HIKARU NO GO EPISODE 1

TW: a very, very brief suicide mention in the collection of images before the 'favorite screenshots' section.
i cant figure out how to make click-to-reveal images on neocities i'm sorryyyy

this is an anime about Go. it has 75 episodes.

It's really, really good.

we open on hikaru and a girl (we dont know who the girl is), both of them are in 6th grade. hikaru is digging through his grandpa's things in his attic, looking for things to sell because his parents cut his allowance due to low grades LOL

he finds a go board, and notices a strange stain on it. it won't come off no matter how much he wipes it, and the girl doesn't see the stain at all.

suddenly, a strange, ghostly voice begins talking to hikaru. the voice introduces himself as Sai. sai was alive a long time ago (no time period stated, just Feudal Japan). sai worked as a go instructor for the emperor, and he got to play go every single day. sai was one of two go instructors for the emperor. the other challenged sai to a game of go to decide which instructor should stay.

during the game, the other instructor cheated against sai (he had one more white stone held prisoner than he should have), and then accused sai of cheating himself. in the end, sai lost the match. i screenshotted the basics of the end of sai's story, because i think it communicates it better than i could.




now, whenever someone finds sai's go board, and they can see the stains left from his tears, he 'possesses' them death-note shinigami-style for the SOLE purpose of getting to play go again. the last time he got the chance to play go was 143 years ago.

at first hikaru is like "LOL tough luck im not playing go" but immediately after saying that he becomes so sick he has to run out of class to throw up. because he was effected by just how DEVASTATINGLY SAD sai was by being told this. "okay fine i'll play go sometimes."

now we're getting to the really fun part of this anime. sai also helps hikaru with his history homework because he was alive for a majority of the history being taught, and we ALSO get to see sai reacting to modern (2001 modern) life in japan which is one of my FAVORITE FUCKING THINGS EVER. I LOVE WHEN OLD HISTORY PEOPLE SEE MODERN SOCIETY!!!

anyway. hikaru goes to a go salon, and challenges this random kid named akira (i forgot his lastname. irrelevant.). hikaru holds his stones like an idiot but he's pretty decent (because it's actually sai telling him what moves to play). akira ends up beaten!

Akira is also a go prodigy who has never, in his entire time playing at this go salon with experienced veteran players, lost a game. He is so fucking devastated and broken by this loss. and it doesn't make it any better that this random other kid has (from his perspective) NEVER PLAYED GO BEFORE IN HIS LIFE.

im not going into much detail on the actual match but it was SO fucking tense and the writing was REALLY good. i cant say anything about the actual go playing because i dont know how to play go very well but it kept giving like really tense overhead shots of the board and every single time it made me go "oohhhh SHIIIIITTT!!!!!!" even though i did not understand it at all. THAT'S GOOD WRITING!!!

if you havent been able to tell from those screenshots up there, this anime has a REALLY pretty artstyle. the understanding of color is incredible. i wasnt able to take as many screenshots as i wouldve liked because the episode kept restarting if i rewound it too much so youre just gonna have to take my word for it OK?

do i want to watch more?

yeah. yeah i do. 75 fucking episodes though thats insane i am definitely not breaking my "no starting any animes watched until after completing the quest" rule for it like i did for fruits basket LOL

favorite screenshots

i like the first one because sai looks so happy in it


the fact that his ONLY GOAL as a ghost is to play go is so funny. he doesnt care about anything else like contacting his family or destroying the lineage of the guy that betrayed him. He just wants to play go

im gonna be thinking about this screenshot here for a while.


the soft colors the usage of the soft PURPLES and there is even something to be said about the symbolism between hikaru (a character obviously color-coded as being yellow) and sai (purplest motherfucker alive. purple earrings purple lipstick i would not be surprised if he had purple nailpolish somehow).

and actually in this screenshot too!


the blue-lit bonsai tree matches akira's blue color scheme very well. it very well communicates that this is Akira's Territory and hikaru is such an obvious outsider. god that's cool

HELLSING EPISODE 1

VAMPIRES ARE COOL AGAIN YAY!!!!!!!!!

basically. vampire-vampire hunter that works for the hellsing organization. which is, im assuming, made up of vampires that hunt other vampires. incredibly funny to name it hellsing.

im pretty sure this takes place in london? but i could be wrong. the main vampire-vampire hunter is named alucard and god he's so fucking cool.

i dont really have a lot to say about the episode itself because a lot was going on but also... not really anything happened? IN A GOOD WAY. its like a cop-drama-blood anime where all of the cops are totally focused on vampire hunting. the intro goes hard as fuck. i wrote a sparknotes version of episode 1 but i really think you should go watch it if youre fine with blood and guns.

- introduces alucard as a mysterious figure
- cut to an introduction on the hellsing organization that operates with? but also outside of the control of regular law enforcement
- there's a priest vampire that has an army of ghouls. a regular cop was division sent to kill him. they ended up getting killed instead
- one remaining cop (ms. sensa) ends up being taken hostage by the priest vampire
- alucard kills priest vampire, and has to shoot through sensa to do it.
- sensa asks to be turned into a vampire so she doesnt die.

WHAT A COOL SHOW ! I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!

do i want to watch more?

Yes! Enthusiastically! the tension was really good. this first episode is like practically BEGGING me to watch episode 2 since it sets up a bunch of main character dynamics and QUESTIONS!!!! Whys this vampire hunting other vampires?!

favorite screenshots

the guy in the big red coat is alucard. alucard is very cool. in the last one he's cocking the gun by biting it. i really like how this show utilizes different saturations for different scenes. all of the screenshots i took are very vibrant but theres plenty of shots that are meant to be more clinical that are much more desaturated. but they still look GREAT!




alucard is also pandering HARD to my fascination with faceless/face obscured characters. for 90% of this episode his face is hidden as much as physically possible. his goggles... he's like such a Guy that should be a desktop background