Hunter X Hunter (Original + Remake)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, another criticism that I have with Togashi's writing specifically for Hunter X Hunter is that he has this odd habit of introducing characters or concepts into the story that seem like they will be important but then never come up again. This is kind of a staple of the shonen genre since the way these are written, writers will try to introduce new elements into the story to shake it up, but if it proves to be unpopular with readers they will quickly scrap it in favor of something that will get their readership back up. However sometimes Togashi tends to dedicate quite a significant amount of time to something, so when he seems to all but forget about those things then it gets frustrating since it just feels like you wasted a decent amount of time that could have been spent on progressing the main plot.

Introducing the Phantom Troupe into this arc is one of those things that just felt so weirdly out of place, as cool as it was to see them again. While they do come back into the story in a later arc, it really has nothing to do with the appearance that they made in this one. The one that really gets to me, though, is Jairo. There was a whole episode's worth of backstory dedicated to him, yet as of where the manga is currently at, he has yet to appear again. He's mentioned a few times in passing, but that's about it. Why introduce that character at such a random time and then do nothing with him for so long? It makes no sense to me.

[Dreamer2]

Oh good, I wasn't the only one who found all that to be really weird. It totally felt like he was being setup as someone important, but he wasn't. And now you're telling me he hasn't had any real importance in the manga at all. That's strange.

[Dreamer2]

Ikalgo is pretty awesome. Watching his plan was actually really interesting and watching him break down like that was kind of sad. And then his stuff with Werefin was interesting as well. Even though it felt like a weird time to learn more about him, I enjoyed it and I enjoyed his interactions with Ikalgo.

Plus, I enjoyed some of the Youpi stuff today. So, good or interesting moments for some of the Ants. Which is definitely welcome.

Man, Knov is really having some trouble out there.

Not surprising that Meruem's name is playing a role here. But, I did like how he just wanted to talk and had very little interest in fighting at first. Hopefully they're fight is good.

Looks like Palm's finally coming back and she's apparently a Chimera Ant now. Which I kind of spoiled for myself a while back.

Oh yeah, Gon still looks nuts.

[Dreamer2]

So, I zoomed through the rest of this arc in the last couple of days.

First off, the Netero vs Meruem fight was all kinds of awesome. Netero's move was really to fun watch, even if it was just the giant hands moving and hitting the King. There was a really cool level of intensity to everything that was happening. The resolution was also pretty cool. Netero went out fighting and he accomplished his goal. After this awesome fight, I feel like this arc kind of hit a wall for a while. As I continued on, I just started to lose interest and was getting tired of the arc. It was bound to happen because of how long the whole arc is. I just expected it to happen earlier.

Youpi and Pouf reviving the King was something. Something weird. I know what they were going for, but all of the facial expressions and the screaming was just a little too over the top for me.

Next is Gon and Pitou. I had high hopes for this part, even though I don't know what I really wanted to happen. At times Gon was becoming a little too unlikeable for me. But, once he started to crying in front of Pitou, I started feeling bad for him. But, my interest in what was going on wasn't really there. And then Gon aged up for some reason, and I was ready to move on. It wasn't bad per say, just not something I needed to see last a while. Thankfully it didn't and I am interested in the fallout.

My interest in this arc returned when Werefin said Komugi. I was just happy that the King remembered her and I was looking forward to seeing their reunion. Their scenes together were just fantastic. And I was legitimately sad to see them both die.

Even though I had my fair share of problems with most of the Chimera Ants, I enjoyed watching the scenes for Bolster and Reina. It was nice.

Oh and that baby Colt was watching is Kite? I'm a tad confused. Hopefully they'll expand on that. Although, Morel's response was pretty funny.

And Killua is off to save Gon somehow. Sounds good. I'm looking forward to the final arc.

This was a long long arc. I'm not usually a huge fan of long arcs and overall I think this one is just solid. The stuff it did well was really enjoyable. But, there was stuff I didn't like and because of the overall length, it made the whole thing drag on at times. Meruem and Komugi were without a doubt the best parts of this arc and one of the best of the entire show. They made the whole arc worthwhile, even with the things I didn't like. They might be my second and third favorite characters overall.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I pretty much agree with that outlook. The Chimera Ant arc is heavily flawed. I still love it for what it does right, though. There are big chunks of that arc that are outright A+ material, some middling parts that are C tier writing, and then a few notable but terrible parts that are a straight-up F. Despite all of this, the higher quality material ultimately makes the arc a worthwhile experience to me, and I get why so many other people seem to love it for the same reasons. About my only gripe is that some fans seem to think that it's perfect, and it isn't even close. Just in terms of an overall balance in quality and pacing, I'd have to say that Yorknew City was probably the most consistent story arc in Hunter X Hunter, and my personal favorite from the series so far.

