somewhat prissy and neat, a bit anti-social, and is always getting his world turned upside-down by Shindou.
So when Naruto Shindou meets Sasuke Touya... a great new rival!ship is born.
When the story begins, Hikaru and Akira are around 11-12 years old:
They eventually grow up a bit…
And then (finally, approaching an age where they’re almost legal ;):
Yes, Akira has Anime Weird Hair Syndrome (the cut, as well as it being an alluring shade of... deep green?). (Akira’s father, Touya Kouyo, is shown to also have green hair. As if that explains it.) He also has, as writers of both meta and fanfic have noted, a peculiar fashion sense… like his mother dressed him… only worse. Touya wears argyle sweaters and, most horribly, in several episodes, a lavender suit with a pale pink-peach button-down shirt.
Hikaru no Go is set in contemporary Tokyo. All of the characters are from middle-class families (Touya’s father is a Go champion and his family is actually wealthy), and none of the characters has a major tragedy in his past or some big issue that they’re trying to overcome.
These boys are achingly normal. The only thing that distinguishes them is playing Go at a competitive level-not the most heartpoundingly exciting-or visually exciting-thing you could imagine succeeding in an anime. There is virtually no violence in Hikaru no Go, only two minor incidents: when Waya punches out the obnoxious Mashiba for insulting Isumi, and when creepy Ogata grabs Hikaru’s shirt and gets in his face about Sai.
And yet… Hikaru no Go is simply filled with moments of high drama, like the incident with Isumi and the “misplaced” stone; Touya Meijin sensing Sai’s presence behind Hikaru in their new first dan match; and, of course, Hikaru and Akira’s first official match at the end of the series-to name only a very few scenes out of many. There are moments of such high dramatic tension that you literally forget to breathe as you’re watching; one episode flows into the next and you find yourself marathoning the series (again!) without even intending to.
Hikaru no Go is a wonderfully entertaining series, with or without the yaoi inference. It’s about discovering what you want from life, growing up, friendship, competition, going for your dreams.
And the main focus, the divine spark that holds the series together… the relationship that forms the heart of the story… is between Hikaru and Akira.
It’s undeniable. From the moment they first meet, it’s as if fate set them on a (collision) course headed straight for each other.
As in all good romances stories, they hurt each other, misunderstand each other, and throughout the entire series-on both sides-obsess over one another.
Mutual obsession between rivals is nothing new and, in and of itself, doesn’t give rise to any yaoi implications.
But it’s the quality of the obsession on each side, each boy’s reactions, and the ultimate outcome for both boys that controls here. (Plus, they look incredibly cute together. ;)
After letting Sai play through him initially, Hikaru learns to play Go, becoming strong enough in his skills to seek to become a pro. Initially a cheerful boy with no focus or ambition in life, Sai’s presence, along with the challenge presented by Akira and his superior skills, enable Hikaru to discover his life purpose. Personality-wise, Hikaru is a happy kid for the most part. He isn’t the broody type and doesn’t appear to get sidetracked by his emotions very much-i.e., he’s a typical boy in his reactions. Even when Akira later refuses to acknowledge him on several occasions, Hikaru simply gets pissed and uses it as fuel to make him work on making his Go game stronger.
Though it’s the (spoiler - sorry) loss of Sai that is the main catalyst for Hikaru’s growth, it’s Akira who inspires him throughout the series, more so than even Sai. Akira is a real-life Go player at a high, but not unattainable level, unlike Sai the unreachable Go master (although it is inferred towards the end of the series that Hikaru has, or will someday soon, eclipse Sai). Though I would say Hikaru’s obsession with Akira is less personal than Akira’s is with him (more on that below), at crucial moments in the story Hikaru does think of Akira, and uses the thought of his rival as a spur to regain his determination and enthusiasm for the game.
Akira has no friends his own age, and is constantly surrounded by adults, whose high expectations of him are only exceeded by his own expectations of himself. Akira’s mother and father obviously love him, but he is still very isolated. The Touya family home, a large traditional Japanese-style house containing huge spaces of Zen-like emptiness, further reinforces Akira’s aloneness in visual terms. Akira acts like an adult in a boy’s body and not like someone his own (still young) age, and he appears to have an introverted personality as a result of all of the above. As still waters run deep, Akira buries his emotions, which only come out with Hikaru.
