AWTY 118 - Ghostatouille (Hikaru no Go)

Do you understand what he's talking about? Not a word.

Hello and welcome to are we there yet? In Exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I am an anime expert, dee hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime, Bobby Fisher.

That's familiar.

What's he going to do next?

I don't know. I'm not great at chess. I just know he was okay. Yes, he was like a chess prodigy and then I guess disappeared and just yeah, I think no one really knows what happened to him, so it's kind of like, okay, cool.

Fascinating.

He's hanging out with amelia heart.

And I was about to say amelia.

Jimmy hoffa and him were playing chefs in the premier triangle, too. Pie. He ain't dead. We all know that.

So this week we're watching a recommendation from Roman braga. We are watching Hikaruno Go.

Wow.

Yeah.

Thanks, friend.

Yeah. We've had success in the past with games being played in the animes, being adopted by at least one of the hosts, Brendan.

I played hanafuda also.

I didn't hear about it as much as I heard. I did not remember. Sorry, dee.

Oh, that's okay. I learned from the clubhouse game on the Nintendo Switch.

I learned from Yakuza Zero video games, man. Got into the summer award. Didn't teach you shit about up?

No, very confusing.

You learned koi. koi. And then I rescue the souls of everyone on the Internet and then fall in love with my criminal uncle. Also, I played yukio a lot. We did yukio.

Oh, yeah, true. Yeah, that was the true inspiration. Like, ooh, I can ruin some lives if I just learn a card game.

I do enjoy spending money on the same cards over and over again. One day I'll get time. wizard not today, though.

I believe Go is also on the clubhouse games, but I don't think I ever tried it.

Yeah, I've always heard how intimidating it is. I know nothing about it.

I tried chokey and yakuza zero. And I said, fuck this. And I feel like Go is the same presence, so I never bother.

But beyond the board game being inaccessible and not knowing how to play, have either of you heard of this anime?

I've heard of this anime. I've seen it a fair bit because it is part of the or it wasn't shown a jump and the viz media lineup of early 2000s shows, or maybe even late 2000s. What is time anymore? Who knows? But I've definitely seen it before, and I was like, that's that game. It's like yugio without cards. And that's as much as I know about it.

Is it?

Actually, that's what I was told and.

Never got into ancient yugio.

Yugio is ancient. It's just Egypt.

Well, literally ancient.

Real quick, if we can rename the chess pieces with yugio names, that would be very good to my soul right now. Okay, let's bishop, let's start there.

Here's the thing. I think dark magician is the most iconic yugio monster because it's got, like, seven different iterations within the game. It's used for a lot of the branding, but I feel like it wouldn't be king because it still is powerful. I think Bishop would be a good dark magician.

See, I have no opinion on this. I don't know enough about the yukio card. I know. Blue Eyes, white Dragon dark magician and.

The lady dark magician.

I wasn't looking to assign which pieces, which actual yugio card. I was like, okay, thinking of ancient yugio. What bullshit anime names can we give these? Very conventional.

Got you.

Okay, hold on. Give me a second.

So, Bishop, I'm thinking like, dinosaur cleric.

That's pretty good.

I went like, Dark Souls, I guess. Like Grand marquise of the.

It needs another adjective. Blue eyes, white dragon. Dark magician. So it needs some spicy.

Okay. Laughing Dinosaur cleric.

I love it.

Wait, hold on. That might be a real one.

This is the beauty of bad news.

Like, oh, God, that would be a nightmare. Much like the other anime we watched and discuss all times, it's just bullshitting. Could be anything. And it works like anything applies. I think Go is more limited without the Dark magician and the Laughing cleric. Priest of the hellscape realm. I think it's just black and white. I think those are the names of the pieces.

How disappointing.

It's a lot less dramatic.

We'll have to run with this bit when our brains aren't as foggy, because that's a good bit dugan.

Damn it.

I tried.

I applaud you.

We were going to talk about you here for a second. The fuck balls of them to invent a card game in, like, 98 and be like, yeah, this goes back to ancient Egypt types. It's like it fucking does not.

What the fuck are you talking about?

Now get this. Noah, noah moses splitting the Red Sea with a fucking baby. Get that out of here. That's not true.

And I was there, damn it.

I read the Bible, and everything in the Bible is factual, isn't it?

I'm actually not allowed to touch the Bible. It burns my skin.

I have a pdf, and I control at Baby blade, and it didn't work.

Nothing popped off. As you can tell, we don't know much about this show, so we're a little punchy.

Yeah. This is an evening record, which doesn't typically happen. We have some wild energy going.

This is some are we there yet?

After dark, it's less central and just kind of more punch trunk. We're just like a little little tipsy.

Alexa, turn office light blue. Here we go. All right, now it's real after hours shit.

Hey, apartment. Can you do that for me?

Turn the lights down.

The walls whispered no.

Jeff bezos can murder me at any moment by just exploding a light bulb in my house. But it's fine because I can do amusing bullshit like this. It's a trade off. It's the symbiotic relationship where I give him too much money and he barely keeps me alive. By choosing not to kill me, he.

Gets all of your personal information and listening to you at all times. But you don't have to do these mild inconveniences like turning off lights anymore.

Yeah, I just need to shout out a light three times for her to listen. Hey, alexa, I said goodnight. We're watching the first three.

Yes.

Let's go. Let's get into it.

I haven't seen the Queen's gambit yet, but I assume it's this.

Oh, yeah, it's similar to this.

