I have yet another convenient excuse for my lack of updates – I’m currently marathoning Hikaru no Go. I had initially abstained from HnG since I heard that was no closure to the series. In addition, there was this nagging thot that went, ” Bah! Go?! How can you sustain a 70+ ep series centred around Go?!?” Well I gave in after I thot my fren who has been egging me to start on the series seems to be going mad from doing so. (He was sporadically going “Hikaru! Hikaru!” whenever he’s with me.) I was also informed by David that HnG has a ‘wickedly good’ OST and since I’m a softie for good anime music, I plunged into the world of Go……. I have not slept b4 4am nightly since.
The story is amazingly captivating despite its singleminded focus on Go. The last time a massive series took my sleep away like HnG was Naruto and I’m beginning to see some similarities between the 2 mega series which might shed some light to the secret of success of such long-running animes.
- Have a bratty, noisy kid who likes ramen as the lead. Have yellow hair for better effects. (See Hikaru and Naruto for details.)
- Have the main protaganist a cool rival who seems impossibly ahead of him. Preferably have long hair and is popular with girls. Should have superior blood lineage like being an Uchiha or having Touya Meijin’s blood. (See Akira and Sasuke for details.)
- The lead must have a secret source of power which manifests itself occasionally to scare the daylights out of people. (See Sai and kyuubi for details.)
- Set up lengthy battles in the form of exams and show EVERY battle so that the series can be prolonged. (See Pro and Chuunin exam.)
- Have fantastic scores to make every dramatic, poignant, exciting moment in the series a spellbinding experience. (See HnG and Naruto OSTs.)
Maybe more similarities will surface as I progress through HnG since I’m only at ep 46. However, I do FEAR the fabled series ending of a supposed unfinished Go match. Ah well, there’s the whole slew of bishoujo series to seek solace from (this season) anyway. Do your worse HnG!
) While we’ve been seeing quite a few samurais or blade-wielding girls (Samurai Champloo and Tenjou Tenge), I am impressed by how the characters handle a sword in Jubei chan 2. Their sword poise, offense/defensive stances just oozes style. In fact, they look especially good posing with the sword rather than when fighting with it. (Well, actually I’m sure their ninja costumes also somehow accentuated the visual effect.) But having said that, I was not merely impressed with stationary sword posing. The swordfighting in Jubei chan 2 ep 1-2 was well choreographed and superbly animated. In fact as I went frame to frame for my screencaps, I realised how much animation action went into that short few seconds which absolutely eluded me earlier. The action was a major improvement over season 1. I am hoping there will also be a more coherent plot in season 2 with less glaring story loopholes. Ok enough talk, here’s some kunoichi katana goodness….
