Hunter X Hunter (Original + Remake)

[Lord Dalek]

So yeah... Requiem... Jesus Christ...

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, whether it's this or the 1999 version, it's one of my favorite scenes in a shounen anime. The 1999 version has more fluid and crisp animation, while this has a more appropriate use of music for the scene (a rarity for the 2011 anime, IMO).

It's scenes like this that establish the villains as a legitimate threat and leaves you in awe of their bad-assery. Unfortunately we don't get stuff like that from most modern shounen villains, especially when it involves a large group of characters like this.

At any rate, I'll warn you of something: after YNC comes Greed Island, which isn't bad, but it's a glorified training arc that  IMO is the most lackluster part of the series. If you can tough it out through that, then you'll have to deal with a very....twisted kind of story-line with the first third of the Chimera Ant arc (in both good and bad ways), an excellent middle third, and an uneven final act that for me leans more to the side of being good, but there's no escaping that it's a flawed arc with some serious pacing issues. YNC was my personal favorite for being what I consider to be the most consistent in quality.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This week's episode was quite good. The fact that Meruem is still very different from how he used to be despite losing his memories is something that I love. It'd have been disappointing to see him revert back to his old ways, but Togashi knows better than that, and this demonstrates that Meruem's change was something that was ingrained in him deeper than just his memories.

Pouf on the other hand is the character we all love to hate. His obsession and over-devotion to the King has lead him to defy Meruem to do what he thinks is best, but in reality his actions are completely selfish, as he just wants Meruem to fit his ideal for what the chimera ant King should be, rather than the person that he has now become.

Killua was a bad-ass like usual, this time around, and Gon is getting close yo his breaking point. Things are getting more intense than ever as this arc nears it's ultimate conclusion.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Spoiler

I won't lie, I don't care for sudden power-ups where the hero gets all the power he needs to defeat an enemy out of seemingly nowhere, even if it's sacrificing their own life to do so. It just feels like lazy writing to me. That said, this episode did a great job of executing thus part all the same, at least from an emotional standpoint. Once again the soundtrack used in this episode was both appropriate and not overdone as has been an issue in many previous episodes. I also loved the flow of the animation here. It basically made the best of mediocre writing, IMO. You really also felt the emotional weight of these characters thanks to the performances.

Oh, and Killua instantly killing one of Pouf's clones when he offered to tell Pitou to spare Gon in exchange for Komugi was another great scene. I just love it whenever that guy gets his comeuppances, and Killua always comes off as a bad-ass whenever he doesn't take crap from the antagonists.

[close]

[Lord Dalek]

https://twitter.com/RealLordDalek/status/471876587852279808

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So you already managed to stomach your way past Greed Island? Impressive.

As for the Chimera Ant arc....I'm still not a huge fan of the first third. Way too much shock value just for the sake of it. Once Togashi becomes less focused on being violent for no reason and more focused on actually telling a story with interesting characters, it gets much better. Unfortunately the anime kind of runs into some pacing problems here, and I can't stand the over-use of the OST in some episodes, but if you can look past its faults, there are a lot of great things in this arc.

[gunswordfist]

So Crunchyroll decided to upload the Spanish version of HXH episode 132 in their Xbox app...in Spanish. Since I had nothing else to watch while I was eating my chicken, I watched half of it with my extremely limited Spanish and the fact that no one's name changed helped. I'm guessing Pouf is trying to convince Meruem that his fragmented memories of Komugi are memories of Pitou. Also, it seems like Mereum told Youpi to search for Pitou. That would of course help Pouf's plans since Youpi is the man one who could ruin them. I do wonder if Youpi actually knows what is going one and acknowledged that when he looked at Pouf. Anyway, I'll just wait for the ingles version to upload so I can stop this pointless speculation.

[Mas]

I want to brush Gon's hair.

[gunswordfist]

Well, apparently my Spanish sucks.

[gunswordfist]

I looked away when I saw Youpi's body.

[gunswordfist]

I just finishing watching the most recent episode of HXH. At least I think it was but there's no telling with Cruncyroll. I was surprised to see the title of the show come up at the start and no OP. Thanks to seeing a picture of Komugi holding Meruem I saw on youtube, that pretty much spoiled what was coming, even though it was kind of obvious. I didn't know both of them were going to die until it became obvious that Komugi wasn't going to leave him. I haven't had an episode of anything make me feel this said in a long time.

[gunswordfist]

My favorite HXH characters:

8. Meruem
7. Pouf
6. Ikalgo
5. Shoot
4. Youpi
3. 1999 Leorio
2. Nobunaga
1. Killua

Whoops! I forgot about Leorio AND Ikalgo.

[Spark Of Spirit]

1. Killua
2. Leorio
3. Knuckle
4. Kurapika
5. Shoot

My top 5.

[gunswordfist]

Ah, some Shoot love. I guess Pouf will be my only "odd" favorite here.

[gunswordfist]

a few more notes about the episode: I knew they were going to play a special version of Legend Of The Martial Artist by the way it started. After hearing that Chimera Ants had an alarming number of deaths, I thought at least one, if not half of Knuckle, Shoot, Morel, Knov, Palm, Meleoron (sp?) and Ikalgo would die. Honestly, Ikalgo just looks like a character that would get slaughter being how he's lovable and was pretty much waiting for him to be at any moment. In just about any other show I would expect him to be offed to get some tears from the fans. Also, this reminds me that I also left him off my list, hold on...