It's got to be exactly this. They say it was a remake, but yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the same show.

Heavily inspired.

For once, Netflix does a good live action anime adaptation.

Finally.

Who would have thought so?

Yeah, this first episode, like, half of its backstory, and half of it is a game of Go. So this is going to be very fast.

I do like that the first episode starts with the preview of that episode of like, this is what happens later in the episode. It's like, okay.

I was really confused. What I missed.

Episode one. What happened?

Formerly on.

Hikaru. No go. Shit.

So we start out with two kids. He grew and Akari they're going to raid he grew's abandoned grandpa's house, I guess.

Question akari is the guy, right? Do we ever find the girl's name?

It is akari. The girl is Akari.

Wait, they're both named the cari? Nokira, sorry. I'm worse than names.

I will fess up to this. I first heard his name as Ocaru, and then I realized, oh, fuck me. That's the name of the show.

That's the story.

I had it written down. The first thing I wrote was the character's name, and it did not register until halfway through this episode. That's what they were saying.

He's the titular yukio.

Yes, that's him.

So he or the two go to his grandpa's house because they need to sell some shit to make some money.

Yeah, these 6th graders, they've really hit hard times.

Just, he ain't dead yet. But I'll punish it.

Do we meet grandpa?

No.

Is he in the house somewhere? No, not that I can tell. Is it abandoned and spooky and creepy? Yes.

Yeah. At one point, the the girl goes like, oh, it's creepy in here. I hate it. I'm like, Isn't that his grandpa's house? Isn't that kind of shitty to say? But then when we see it, it's like, yeah, no one's been in here for, like, years.

Where is grandpa?

And they go looking for junk in the attic, and they find an old Go board. Now, listener, you're wondering, what's Go? And we wondered that for three episodes. So, yeah, we're on the same page. So the boy, like, is wiping it off. He's like, ooh, this has to be valuable. And he sees a blood stain on it, and he's like, oh, that's gross. And the girl's like, what's gross? I don't see a blood stain. He sees this blood stain and he's like, oh, that's weird. And he hears a voice say, you can see it. He's like, yeah, I can see it. You can hear me cause this is a haunted Go board spooky. Okay.

What you find in your grandparents attic? You know, just haunted shit.

Yeah. So the spirit appears to him. He's like, oh, finally. I got a buddy. I'm not locked up in a trunk in the attic. And hikaru promptly passes out. So are we going to learn about these kids at some point? No, let's learn the backstory of a ghost that was living in a fucking chessboard for thousands of years.

I love him. I'm very interested.

To be fair, I am much more invested in him than these two little shit kids who I totally didn't remember the names of.

Like, yeah, he has a cool backstory. It's interesting. But we know more about this third character that's introduced than the titular character.

At this point in the episode.

Good point.

This is fujiwara No sai, and he's a legendary Go player. He taught the leaders of this land so many years ago. He was the advisor to the ruler, and he was challenged by another advisor. So they played Go to the death, basically, where they just had this game where the other advisor cheated, but he blamed sigh for cheating first and that.

Threw him just like, among us.

I was going to say this is among us, where it's like you pitch someone doing something shady, but you're the first to accuse them. So that way when they accuse you, they look shadier sus so sauce.

He should have just spammed Sussex in front of his and then he would have been fine.

He should have just said, we vote at the first instructor, and then if he's not the imposter, then you vote me out. It works every time.

That's the strat.

So he's thrown off by this accusation that he loses the game and he's so ashamed that he drowns himself in a river. Thanks, children's.

Show fucked up. We've already established we know nothing about Go and we didn't learn anything from the show. But back in the day, how important was it? A, that the emperor had to have a personal instructor on this game and B, had to have multiple personal instructors on this game. He had two advisors to teach him how to play the sports game.

It's pretty difficult.

I'm fully prefacing this. This is pulled from my bullshit brain and no other source, but I believed Go was sort of considered this like strategic thing, like a generals game to anyone.

I'm sure it is. It looks like crazy amounts of strategy. I'm just wondering the emperor's got to have more important shit going on, right? Come on, man, do whatever he wants.

Taxes just come in anyways without him. Lifting a finger, so I think he's chilling.

Yeah, I guess you're right. Government is bullshit.

But yeah. So he drowns himself for losing a game, and the universe is like, nah. And traps him in a Go board. Did he bring it with him? Now? Where did this specific Go board come from?

Nosey, aren't you? Yeah.

Asking a lot of questions of a ghost.

I like, that his unfinished business. Like, I really wanted to do this one cool move and go. Like, you didn't have family or, like, loved ones. He had to, like, say goodbye. No, there's just, like, one dope I want to do this crazy kick, flip and skateboarding and, like, I never got to, so, like, I'm a ghost now.

Dear Jesus, I just wanted to dunk on these bitches one last time.

Just one more time.

Amen.

He was trapped in a Go board, and then somewhere, hundreds of years ago, someone found it, and he taught that player to be a Go champion. But his life was tragically cut short. Will that repeat itself? Probably, but we won't get into it in the first three episodes, so don't worry about it. But, yeah, that's, like, half the episode, so we're on good pace. So, yeah. hikaru passes out, and the ghost is like, hey, being stuck in an attic sucks. Can I chill in your brain? And he grew is like, oh, yeah, that's chill. So he has a ghost in him now.

