In Love Again
...as in, I've found another anime to obsess over:
My newest full-blown anime obsession is Hikaru no Go, a series ostensibly just about geeky boys who play Go, the traditional Asian board game, 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.
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 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. And, oh, the best part: the whole story is based around their rivalry with each other.
So when Naruto Shindou meets Sasuke Touya... a great new rival!ship is born.
The story begins when Hikaru gets possessed by the spirit of an ancient Heian-era Go master named Sai. Hikaru eventually allows Sai to play Go games, through his body. When Sai (through Hikaru) beats Akira, who is a child Go prodigy, the chase begins. The two boys obsess over each other for basically the rest of the 75-episode series.
This is Hikaru.
And this is Akira.
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.)
When I began reading HnG fan fiction, I kept seeing crossover fanfics with Gravitation. It turns out that there's a subset of HnG fanfics where Shindou Hikaru (Hikaru no Go) and Shindou Shuichi (Gravitation) are cousins. It's apparently such an in-joke in the fandoms that you'll see throwaway lines in a fic ("My cousin's in a rock band" or "My cousin's a professional Go player")... with no further explanation being made. Nice. ;)
I presently cannot get enough of this series, and anything associated with it...
Full-blown, I tell you. Full-blown.
My newest full-blown anime obsession is Hikaru no Go, a series ostensibly just about geeky boys who play Go, the traditional Asian board game, 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.
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 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. And, oh, the best part: the whole story is based around their rivalry with each other.
So when Naruto Shindou meets Sasuke Touya... a great new rival!ship is born.
The story begins when Hikaru gets possessed by the spirit of an ancient Heian-era Go master named Sai. Hikaru eventually allows Sai to play Go games, through his body. When Sai (through Hikaru) beats Akira, who is a child Go prodigy, the chase begins. The two boys obsess over each other for basically the rest of the 75-episode series.
This is Hikaru.
And this is Akira.
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.)
When I began reading HnG fan fiction, I kept seeing crossover fanfics with Gravitation. It turns out that there's a subset of HnG fanfics where Shindou Hikaru (Hikaru no Go) and Shindou Shuichi (Gravitation) are cousins. It's apparently such an in-joke in the fandoms that you'll see throwaway lines in a fic ("My cousin's in a rock band" or "My cousin's a professional Go player")... with no further explanation being made. Nice. ;)
I presently cannot get enough of this series, and anything associated with it...
Full-blown, I tell you. Full-blown.