Hunter X Hunter (Original + Remake)

[Avaitor]

I had Grave in the Fireflies in mind when I saw that shot, which is a bit darker visually than some of the other Ghibli films you're probably thinking of.

It just seems a little more artistic, while the new one looks a little more stylized. Which can also be a good thing, and I think it is looking like a good thing so far.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Also, to be fair, I suppose the remake kind of has to have its own distinct look and feel in order to even justify being remade in the first place. Its not like its a huge deal to me, anyways, so long as it doesn't take too many liberties with the story. I do know that they will be toning it down to make it a bit less violent (which I can't blame them for since current Japanese TV standards are a lot stricter than they were when the original anime aired), but as long as they keep the story and characters the way they are supposed to be (though rumors are that they are going to make Hisoka less psychotic for some reason, which is totally stupid and missing the idea of his character), then there is no reason that I shouldn't still be able to enjoy this anime. Either way, whether it turns out good or bad I certainly can't wait to check it out. October can't come soon enough (also because its when Batman: Arkham City releases, as well ).

[Spark Of Spirit]

If they use the lack of violence to build Hisoka up for a really brutal moment, I wouldn't mind it. He was a bit too bloodthirsty in the first arc and not as cool and collected as he was later on, so IMO it might help the first arc.

The weird thing is that I'm going to miss the filler. The filler in HxH was actually really fun and added to the story and world.

[gunswordfist]

I can't read Japanese but if that shit is true then there's finally another anime that I can look forward to (besides the new Rurouni Kenshin anime that's coming out really soon).

I'm going to make everyone watch the premiere for that anime seasons' entries.

Anyway, just heard that new RK is just going to be two new OVAs instead of a remake.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, the series officially premieres on Crunchyroll tonight (which is technically Sunday morning in Japan). Does anyone else besides me or Desensitized plan on checking it out?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, the premiere of HXH has just started on CR. Since I don't have a subscription I can't watch it right away, but I'll do a write-up for it as soon as I get a chance to see it.

[Spark Of Spirit]

What a nostalgic opening. The four main characters of HxH featured prominently- Gon, Kurapika, Leorio, and Killua.

The way it should be.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I love the opening song. Its very nostalgic and feels reminiscent of the tone of the original anime's first opening song in terms of its up-beat tone.

One thing that really bugs me about this episode: Where the heck is Kaito? He's an important character in terms of his influence on Gon. Maybe they'll fit him into a flash-back later, but people watching this series for the first time should know that following in the foot-steps of his father wasn't the only thing that inspired Gon to become a Hunter. I don't want to spoil anything in case the show covers this later on (and they should), but it was strange to see him excluded from the first episode.

Also, I can't wait to see how this show handles Killua. I still say that out of all of Togashi's series (including YYH, which is my favorite), Killua is by far the most interesting character that he's ever written, and arguably one of the most bad-ass. I can't wait until he gets introduced in this anime (which, judging by the pacing and the next episode preview, should be around episode 3 or so).

I must say, I was quite partial to the OST of the original anime, but I was also impressed by how much I immediately took a liking to this remake's OST. On the whole it got off to a positive start. But, really, I still need to see how Killua and Hisoka are handled in this series.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm actually hoping they pull back on Hisoka a bit. His best qualities include his unpredictability and viciousness. IMO, the original manga and anime brought him on too strong without any build up, and I'm kind of hoping they wait until the 'mist' to properly show how over the top he is. Hisoka is a lot more sneaky with his abilities in the rest of the series than the early Hunter exam arc implies.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I believe a representative from Madhouse who was involved with HXH's production said that in this adaptation they will be toning down Hisoka's character a considerable amount. To be specific, they aren't planning on building up to his more sadistic nature, but instead just toning down his more psychotic nature in general, which may work out better initially but its displeasing for me to here, personally.

That said, I can't blame the anime staff for doing that. The original anime could get away with Hisoka's type of character back in the day, but even if this new anime doesn't try to keep everything kid-friendly, they still have to keep Hisoka toned down a bit unless they want to deal with angry TV censors. The thing is, both the manga and the orginal anime had subtle implications (well, OK, maybe its not so subtle as long as you're not a kid) that Hisoka got some really insane "arousal" of sorts in the thrill of combat, specifically the type of combat that involved fighting to the brutal, gory death. He even showed some sexual implications by doing bizarre stuff like liking his own wounds and savoring the taste, and stuff such as that. In this aniem they described him as being more of a character who simply relishes the thrill of fighting and in that regard they may go more for him going into a state of "fighter's high" rather than having him act more psychotic than that when he's in a state of excitement.

