Hunter X Hunter (Original + Remake)

[Avaitor]

Seems like a good time for me to start watching the show if this is really happening.

Ten episode in so far, and I'm liking it. So far, it's still in the basic shonen phase from what I can tell, but I can tell how fun the show is. And I'm really liking Gon as a protagonist. He reminds me of younger Goku, but smarter.

It goes way uphill from here, right? I'm liking the exams arc, but I can see this become a lot better before long.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Up through York Shin, yes.

I just don't really like Greed Island as a whole.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, the anime only gets better until the end of the York Shin City arc. The Greed Island arc is flat-out boring in the anime, and a little bit better in the manga but feels like a downturn in quality compared to York Shin City. After that is the Chimera arc (the current arc that Togashi has been on for more than a decade due to not actually writing ANYTHING for the series for being on hiatus more than half of that time), which starts out slow but then picks things up quite a lot in quality....and then goes downhill again.

I actually tend to think of the HXH TV anime and the 1st OVA much like how I view ADJL. The first half of the series (think of it as season 1 if you want), is decent enough and has some noticeably good episodes in the mix, but isn't really on the level of quality that gets you really into the story. The 2nd half of the series (I'd say by the time they get to the Celestial Tower) goes in far more bold directions, gets a lot darker, and has overall far better writing than the 1st half. I'd say by the time you get to the York Shin City arc Togashi has managed by that point to work the series up to the level of quality that you'd expect from his best work with YYH.

York Shin isn't as good as Chapter Black is, but its my 2nd favorite story arc that Togashi has ever written (that is to say, I like it even more than YYH's Dark Tournament arc, which is still saying quite a lot since I also love that arc, myself). Its certainly the most ambitious arc that he has ever written (well, the Chimera arc is arguably more "ambitious" but I don't count it yet since he hasn't even finished it, as of this point).

I think when Togashi goes into detail about the mafia and criminal underground world and fleshes out the side characters and even some of the villains that you meet later on rather than just focusing on Gon, is when the series really picks up its pace. Until then its just a good shonen series but not a truly great one.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It's pretty much an uphill ride until York Shin when it more or less reaches its potential.

Now, if the Chimera Ant arc didn't start the way it did, or take so damn long (hiatus or not, reading it became a chore) it probably would have been a return to form.

Greed Island's biggest problem to me is that the whole thing doesn't feel like it matters at all. The villains are kind of thrown in with some boring personalities, and it just sort of ends without anything really happening without much of a pay off. It literally ends and starts the next arc right away.

Actually, now that I think about it... Who's directing this anime? If it's the YYH/original HxH director, then we might be in for a real improvement here. Especially if he's as good at fixing the parts where Togashi gets totally lazy and gets out the pointless fat. A Chimera Ant arc without the crap might really be awesome.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The thing is, Greed Island is a training arc, which to me is a HUGE step back for the series after what Togashi managed to bring to the table with York Shin City. Its more or less HXH's equivalent of YYH's transition from the Chapter Black arc into the Three Kings arc (which also featured a lot of training scenes, and almost felt entirely pointless if it weren't for a few "convenient" plot points that related it to the rest of the series).

The thing that makes Greed Island even worse, though, is that the training doesn't even help since right after that Togashi introduced unbeatable villains in the Chimera arc. Its fucking retarded because all of the training that Gon and Killua went through to become stronger doesn't do them shit (and they go through even more training which, once again, doesn't do jack squat for them).

Its just a fucking mess. Though, at its current point, its still not all lost. Togashi can really save the series if he finishes up the Chimera arc and starts a fresh new arc that does all of the things that he should do to flesh out the characters more (especially the villains), and allow for intense and exciting plot points. I want to see another Chapter Black or York Shin City quality arc again, and I know that Togashi's talented enough to do it. He just has to stop being so fucking lazy.

In fact, seeing how Togashi acts with this series, it makes it all the more baffling to me that YYH turned out as great as it did. I mean, whoever his editor was back then who forced him to be on track, Weekly Shonen Jump should rehire him to be Togashi's editor once more and kick his ass into shape (for a writer's standards, anyways....).

[Spark Of Spirit]

If they left York Shin and got contacted by someone that Kaito was overseas and they followed it would have had the exact same result of Greed Island. There were no revelations, no characters arcs shifting, and nothing eventful really happened.

The only new character of any consequence of the arc even shows up in the next one to do the exact same thing.

If he ends this arc and we take a step back from superpowered villains and in to more of a strategy focus again with less reliance on shock value to make the villains seem tough, he might finally get it back on track again.