Starting with their first game, and forever after that, Akira is obsessed with Hikaru. The fanfic writers who peg Akira as a stalker don’t have it half wrong. And a recurring joke in canon is how Akira is always scaring Hikaru by popping up, seemingly out of nowhere, just when Hikaru least expects to see him.
Touya broods, and is the quiet, pensive sort. He stares out of train windows, obsessing thinking about Shindou. His isolation and introverted personality means that, ultimately, Touya is changed even more by Hikaru than Hikaru is by him.
After all, Hikaru knows everything he needs to know about Touya pretty much from the moment they first meet: he knows that Touya is a highly-skilled Go player even though he is only Hikaru’s age, and eventually Hikaru decides that he wants very much to be on that level himself (and, not coincidentally, make Touya pay attention to him again. Hikaru is unaware that Touya has never really stopped obsessing paying attention to him.).
On the other hand, Hikaru is a complete mystery to Akira, and the mystery only deepens as the series winds on, as inexplicable and confounding events keep happening in front of Akira-all involving Shindou in some way. So the obsession is deeper on Akira’s side-and seems to be on more of a personal level than Hikaru’s obsession with Akira.
By the end of the series, the brilliance at Go that Akira represents has caused Hikaru to stride forward in his Go ambitions, and Hikaru grows both as a Go player and as a person as a result. And on Akira’s side, the mystery of Hikaru has drawn Akira out of his small, stiflingly secure world. In the end, Hikaru becomes not just Akira’s rival, but something even more gratifying-his friend. Hikaru brings Akira out of his isolation. As is said in the story, it takes two people to reach the “Hand of God” (referring to, in essence, a divine or perfect game), and it is strongly inferred that this will be Hikaru and Akira’s shared destiny with each other.
But Is It Yaoi?
Where the yaoi is subtextual, basically, it’s either in the eye of the beholder or it’s not; but I think anyone with an open mind would have to at least look at Hikaru and Akira in those terms to see what can be found there.
Not only is Hikaru and Akira a classic rivalship, but I look to see where the sparks are. In other words: Who is the one the friendly, likable protagonist admires and can’t stop thinking about? Who is the only one who can get under the skin of the cool, introverted character-and make him show a lot of emotion? (Akira really only shows any sort of emotion at all when Hikaru is present, or when something occurs that relates to Hikaru in some way.) And why does Hikaru literally blush when Akira approaches him at the new first dan certification ceremony-like a girl in a shoujo anime when the boy of her dreams approaches her at a dance…?
Why does the air feel positively electric whenever Hikaru and Akira meet in the series?
Circumstantial Evidence of HikaAki and AkiHika Yaoi-ness
I’ve used only official images from the Hikaru no Go anime and manga in this essay, for a reason.
Look at the pictures.
Again, keep in mind that these are official art pieces, from the creators of Hikaru no Go.
And finally:
I think Akira looks especially uke in that last one, don’t you? ;)
Conclusion
In the end, as I said above, Hikaru no Go can be enjoyed without seeing any yaoi in it whatsoever. Though I would argue it’s even more enjoyable if you do see the yaoi in it. ;)
And I may be unnecessarily complicating things by even seeing the need to argue that there is yaoi here. Basically, if you watch all of Hikaru no Go and conclude that Hikaru and Akira will go off into the sunset as rivals and friends, you’d be right. And… if you watch all of Hikaru no Go and conclude that Hikaru and Akira will go off into the sunset as rivals, friends and lovers… I think you’d also be right, because the evidence for that-if you choose to see it that way-is there as well.
Resources
Fan Fiction
There is a lot of great fan fiction in the Hikaru no Go fan universe-the following are just a few personal favorites. Yaoi unless stated otherwise.
Multi-Chapter
Balance by Sailor Mac
anime.adultfanfiction.net/story.php
A long multi-chapter story and still my favorite Shindou/Touya yaoi fanfic piece overall.
Preliminaries by stirring_still
stirring-still.livejournal.com/5583.html
This is a softly, but precisely written, and very believable interpretation, showing Hikaru and Akira slowly falling in love without even realizing it.
The Extent of Denial by kk-twin
www.fanfiction.net/s/3231223/1/The_Extent_of_Denial
As the author herself states, the characters are somewhat OOC here, but no matter. This story has more passionate clashes between Hikaru and Akira than any other I’ve read. Warning: there is a truckload of angst in this one, before the (very) happy ending. A must-read if you’re into possessive!Touya.
One-Shot Stories
Years by harumi
harumi.livejournal.com/96356.html
Hikaru invites Akira to come with him to Innoshima.
