Why Hikaru no Go is the way it is (and just the way it should be.)
I finished watching the Hikaru no Go anime just yesterday (I ditched studying for it, and it was so worth it. I cried so much.) I just finished the manga this morning, and I decided to have a look at bookshop's LJ, which always proves entertaining, and came across this post. (Which you should all read, if you haven't already done so!) And because the ending (or pseudo-ending -- you'll know what I mean if you're familiar with the series) is still fresh in my mind, and I get so teary-eyed thinking about it, I have decided to join in on the meta.
I don't know where to begin. I'm not too clear where my sheer love of this series began, either -- it's been a couple of months since I discovered it but, somehow, it feels so familiar, like I've known it all along. I do not exaggerate if I say Hikaru no Go is my favourite series in the whole world, and that I doubt it will ever be replaced.
At the beginning of the series, we witness the scene in which Hikaru meets Sai. The force and sheer power of that scene will never cease to amaze me -- just as Hikaru is getting mad about Akari being unable to see the bloodstains on the board, Sai speaks ("Can you see the stains? You can hear my voice, can't you?") and the tension is taken to a whole new level as the presence of a third person is revealed. I find Sai's story heart-wrenching -- particularly in the anime, there's a shot of the lower half of his face, partically hidden by his hair, and you can see his lip tremble as he cries. I cry so much with that every time I watch it, because Sai should never have felt such grief.
But is that really true? Well, of course we all agree that we want Sai to be happy because he's the most amazing character ever (and this is an universal truth), but his being happy during his life would have meant that he never would have stopped being the emperor's tutor, he would never have been stripped of his honor and the game of Go. Therefore, he would have died old and happy, and he would have ended there. And the whole world of Go would have changed because of that - Honinbou Shuusaku, the greatest Go player of all time, might never have existed as such. Hikaru would have never taken an interest in Go, and he would never have discovered his potential for the game. Touya Akira would have never found the joy of having someone to call his rival - he would have become a pro before even entering junior high, and spent his life playing a thousand different opponents who couldn't make him burn with anticipation or feel the need to surpass himself constantly, and reach for the top -- higher than anyone else.
Sai is, therefore, the reason behind all that happens, and the player who is the closest to obtaining the Hand of God. Although only Hikaru can see and hear him, he subtly moves the plot along -- he makes Akira regard Hikaru as a rival, he causes a revolution in the world of Go with the aid of the Internet and Mitani's sister, he makes Hikaru want to prove himself to Akira and to the world, makes him want to be better and better, and he ultimately triggers true understanding in Hikaru when he disappears. I think I have shed more tears over Sai than over any other character (or anything really), because he is so beautiful -- he forces everyone around him to evolve while searching to obtain the divine move himself, and his joie de vivre is something so pure and so innocent -- Sai only wants to live, because living allows him to play go, and that's all he'll ever need.
His dispair when he starts feeling himself flicker ("Hikaru! I'm going to disappear soon!") is something that tugs at my heart, the sorrow with which Sai says these words. Hikaru doesn't believe him then -- after those three years with Sai, he has taken him for granted, and does not think it would be possible for him to disappear. Even after he does, Hikaru still refuses to admit it, and he almost gives up -- on everything -- until Isumi forces him to play, and he realizes that Sai is in him, has been in him all along.
"Just as I existed for Hikaru... Hikaru will exist for someone else... and that person will exist for someone else..."
Hikaru exists for Akira, I believe. He is what has shaped Akira into what he has become, and vice versa. Together, they take the game of go to a whole new level -- they take black and white, night and day, and build the universe in all its endless magnificence, with their very own hands. Together, they walk the path that so many have walked before them -- and many more are too come, surely -- a path to the Hand of God, the achievement of perfection on a goban. Their rivalry -- and therefore, their confidence in each other's abilities -- is what pushes them to take another step towards it -- they push each other towards their goal.
Everybody in their own way, they strive to achieve perfection. And that is, ultimately, why we are alive -- we live to surpass and improve ourselves towards our goal, whatever that may be, and to defeat any obstacles that may get in our way because, ultimately, no matter how much we have to suffer to achive our personal Hand of God, it is the only way to happiness and even if it's a pipe dream blurred in tears ("Future" - because that song is life-changing), it's the way it is and the way it should be.
So why are so many people disappointed with the ending? Now I say to you, can't you see that there is no ending? Can't you see that the path they walk down, the continuous evolution, is eternal? Touya Akira understands this, and he says so to Hikaru in the last scene of the manga -- a scene so powerful that you can hear the air crackling with the sheer force and intensity of it -- "Let's go, Shindou. This isn't the end. There is no end."
Because this, this is the universe, and it never ends. It just flows and forms a circle, and people step in and out of it but, no matter what they do, it will always continue flowing. This is the whole point of the series, that sense of eternity, of all the people connecting over the board and extending, always in search of the perfect shape. Day after day, match after match, Hikaru and Akira, Sai an ever-present influence even after he's gone beyond, every person exists for another's sake and they all together exist for the sake of the world itself which is, ultimately, themselves. All of them chasing the same goal as their efforts and the sound of their footsteps overlap and form that vortex of perfect imperfection that's the long journey towards reaching the Hand of God. They will meet each other along the way and their paths may cross but, even if they don't, their goal is the same.