Yeah. Cool. As you do, I just imagine someone finding an old GameCube controller in a garage and dusting it off, and then they get possessed by the spirit of sonic Fox. Man, I got to do one last final destination. No items. Come on. Give me that itch.

Come on.

I know this game hasn't existed forever and society has collapsed, but I need one more.

You got to go to the Ancient Museum of All Technology and plug me in one last time.

Some preppers got it in their bunker. Come on. So he goes to the school the next day, and everyone's like, hey, what the fuck? You were in the hospital last night. He's like it's fine. Don't worry about it. And he has a social studies test that he isn't prepared for because he doesn't know all these historical figures. Do you see where this is going?

Wink.

But, yeah, we get our typical ghost shenanigans of, oh, why don't they see me? Only you can see me. Oh, you're talking to no one in the middle of the class. Ha ha. We've seen this a million times.

I really wish we saw him in science class. Be like, hey, sigh, what's the answer to this question? Be like what? What the fuck? The periodic tube of elements. I don't know this shit. Like, half it was discovered after he died.

You put the leech on the baby scalp so will harden.

Of course.

Yeah. So he helps cheat his way through the test. And he's like, okay, you can help me cheat things important in my life. Help me cheat for things that are important in your life. So let's go to a Go parlor. So they go downtown Tokyo to a Go salon where it's just a bunch of old men playing because it's an old game for old dudes.

This place looks like the place, to be honest. I love that there's that lit upper section surrounding the dark lower section.

You want your game to be a.

Single bonsai tree lit up with a blue light. Also, one of my first notes, when the show started, I went, oh, fuck. This is enough, fellow. I thought it was only the magnus where he put down the white piece and all the other ones flip over. Yeah, I was super confused for a second.

Damn it.

The old beaten switch they got me.

But he walks in, and he's like, oh, I see a kid my age in the corner. He'll play with me. So this kid comes over. He's like, oh, cool. He says to the person running the establishment that he's never played. And then we're introduced to akira, who walks over, and he's like, hey, you're new to this salon. Come over and play with me. He assumes he's new to the game. He doesn't realize this is his first time playing. So he sits down. He's like, hey, you're playing. You're still new. How many pieces do you want for a handicap? I'll give you as much of a head start as you want. And he grew like, no, we're equals, my fellow child.

He says, I never played before, but I think I'm pretty good. And God, I wish I had that confidence of a 6th grader.

Again, a 6th grader possessed by an expert ghost.

I got this. Don't worry about it. I've never seen this before in my life.

Don't worry about me.

If only.

So they start playing. The ghost is just like, yeah, put your piece at 13 across, eight up, and just gives them the coordinates on where to put the pieces.

Immediately confused.

Yeah, this is where I had to look up how Go is played, because I thought it would help, but it didn't, so don't worry about it.

It's like checkers. You capture the other person's pieces.

So, yeah, they start playing. They're keeping up pace with each other. And this other kid is like, he's playing really outdated moves. Also, he's holding the pieces like a fucking idiot, but he's keeping up with me, and I'm kind of a big deal. I'm not going to say that out loud, but in my mind, I'm screaming it.

He's hustling this kid.

I'm losing. And I'm pretty sure I saw him eat one of the pieces. He thought it was candy.

So they keep playing, and as the game goes on, akira is like, no, this kid is amazing what's going on? Because he grew starts like he grew. Looks like he's sacrificing pieces, but it's the ghost trying to toy with this kid and be like, okay, how good are you actually, because the ghost is starting to think something's up. This is not just a child. I'm going to school immediately. He's very good. So the game just continues and goes on, and he Grew ends up winning by two points. Damn. So he goes and leaves, and the woman's like, oh, I assume you lost because that other kid is amazing. And you've never played before, so here's a kids tournament invitation. Get lost. You a little slugger. And then he leaves and she sees the board, and everyone in the parlor is like, yo, fuck. akira lost. Holy shit. This has never happened. What is going on? Who is that kid? And yeah, that's where we end this episode. Just an upset that rattled akira to his core.

He is about to start spiraling.

Does anyone get the license plate number on that child?

Quick?

What? What color?

Where is he?

Leaf shit.

Well, he had blonde bangs and the rest of his hair was brown.

That doesn't help that no one knows who that is. Everyone looks like that here.

There's a million anime protagonists in Tokyo. Are you kidding? kidding me?

So in the beginning of episode two, akari the girl, she goes to see hikaru at home, but he's at a Go class and she's like, surprised to hear this. And in this class, it is a bunch of older men and hikaru, who's eleven.

I'm curious, is there any game this prevalent in America where there's both just parlors dedicated to them, but then also classes filled with people trying to learn and get better? Like, I've just never heard anything like this where it's like no American has.

That kind of dedication.

I think the only closest analogs would be chess, obviously, because that's like, very direct. But I think if we're looking for a contemporary thing, it would probably be poker. I'm learning pool. Oh, yeah, true.

It's a classic for that.

Yeah, like, less strategy based for pool, but it's still like no, if people want to be into pool, they want to be very into.

They get real into it. Interesting. I know my family plays canasta. I don't know what the fuck that is, but it's just a card game with a lot of yelling.

Yeah.

Rarely do people have chess rooms in their house, but a lot of people have pool rooms.

Yeah, fair point.

So hikaru is like, bored with all the rules and stuff because they're confusing, and sigh is like, oh, I wonder how good the instructor is at the game. And hikaru is like, oh, well, he's a pro, which means he makes money off of it, so he's got to be pretty good. And then the teacher says it's time to play. And in the English dub, this really got me. They all say, ongoesimas, yeah, they kept that please do your best, or, like, please make this a good game. But they should have just changed it. It sounds so silly.

