What Are You Watching?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

You watched the other 61 episodes in only three days? I'm impressed! 

Yeah. Since this is my last week off, I basically marathoned through all of the DVDs over the past few days. That's definitely the fastest that I've ever watched 75 episodes of anything.

I've been meaning to check out Hajime no Ippo myself, and maybe I'll finally get around to it sometime this year. I might try and read the manga also, but it's 1000+ chapters and still ongoing, and I'm not really sure I want to commit to reading through it before other manga on my backlog.

From what I have come to understand, the first series, movie, OVA, and second series collectively cover the first 400 chapters of the manga, without any time wasted on filler material whatsoever. Also I don't think that the manga takes too long to read since I imagine that a lot of pages would be full of fighting scenes without any dialogue, which explains why the anime is able to cover 3 to 4 chapters of the manga per each episode. Even if you don't want to read the manga because of its length, though, the first series is a completely manageable length and ends at a really good stopping point, which honestly could have been the ending point of the series if the original mangaka had wanted it to end there.

Also speaking of the anime, today I just watched the movie which was actually included in the DVD bundle, and it is actually based on material from the manga which continues the story, so it was definitely a great watch.

[gunswordfist]

I watched two more episodes of HXH. It's becoming too obvious that Meruem is based off of Cell. Also, what's up with the show barely animated action now? Also watching Palm's animation is getting painful.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I watched two more episodes of HXH. It's becoming too obvious that Meruem is based off of Cell.

How so?

Also, watch Meruem's full character arc (which has barely even started yet where the anime is currently at), and then try and call him a Cell clone. Seriously, the comparisons between this character and Cell only boil down to their looks, and the fact that they believe themselves to be the strongest beings in existence. Their ambitions and philosophies (you know the things that actually make up characters), however, couldn't be more different.

Also, what's up with the show barely animated action now?

It's called cutting corners due to budget. This happens with a lot of long-running shounen series. More episodes means that you'll have less money to spend on animation per episode, so they save their expenses only for the really big action scenes and such.

Also watching Palm's animation is getting painful.

That's the idea.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I couldn't find New Challenger streaming anywhere, and there were no English releases of the DVDs, so I just said screw it and watched the whole thing on YouTube in pretty crappy quality. At any rate, it was a good continuation of the story, and now I'm finally caught up with the anime in time for season 3's premiere.

[Grave]

I couldn't find New Challenger streaming anywhere, and there were no English releases of the DVDs, so I just said screw it and watched the whole thing on YouTube in pretty crappy quality. At any rate, it was a good continuation of the story, and now I'm finally caught up with the anime in time for season 3's premiere.

New Challenger nearly ruined the entire series for me. Fight-wise, everything was great, but I just hated the way Ippo was playing the mentor role, especially considering at the time there was no plan for a season 3, and we were left wondering if Ippo was going to fight Miyata or go after Ricardo (of course I could've continued with the manga, but back when I first saw HnI, I didn't feel like going through 1000+ chapters. Still don't). For me, that left a sour taste in my mouth, but knowing that there is a season 3 now, I suppose it's not so bad lol.

[gunswordfist]

That's why I said based off of, dork. Now if I said he was a carbon copy of Cell...

[Spark Of Spirit]

I finished watching the entire first season of Kuroko on Crunchyroll. Good stuff. The second opening and closing are.... pretty awful, though.

That said, it was a pretty good adaption even if they stopped right before the best stuff. I'm glad it's getting a second season either way.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

New Challenger nearly ruined the entire series for me. Fight-wise, everything was great, but I just hated the way Ippo was playing the mentor role, especially considering at the time there was no plan for a season 3, and we were left wondering if Ippo was going to fight Miyata or go after Ricardo (of course I could've continued with the manga, but back when I first saw HnI, I didn't feel like going through 1000+ chapters. Still don't). For me, that left a sour taste in my mouth, but knowing that there is a season 3 now, I suppose it's not so bad lol.

I actually liked that he became a mentor figure to Itagaki. It's not like it even took up that much of the story in the first place, and what I like about it is how it shows that Ippo has grown as a Boxer, being that he is now the veteran training the rookie who actually looks up to him for a change. It's something different for a change, yet it doesn't become such a huge part of the story as to ruin it, either. What I hate is when shounen series like this are so hellbent on maintaining the status quo, and never allow any sort of change. That's when things start to get boring for me, personally.

