What Are You Watching?

[gunswordfist]

Episode 33 just got completed. I forget if they ever trained in that guest house in 2011. Anyway, it seemed like a forced excuse when they decided to train anyway because Gon was so adamant about thinking friends shouldn't have to test themselves to see each other. I was thinking "Why doesn't Gon use his fishing rod to get over the get?/Will something happen if someone tries to go over the gate without opening" then minutes later he tries to climb over it with the rod. I'm also impressed that Leorio could push 200kg pre-training. Probably thanks to how fucking huge the fish at Whale Island is in 2011, I thought Gon was the 2nd strongest out of the 4 at that point. Watching the Mike part was nice but it kind of undermines his power (kind of like Illumi vs. Gon). In 2011, they made it seem like instant death if you went through that door, kind of like how you get killed quickly when you cross a border in a PS1 game. Funny how I'm asking for less action in a show. Who would have thought? Also, Canary looks terrible in 1999.

[gunswordfist]

Episode 34..lol @ the fact that the sound effect when Canary hits Gon sounds like Super Smash Bros. I giggled. Anyway, this episode was kind of touching. I love the coloring book style art change in the flashback.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Did you also get that the flash-back was all in her head? That's precisely whey they did in in that art-book type coloring style. It's little directing touches like that which I love about this anime so much. Essentially it goes a step further than the manga and really analyzes the character, even if she's minor. In this case she was so alone that she had to make-believe having a real friendship with Killua. In this case she over-exaggerated things for her own sake. For example, when Killua left her the skateboard, she made it seem to herself like he was giving it to her as a gift, when in reality he was just leaving it there with her because he didn't need it anymore and just decided he could dump it with her. Of course, Killua isn't totally cold to this character, but even so, her mental image of him is handled really well in this episode.

[gunswordfist]

Heh, I actually thought he left it there on purpose. This is all kind of heartbreaking...

[LumRanmaYasha]

FINALLY managed to watch more Ashita no Joe 2. Got through episode 12, which means I've polished off the Carlos Rivera arc. I have to say, I really loved the anime adding in some more drama with Carlos being pressed to return to Venezuela to prepare for his fight with Mendoza, and expanding upon Carlos and Robert's relationship. That was some brilliant stuff that really made the character feel more rounded than he already was in the manga. Episode 10 is up there alongside some of my favorite episodes in any anime now. It was a great expansion on the source material that fleshed out Robert and Carlos more as well as Carlos and Joe's similarities and significance to each other. It might have lost some more subtle elements from the manga, but it was presented in such a rich, beautiful way that it was far more impactful, to me at least. I suppose I was a bit disappointed that they merged the exhibition and official fights together and discarded the sparring match in between, but the end result made for a great, memorable fight that was intense even though I knew what was going to happen. This is easily one of the best anime adaptions I've ever seen. Hopefully I can get through some more today, though I think I'll finish volumes 14 and 15 of the manga first before that if I can.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I think I prefer the manga on the whole, but at the same time, I REALLY, REALLY love this anime in its own right for taking risks and changing things up from the source material while still managing to mostly stay faithful to the source material. Quite frankly I wish that more adaptations were like this. Granted that, going by volumes 14 and 15, I think that the anime starts to deviate a bit less from the original story since it got past what the first anime covered by that point.

One thing that I'm really noticing in the manga, though, now that I know where the story is going via the anime, is just how damn good Kajiwara is at subtle foreshadowing, giving you hints as to what big things will develop later on without you even realizing it at first. Both the anime and the manga make me appreciate each other even more in that respect, which is the mark of a truly great series.

[gunswordfist]

Finished episode 35. Got to see the rest of the family in the 1999 version. This has me wondering about Killua's future...Also, his mother is more of a robot in this one, from what I can remember.

[gunswordfist]

A few hours ago, I finished watching the 36th episode. Ah, they all came together and then parted ways in the same episode. I always liked the coin flip "game" with Gotoh.

[Inkwolf]

At about episode 5 or 6 in Penguindrum.  It started out a bit slowly, but keeps getting weirder and funnier!

[gunswordfist]

Just finished episode 37. Hmm, the Amori brothers are in this one. And they are started to talk about Ren (Nen?)

[gunswordfist]

Finished episode 38 within the last hour. Nen was finally expanding on and ahh, red hair Hisoka.

[gunswordfist]

Last night I watched episode 39 and a few minutes ago, I finished episode 40. I can't believe I'm 40 episodes in already.

[gunswordfist]

Episode 41 is over with. I've been meaning to say, I like how Nen looks so much better in this version. One of my least favorite things about 2011 is how the basic white Nen/aura looks so boring. When Gon and Killua's Nen was just white, it looked like cool steam. It has already changed color too. Also, same goes for Gyo. Gyo looks so damn stupid in 2011 while it looks like flaming eyes in 1999.

[gunswordfist]

And with episode 42 completed, Heaven's Arena is completed. Now this time I like the 2011 version much much more. 2011 had my favorite parts with Killua and the 3 handicap Nen users, longer and more fight (Kastro/Hisoka is a 1000 times better in 2011, Killua didn't even fight when he got to the 200th floor in 1999, etc. etc. I can't remember if the spinning top guy fight was actually better though) and I liked how Hisoka was the one to tell a little bit about his past in 2011. I did love how good the animation for Hisoka vs. Gon was. That probably matched up with how much I like the 2011 fight. Plus, 1999 is just straight up funnier.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, IMO, Hisoka vs. Gon was done MUCH better in the 1999 version, animation-wise. The whole damn fight streamed along so fluidly.