*SPOILER*

I face palmed in real life when the villain learned HXH's version of instant transmission and Gon basically went Super Saiyan with black hair right before he stopped writing. After the Youpi fight every other fight has been full of dumb non-Togashi elements

*END SPOILER*


Anyway, to bring it back to the anime again, I hope they're planning on streamlining the heck out of this arc and Togashi told them the ending or something so they can make the superior version again.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

If they got Furuhara back to direct the anime, it'd be superior to the manga. Togashi did a great job himself on the beginning and middle of HXH, but Furuhara just took what he had and made it downright better in the anime. He also did a brilliant job on the first OVA series. Then Greed Island, an already weaker arc for this series was given to some mediocre team of animators who clearly didn't give a shit about the source material, and an already lower quality arc turned into a downright boring arc in the anime. Its not bad or terrible, but its just really dull.

That said, Togashi's mess of an arc with the Chimera arc is certainly not beyond saving. There is enough good material in there that if Furuhara were to come back in he could salvage all of that stuff and make the story flow a hell of a lot better. After all, its a good arc in concept, and when Togashi still gave a shit about the series he did a really good job with writing it, but then after his first really long hiatus he came back and clearly didn't care about the series anymore.

::EDIT::

Also, one other thing that can be done in the anime to make the Chimera arc even better is to give Knuckle even more screen-time. He's by far the best new character or THING in general about this arc, IMO. He's basically a bad-ass version of Kuwabara, and any character that can remind me of Kuwabara but come off even superior will easily become a favorite of mine for that particular series.

[Spark Of Spirit]

To me he feels like what Kuwabara and Yusuke as the same character would be like. Which is surprisingly awesome, funny, badass, and still a bit slow at times.

Since this seems to be a full blown anime and not an OVA, I'm guessing this entire anime will actually be the Chimera Ant arc done in a season or so. If Furuhara gets his hands on this and not some B-team, then I will definitely be there day one. If they're making this specifically for the Chimera Ant arc, then they're probably going in with the intention of going all out.

Going all out better lead to more Knuckle and Morau kicking ass. 

[Avaitor]

I really liked the ending of episode 13. Goes out of left field, and shows just how off the tracks it can get.

Still digging the series a lot.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, Tompa is a total ass-hole. I kind of laughed when Killua casually went up to kill him before Gon stopped him.

Its good that you like the series so far. This stuff is pretty good but your actually still on what I consider to be the slow part of the series. It gets even better with the 2nd half of the Hunter Exam arc where the challenges get way more intense. Also Gon gets some pretty nice character development later on.

Also, even though Gon is the main character, I find it funny that Killua gets way more development than him or any other character in the series, overall. In a way I kind of think the series should have been about him. Gon is a nice character but I always felt that Killua was way more interesting. By now you've probably seen that he was a relatively quiet character in his initial appearance and more than a bit unorthodox and didn't behave at all like you'd expect a child to, but ever since meeting Gon he has been opening up to him. When you learn more about his character later on you'll see how unusual that is for him.

Speaking of which, I was wondering if there are any characters in particular you find to be interesting at all, so far. Obviously its too early in the series for you to have decided on any favorites, but its interesting to here people's initial impressions on characters before hearing what they think about them later on (each of the main 4 characters gets at least some level of development and change, so that's why initial opinions may differ over time).

[Avaitor]

It's a little too soon for me to say, really, but I am liking Gon a bit. No one seems to annoy me, either, so that's good.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Since not much has been confirmed yet, quite a few people are speculating that the new anime will be a reboot. I for one thing that such an idea would be very impractical. The 1st anime was already a splendid adaptation. I can't imagine it being done much better. The Greed Island OVAs kind of sucked, but I see little point in redoing an already weak story arc, anyways. The TV series would do much better to pick things up where the Greed Island OVAs left off and flesh out the Chimera arc better than how it has been in the manga, so far. There is a lot of material out in the manga from the point where Greed Island ends, so this new anime season could easily last for over 50 episodes. That gives Togashi PLENTY of time to finally wrap-up this overly long-winded arc and get into something else from a fresh start.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I hope it isn't... Actually, that's not true. I wouldn't mind it but only if they keep Furuhara, otherwise it will be a waste.

But something tells me this is an anime purely for the Chimera Ant arc. A new season for each arc would be good enough for me.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

And the thing is, I doubt Furuhara would want to remake what he already made so perfectly. He made a great adaptation of Togashi's manga and made it even better, IMO. So telling him to redo everything he already did so fantastically would be like an insult to his work on the series.

Really, the only practical thing I can think of is that its a new season solely for the Chimera arc. I'm guessing that Togashi must already have an ending planned out this time if they are making this anime. It wouldn't make sense for them to do it if he didn't already have an ending in mind.

[Avaitor]

HOLY SHIT KILLUA!

Episode 16 was great, and I'm really liking him now.