[Dreamer2]

So, then all that arc needs is Leorio, Kurapika, and Hisoka. Seriously its been like 60 episodes since either Leorio or Kurapika have had any importance.

Spoiler

Man, it looks more and more like the next arc was pretty much made for you.

[close]

You were right. I thought it was pretty awesome.

I was planning to only do a few episodes each day, but it was a boring Saturday, and I got into it, so I did the rest of the show in one day. But, I really really liked this arc. Wasn't perfect, but there was some great Killua and Zoldyck family stuff. Leorio and Hisoka return. Even if Hisoka didn't get to do too much. And Gon met Ging. I also surprisingly got into the Hunter Association stuff. It was fun and got kind of emotional too. Plus, Cheadle was kind of awesome. I could go more into what I liked and disliked, but its pretty late. I'll try to post my overall thoughts on this show some time soon.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Also, if you were disappointed by the lack of Kurapika here (outside of a small cameo at the end), it's worth mentioning that he does play a big part in the next (and still current) story arc. Unfortunately, this is the part where you have to deal with Togashi's constant hiatuses. He literally just went on another one after publishing only ten new chapters of the manga. For a frame of reference, the 2011 anime covers up chapter 339 of the manga. The current run of the manga has just been left off at chapter 359, so it's only 20 chapters ahead of where the anime ended. In essence, you've essentially caught up to the current story-line. In all honesty, I'd recommend skipping out on the manga for the next several years since I can easily see it taking Togashi another decade just to finish the Dark Continent arc like how long it took him to finish the Chimera Ant arc. These kinds of stories just work much better when read as a whole, rather than having to read a cluster of chapters here and there spread out years apart.

On another note, now that you've finished the entire series, here's a good video that really sums up the strong points of Hunter X Hunter as a whole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnt5zE-Cu1A

And just for the hell of it (since it's by Togashi as well and one of my favorite shonen of all time), here's one for Yu Yu Hakusho: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mwouh5raDg

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I found a really great video explaining what makes HXH a great series and the strengths of Togashi's writing style: http://youtu.be/EY3deSWuO58

Just to forewarn you, the author is a bit biased against a lot of popular shonen series, but not in a hateful or ignorant way that should piss you off. He does in fact admit to liking several of those series which he criticizes, in fact, but simply tries to highlight what he perceives as their flaws and how HXH manages to brilliantly subvert those tropes.

I do feel that this is the best video that I've seen on the subject, and it's what I would personally use to convince anyone on the fence about this show to why it's worth giving a shot. It's also a good response to those who don't like the series but are genuinely curious as to what its appeal is to other people.

[VLordGTZ]

Set 1 of Hunter X Hunter (2011) comes out of DVD/Blu-ray on October 25th.

I'll be looking forward to adding this to my collection. 

[Foggle]

Hey E-K, I've been thinking about giving HxH another shot since I'm getting back into anime finally, is your recommended viewing order for it still the original series aside from Greed Island and then the new one picking up from there? Also, when should I watch the movies?

[Daikun]

I'm not E-K, but I'll respond to your question anyway.

If you wanna watch the anime, I'd recommend this:

-Watch ONLY the first episode of the original series (since the remake skims over the start of the story, for some odd reason).
-Watch the 2011 series in its entirety.
-After the anime ends, continue the manga from volume 32 (chapter 340) onward, since it likely won't be adapted anytime soon.

The main issue with the original version of the series is it misses the tone of the manga, whereas the remake gets it right.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

While I'd argue that the original has a superior artistic expression to the remake (and IMO a less generic score and more unique art-style), I will agree that the remake is actually better to watch first. It is definitely more faithful to Togashi's vision of the story and has much better pacing than the original due to having a lot more material to adapt when it came out.

That said, if you end up enjoying the remake, then it certainly wouldn't hurt at some point to check out the original anime at some point if you are curious to see a different series director's take on a beloved manga, artistic liberties and all.