It does betray the original concept of his character, but like I said I can understand why it was necessary for Madhouse to make that change, as stuff that's allowed in manga and that was allowed on TV a decade ago won't fly by most Japanese television vieweres today.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I actually noticed something (2 things actually) in the ED credits. If you look really closely, you can see that it quickly flashes a picture of Leorio standing over the body of his dead friend (who you see in a brief flash-back in the original anime), and it also flashes over another scene of Kurapika (with his back to the screen) holding the body of one of the dead Kurata clan members amongst a pile of dead bodies. I kind of found that to be a bit clever in a way of foreshadowing things that we'll learn about the dark histories of these characters later on. Of course, its worth pointing out that the original anime cleverly foreshadowed to Kurapika's vendetta towards the spiders as well as his unique trait regarding his eyes glowing red when he's in certain emotional states during a certain scene in the 2nd episode (which was of course complete filler, so all credit actually goes to Furahashi for that clever scene).

Also, in terms of comparisons, I went back and watched episode 3 of HXH to compare it to how the new series handled the whole part about sailing to the point of the Hunter's exam site. I didn't even catch onto it myself right away (since it is a really minor thing in the grand scheme of things, after all), but Katsuo's character in the new anime is the complete opposite of how he was portrayed in the older anime. In the old one, he was much tougher and actually ended up beating up a few of the more unruly shipmates who were on their way to to site of the Hunter exam, wheras in the new series he's shown to be a weakling who easily gets pushed around.

Anyways, its nothing significant since he's only a 1-episode character anyways who never appears again (and a filler character at that, as he's completely nonexistent in the manga), but i only felt like pointing that out because I just find making little comparisons like that between the old series and its remake to be interesting to do. You can expect more comparisons betweem similarities and differences to come from me later on as new episodes air.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Episode 2 was OK. The animation didn't seem to dip in quality and I'm still mostly liking the BGM soundtrack for the series (though most people seem to hate it so far). This time the anime combined another 2 episodes from the original anime (episodes 4 and 5). I understand that they probably want to speed the pacing up to get to the real exams as quickly as possible, which start in the next episode, but I hope that they eventually slow down the pace a bit so as not to rush through everything.

Also, I'm still just waiting until we get to see how this anime version deals with the darker parts of the series coming later on, especially with characters like Killua and Hisoka having some more gritty scenes later on in the series.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Alright, the first 2 episodes were a decent start, but I must admit that I REALLY did not like this episode at all. Very disappointing, in fact, and this is one area where I can clearly say the original anime handled it much better.

For one thing, why the heck did it take so long for Tompa to go through the introductions this time? Interestingly enough, neither the manga nor even the original anime spent this much time on introducing the other contestants, so I find it quite odd that out of all of the times this new anime picked to slow down the pace, it was at this portion that didn't even require slower pacing at all (in fact it would have been preferrable if they just got to the commencement of the first exam before the half-way point of this episode). Also, the animation took a noticeable downgrade in this episode, but I guess that was to be expected as long-running series generally have to divide their budget up between lots of episodes as opposed to just a handful of them.

What I really didn't like was how they totally just killed the whole reveal of Tompa being the rookie-crusher. Well, OK, to be fair they WERE following the manga more closely in this case, but it was changed in the original anime adaptation so that it would be built up a bit more and be revealed a bit later on in the first exam which made it come off as much more of a surprise. That proves that sometimes some changes from the manga can be for the better if they are in good taste, so I would have preferred that this new anime didn't play it so safe and follow the manga like a bible, being that a good adaptation can add in or change around things if it suits the story for the better.

Hisoka's introduction was pretty "meh" in terms of execution, but to be fair even in the original anime as well as the manga I always found his first appearance to be pretty "meh" as well, so I guess its not really a downgrade from that. I really need to see how they handle his character later on, though, when the story takes a bit of a dark turn.

Oh, and Killua....yeah, I'm going to have to try REALLY hard to get used to his new voice. To be honest, its just way too high-pitched for my liking. Once again, though, I'm going to have to reserve judgement until I see how they handle his character later on when you get to learn more about him and see what kind of person he is. I sincerely hope that they don't screw him up. He is my favorite character in Hunter X Hunter by far, and easily the most interesting character that Togashi has ever written, IMO. I hope that this anime treats his character with the respect that he deserves rather than trying to make him into a generic shonen side-kick character of some sort, because that would be really lame seeing as how he's the exact opposite of the annoyingly cliche young kid that you would see in other shonen series these days.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

There were a lot of minor details that this episode changed from the manga, and there was some filler added and a couple of things removed, but overall I actually really liked this episode. It only covered a bit more than 1 chapter, but it didn't feel too slow since it was more about building tension than progressing the story. In this episode I grew a bit more used to Killua's voice (I still largely prefer the old one, though), and Namikawa Daisuke really shined through as Hisoka this time. They also didn't shy away from showing guys getting killed off (although they made it so that little to no blood was present, which I guess is sort of understandable). So, I'd say that this is definitely a positive upturn from the last 2 episodes (with episode 3 being really lackluster and episode 4 being OK but kind of boring).

The next episode will begin phase 2 of the exams, which will probably take about 1 and a half to 2 episodes for the anime to cover (based on the rate that its going at), and after that things get a bit more serious with phase 3.

[talonmalon333]

Keep us updated on how the Hunter Exam section is. That was probably the arc I enjoyed most.