Summer Storm by Silver Thunder
www.fanfiction.net/s/1944416/1/
Hikaru and Akira as lovers, and still fighting like cats and dogs.
Waterloo by bookshop
bookshop.livejournal.com/868648.html
A lovely story in which Hikaru and Akira’s coming together seems not only right, but pretty much inevitable. ;)
5 of Five by chaineddove
chaineddove.livejournal.com/341964.html#cutid1
Five short stories about Hikaru and Akira, which can be read either as a linear progression or, as the author states, “five possible futures” for the pair.
Odi et amo (gen) by lilla-bis
www.fanfiction.net/s/4008953/1/Odi_et_amo
An interesting and dark speculation on possibly the real reason why Touya is obsessed with Shindou.
Things I Never Asked Him (gen) by priestessgrrrl
www.fanfiction.net/s/4059511/1/Things_I_never_asked_him
A short but surprisingly emotional read, with a great last line.
Bleach (gen) by audny-the-albatross
www.fanfiction.net/s/4004189/1/Bleach
A perfect short short.
Meta
Eternal Rivals Ship Manifesto by elektra3
community.livejournal.com/ship_manifesto/144828.html
The classic ship manifesto on Hikaru and Akira.
Intentional Ambiguity by stirring_still
stirring-still.livejournal.com/4687.html
An excellent, recent meta essay on Hikaru and Akira.
Hello Hikago! by bookshop
bookshop.livejournal.com/877261.html
A fun essay, with tons of pictures, about our favorite pair.
Touya Akira/Shindou Hikaru Pseudo-Manifesto/Overview by svz_insanity
community.livejournal.com/crack_lore/43289.html#cutid1
Another fun essay, with tons of pictures, about Hikaru and Akira.
Aging Characters by telophase
telophase.livejournal.com/184933.html
This is a fascinating essay, with lots of illustrations, examining the art style of Obata Takeshi, the manga artist who illustrated both Hikaru no Go and-believe it or not-Death Note (it’s hard to imagine two more different stories…). Features images of the aging of Hikaru and Akira from ages 12 to 16, with accompanying commentary.
Music Videos
Akira x Hikaru Doujinshi - Ai no Katachi
www.youtube.com/watch
Cute art and brief glimpses of a cross-dressing Akira…
Akira Wants Hikaru
www.youtube.com/watch
A nice blending of fan art images together with video clips from the anime.
Hikaru no Go Yaoi Doujinshi 3
www.youtube.com/watch
Akira has a slight fever, and Hikaru has, uh, a solution… ;)
Hikaru no Go Yaoi Doujinshi 5
www.youtube.com/watch
Hikaru and Akira as older teenagers. Some really lovely images in this video.
“Hair”
www.youtube.com/watch
From a drama CD - featuring the seiyuus for Hikaru (Kawakami Tomoko) and Akira (Kobayashi Sanae). In this video, Hikaru and Akira discuss their respective strange hairstyles. If you scroll down in the comments on You Tube, some nice person has done a full English translation.
“Hamburger”
www.youtube.com/watch
Also from a drama CD, with the original seiyuus’ voices. With my limited Japanese, I gather that Hikaru is taking Akira to McDonald’s (“NcDonald’s” in the series), and it’s Akira’s first time there. Akira asks what French fries are; what kind of toys are available with the “Happy Happy Set” meal; and tells Hikaru he can order his drink for him. Hikaru then gets a call on his cell, and apparently leaves Akira to eat everything himself - ?
And finally… Please feel free to add your own links to your favorite HnG fanfic, meta and music videos in your comments below.
Share the HikaAki and AkiHika love!
Shindou Hikaru and Touya Akira [free month]
Written by: Snaphappy_FMA
Series: Hikaru no Go
Pairing: Shindou Hikaru and Touya Akira
Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go was created by Hotta Yumi and Obata Takeshi. Not mine.
Warnings: Yaoi. Spoilers for the entire anime series. Writing that’s full of squee and not much else. Image heavy.
Hikaru no Go is a manga and anime series ostensibly just about geeky boys who play Go (a traditional Asian board game somewhat similar to chess), and indeed it is that, but... how do I explain that it is so much, much more...?
It’s full of great dramatic moments, comedy, poignant scenes of heartbreak, and...
...SCREAMING YAOI SUBTEXT between its two main characters.
