Mainstream Go Sightings

[Inkwolf]

"Tonari No Seki-kun (My Neighbor Seki) The Master of Killing Time" is an anime made up of five-minute short episodes. Yokoi is a girl who sits at the back of the class, next to a boy named Seki, who spends his time doing anything but studying...he builds elaborate domino arrays, enacts period dramas with shogi pieces, plays miniature golf on his desktop, etc. Episode 4 is called "Go"

You can see it on Crunchyroll here: http://www.crunchyroll.com/tonari-no-se ... iod-648669

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But since I know there are many people here from places where Cruhchyroll isn't licensed, I have prepared a transcription of the episode below. Sadly, I only seem able to attach three pictures...

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Yokoi: I don't know how he can play in a serious setting like this. Go...something else that makes a lot of noise. Well, at least I don't know the rules, and I definitely don't know how the pieces battle each other, so maybe it won't bother me. I think I'll actually be able to listen in class today! Thank goodness!

(Seki keeps playing pieces dramatically. Yokai can't resist peeking.)

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Yokoi: ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

(Seki moves the pieces to make the bear punch the rabbit, then makes several other fight scenes.)

Yokoi: Oh! But they're fighting! The black stones and the white stones are fighting each other! Leave it to Seki-kun to find a weird way to play Go. Or...is this how you actually play?

(Yokoi imagines a professional Go match--)

Announcer: Player number one....2-8, Bear. Bear clothesline! Player number two...3-6. Bunny executes the Rabbit Chop! Cross Arm-breaker! Player number one...1-5, Bear. Bear German Suplex!

Timekeeper: Ten seconds.

Yokoi. Impossible. That can't be right! No adult can make those with a straight face! Yeah, there's no way. Not something like a bunny strangling a bear.

Teacher: This is going to be on the test.

Yokoi. Wha-? What's that? Now this and--

(Yokoi starts desperately writing notes, only to realize that she's actually drawn the bunny and bear fighting.)

Yokoi: Crap, I ended up copying the fight, too! Geez, this is all Seki-kun's fault! (Glares at him, only to notice that the Go stones are now randomly scattered.)

Yokoi: Man, everything's so messed up, I don't even know what's going on anymore...

(Seki dramatically starts placing Go stones again. Soon Yokoi sees a single back and white creature that looks part bear, part bunny.)

Yokoi: Whoa, they've been combined! A new character has been created! Looks like the battle has been decided. So, back to taking notes...

(Seki plays more Go stones, in even more dramatic scenes.)

Yokoi: He's starting something again. I can't help but be curious...WHAAAAAT?

(Seki has added a second creature identical to the first, except it has its white and black parts reversed, and it is attacking the first creature.)

Yokoi: A new enemy! And it's the opposite color! Is that his shadow self or something? Those are usually pretty tough...

(First creature hits the new creature.)

Yokoi: Yes! He went on the counter-attack! You can do it! Don't lose to your shadow!

(First creature kicks second creature)

Yokoi: Yes, you've got this!

(A flash of light between the creatures, made with white Go stones)

Yokoi: Whoa, is that a beam weapon? No fair, that's totally unfair! (Seki moves Go stones around) A flying punch? That's WAY unfair! So the Shadow's a bad guy after all! What? The Shadow can't win!

Teacher: Hey, Yokoi! Stop daydreaming, young lady. This is going to be on the exam!

Yokoi: I, uh, wasn't, uh, sir. It's not my fault! Seki-kun was, uh--he, uh...was, uh... (She points to Seki, but the Go stones are gone and he is innocently sitting and reading his textbook.)

Yokoi: Uh....uh... (stands up holding notebook, showing everyone the drawing of the bear and rabbit) All right! Here's the PROOF of his misdeeds! RIGHT HERE!

Silence....

Teacher: What's that supposed to be?

Yokoi: Uh.....aaaagh....now it looks like I was the one messing around. I'm sorry, sensei.

[fireproof]

Adventure Time - Five Short Tables (Season 7, Episode 35) shows Prince Gumball (the gender-swapped Princess Bubblegum) playing a Go-like game with Butterscotch Butler. The board and pieces look right, for a cartoon, but the rules seem a little different -- and in fact, the pieces, when stacked, apparently become sentient and can leave the game.