Perfection. The Hand of God. It never ends. It doesn't have to.
And then Shindou goes out of the room, after Touya like countless times before, and what may seem like an ending is really the announcement of a new beginning...
Can you hear my voice?
I don't know where to begin. I'm not too clear where my sheer love of this series began, either -- it's been a couple of months since I discovered it but, somehow, it feels so familiar, like I've known it all along. I do not exaggerate if I say Hikaru no Go is my favourite series in the whole world, and that I doubt it will ever be replaced.
At the beginning of the series, we witness the scene in which Hikaru meets Sai. The force and sheer power of that scene will never cease to amaze me -- just as Hikaru is getting mad about Akari being unable to see the bloodstains on the board, Sai speaks ("Can you see the stains? You can hear my voice, can't you?") and the tension is taken to a whole new level as the presence of a third person is revealed. I find Sai's story heart-wrenching -- particularly in the anime, there's a shot of the lower half of his face, partically hidden by his hair, and you can see his lip tremble as he cries. I cry so much with that every time I watch it, because Sai should never have felt such grief.
But is that really true? Well, of course we all agree that we want Sai to be happy because he's the most amazing character ever (and this is an universal truth), but his being happy during his life would have meant that he never would have stopped being the emperor's tutor, he would never have been stripped of his honor and the game of Go. Therefore, he would have died old and happy, and he would have ended there. And the whole world of Go would have changed because of that - Honinbou Shuusaku, the greatest Go player of all time, might never have existed as such. Hikaru would have never taken an interest in Go, and he would never have discovered his potential for the game. Touya Akira would have never found the joy of having someone to call his rival - he would have become a pro before even entering junior high, and spent his life playing a thousand different opponents who couldn't make him burn with anticipation or feel the need to surpass himself constantly, and reach for the top -- higher than anyone else.
Sai is, therefore, the reason behind all that happens, and the player who is the closest to obtaining the Hand of God. Although only Hikaru can see and hear him, he subtly moves the plot along -- he makes Akira regard Hikaru as a rival, he causes a revolution in the world of Go with the aid of the Internet and Mitani's sister, he makes Hikaru want to prove himself to Akira and to the world, makes him want to be better and better, and he ultimately triggers true understanding in Hikaru when he disappears. I think I have shed more tears over Sai than over any other character (or anything really), because he is so beautiful -- he forces everyone around him to evolve while searching to obtain the divine move himself, and his joie de vivre is something so pure and so innocent -- Sai only wants to live, because living allows him to play go, and that's all he'll ever need.
His dispair when he starts feeling himself flicker ("Hikaru! I'm going to disappear soon!") is something that tugs at my heart, the sorrow with which Sai says these words. Hikaru doesn't believe him then -- after those three years with Sai, he has taken him for granted, and does not think it would be possible for him to disappear. Even after he does, Hikaru still refuses to admit it, and he almost gives up -- on everything -- until Isumi forces him to play, and he realizes that Sai is in him, has been in him all along.
"Just as I existed for Hikaru... Hikaru will exist for someone else... and that person will exist for someone else..."
Hikaru exists for Akira, I believe. He is what has shaped Akira into what he has become, and vice versa. Together, they take the game of go to a whole new level -- they take black and white, night and day, and build the universe in all its endless magnificence, with their very own hands. Together, they walk the path that so many have walked before them -- and many more are too come, surely -- a path to the Hand of God, the achievement of perfection on a goban. Their rivalry -- and therefore, their confidence in each other's abilities -- is what pushes them to take another step towards it -- they push each other towards their goal.
Everybody in their own way, they strive to achieve perfection. And that is, ultimately, why we are alive -- we live to surpass and improve ourselves towards our goal, whatever that may be, and to defeat any obstacles that may get in our way because, ultimately, no matter how much we have to suffer to achive our personal Hand of God, it is the only way to happiness and even if it's a pipe dream blurred in tears ("Future" - because that song is life-changing), it's the way it is and the way it should be.
So why are so many people disappointed with the ending? Now I say to you, can't you see that there is no ending? Can't you see that the path they walk down, the continuous evolution, is eternal? Touya Akira understands this, and he says so to Hikaru in the last scene of the manga -- a scene so powerful that you can hear the air crackling with the sheer force and intensity of it -- "Let's go, Shindou. This isn't the end. There is no end."
Because this, this is the universe, and it never ends. It just flows and forms a circle, and people step in and out of it but, no matter what they do, it will always continue flowing. This is the whole point of the series, that sense of eternity, of all the people connecting over the board and extending, always in search of the perfect shape. Day after day, match after match, Hikaru and Akira, Sai an ever-present influence even after he's gone beyond, every person exists for another's sake and they all together exist for the sake of the world itself which is, ultimately, themselves. All of them chasing the same goal as their efforts and the sound of their footsteps overlap and form that vortex of perfect imperfection that's the long journey towards reaching the Hand of God. They will meet each other along the way and their paths may cross but, even if they don't, their goal is the same.
Perfection. The Hand of God. It never ends. It doesn't have to.
And then Shindou goes out of the room, after Touya like countless times before, and what may seem like an ending is really the announcement of a new beginning...
Can you hear my voice?