They didn't translate that in the subtitles either. So all the subtitles are English, and then Anagashi masa is not translated. I was like, I don't know what that means.

So the instructor goes up to Hike Guru, and he's like, hey, I'm going to show you a thing. I'm going to show you how to set yourself up to capture stones. So he puts down this configuration of stones, and when hikaru tries to block him from taking his stone, he just creates, like, this chain where eventually the instructor closes it off, and he takes all of hikaru's stones. Yeah. So he just explains, like, oh, yes, that is a ladder. Like, don't catch yourself in one of those. And then hikaru goes to get a drink from the vending machine, and psy is fascinated by this machine. He freaks out. I wanted more of this show is strange. Like, it takes itself pretty seriously for the most part, and then psy every once in a while will be like, what the hell is that?

I love it to the Rival pretty early on. So there's two characters to bounce back and forth between already, as opposed to just hikaru and psai being like, what is this, telephone?

Yeah, I am from a vampire world where I am satan. I don't know these things.

An older lady comes in who seems to know hikaru, and the two of them are chatting, and there's a Go game on the TV. And sai is like, who are those little people in this box playing Go? And one of the dudes is super intense, and the commentators say that he's trying to play the divine move, whatever that is. They also mention that his son is aspiring to be a pro as well. I wonder who that could be.

Is it psy?

They do say in the first episode the character's last name, and they say it again here. They drag this out for so long, but it's like, yeah, we know they're related.

Just say, I saw it in the opening. They they faded in over top of each other. I assume they connected.

So he goes back in. Oh, no. Back at the Go parlor, a guy comes in, and he wants to play against akira, but the lady who runs it is like, oh, he's probably not up to it. He just keeps reviewing the game that he played with this one kid over and over again.

He is trotting sitting on a block.

Of ice.

And he leaves the parlor pretty late, and he's still thinking about hikaru. And at this point, I got to say, kind of gay. This kid's thinking about hikaru a lot.

I'm thinking about this boy that beat my ass yesterday.

You might have a little crush if.

You were a prodigy and you've been doing it for the last ten years, let's say, and just some random asshole with blonde bangs coming in and just schools your ass, like, yeah, I'd be a little bit. That's one thing is that it was such a strategy game that there's no way he crew could have just locked into it. Like like in the comparison we've been making, like, he knew gear were like, oh, he just got a lucky hand and won. Like, no, this kid knew his shit and he shouldn't have. So I do. Like, that how it kind of gives a reason for why akira is so distraught in trying to figure it out so much.

Yeah. And then there's like a somber montage of akira dramatically playing Go and hikaru just doing school stuff.

I did write down in the montage. Holy shit. The first anime I've seen where the girls are wearing the same gym clothes as the boys. That's a milestone for me because they usually they're wearing those, like a real short shorts for no fucking reason. And that always bothers me.

You shed a tear. You love to see it.

You love to see equality.

And the teacher tells hikaru to keep up the good work on his social studies tests. And he's like, oh, thanks. I got a new tutor. And Akari goes after him, and she's like, hey, why are you getting so much better in history? But you're doing worse in gym. That's your best subject. And then she asks if he wants to hang out. And he's like, oh, I have a Go class. And she's like, oh, I'll go with you. Class starts. And Akari is like, do you know what the teacher is talking about? And hikari was just like, no, I do not. And the instructor is doing an example on this big Go board that he has. Like it's magnetic and he can show moves and stuff. And hikaru offers a move, and the instructor is like, whoa, that's an impressive suggestion. It's, like, never used anymore. And then he explains the move and all of this stuff about it, and I was just like, I can't I'm sorry. I can't process this. Essentially, the move is worth five and a half points, which I couldn't. Is that a lot? I guess it's a lot.

Yeah. So basically, the advantage of going first and Go is so beneficial, the other opponent automatically gets, like five and a half points because that's just like, to even it out. If you don't give it to that person, statistically, they're going to lose most of the time.

Yeah, but gotcha sai points out that back when he played, they didn't have that five and a half point rule because it was like, oh, I always played black, so I always went first and I always won. And I never thought anything about it. And then the teachers up there saying, like, yeah, black has a huge advantage. Everyone wins when they play black. Any idiot could do that, like basically dismissing side.

Damn. And then the instructor tells hikaru and ikari to set up this particular game and then go from there. And then hikaru overhears this guy that's being mean to weaker players. And sigh is having none of it. And he's like, hikaru, go challenge that guy to go. I want to wreck his shit. But instead hikaru just gets up and goes and dumps his stones on the guy's head. And then he pulls off the guy's wig snatched.

I like that they both had the same idea of like, we want to ruin this guy as a 6th grader. Would he's like, yeah, but what if this is the easier way?

You're in my brain. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yeah.

And then the instructor makes hikaru leave even though the guy is the one being shitty, but whatever, he's being shitty.

Within the rules of the game.

Yeah. So he leaves and then he car remembers the tournament that the lady at the parlor told him about. So he goes to that and the kids that are playing are like, super intense and there's lots of focus and it's completely quiet. And sai is impressed by them. He's like, look at these kids passion. I love it. And then hikaru is like, oh, maybe akira is here. I'm going to go look for him. And akira is just like waiting. He's foaming at the mouth to play hikaru again.

