Hunter X Hunter (Original + Remake)

[gunswordfist]

Ok, I am on episode 113 and decided to give HXH a break. I want to watch Dragonball, finish Lupin AWNF, finish Saint Seiya, catch up on Space Dandy, watch The Mysteries Cities Of Gold and all of the original Hunter X Hunter series. Hopefully I'll have at least 10 episodes of HXH 2011 to catch up on but with how slow they are coming out, you never know. And I won't be even watching episode 114 until then. A few random thoughts:

I love Meruem and Komugi's (sp?) voices. They are perfect.

My favorite HXH characters are:

2. Nobunaga - He has the most heart and personality out of any Phantom Troupe member. The way he was laughing and smiling when Gon and Killua said that they refused to look at him because they had no respect for him won me over.

1. Killua - I'm pretty sure he's my favorite "Dark Hero" character now. It's been Hiei (surprise, surprise) before that but Killua isn't as scared to show his feelings as he is and is more charismatic. I am still impressed that it took no convincing from Gon for Killua to want to leave with him during Killua's Retrieval arc. Gon and the guys just simply met Killua on his way out. Togashi knows how to break cliches like no other.

[talonmalon333]

It's been a long time since I saw the original series. But did anyone besides me not particularly "love" Gon? Like, he was a good character, but he wasn't necessarily one of my favorites in the series.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Yeah, Gon is my least favorite of the main protagonists as well. He's by far overshadowed by Killua, who has a more interesting backstory, personality, and character development, and Kurapika and Leorio are also more likable and fun to watch than him as well. I did find him more interesting once I saw that his innocent personality and simple-mindedness were faults that led him to become a more..."disturbed" character in the Chimera Ant arc, but of course, that wasn't in the first anime.

[gunswordfist]

He's like Ed in FMA to me, he's a good character but there's a bunch of better characters than him in his own show. But then again, I like Ed more than Gon.

Ok, I finished episode 1 about 10 minutes ago. Very different than I expected. There was also two pretty big changes from 2011 (or should I say it's the other way around, lol). Color me interested with the different pacing. I can't wait to find other changes myself.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

While I have been upset with the pacing of the last few episodes for the most part, I found it to be appropriate for this episode to focus only on the conflict between Gon and Pitou. I also have to give them props for choosing not to play any background music for this episode. The silence really made so many scenes feel more intense, because with Gon in his border-line psychotic state, you really have no idea what he's going to do. If you remember back to when Gon told Kite that he didn't have a problem killing the Chimera Ants because they were despicable and showed no compassion even for their own brethren, Kite said something along the lines of how that would be a problem if Gon ever ran into an enemy who could show compassion. And this is Togashi's way of portraying just how flawed Gon's way of thinking is. He clearly doesn't know how to react in this situation and it's quickly leading him down a dark path. It's very telling that Killua was the voice of reason in this situation and had to calm Gon down enough for him to not do anything wreck-less. It shows you just how far both of these characters have come since the beginning of the series, and while Killua has bettered himself, Gon has changed for the worse. It's very unconventional and a very fresh sort of conflict to see in a shounen series.

Personally, this is one of my favorite episodes in the series so far.

[Mas]

I love Han Megumi. She did an amazing job as Gon's voice in this episode.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That's another thing that I forgot to mention. The voice-acting here was top-notch. I don't usually take too much notice to Japanese voice-actors, but in this case Han Megumi definitely deserves props for her portrayal of Gon in his emotionally unstable state.

[Foggle]

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well....it's certainly better artwork than anything Togashi can draw.

[LumRanmaYasha]

The Jojo one is great, but...




...I'm more of a fan of this one, myself. 

[Spark Of Spirit]

That's not gonna help the Cell comparisons. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It was so heart-wrenching to see all of that effort that all of these characters put in as a team to end up going to waste when they were SO CLOSE to defeating Youpi, and even then it would have merely been just one royal guard, but it was still a glimmer of hope that the heroes desperately needed. And it's just like Togashi to pull that hope away at the last second. Meanwhile in Gon's part of the story, he has almost become the bad guy in a way, essentially holding Komugi hostage in order to get Pitou to cooperate with him and agree to revive Kite.

And now we'll soon be getting into the fight between Meruem and Netero. Now, just try to think back to about 2 years ago in the Hunter Exams arc where we learned that Netero was supposed to be this ultimate bad-ass among Hunters, but we never got to see him be even remotely serious. Well, now we'll finally see him fighting at 100% of his power. Typically I prefer the more strategic fights like we just saw between Youpi and the others, so this isn't necessarily one of my favorite fights compared to that since this is a more DBZ-styled power struggle, but I will say that you will get to see just how insane a battle between true masters of Nen can be, and it will be glorious to finally see it animated (assuming that Madhouse doesn't cheap out on the animation budget for it).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's such a tease to start up the fight between Netero and Meruem and then just switch to another sub-plot for the next episode, going by the preview. That said, they can't delay the fight for too much longer since the arc is drawing ever closer to its conclusion.