The short match ends with a nuclear tesuji, as it appears the butler is a stronger player.

Prince Gumball plays Go

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[EdLee]

Armani has some interesting ideas to sell fashion:

New York:

Go/Shogi signage (4:47 - 4:51) :

[Galation]

A friend of mine sent me these 2 pictures she took from the 57th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale - in Venice, yesterday.

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I always perceived Go as a form of art
Galation

[Bill Spight]

Isn't that a 5 in a row game?

[Galation]

Isn't that a 5 in a row game?

it is entirely possible that it is a Gomoku game!
It doesn't looks like a Go game for sure.
I tried to understand if the two lonely stones on the corner area are maybe ladder breakers in a strange TsumeGo, but they are not.
Galation

[EdLee]

AlphaGo, north Hollywood

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This particular audience had exactly 3 people:
our party of 2, plus a person visiting from New York:
while her daughter is working in Hollywood,
she enjoys various indie movies: trying to learn something new and interesting.
( In this case, Go and AI. )

Laemmle theater: /'læm-lɪ/

[Bonobo]

Last night, while working, I watched, from the corner of my eye, an international news show on German TV (“Weltspiegel” — “World Mirror”), and one of the topics was the situation in Spain re: Cataluña, a Spanish professor of psychology was being interviewed when this suddenly caught my eye …

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I was, like, “WUT? This is a political reportage, what’s this to do with it?”

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I find it interesting how, after AlphaGo has helped move Our Game more into mainstream news, people find it “sexy” to adorn their products with “Go” images; no idea, though, whether the book ever actually mentions the game, and the board looks like the person who laid it out doesn’t understand Our Game. Well, maybe somebody wanted to show how little a chance of staying alive the black stones have? But a bad example board then because how should such a constellation appear in any normal game?
Oh well, at least I can’t see any illegal positions here

[Bonobo]

Later I googled for author name and book title and found the complete cover:

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[Bill Spight]

Well, maybe not exactly mainstream, and maybe not exactly go, but dig this headline:

The Cyberlaw Podcast: Did AlphaGo Launch an Arms Race With China?

from https://www.lawfareblog.com/cyberlaw-po ... race-china

[Elom]

I was a bit surprised to unexpectedly come across this at 05:15 to 05:19 in this video...

...Remember to check in the upper left corner of said frames!

[EdLee]

Tricky to categorize: not exactly off topic and not exactly mainstream ( depends on your current location).
A section from a "mock" ( simulation or sample ) exam, on the Chinese language ( in the mainland ), around middle school level.
Reading comprehension: prior to questions 21 - 23, there's a short article about Go, and its most basic rules, but which is all-text and has zero diagrams. ( Time: post-AlphaGo, since it is mentioned in the test article )

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Very loosely paraphrasing question 23:

Referring to the diagram, which of the following is incorrect ? ( 1 point )
A. has 2 liberties.
B. is called an "atari" move.
C. The solidly connected 6-stone string has 7 liberties.
D. White can connect the two lower right stones to to avoid being "captured" ( by any attempts from Black ).

Bare in mind, this is a Chinese language test, and the middle school student is only given a few minutes to read the basic Go rules ( for most of them, for the very first time, and also the first time they see a Go diagram, like the average human being ).

Curious about people's opinion on question 23.

I'm probably biased in terms of the age factor, but I personally know local members who have been playing Go for decades and other adult members who have been playing for over one year who haven't digested connect-and-die ( the exact shape in question 23 ) !!

[Bill Spight]

The new TV series, Counterpart, features a game that looks sort of like go-moku. The main character counterpart in one alternate universe plays it.

[EdLee]

Hi Bill, Thanks.

I seem to remember reading about that recently, maybe from an AGA e-journal (? or a NYT (p)review ? not sure...)

[Bonobo]

Curious about people's opinion on question 23.

Well, I’d think that everybody who has played Go for a year should know Oiotoshi (even if they don’t know this term) but for a test for people who don’t know the game even if they’ve read a text about it? No.

<edit>
After further thought … maybe it could actually be OK because only one point is false, and A, B, and C could be easy to recognise as correct?
</edit>