Either way, glad that you're giving the series another go! It's a personal favorite of mine. It is a long-running shonen of course, so it may take a bit of an investment before you really get to it's strongest material, but I think it's worth it. I'd say the York New City arc somewhere in the mid 30's (episode-wise) is where it gets into it's groove and it has some of my favorite story-telling in any medium, with layered and nuanced characters and villains all wrapped in a really unique and well-crafted package. It's also a series that isn't afraid to kill off characters (maybe sometimes to it's detriment), so I think it helps keep the narrative feeling less predictable and more engaging in some of the later arcs since you don't always know if a conflict will end well.

[Foggle]

Thanks guys! One of my other friends said the same thing as Daikun but I just wanted to check in with you. I noticed that the 1999 series has two arcs mentioned on its Wikipedia page that the remake doesn't, Zoldyck Family and Genei Ryodan. Were these also incorporated into the remake or should I watch those episodes from the original?

[Daikun]

Those arcs are in the remake.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Those arcs are both in the remake. They just used different terminology back when the 1999 anime was the only adaptation due to the choice of words from fansubs. Zoldyck Family is just lumped in with the Hunter Exams arc in the remake since it's so short, and Genei Ryodan is translated to Phantom Troupe in English, which the official subs of the 2011 version use (as does the Viz translation of the manga), which itself is now commonly titled as the York New City arc (my personal favorite in the series, BTW).

I do want to say that while I understand Daikun and other people's opinions on the matter, I personally disagree with the sentiment that the deviations of the '99 series are inherently an issue. To me, part of the job of an adaptation is just that, to "adapt" the work. It's first and foremost an interpretation of the original to try and make it work best in another medium. In that regard, the remake does it's job well enough (and I by no means wish to diminish the hard work that goes into any animation project), but very little of it stands out to me, personally, compared to the original manga. The '99 series, putting my biases aside, is certainly not perfect in it's approach, but it offers me a far more interesting vision of the story that covers all of the same major plot beats while adding it's own cinematic presentation of key scenes through not just great sakuga moments, but a very cinematic use of lighting, music, and motifs/symbolism. Key moments like Killua's confrontation with Illumi, Chrollo's Symphony, and {Spoiler}'s Death scene are far better directed, visually represented, and more impactful in the '99 series, IMO.

Of course, not all of it works, and even I recognize that the '99 series has a lot of filler to deal with early on, and can also feel a bit too slow paced to newcomers. I watched it back in 2006 when I was a High School student, had no part time job, and didn't socialize much outside of one or two real friends that I had, so I was all for that stuff back in the day. The characterization of the main cast is also subtly different initially but in a way that becomes more pronounced later on. Namely, Gon, Kurapika, and Killua are made out to be more traditionally good and less morally ambiguous in the '99 series, which is a huge point of contention with fans (ESPECIALLY manga purists). Again, I get the issue that some people have with this, but I again don't think it's inherently a problem. In the context of the '99 series, that characterization absolutely works. That said, it would certainly clash with the later arcs if those were available to adapt at the time. In that regard, I do fully recognize that the 2011 version is far more streamlined and a much better option for a new viewer to get into. It also has much sleeker pacing than most shonen series of it's kind (though you still have 20+ episode arcs, obviously).

I just don't want people who have never seen it to go around thinking that the '99 version is somehow a bad or lackluster product. On the contrary, it may be of it's time, but that comes with more good than bad in my book. I will always advocate for creative liberties over 1:1 adaptations anyday. And in that aspect, I actually think that the by the book nature of the 2011 series somewhat backfires in the back half of the Chimera Ant arc, which Togashi wrote in a way that is uniquely suited to the medium of comics/manga. It's very narration-heavy, and meant to convey through text how several actions, emotions, and intersecting story-lines are happening and clashing all in a matter of seconds to minutes. It's weirdly ambitious and unique, and also a bit messy in execution, but it still is something he can get away with in that medium. The anime tries to directly translate this and I just don't think that it works, personally. But, that's just my personal opinion, and I'd certainly still encourage you to decide for yourself should the series hold your interest up to that point in the first place.

If I had to sum it up, I'd say that the '99 series is akin to Raimi-era Spider-Man, with both the creative strengths as well as the awkward flaws that come with that. In the end, though, it's artists taking a source material and putting their own creative spin on it, and I will always be for that if it provides me with something memorable.

Anyways, sorry for going on for so long. Hopefully I didn't deter you from the series in general with all of my rambling. I just don't get many opportunities to talk about some of my favorite manga and anime these days.