Give me that.

And hikaru is watching one of the matches and a kid puts down a stone and hikaru is like, oh, too bad. Like, that's not a good move. And then he just gets like pummeled because everyone's talking so intense, which is shitty. He shouldn't have done that anyway. But yeah, everyone is like, get the fuck out of here. No comments during a match. And then the lady at the parlor tells akira that hikaru might be at the tournament. So akira runs to find him. And it was at this point I was like, wait, is the tournament not at the parlor? And it's not because akira takes off and he has to take a train and stuff.

He's like, again, sprinting.

He's so eager to get back to playing with hikaru.

The only other Go parlor is two towns over. Why didn't I pick a more popular game to play?

No. And we see hikaru being reprimanded by the big guys at the tournament and he's told to go home. And then as hikaru is leaving, he bumps into that divine move guy from the TV, Akira's dad, obviously. And that man goes to see the guys that threw hikaru out and they like, show him the move that hikaru suggested. And he's like, yo, even my son akira wouldn't have thought of that. And that's when you're supposed to be like, what? They didn't just happen to have the same last name?

Great.

What? And then akira finds hikaru and that's it. He's like.

I found you.

And that's episode two.

Like, I assume, like, chess tournaments also take the stuff seriously, but I was surprised that they both kicked a caru out. Like, instantly. They made those two kids that were having the match that he commented on restart and just do the whole match over again. And then in that back room, they recreated the matchboard exactly what those kids had so they could know what he caru was commenting on, so they could just bench show akira's dad. I was like, Jesus Christ. Real seriously?

I get throwing him out for doing that. Yeah, because that's, like, really shitty. Like, for him to be like, oh, you're bad at this.

Yeah, imagine a tetris competition where the second move is placed and just someone some random dude walks in and he's like, fuck, you lost the game.

Might as well point now with that fuck you up.

Wouldn't you want that match to not take place anymore?

I fully get them kicking him out. And I guess depending on how much strategy has evolved and goes a lot, so they would have to restart that match. I can kind of understand that. But then going in the back room and then recreating the board to figure out what Hikaru was commenting on, that's the line where I'm like, guys, everyone's.

Obsessed with this kid.

Like, I get it, but also yeah. So we get to episode three. So I watched this dub, sub dub, so I like how at the end of every episode, they have a little segment of, like, teaching you how to play Go. It's like, oh, that's good, because if we don't know, like, us, this is, like, an easy way to learn with little tutorials at the end. In the dubbed versions, they don't translate it and there's no subtitles, so that didn't help.

Perfect.

In the sub version, they had subtitles. So I'm like, why is the subtitle one more helpful than the dubbed version?

The version I watched had none of that, so I didn't get that.

I saw the one in the first episode, and then I was just like, that's cute. And I didn't watch any of the others.

Yeah, three starts off right where we left off with a kid running up the stairs, and you see Sakaru kind of yelling at Sigh. And once again, I do like that. When we have a kid yelling at his supernatural friend or the voice in his head, people around him react to it and be like, what the hell is this kid doing? At one point, he yells at Sigh, and a bunch of people stop and look at him, and you hear people in the background being like, oh, what's his problem? Like, jeez, he's scared me yelling like that. I'm glad they at least acknowledge it. Like, yeah, people can hear you when he's screaming in public. So Akira runs up the stairs from the subway and runs like karu and he carrots saying, like, oh, he went to the tournament. He's surprised he didn't see him there, but he was amazed to see all these kids so passionate about him playing. It's real intense. And Akira is like, Wait, let me see your hands. He's like, huh? What he's saying? The nail isn't worn down like a go player's nails would be. I'm like what?

I mean, this part this part was a little gay.

This part was a little gay, I won't deny that gay who was holding his hand looking at it, carter was like, what? Like, oh, my hand. Why are you still looking at? Like, because you're just putting stones down on the board so I don't know why your nails would be like, I guess filed down from naming them down so hard.

It is lesbian culture to check for fingernails.

It checks out lesbian and the ship name mixed up.

It's the name of the show.

Akira no, I'm trying to say Akira askikaru if he plans to be a professional Go player. He's like, I don't know, it's fun, but I don't know what's in it. He's like, you get paid a lot. And Akira I keep fucking up because of the movie name.

You're like, you can't possibly be there's.

Only one person in the world with that name. We've seen, like, 17 anime that have a character named Akira in it. And he's like, yeah, you win tournaments, you'll get prize money. Like, this tournament has this much, this tournament has this much, this tournament has this much. And the car is all of a sudden like, Ha ha. Money, you say? Yeah, I guess I could just fuck around and place him go and win some titles and championships if I'm bored. And a kid is just like, what the fuck did you just say to me? He's like, just so casually thinking he can give you a professional Go player and just like, sweep tournaments like that so easily. He's like, you're insulting not only me, all the professional Go players and all the amateur Go players, too, who worked so hard to do it. And this is something I enjoyed about akira's character, he's not just said, OK, but where he's shitty and like, rich, he's like, Ha ha, I'm the best. Like, he does acknowledge like, I put a lot of work in and my dad is like, this grand master of go, so like, he's taught me, so it makes sense. He's like, there are people who are worse than me but are still putting in a ton of effort and trying. He's not dismissive of the people who are worse than him.

Yeah, we're introduced to him being like, hey, you're new to the game. I'll play a friendly match with you. And it's like, hey, no, this kid is good. Our main hero that we're rooting for is cheating.

