What Are You Watching?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I am on episode 40 of HXH as of within this hour and I am still afraid of spoilers in its designated thread so I'll be here until I catch up. Last night or early this morning, on I believe episode 33 and 34, it was hilarious seeing Killua scare those handicapped Nen users. I assumed they would have felt forced to fight the ghost arm guy and that it would have been a tough fight for both since they're Nen rookies. For the same reason, I would have never thought Killua could intimidate them. It was a seemingly typical part that ended up being something unexpected and entertaining. Those room visits were easily the best part of Heaven's Arena and shows how clever Togashi is. What else: I thought the trip back to Whale's Island was likely filler but was proven wrong half way through. So much Nen info. I couldnt remember most of it. I love Kurapika's (sp?) detective skills.

Yeah, Heaven's Arena is the right way to do a training arc. It introduces the concept of this shounen's energy system. Its a cliche that Togashi executes well by actually going into extensive detail on what Nen is, and makes it feel as though it is really a part of the world that he has created in HXH. Most other shonen authors throw in some form of energy that is not well-defined and is apparently able to do whatever the fuck anyone wants it to do. In HXH, Nen has a ton of variety, but its always completely unique to the individual who uses it, and the whole class-system is something that works really well in a series like this, and leads to battles that are almost always more strategic than power-driven.

As for the bit with Killua, he did a pretty smart thing. Those guys that he threatened were more skilled Nen users than both him or Gon, and they were going to take advantage of that fact. Killua however is just an insanely skilled assassin, so while they could only really take out Gon and Killua in the ring, Killua made it clear that he could take them out ANY time he wanted to if they didn't hall ass out of Heaven's Arena and leave the 2 of them alone.

Also, if you're on episode 40, I'm fairly certain that you are already in the York New City arc, which is my favorite arc in the series. It has so many great character moments, and is largely a terrific character piece for Kurapika, who as you can see is pretty much the main character of this specific arc (for once, Gon and Killua take the back-seat). It has the perfect combination of great protagonists and villains, and both cross the morality line on many occasions and each of them exhibit characteristics that you wouldn't even expect. Its an arc that's just as much about wits as it is about fights. Hell, its even more story-driven than fight-driven, with only a few fights really taking place in this entire arc, yet the fights that are there are completely memorable.

[gunswordfist]

Hmmm, I had no clue Kurapika would be pretty much the lead but it makes sense after the mansion episode where he meets the other bodyguards.

[Grave]

Eh, She never bothered me. Its a valid nit-pick, I suppose, but once again its just an announcer. I kind of feel like your grasping at straws with this one. Maybe the voice-actor is more annoying, for you? The character herself is just there for the purpose of it being a tournament, in which case an announcer is an effective way to both get it to feel like a legitimate competition (like how in real-life we have announcers for any given sports that we watch), and she basically serves her purpose well, in that regard. Its also a great way to get in some dialogue without having the characters have to pick up the slack and talk even more during their fights. I suppose she's not really necessary to the plot, but like I said, I just can't find any problems with her being around, myself. Its a tournament arc, so....that kind of goes with the sub-genre, doesn't it? Either way, I still personally think that the Dark Tournament arc is the best of its kind in the entire shonen genre, so I continue to gladly re-watch it and enjoy the hell out of it once every couple of years.

I left this unanswered. Yes, it is definitely a nit-pick. Again, not really trying to blow this out of proportion. I actually don't mind the v/a behind her. If anything it's her script. When she say's something along the lines of "________ is delicious" even though it's someone that just got cut or something, it annoys me (I don't know, I have a low tolerance for a lot of things these days). I know she's a demon and all, but she just don't sound right to me. Much like Kuwabara, this is more of a phase I go through though.

Just finished up disc 2 of the Dark Tournament. Out of this bunch of episodes, while I do like the fights that involve Kurama, the highlight was definitely Yusuke vs Jin. I remember when I 1st saw Jin, I was wondering what was the big deal with him considering everyone was saying he was such a great character. He just have such a great personality.

Quick question. Is the V/a for Jin the same persona voicing Suzuka?

[gunswordfist]

I am up to I believe episode 43 of HXH. Man, ek was right, Togashi is kill happy in this series.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I am up to I believe episode 43 of HXH. Man, ek was right, Togashi is kill happy in this series.

