Hunter X Hunter (Original + Remake)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This week's episode was a great character-piece for The King. Only just now does he find out Komugi's name, and then he realizes that he doesn't even know his own name. Meanwhile Pouf is really distraught by all of this, so he's going to be an interesting character to watch out for as well.

on top of all that, Gon and the others are in the middle of finally planning their assault on the castle, so we are nearing the 3rd and final act of this arc.

[LumRanmaYasha]

.

I am not sure of what to say about the King's arc, though. It's very by the numbers and I just don't really care. Komugi is the same kind of stupid character Oda would come up with so I have to just roll my eyes through this stuff.

Dammit Paschal, just how is Merurem's character development from a one-dimmensional merciless killer with a superiority complex who treats everyone else as inferior to a character who comes to terms with his own strengths, weaknesses, and limitations and comes to recognize those of (some) human beings, on top of trying to understand the nature of his identity, with him slowly becoming humbled into confronting these questions by being bested in gungki games by a blind girl who is naive yet insightful and dignified all the same, ultimately forcing him to change his philosophy to justify his actions and newfound sense of humanity, just so "by the numbers?" Also, Komugi ain't no character Oda would create. She doesn't have any obvious quirks to be used for comic relief purposes. 

Anyways, now that the arc is getting to the meat of the action and character drama I should finally start keeping up with the series. I'll probably go and start from Knov's infiltration of the palace since I'm interested in how the anime handled that.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It's very by the numbers

No, it's not. The king's arc is the most heart the entire arc has and is the only thing that makes Meruem have any sort of redeeming factor to him. If Komugi was not in the arc, it would probably be far worse.

I have many issues with the arc, but it being "by the numbers" is most definitely not one of them. Greed Island is "by the numbers", Chimera Ant is hectic and all over the place. There's nothing predictable about it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

CX, You should totally post that reply to Jacob on the thread. Including the face palm.

No, but seriously, fuck that guy. I don't mind so much that he doesn't care for the show, but he's so incredibly pretentious about his opinions. He seems to care for nothing more than tiny details in animation, and when he offers up criticisms to other shows like this one, he spews out whatever he feels like yet can almost never back up his opinions. He doesn't actually know HOW to criticize something. He just tries to seem smart at the expense of being a prick.

[Spark Of Spirit]

"Oh, you mean the good guy is going to fight the bad guy? How droll!"

They're called elements, every story has them. It's how they're used that matters.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

"Oh, you mean the good guy is going to fight the bad guy? How droll!"

They're called elements, every story has them. It's how they're used that matters.

Was that an actual quote from Paschal?

[Spark Of Spirit]

"Oh, you mean the good guy is going to fight the bad guy? How droll!"

They're called elements, every story has them. It's how they're used that matters.

Was that an actual quote from Paschal?

No, but it might as well have been. I've seen people say things like that before.

"You mean the good guys win? Boring!"

It's like they're missing the elements of the story that actually matter. It's like hating Bleach because Ichigo has orange hair and is a teenager and not because it's poorly written.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, a lot of people can be real dumb-asses in that way.

It's like Jacob is going through that one annoying phase where when something so deliberately acts pretentious, he thinks its deep, meaningful, and unique because the writing makes it a point to shove it in your face. Yet when you have a series like HXH which primarily focuses on telling a good story, but is sensible enough to at least be somewhat subtle about its sub-text, he can only take it at face value and claims that there is nothing more to it.

[LumRanmaYasha]

No, but seriously, fuck that guy. I don't mind so much that he doesn't care for the show, but he's so incredibly pretentious about his opinions. He seems to care for nothing more than tiny details in animation, and when he offers up criticisms to other shows like this one, he spews out whatever he feels like yet can almost never back up his opinions. He doesn't actually know HOW to criticize something. He just tries to seem smart at the expense of being a prick.

I agree with you about his attitude. Mostly, though, it's rudeness towards other members that just really irks me.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It's the storytelling that should be judged above all, really.

Sure, a girl that can't see the monster sees who he truly is in the inside isn't original, but that's not the point. It's executed well, adds to the story, the characters, and is still rather unpredictable despite being a familiar element. And that's how all the best stories are. They all use familiar elements we all know, but execute them in different ways. It's how they're written that makes the most difference.

How many good manga, for instance, involve a thug kid with a bad background? Now how many are still classics despite that "by the numbers" background?

A lot.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

You know, after seeing Jacob's outlandish response this time, I get the feeling that the guy is just desperately trying to sound smart by critiquing something, yet he is clearly a shitty critic. He said this arc is repetitive yet fails to provide any examples supporting that point. Furthermore, he utterly fails to actually even attempt to analyze anything going on with the characters. He just takes everything at face-value and spews out bull-shit.

[gunswordfist]

Forgot to mention this in the watching thread: I feel kind of stupid not noticing Ikalgo was there until they explained that he was inside of Flutter's corpse. I was O_o when Flutter first got up and seemed to be working with them.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

One might argue that Togashi is just that good at paying attention to detail that he baffles most viewers the first time through HXH who forget little plot points like that. I really just love how every bit of what's going on in this part of the arc is hardcore strategizing. If there's one thing that the slow, elaborate pacing does well in this section, it's to show just how significant and consequential each and every single action that any character takes can be towards completely altering the playing field in this invasion plan. It really does just get more and more tense as the arc progresses.

[gunswordfist]

I think I'm going to have a heart attack then.

[Mas]

Yeah, this part summarizes exactly how I feel every week while watching HxH.

;_;