Even in the second episode when one of the guys comes by the parlor he's like, Hi, is the hero playing? He's like, no, he's all distraught by the he was like teaching like a guy in his 30s or 40s or something. So it's clearly he's like a teacher at the parlor for other people. So it's like, oh, it's weird that the rival is not just some shitty asshole.

I like him more than the main character.

Weird main character. Check.

Oh yeah, there we go.

Check that off. Because yeah, once again the whole show is he's cheating. So yeah, Akira gets insulted and he's like that's we're playing again. Follow me. We're playing it. And like during this whole time when Akira sort of starts lecturing him about like, you know, how people are trying and they're putting in all this ever, it's just torrential downpour. The heavens themselves open up and just give them the traumatic moment. They're just like standing in the rain. Like I'll get yelled at by some random asshole too, but if it's raining, I'll be like, hey, can we go under a tree or something and not, you know, be drowning right now? So they get on a train and they go back to the Go parlor to have a rematch. And on the train we hear akira's thoughts the whole time playing. Like he's been trying to come up with a strategy of how to beat him. And he's like, well the last time we played, his strategy was kind of like outdated. He's doing a lot of weird old moves that might be a way to counter them. Like if he's going to be using these old moves, I'll use the way the reason they're old moves is because they have ways to counter them and beat them. So maybe I'll start using those and really get them in the corner. And then we cut to kira's head and he's just like, I don't know, trains are big or so he's not thinking about anything. So he's just like yelling at sigh. He's like, if you're so much better than Akira, how come you only beat him by two points last time? And so I was like, oh, I wasn't trying to dominate him in the game. I was like playing a game and I knew I was going to win. So I wanted to have a teaching moment to kind of show Akira that he's not as good as he thinks. So I didn't want to just destroy the kid. And Hikar is like, yeah, I guess. Akira is only my age. He's only in 6th grade, so he's still a dumb kid. And so I was like, no, don't get me wrong. You're a dumb kid. He's good. He is good. But he's like I want to like testing him too, more or less. So they go back to the parlor and as soon as they walk in, everyone like there like crowds around their table immediately. Because they're like, that's the kid that beat the kira. And like you know, they all know him. So it's like, oh, shit, we got to watch. So they all crowd around. They do a thing where we see a bit in the Go class where I believe it's the more experienced player is white and has the disadvantage. So the newer player has, like, a more even playing field. But then if you're equal skill, you just grab a bunch of stones and guess how many is in that person's hand. And then if you're right, you go first. If you're wrong, they go first. Akira does that. He pulls out the stones and they count them. So now kind of saying, like, he sees hakaru as an equal experienced player now. And sure enough, Hikaru gets it and he gets black. So he gets the advantage of going first. And in the beginning of the match size determining, he's like, do we kirsty taking us on as an equal now? Do I want to totally demolish him and beat him into the dirt, or do I just want to go with him a little more and see where he'll go with it and see what happens? And I guess he ends up deciding to demolish him and just beat his ass. So we see. God, I lost my notes. Where am I during the match? Even in the first few moves, Akira takes the star points, which seem to be like corner areas, and I guess they're high value spots, and starts realizing, like, Shit. Here's the modern strategy coming into play that I'm not familiar with from back in my day, so I'll actually have to pay attention now. And here is kind of forcing his hand to play seriously. And one thing I kind of like is we get an overhead shot of the board, and it's like, just the board. And you see their hands coming in, putting down the stones, and it just goes back and forth for a while, like, just their hands. And it's not the stuff some, like, sports anime do where every single move flashes to the character's face. We go in their head and they have an inner monologue for five minutes, and then we flash back to the other character and they also just dissect the move that was just done.

Yeah, this show is, like, super chill for a Showdown anime.

I was so afraid when they started that game in the first episode that here in episode three, we would just be finishing it.

Yeah, they don't drag it out. I didn't write down, but there's, like, probably a good three or four minutes of just, like, no dialogue and then just putting down stones and it'll cut to the crowd or something and cut to one of their faces. But then back to the board and you see it just for a good while, just them playing with no commentary whatsoever.

I needed to get this out. You just reminded me saying, overhead shot of the board. They cannot decide how to draw a Go board in this show because sometimes it's like, yeah, we can draw a grid. Sometimes they're like, yeah, we can fuck up and copy and paste things so it doesn't line up. So it's, like, clearly not an actual grid. And sometimes, like I saw in this episode, they're like, yeah, we'll draw half the board. We'll draw half of it. You get the idea. We're seeing overhead shots of this board, and half of it is just smooth as silk and the other is just propped up. And it's like, clearly you can do it sometimes. Why not just do it all the time?

Just commit. You're making an anime about Go.

Yeah, the game is in the title. You can at least you're talking about all this reverence for the game, and you're like, yeah, slap some lines on a board. Who gives a shit?

I'll tell you right now. Why? Because drawing all those lines perpendicular or parallel to each other, it's a lot of work. I wouldn't want to do it.

They could have drawn it once and then taken the same one and then copied and pasted it.

I don't know what technology these people have making this show.

I don't know how animation works at all.

But just, like, there are, like, degrees on how good they draw the Go board. And some, they're just like, yeah, fuck it. Who gives a shit? No clearly gave a shit.

This is for children.