Heh, You really haven't seen anything yet. If you think this is bad, just wait until the Chimera Ant arc....

[gunswordfist]

The Yorknew City arc heated up and heated up fast. I am up to episode 53 now. I am loving the current fight. Before all that, I was surprised at Kurapika's ability and it was interesting seeing Gon and Killua powerless against the Troupe.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I love the ending of this arc for how non-conventional it is. I mean, its climactic, but not in the epic final battle sort of way. It just goes so much deeper than that, IMO.

[gunswordfist]

Early this morning I finished the Yorknew City arc (and the first Greed Island episode). The last few episodes were intense and heartwrenching.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'd be interested to hear what you think of Greed Island.

[gunswordfist]

I'm scared. I will be starting another series (likely Black Lagoon) and watching HXH here and there.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Greed Island gets pretty boring half-way through and ends up little more than a transition to Chimera Ant, but it's not total shit either, I would say, and has some fun moments here and there. I haven't watched the anime adaption, but I don't think it lasts more than 15 episodes or so, so it flies by quickly enough. Don't expect it to be anywhere close to being as good as Yorknew, though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I love how the ending of the York New City arc is such a big fuck-you to most cliche shounen series in general (admittedly, that includes even some of the ones that I like), in that:

Spoiler

Its an ending where neither side really wins, and both sides have to deal with heavy losses in some regard. Its not a sad ending by any means, and it has just as many (if not more) bright and uplifting aspects to it as it does dark ones, but its just so unconventional for the genre, but handled by a writer who has the talent to deal with that kind of subject-matter and not completely botch it. On the one hand, Kurapika manages to save Gon and Killua and keep his life in the process to live and fight another day (he does, of course, come down with a huge illness to add some more of a bitter taste to the ending, but at least he recovers from it). On the other hand, though, he's denied his revenge, at least for the time being, and it'll be nigh impossible for him to ever get the jump on the Genei Ryodan again like how he did in this arc, making it that much harder and unlikely that he will ever be able to carry out his vengeance on them. On the other side of the coin, the Genei Ryodan managed to stop Kurapika from wiping them out for good, but it as at the cost of 2 casualties among 2 of the oldest members of the group (and for a close-knit group like this, that's a BIG deal), AND they pretty much lost their leader for the time-being and have no way of making direct contact with him. Also, one of their members (Hisoka) completely betrayed them and help set all of these things into motion, so there's that, too. I like it. It just feels so believable, and doesn't come off like a generic, really annoying Deus Ex Machina sort of ending where everything is happy and the story and characters return to status-quo. While their may not have been a winner between either group in this arc, there was definitely progression. Tons of progression. The best kind of progression. Character progression.

[close]

Greed Island is just an average shounen arc. By the standards of most other shounen in general, its fine. By the standards of HXH, its seriously below the level of quality that this series itself set the bar for with the York New City arc.

[gunswordfist]

What recent anime should I watch. I already have Redline, HXH (I'll watch the original series first), the new Lupin, Hajime No Ippo and maybe the new Saint Seiya on my list.

The Crunchyroll app doesnt have Fujiko, Psycho-Pass or Black Lagoon. I already know it has the Saint Seiya remake so I'll also look for HNI.

[gunswordfist]

I watched a few more Greed Island episodes...all of this expostion is killing me.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah....you're going to kind of have to get used to that for this arc. The whole thing about Hunter X Hunter is that it never sticks strictly to any one specific genre. Each new arc is completely different from what came before it. In that regard, Togashi draws inspiration from stuff that he's a fan of, and its no secret that he loves classic JRPGs and card games, thus the whole theme of the Greed Island arc is based off that concept. In concept, it could have been a great arc, but Togashi gets a it too wrapped up in the "rules" of this game world that he creates, that it feels more about the game itself and really seems to forget about the characters and the story at times. Hell, as far as the story goes, its basically just a glorified training arc, which wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that all of this training is rendered completely useless when the characters have to train again anyways in the next arc.

Well, at any rate at least this arc is relatively short. I'll give you fair warning, though, that the Chimera Ant arc that comes up after this is extremely dark, and the beginning of that arc suffers from playing it too heavy on shock-value. The arc gets great after a certain while, but it starts out slow, so you'll have to bare with it for a while before things pick up.