Hunter X Hunter (Original + Remake)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Wow, they REALLY cut out a lot of stuff from phase 2 of the exam. Buhara was the only one judging them on the pork in the manga and the old anime, while Menchi had them all make sushi (which most of them didn't know how to make) and ended up failing them all on that. In a way I don't mind it so much, though, because they probably wanted to rush through this phase of the exam to get to phase 3 as quickly as possible since that's when things get way more dangerous.

Still, it makes me curious as to why they would spend so much time on episode 3 introducing individual participants in the exam (even though half of them have already become irrelevant characters early on) but then rush through actual material that took place when a phase of the exam was in progress. I find that to be kind of strange. Personally, if they wanted to save time, I would have rather had them cut out those long-winded and mostly unnecessary character introductions rather than actual Hunter Exam material from the rest of the arc, but like I said its not a big deal as it doesn't have any huge relevance to the plot either way.

As for the next episode, it looks like it will cover the time in-between phases 2 and 3 of the exam where the remaining participants are on the airship traveling to the site of phase 3, which mainly consists of Gon and Killua getting to know each other better, and playing that little game of sorts with Netero.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, at episode 15 we're about half-way into the 4th phase of the exam, whereas the original anime was only about half-way into the 3rd phase of the exam by this point in time. That said the show doesn't feel rushed, by any means, and its moving along at a steady enough pace so far. If anything its going a little bit slower than I expected given how much material from the manga the anime can afford to burn through, and yet even then it still wouldn't have a hope of catching up to the manga for at least a few years.

Anyways, things are shaping up pretty good, and that is to say a lot better than I had originally expected. If anything it doesn't really do much to differentiate itself from the original anime aside from following the manga's story line much more closely, though to be fair its not like the original anime was a huge deviation from the manga's story either, so its basically the same story and the characters remain largely the same. I wouldn't say that I like it better than the original anime yet, but its still a worthy remake up to this point, for what its worth.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, is anyone else keeping up with this series besides me? Well, I suppose I'm the only one still interested in HXH, but overall the remake is holding its own pretty well. Currently its close to the end of the 4th phase of the Hunter Exams, but in this regard its only 17 episodes in whereas the original anime took around 25 episodes to get to that point, so this series is definitely paced a little bit faster.

I think that it benefits from better pacing than the original anime, but that's a given since there is so much manga material backed-up for them to use that even if they cut stuff out they still wouldn't need to resort to filler for years to come. I do feel that in terms of execution and direction, though, the original anime still has an edge over it. I felt that there was something that the original anime did with its slower pacing to actually use to its benefit, unlike most other anime, and it also had a more robust soundtrack to use, whereas this remake seems to be recycling way too many tunes this early on into the series, which isn't really a very good sign.

Having said all this, though, I'll give my full detailed thoughts on how the 2 series compare when I do an Old vs. New sort of article comparing the Hunter Exams arc in both series when it finishes up in this one, which by the looks of it will probably be within the next 5 or so episodes.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

WOW! This week's episode was superb, IMO. I mean, wow. I haven't seen a shonen anime keep me this interested in a long time. Of course, this is an adaptation of an older series (that's still currently running), but the way they adapted the scenes in this particular episode not only trumps what the original anime did with it (IMO), but its a prime example of how to adapt something. It took what was done in the manga and improves on it with a great and moody soundtrack, fantastic voice-acting (I can't tell when voice acting is good or bad in Japanese, but over here even as an English speaker it was effective, which definitely says something about how well it was done), and great animation (at least by a shonen anime's standards), but not in terms of action scenes since there was practically no action in this episode, but in terms of portraying character's facial expressions and emotions. So far its the best episode in the new anime, so far, and it really leaves me hopeful to see how well the crew behind this remake can adapt the later arcs of the series, since things only get better from here on out until the Greed Island arc (in which case the quality kind of goes downhill until the middle of the Chimera Ant arc).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So the Hunter Exams arc has just been concluded in the new anime. Overall its been a pretty good run so far, with its own share of strengths and weaknesses that make it feel unique enough from the original anime. I do really want to do an old vs. new sort of feature comparing just this arc in the old anime and the new series, but I may have to hold off on that since I'm still bogged down with studying and busy-work for my college, even though I'm on my spring break. At any rate I'll see what I can manage to get done, but I won't likely have this feature up for a while.

Anyways, I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing how this new anime manages to handle the York Shin City arc when that comes up a few months down the line.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, it looks like HXH is getting a theatrical feature sometime down the road according to this bit of news.

It'll probably be one of those over-sized 90 minute filler episodes that most movies for long-running shonen series tend to be like, but it would be so awesome if it was actually handled by people with genuine respect for the series and who knew Togashi's style of writing and could make an adventurous film that also wasn't afraid to explore darker themes. Since its an original story it'll be non-canon whichever way you slice it, so at the very least the writers could take the opportunity to tell whatever story they want to tell as sort of like taking place in an alternate Universe featuring the main characters of this series. Still, I know that this is just wishful thinking on my part, but I'll probably end up looking into this film anyways just because its HXH. I fully expect it to suck, but I'd love to be surprised and be proven wrong.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, not too long after the announcement of a full feature length film, HXH is now getting the video game license treatment as well.