It's like a transformation sequence and, like, a magical girl show where they have, like, the long, full minute transformation sequence. Then they got that 32nd one, and then they got the five second one. That's real quick. Depending on how much time we need to fill, we'll put in that much effort. So we see during the game, kira captures the first two pieces, and we see them going back and forth a bit. And like I said, no real in commentary, no real mental discussion. monologues of like, he's doing this. This strategy means I have to do this, which I actually appreciate. It, like, just seeing the game go and not, like you guys said, spending four episodes doing one match. We're at a point where about, like, half the board is filled, and it's all scattered throughout different points here and there. And we see Akira just starting to struggle, and he's really kind of panicking, and eventually he just puts his head down and we see, like, tears coming down. He's like, I resign. I quit. I can't beat you. The way the board is laid out right now, there's no way I can win. Even if he does everything right. And he kind of surprised by that, and he's just like, what? Hey, you did good. It was a good hustle. Good effort. You did great, champ. Trying to cheer him up. Clearly not having any idea what actually just happened because he was just following size commands. So he doesn't really understand how much he lost or why akira actually quit because he can't see that far ahead. I'm losing it. hikaro leaves the go parlor and is like walking away. And when he leaves, we get a flashback of Akira as a kid talking to his dad. And of course they're walking down like fucking a pathway with the blossoming trees on both sides, like very picturesque moments. He's like, oh jeez, dad, I sure do like go, do you think I'll be as good as you someday? His dad like to leave that. He said, I know two things about you. You work hard at go and you love go, but I don't know if you'll ever be good.

What?

The only two things you know about your son is about go and you don't know if you'll be good. I hope so. He doesn't really put much skills in anything else. He's going to be like sigh where it's like, I lost my job. I might as well kill myself.

He doesn't even go to school.

He's too smart. Except he only knows go. So we seekaru walking home once again dramatic pouring rain coming down and he's yelling at sighing his head a bit like, god, why did you go so hard to get secure? I was like, I didn't have a joy. He was coming at us and that was the only way we could have won it if we went back just as hard. And he starts getting frustrated him to the point where he got actually yells out loud and that's where people like, stop. And we're like, the hell is this kid's problem? And sighs like, yeah, kir is a really good player. That's the intensity of those matches can get between really good players that know what they're doing. So the next day the car is reflecting on the game and reflecting what Akira said about the intensity of the game, how he was crying at the end of their game. So he got so swept up in it. And then on the way home he's leaving with the friends and he starts going down the other way and she's like, oh, the home's this way. You're going to the go party? He's like, no, I'm not going to go class. Like I get kicked out for ripping dude's wig off. She's like, jeez, why are you so swept up? And he's like and he ends up leaving her and goes to the go parlor.

Typical cursed Fitzline.

Don't worry about it.

You wouldn't understand. I have a man inside my brain. This is ratatouille. This is just ratta. God damn it all comes back to ratatouille.

But now I'm just imagining hikaru inside size hat. Like a little hikaru in that hat.

Oh, yeah. Oh my god.

Except instead of making him good at go, he's just making sigh dumber at everything.

He's just pulling his hair and it doesn't do anything.

He's just annoying.

Here's how to dominate gym class.

My best subject, Sigh, is dunking like a madman. He's got those vertical leaps now.

Boom. shaka, luca. Did I say that right?

I hate this bit. So as he carries outside of the Go parlor, he's like, I can't go back in there. I can't face him. He starts heading home, and at that time, we see eda from the Tournament Association. He's just a dude with glasses. He has done nothing up till this point.

We needed to fill our eda quota.

We need a one. He got glasses. He's in. He sees him. He's like that's, the kid. And just chases down Jesus. He's real intense. So he catches a car and drags him into the Goparler. He's like, My boss wants to see you because he's fucking in the mafia. And he ends up dragging him to his boss, which is akira's dad. And his dad says he's like, so you're the kid that beat my son. You got to be pretty damn good to be my kid. So I want to play. I want to see how good he are. And cars like, I don't know. Let me add him. Let me add him. He's the guy trying to do the divine play, my divine play, whatever that means. We still don't know. So he agrees to have a match with them, and he tells Hikaru, you can start the match with three stones. That's how he always plays every match. So I guess that's a go thing. And while they're playing, he carter realizes that he's the only one that really doesn't belong between all these people. So more between him and Sigh and Akira. He's like, I'm the outlier of this group by far. I don't want to be anymore. I want to be like them someday. I got my motivation. And then one day, he was really impressed by how akira's dad was putting down the stones, like the way his hand was posed. And when he slams down, he said they almost glow when they slam on the table. He carro really stresses how cool it is, the way he's putting dead stones. I was like, I get there's not much happening in this game. This is a weird thing to fixate on his fingers, because they're not glowing. That's, like, to make it more dramatic for the show, but they don't actually glow.

It's a figurative glow.

Yeah, and then it cures dad. As they're playing it here's, dad saying, like, round to go every morning with a gear and keep him on his toes to keep him good. He's not allowed to enter amateur tournaments like the one he went to yesterday, because he would beat everybody, and it just wouldn't be fair, and he wouldn't be challenged. And that's why he refused to believe that his son lost to just some random street urchin to off the streets, some riff raff. And once again, a car is amazed by the positioning of the stones. And how they're slammed down. He's like, Wait, what if I slam them down the same way he does with my he's saying, like, he drops he holds the stone up above his body once, put it, and then drops it. And it just pushes it down with one finger instead of placing it down to all of his finger. So Hikaru does that. And, like, when he slams down, we see, like, a black glow on his piece because it's a black piece, and we just use silent, Hikaru, what did you do? And then the episode ends, and I'm just like, I don't I don't know. Do they actually glow? Like, what what's happening? So that's episode three.