The story begins when Hikaru becomes possessed by the spirit of an ancient Heian-era Go master named Sai, who begins to play Go games through Hikaru’s body. In other words, it looks like Hikaru is playing the games, when actually it’s Sai playing. When Hikaru, channeling Sai, beats Akira, who is a child Go prodigy, the chase begins. The two boys obsess over each other for the rest of the 75-episode series. (A complete rundown of the story can be found in elektra3’s excellent ship manifesto, “Eternal Rivals.” The link for this piece, as well as other links, are at the end of this essay.)
Shindou Hikaru
Shindou Hikaru is a bratty, fun-loving boy who wears loud colors like yellow and orange, has dyed blond bangs, and loves ramen (really - it’s canon). Sound like a certain main character from another anime?
Touya Akira
Touya Akira is pale, beautiful, from a rich upper-class family, is somewhat prissy and neat, a bit anti-social, and is always getting his world turned upside-down by Shindou.
So when Naruto Shindou meets Sasuke Touya... a great new rival!ship is born.
When the story begins, Hikaru and Akira are around 11-12 years old:
They eventually grow up a bit…
And then (finally, approaching an age where they’re almost legal ;):
Yes, Akira has Anime Weird Hair Syndrome (the cut, as well as it being an alluring shade of... deep green?). (Akira’s father, Touya Kouyo, is shown to also have green hair. As if that explains it.) He also has, as writers of both meta and fanfic have noted, a peculiar fashion sense… like his mother dressed him… only worse. Touya wears argyle sweaters and, most horribly, in several episodes, a lavender suit with a pale pink-peach button-down shirt.
Hikaru no Go is set in contemporary Tokyo. All of the characters are from middle-class families (Touya’s father is a Go champion and his family is actually wealthy), and none of the characters has a major tragedy in his past or some big issue that they’re trying to overcome.
These boys are achingly normal. The only thing that distinguishes them is playing Go at a competitive level-not the most heartpoundingly exciting-or visually exciting-thing you could imagine succeeding in an anime. There is virtually no violence in Hikaru no Go, only two minor incidents: when Waya punches out the obnoxious Mashiba for insulting Isumi, and when creepy Ogata grabs Hikaru’s shirt and gets in his face about Sai.
And yet… Hikaru no Go is simply filled with moments of high drama, like the incident with Isumi and the “misplaced” stone; Touya Meijin sensing Sai’s presence behind Hikaru in their new first dan match; and, of course, Hikaru and Akira’s first official match at the end of the series-to name only a very few scenes out of many. There are moments of such high dramatic tension that you literally forget to breathe as you’re watching; one episode flows into the next and you find yourself marathoning the series (again!) without even intending to.
Hikaru no Go is a wonderfully entertaining series, with or without the yaoi inference. It’s about discovering what you want from life, growing up, friendship, competition, going for your dreams.
And the main focus, the divine spark that holds the series together… the relationship that forms the heart of the story… is between Hikaru and Akira.
It’s undeniable. From the moment they first meet, it’s as if fate set them on a (collision) course headed straight for each other.
As in all good romances stories, they hurt each other, misunderstand each other, and throughout the entire series-on both sides-obsess over one another.
Mutual obsession between rivals is nothing new and, in and of itself, doesn’t give rise to any yaoi implications.
But it’s the quality of the obsession on each side, each boy’s reactions, and the ultimate outcome for both boys that controls here. (Plus, they look incredibly cute together. ;)
After letting Sai play through him initially, Hikaru learns to play Go, becoming strong enough in his skills to seek to become a pro. Initially a cheerful boy with no focus or ambition in life, Sai’s presence, along with the challenge presented by Akira and his superior skills, enable Hikaru to discover his life purpose. Personality-wise, Hikaru is a happy kid for the most part. He isn’t the broody type and doesn’t appear to get sidetracked by his emotions very much-i.e., he’s a typical boy in his reactions. Even when Akira later refuses to acknowledge him on several occasions, Hikaru simply gets pissed and uses it as fuel to make him work on making his Go game stronger.
Though it’s the (spoiler - sorry) loss of Sai that is the main catalyst for Hikaru’s growth, it’s Akira who inspires him throughout the series, more so than even Sai. Akira is a real-life Go player at a high, but not unattainable level, unlike Sai the unreachable Go master (although it is inferred towards the end of the series that Hikaru has, or will someday soon, eclipse Sai). Though I would say Hikaru’s obsession with Akira is less personal than Akira’s is with him (more on that below), at crucial moments in the story Hikaru does think of Akira, and uses the thought of his rival as a spur to regain his determination and enthusiasm for the game.