At any rate, I really liked this episode mainly for showing what Meruem's development has culminated to. In a weird way he almost seems like the good guy in some respects compared to the Hunters (especially Gon), who are essentially just doing the bidding of high-ranking, corrupt politicians, even if they themselves mean well for humanity. Meanwhile, Meruem's human side is growing stronger and he is the one who actually wants to come to a rational agreement with Netero, without having to resort to violence. This contrast is especially jarring if you compare him to Gon in his current psychotic state, who is basically just holding an innocent girl hostage to get what he wants. Also, notice how both Meruem and Gon use that same exact sitting position when they are in these very extreme states of mind. Sure, it could just be a coincidence....or maybe Togashi wants to hint at making that particular comparison between this Aric's main villain and the main hero of the series. Who knows?

[gunswordfist]

While I have been upset with the pacing of the last few episodes for the most part, I found it to be appropriate for this episode to focus only on the conflict between Gon and Pitou. I also have to give them props for choosing not to play any background music for this episode. The silence really made so many scenes feel more intense, because with Gon in his border-line psychotic state, you really have no idea what he's going to do. If you remember back to when Gon told Kite that he didn't have a problem killing the Chimera Ants because they were despicable and showed no compassion even for their own brethren, Kite said something along the lines of how that would be a problem if Gon ever ran into an enemy who could show compassion. And this is Togashi's way of portraying just how flawed Gon's way of thinking is. He clearly doesn't know how to react in this situation and it's quickly leading him down a dark path. It's very telling that Killua was the voice of reason in this situation and had to calm Gon down enough for him to not do anything wreck-less. It shows you just how far both of these characters have come since the beginning of the series, and while Killua has bettered himself, Gon has changed for the worse. It's very unconventional and a very fresh sort of conflict to see in a shounen series.

Personally, this is one of my favorite episodes in the series so far.

Yes, I loved that part. I was so impressed that they held a scene so long with just 3 characters communicating and very little music played. I was actually surprised at the mood that was set there.

Ok, yesterday through early this morning, I watched episodes 115-118. False Rage was a good episode to watch before going to sleep. It was impressive how Youpi learned to control his rage and goaded Knuckle and the part when he got hit by Killua's lightning and then Knuckle hit him 8 times and then ran off scared, tripped and rolled and then continued running was probably the funniest moment in the entire series. I usually don't like last second saves, probably thanks to Bleach and Naruto's overuse of them, but that was not only an exception, it's probably my new favorite now. I rewatched that part like 5 times and my eyes were watered from laughing.

This afternoon and up to about 10 minutes ago, I watched episodes 119-122. Yep, Youpi is my favorite Chimera Ant. Hmm, I was going to say Royal Guard but that may be accurate. Togashi writing still surprises me. You think one thing is going to happen and then it ends up not happening or happening anyway (Pouf escaping from Smoky Jail and having Morel stay there when I thought he was going to transform into some terrifying monster but he ended up actually being trapped in there the whole time. The gang surviving long enough to have Loanboy take Youpi's Nen away and then them finally killing Youpi..., etc., etc.) Also, it was nice to see Killua speak to his grandpa for the first time in the entire series. I wonder why he didn't go with Netero. I guess he couldn't pay him enough for that. lol I also thought the Ikalgo scenes were interesting, if not sometimes overdramatic. Welfin and Melereon (sp?) are definitely overdramatic. There's no doubt about that. I was cracking up when Melereon starting jogging after Knuckle when Knuckle first got chased by Youpi to save Shoot. His clothing made it that much funnier.

Damn Crunchyroll. They say 20 hours until episode 123 but that means 2 days for them. I already know. And it's kind of sad that I finished an entire fucking series and come back and there's not even 10 new episodes for me to watch. I already know 123 is online but I'll wait. It's so beautiful watching the show on my tv.

[Mas]

Ah geez, poor Killua. Seeing him cry like that was so painful to watch. I don't know how many times Hunter x Hunter made me feel like this already.
I'm glad Palm is okay. She actually seems even prettier now.

It was so heart-wrenching to see all of that effort that all of these characters put in as a team to end up going to waste when they were SO CLOSE to defeating Youpi, and even then it would have merely been just one royal guard, but it was still a glimmer of hope that the heroes desperately needed. And it's just like Togashi to pull that hope away at the last second.

Yeahh, though Youpi turned out to be a pretty great character. I like all of the Royal Guards now, even Pouf despite his insane obsession with the King.