Here we are.

Here we are. Beat his son twice in a row, and now we're beating dad.

Yeah. So when they introduced this is someone who's good at a board game because of a ghost, I was like, oh, fuck this show. I got my dunks in at the top, but I liked this. This was pretty good.

Wow.

I'm as surprised as you are.

I was getting ready to check off that one after the first episode. I was like, ah. It's like Yukio Plusham King. And then I second guess myself. I was like, oh, it's just Yukio. That's what yukio has the ghost in it. I forgot. But yeah, after watching it, like we pointed out, I was kind of surprised they didn't do kind of the hokey, annoying stuff like we've seen in a lot of sports and or game, I guess. More specifically, game show. Like, game shows, game, anime and stuff. So, like, I was kind of surprised yeah. By the terms they took, and that Akira isn't like this seto kaiba shit. Lord of like, Ha, I kidnapped your grandpa and ripped up his card like a douchebag.

Especially for being an older show where it's like, yeah, these tropes are still in play. They're not outdated by this point, where if this came out this year, it would be like, okay, we can't do this. Rival is so upity and blah, blah. But showing the restraint when they didn't need to, when every other show was not showing restraint, was very refreshing.

Yeah, it's interesting. I feel similarly about it as I felt to oh, my goddess, where it's just like, this is just kind of simple.

Yeah.

Like, it's got, like, a slight supernatural element. And other than that, it's just like they're playing a board game.

I was wondering with the opening, because we see akira's dad is in, like, those old fashioned robes, and everyone else is wearing, like, modern day clothes. I thought he was going to be a ghost that possesses Akira. I thought it was going to be it wasn't shamiking.

Yeah. When they bumped in the hallway, I was like, he's seeing another ghost. Why else is he dressed like that? He's like, oh, no, he's just an old weirdo.

Imagine if just like, a baseball player is walking around dressed. It's like shakespeare. Be like, what's happening? Right?

Explain yourself.

Why are you like this? But yeah, they did some how interesting. Kind of surprised by it.

Like, yeah, I think this is the first anime that's going to get me to watch another show. Because I wait. If this is anything like the Queen's gambit, I think I want to try The Queen's gambit because it scratches that itch of like, no, I had no interest in that show before watching this. And I was like, if it's anything like, oh, yeah, let's just have a lot of reverence and talk about this game. Like it's a big part of our lives and like, oh, chess masters and all that. I'm kind of on board for this show I know nothing about.

Just like our podcast introduced Brendan to the Chill Club girls doing their interests genre. This has introduced dugan to the reverential board game.

But here's the thing with mine, is I continue to watch those animes with dugan. It's like, are we there yet? It's like, no, this is anime. It's garbage. I fucking hear everything about it but this real live action show. No, but it's funny that he's saying, I enjoyed this show. I'm not going to watch this one anymore. I'm going to watch a different show.

That reminds me of this fair.

Because this show is 75 episodes, I was surprised. Who knows where this could go?

Especially when they're setting up more like spectral shit that we don't get to like, we just touch on the go elements of it and oh, we're going to pay a big price for there being a ghost possessing him. We just haven't seen it yet. I don't care about that aspect. I'm just fascinated by a room full of adult men being like, this child's board game. He's playing at a level I've never seen before.

I just like the idea of you watch, like, Game of Thrones. So what do you think, dude? It's like I hate it, but I really want to watch downton Happy now? What? What the hell are you talking about?

I'll take it.

So wait, are weeb there yet?

Enjoyed this? Yes, we are there. I don't know if we're there for 75 more of these, but there's arcs.

I get it like a good arc in like twelve or something.

Here, I'll frame it this way. I learned something about myself tonight.

And that's what matters.

Yeah. It's personal growth. We'll chalk it up to that.

Yeah. I love that.

We'll take it's. Very surprising.

But yeah. What do we have going on next week? What's something that hopefully is a little bit more straightforward for you both?

We got new year's coming up.

Yeah. So next week is my pick. Traditionally, I get to pick the New Year's episode. And we're going to watch a movie that is directed by masaki yuasa, who created ping pong. Not the game, the animation.

He's very old.

He is also a ghost in a bull.

Yes. So we are going to watch the movie Ride Your Wave, and I'm very excited about it.

If there's a show you the listener would like us to watch in the year 2021, the future.

We made it through the hell year.

Hell Year part Two You can send those recommendations to our email, Are We There yet@gmail.com? Or you can reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram. Are we there yet? On both. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at mrpatrick. dugan and listen to my other podcast, Echo locations. It's fiction and it's fun.

Yeah. You can find me on Instagram at queen.

Period.

Weebu and on Twitter at queen underscore weebu and queen underscore Weebu.

Art.

I usually don't really plug anything else, but if you want to commission me, please message me on Twitter. I would love to draw for you.

Do it.

Find me on Twitter at abts Brendan. It stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is a video game podcast I also do. And I believe well, it's the end of December now, but we did a bunch of, like, bonus episodes, recapping some of our best of interviews with game developers because we haven't done that in a while, because it's hard to do with the time zone differences. But it was a good time.

Logistical issues. I love them so much. Thank you to camille ruley for her artwork, and thank you to louie zong for her theme song stories. You can find all of louie's music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

Time to go. Go.

Thank you.