Akira has no friends his own age, and is constantly surrounded by adults, whose high expectations of him are only exceeded by his own expectations of himself. Akira’s mother and father obviously love him, but he is still very isolated. The Touya family home, a large traditional Japanese-style house containing huge spaces of Zen-like emptiness, further reinforces Akira’s aloneness in visual terms. Akira acts like an adult in a boy’s body and not like someone his own (still young) age, and he appears to have an introverted personality as a result of all of the above. As still waters run deep, Akira buries his emotions, which only come out with Hikaru.
Starting with their first game, and forever after that, Akira is obsessed with Hikaru. The fanfic writers who peg Akira as a stalker don’t have it half wrong. And a recurring joke in canon is how Akira is always scaring Hikaru by popping up, seemingly out of nowhere, just when Hikaru least expects to see him.
Touya broods, and is the quiet, pensive sort. He stares out of train windows, obsessing thinking about Shindou. His isolation and introverted personality means that, ultimately, Touya is changed even more by Hikaru than Hikaru is by him.
After all, Hikaru knows everything he needs to know about Touya pretty much from the moment they first meet: he knows that Touya is a highly-skilled Go player even though he is only Hikaru’s age, and eventually Hikaru decides that he wants very much to be on that level himself (and, not coincidentally, make Touya pay attention to him again. Hikaru is unaware that Touya has never really stopped obsessing paying attention to him.).
On the other hand, Hikaru is a complete mystery to Akira, and the mystery only deepens as the series winds on, as inexplicable and confounding events keep happening in front of Akira-all involving Shindou in some way. So the obsession is deeper on Akira’s side-and seems to be on more of a personal level than Hikaru’s obsession with Akira.
By the end of the series, the brilliance at Go that Akira represents has caused Hikaru to stride forward in his Go ambitions, and Hikaru grows both as a Go player and as a person as a result. And on Akira’s side, the mystery of Hikaru has drawn Akira out of his small, stiflingly secure world. In the end, Hikaru becomes not just Akira’s rival, but something even more gratifying-his friend. Hikaru brings Akira out of his isolation. As is said in the story, it takes two people to reach the “Hand of God” (referring to, in essence, a divine or perfect game), and it is strongly inferred that this will be Hikaru and Akira’s shared destiny with each other.
But Is It Yaoi?
Where the yaoi is subtextual, basically, it’s either in the eye of the beholder or it’s not; but I think anyone with an open mind would have to at least look at Hikaru and Akira in those terms to see what can be found there.
Not only is Hikaru and Akira a classic rivalship, but I look to see where the sparks are. In other words: Who is the one the friendly, likable protagonist admires and can’t stop thinking about? Who is the only one who can get under the skin of the cool, introverted character-and make him show a lot of emotion? (Akira really only shows any sort of emotion at all when Hikaru is present, or when something occurs that relates to Hikaru in some way.) And why does Hikaru literally blush when Akira approaches him at the new first dan certification ceremony-like a girl in a shoujo anime when the boy of her dreams approaches her at a dance…?
Why does the air feel positively electric whenever Hikaru and Akira meet in the series?
Circumstantial Evidence of HikaAki and AkiHika Yaoi-ness
I’ve used only official images from the Hikaru no Go anime and manga in this essay, for a reason.
Look at the pictures.
Again, keep in mind that these are official art pieces, from the creators of Hikaru no Go.
And finally:
I think Akira looks especially uke in that last one, don’t you? ;)
Conclusion
In the end, as I said above, Hikaru no Go can be enjoyed without seeing any yaoi in it whatsoever. Though I would argue it’s even more enjoyable if you do see the yaoi in it. ;)
And I may be unnecessarily complicating things by even seeing the need to argue that there is yaoi here. Basically, if you watch all of Hikaru no Go and conclude that Hikaru and Akira will go off into the sunset as rivals and friends, you’d be right. And… if you watch all of Hikaru no Go and conclude that Hikaru and Akira will go off into the sunset as rivals, friends and lovers… I think you’d also be right, because the evidence for that-if you choose to see it that way-is there as well.
Resources
Fan Fiction
There is a lot of great fan fiction in the Hikaru no Go fan universe-the following are just a few personal favorites. Yaoi unless stated otherwise.