I think my only problem with New Challenger is that, like you said, it ended at such an odd place. The first season obviously didn't cover all of the manga, but they chose a really goo place to end it at, which let it work as a good standalone piece. With New Challenger, being that it's a continuation, it lacks both a beginning and an end. It baffles me that they decided to leave it off right at the start of a new story arc. There was more than enough material in the manga by that point to adapt further story lines, and even if they wanted to keep it short, they could have at least just ended it at episode 25 with the conclusion of Takamura's WBC World Jr. Middleweight Title match against Bryan Hawk (which was another amazing fight, BTW). Choosing to leave it off on a cliffhanger just didn't make much sense to me, though.

[Grave]

Let me rephrase some of this (all of this is pretty moot at this point though). Ippo playing the mentor role, while it's not bad, my problem is that while he was mentoring Itagaki he wasn't fighting anyone worth mentioning (despite me saying the fights were great, but I meant that in terms of visually. Ippo's fights were not memorable). Hammer was his only standout fight, and I barely remember that. First season you had all these great fighters, and I would've preferred one of them (outside of Sendo) to come back for a rematch, or at least spar or something.

But now that there's a season 3, and I have been reading some of the manga (I'm actually trying to find the spot where New Challenger ended), and I've been enjoying the stuff I've been seeing, although the mangaka might to dragging out to another level. Hopefully, the team that did the animation for HnI and New Challenger will make a return, because there are some fights I'd love to see animated. Just when I was beginning to give up on anime this series comes back with a 3rd season.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Let me rephrase some of this (all of this is pretty moot at this point though). Ippo playing the mentor role, while it's not bad, my problem is that while he was mentoring Itagaki he wasn't fighting anyone worth mentioning (despite me saying the fights were great, but I meant that in terms of visually. Ippo's fights were not memorable). Hammer was his only standout fight, and I barely remember that. First season you had all these great fighters, and I would've preferred one of them (outside of Sendo) to come back for a rematch, or at least spar or something.

I agree that the fights weren't nearly Ippo's best, but the way I see it, that's only because the series set such a high standard for quality fights in the first place, so a fight that would be good by any other shounen series's standards would merely just come off as average in this series. And, I can't fault the series too much for that because obviously you can't expect every fight to stand out as much as something like the Ippo vs. Sendo fight, or even his fights with Miyata, Vorg, or Date. For me, the fights in New Challenger weren't great, but they were interesting enough to keep me watching through the whole thing at a quick pace, and the season ended leaving me wanting more, which I am soon to get with the 3rd season.

But now that there's a season 3, and I have been reading some of the manga (I'm actually trying to find the spot where New Challenger ended), and I've been enjoying the stuff I've been seeing, although the mangaka might to dragging out to another level. Hopefully, the team that did the animation for HnI and New Challenger will make a return, because there are some fights I'd love to see animated. Just when I was beginning to give up on anime this series comes back with a 3rd season.

If I'm note mistaken, I think that they actually had completely different teams for the original series and New Challenger. I believe that the team for New Challenger just did a good job of mimicking the animation style of the first series. It actually did feel like a little bit of a step down to me, though, as there was less of the realistic types of movements and motions seen during the fights in New Challenger, and there was more of the cliche use of pauses and key-frame animation that you typically see in battle shounen series.

As for where New Challenger ended in the manga, it's a little bit weird. For the most part, it stopped somewhere between chapters 398 and 399, however the last episode skipped ahead and had Ippo training to upgrade is Dempsey roll, which happened between chapters 415-417 (and some of that content was left out of the anime as well). That said, knowing that you don't like flash backs, you can probably just skip the stuff between chapters 400-414, and start around 415 and just go on from there, though keep in mind that my numbers may be a little off.

[gunswordfist]

Ugh, I caught up all the way on HXH a few minutes ago and hate myself for doing so. I stayed a few episodes behind to avoid having to wait for new episodes. Now the wait will be painful.

[talonmalon333]

So I didn't know where to post this. I wasn't sure if it warranted a new thread, and this thread is the closest thing I could find to a general anime thread.

Apparently they are making a 4-part Pokemon anime about the original video games staring their main characters, Red and Green. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokemon_Origins

[LumRanmaYasha]

Apparently they are making a 4-part Pokemon anime about the original video games staring their main characters, Red and Green. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokemon_Origins

The most interesting thing about it is that TPCI is actually going to dub it, and release it online over the course of four weeks starting sometime in November. Otherwise, I'm not that interested in it, but I'll still check it out, since it should be more fun to watch than the main anime at least.

[Daxdiv]

I'm still gonna wait and see if I can watch the sub version first, then I'll check out the dub when they post it on the website. I've been excited for since I heard about it. I will admit that it is kind of nice to see another animation studio helping out with it.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

Got around to watching more of The Big O yesterday. The opening is growing on me.