Make no mistake, it'll probably be as crappy as other licensed game just like the movie will be as boring and uninspired as most movies based off of Shonen Jump properties. That said, this is a good indicator of how popular the series is right now with the new anime, which has only been running for a bit over 20 episodes, so for a reboot of a series that started back in the 90's this sure must be taking off pretty well with the anime ratings. That said, its not too surprising given that the earlier arcs of HXH (back before the term "Togashism" was coined in Japan) were actually interesting and had a genuinely talented writer of shonen series working on it. With all of the hacks who write boring shonen series today, a remake of a series like HXH doesn't have much competition to worry about. Still, I'm surprised that its already considered popular enough to be in the ranks of other shonen anime that get the crappy movie and video game treatment (that is to say those properties themselves are crappy in quality but still sell a shit-load more than they deserve due to the popularity of the series' they are based off of).

[Rynnec]

So, not too long after the announcement of a full feature length film, HXH is now getting the video game license treatment as well.

Make no mistake, it'll probably be as crappy as other licensed game just like the movie will be as boring and uninspired as most movies based off of Shonen Jump properties.

To be fair, the DBZ and Naruto fighting games are actually respectable games in their own right, nothing special, but they are full of enough content to please both fans and non fans alike. I do agree with you on the movies though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, Naruto has had some pretty decent games I must admit, and DBZ has had its share as well. I was more referring to the mass market of licensed shonen games out there, though. For every exception to the rule, there are at least a dozen pieces of turd out there that aren't worth mentioning yet still sell over 100,000 copies in Japan, each (and that's a lot for Japan, considering that gaming isn't nearly as big there as it is in the West, these days).

[Spark Of Spirit]

You know, with all my issues with Naruto, those PS3 games are some of the best looking games out there. If that could be the standard for next gen I'd be more than satisfied.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, the cell-shaded anime art-style does translate really well into video games, IMO, so its no surprise that they look good. For that matter, they are among the few games with great graphics that actually bothers to add plenty of color for you to actually admire the graphics, as well. For some reason so many developers seem to be too scared to actually make their games more "colorful" since there seems to be some stupid association with more brown and gray gritty colors making for a more "mature" game, which is some of the stupidest logic that I've ever heard of, personally.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Poster for the Heaven's Arena and Yorkshin City arcs:



And now I'm pumped. The remake has been turning out to get better and better as it goes along, and by now I'm really confident that this anime staff knows what they're doing. This may potentially surpass the original if it keeps improving as much as it has over the past dozen or so episodes.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, we got some new opening animation and a new ending theme with this week's episode. I like how we get to see the Genei Ryodan shown off in the opening this time around.

Also, the series is once again moving at a brisker pace. One episode into the Heaven's Arena arc and Gon and Killua are already about to start learning about Nen. Really, though, I'm just waiting to see how this anime handles the York Shin City arc. It has already proven that it won't shy away from being dark when it needs to be, so hopefully we'll get a second great adaptation of my favorite arc in the series that isn't heavy on censoring.

If anyone's wondering how this anime is shaping up so far, its successfully doing a good job of being its own separate thing that can stand on its own (I still prefer the first series so far, but that may be part of my own bias since that's the version that I'm still most used to), and for what it is the anime has been adapting the manga very well up to this point. Its good enough so far that I could recommend it to someone who wanted to get into the series but didn't feel like reading the manga and didn't want to watch the original anime because of its age (which is a stupid reason to not watch it, but a reason, nonetheless).

Actually, this version could end up surpassing the original depending on how they handle the York Shin City arc, IMO. At the very least it certainly has the potential to, anyways.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Alright, so now the remake is finally gearing up for my favorite arc in the entire series. I can't wait to see how it handles things from this point onward as the series becomes notably darker with the York Shin City stuff.

At any rate, the remake has been really good up to this point. Its actually a lot closer to Togashi's manga than the first anime series, though I still liked the first anime series despite (and sometimes even because) of its changes, but overall that's still my favorite version of the series. Even so, the remake is really shaping up to be a great shonen series, and its honestly the only current shonen anime that I'm aware of that is any good at all.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Seriously, for anyone complaining that there are no good shonen series currently airing, if you're not watching this current iteration of the series you really can't even say that. This is a really good adaptation and its honestly at least on par with some contemporary superhero cartoons over here, just for a point of reference.

Its one of those anime that seems to be taking the best aspects of Togashi's writing and amplifying those aspects while, at least up to this point, ignoring most of the weaker aspects of his manga. Its also currently the only thing that gives me faith that there is still some talent left among those involved with producing shonen anime, specifically.