Multi-Chapter
Balance by Sailor Mac
anime.adultfanfiction.net/story.php
A long multi-chapter story and still my favorite Shindou/Touya yaoi fanfic piece overall.
Preliminaries by stirring_still
stirring-still.livejournal.com/5583.html
This is a softly, but precisely written, and very believable interpretation, showing Hikaru and Akira slowly falling in love without even realizing it.
The Extent of Denial by kk-twin
www.fanfiction.net/s/3231223/1/The_Extent_of_Denial
As the author herself states, the characters are somewhat OOC here, but no matter. This story has more passionate clashes between Hikaru and Akira than any other I’ve read. Warning: there is a truckload of angst in this one, before the (very) happy ending. A must-read if you’re into possessive!Touya.
One-Shot Stories
Years by harumi
harumi.livejournal.com/96356.html
Hikaru invites Akira to come with him to Innoshima.
Summer Storm by Silver Thunder
www.fanfiction.net/s/1944416/1/
Hikaru and Akira as lovers, and still fighting like cats and dogs.
Waterloo by bookshop
bookshop.livejournal.com/868648.html
A lovely story in which Hikaru and Akira’s coming together seems not only right, but pretty much inevitable. ;)
5 of Five by chaineddove
chaineddove.livejournal.com/341964.html#cutid1
Five short stories about Hikaru and Akira, which can be read either as a linear progression or, as the author states, “five possible futures” for the pair.
Odi et amo (gen) by lilla-bis
www.fanfiction.net/s/4008953/1/Odi_et_amo
An interesting and dark speculation on possibly the real reason why Touya is obsessed with Shindou.
Things I Never Asked Him (gen) by priestessgrrrl
www.fanfiction.net/s/4059511/1/Things_I_never_asked_him
A short but surprisingly emotional read, with a great last line.
Bleach (gen) by audny-the-albatross
www.fanfiction.net/s/4004189/1/Bleach
A perfect short short.
Meta
Eternal Rivals Ship Manifesto by elektra3
community.livejournal.com/ship_manifesto/144828.html
The classic ship manifesto on Hikaru and Akira.
Intentional Ambiguity by stirring_still
stirring-still.livejournal.com/4687.html
An excellent, recent meta essay on Hikaru and Akira.
Hello Hikago! by bookshop
bookshop.livejournal.com/877261.html
A fun essay, with tons of pictures, about our favorite pair.
Touya Akira/Shindou Hikaru Pseudo-Manifesto/Overview by svz_insanity
community.livejournal.com/crack_lore/43289.html#cutid1
Another fun essay, with tons of pictures, about Hikaru and Akira.
Aging Characters by telophase
telophase.livejournal.com/184933.html
This is a fascinating essay, with lots of illustrations, examining the art style of Obata Takeshi, the manga artist who illustrated both Hikaru no Go and-believe it or not-Death Note (it’s hard to imagine two more different stories…). Features images of the aging of Hikaru and Akira from ages 12 to 16, with accompanying commentary.
Music Videos
Akira x Hikaru Doujinshi - Ai no Katachi
www.youtube.com/watch
Cute art and brief glimpses of a cross-dressing Akira…
Akira Wants Hikaru
www.youtube.com/watch
A nice blending of fan art images together with video clips from the anime.
Hikaru no Go Yaoi Doujinshi 3
www.youtube.com/watch
Akira has a slight fever, and Hikaru has, uh, a solution… ;)
Hikaru no Go Yaoi Doujinshi 5
www.youtube.com/watch
Hikaru and Akira as older teenagers. Some really lovely images in this video.
“Hair”
www.youtube.com/watch
From a drama CD - featuring the seiyuus for Hikaru (Kawakami Tomoko) and Akira (Kobayashi Sanae). In this video, Hikaru and Akira discuss their respective strange hairstyles. If you scroll down in the comments on You Tube, some nice person has done a full English translation.
“Hamburger”
www.youtube.com/watch
Also from a drama CD, with the original seiyuus’ voices. With my limited Japanese, I gather that Hikaru is taking Akira to McDonald’s (“NcDonald’s” in the series), and it’s Akira’s first time there. Akira asks what French fries are; what kind of toys are available with the “Happy Happy Set” meal; and tells Hikaru he can order his drink for him. Hikaru then gets a call on his cell, and apparently leaves Akira to eat everything himself - ?
And finally… Please feel free to add your own links to your favorite HnG fanfic, meta and music videos in your comments below.
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