What Are You Watching?

[Spark Of Spirit]

Ooh Level E, that was a fun one.

I should probably go and read the manga, actually.

I wouldn't bother with that, if I were you. The anime follows it faithfully while also being generally better in pacing and design. The funny thing is that I find all of the anime adaptations of Togashi's work to be superior to the manga. That's not a blemish on Togashi's writing talent at all, as he deserves the credit for all of the good ideas and characterization that goes into his story. Its just that the anime adaptations of his work usually give his series a much needed polish, as if I could describe all of Togashi's negative writing aspects in one word, it would be that he's pretty freaking sloppy. In his manga, his narrative is all over the place, and he can get extremely lazy at times when he really doesn't give a shit, and just jump to another part of the story where it really feels like a lot of essential stuff could have been filled into some gaps that he leaves. That extra bit of polish in the anime form of his work really makes the difference in turning already great stories with some flaws into even greater stories with much less problems.

To put it simple, just watch the anime for all of Togashi's stuff. Its ironically the best way to get the fullest out of their best qualities.

Usually the source material is the way to go, but in Togashi's case I agree with Ensatsu-ken. Togashi rushes when he feels like, drags when he feels like, over-explains things that don't need elaboration, and under-explains things that need explaining.

I think the only manga that might be worth reading in addition to the anime is the first part of YYH since it has a lot of fun stuff that the anime cut. Otherwise, you aren't missing anything by sticking with the anime versions.

[Foggle]

I don't really like the Hansel & Gretel arc either. I mean, it's well-done, but it's not very enjoyable to watch and comes completely out of left field. Tonally it just doesn't match up with the rest of the show at all and it fails to play to the series' strengths. It feels more like an unrelated three episode OVA than a part of the BL canon.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

To be fair, though, I do think that Togashi deserves credit for the YYH manga up to the end of the Chapter Black arc. Before he went insane with the Three Kings arc, the manga was genuinely well-paced and was still entirely great in terms of plotting and characterization. The anime was still an improvement for helping to further enhance the story, but the manga was still easily one of the best shonen out there....up until the Three Kings arc, but I digress. I know it may seem like me and Desensitized (Spark) hate Togashi sometimes (and sometimes we do), but while I can't speak for Desen, I do genuinely consider Togashi to be among the legendary shonen mangaka, and easily one of the greats, when I look at all of the good stuff that he has brought through his  stories. I just find it SO frustrating that a guy with so much talent can churn out some real shit when he just flat-out doesn't give an effort. Its frustrating because he never gets punished for it while other mangaka have to work their asses off despite the quality of their series.

That said, Yu Yu Hakusho is my favorite anime ever, and even though the anime improves over the manga, I still give Togashi the credit for most of YYH's greatness. I feel like if the guy was less lazy and actually allowed people to help him with his manga (I've heard many times that he refuses to use assistants like most other mangaka do), he would easily have stories twice as good as what he's done, and that's saying a lot.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Togashi has the most potential of any living shonen writer out there next to Toriyama (and he may even have surpassed him) but he makes some very frustrating mistakes that he really shouldn't.

Since he can't seem to focus on anything, I would wager that he should do anthologies and one shot ideas like the early section of YYH and Level-E instead of full on series. That way it probably wouldn't annoy people so much that he keeps taking these ridiculous breaks.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Honestly, I really have no idea what he has left to accomplish with HXH at this point. He literally had the PERFECT spot to ended at. If he had ended it at chapter 339, even if it was a little abrupt, I would have had no qualms with that. Sure, some of the supporting characters might not have had proper closure, but fuck it, I could live with that. I still could have given Togashi credit for a mostly good run, in the end. But he of course doesn't want to flat-out end his own series because keeping it going, whether he takes a hiatus or not, ensures that he's still keeping interest alive in it and making money from it. Business-wise, its probably ingenious. When thinking of the author's integrity, though, its despicable. Togashi is so strange a case in that he has so many qualities that I both love and hate about his manga, yet in the end I'm still just another sucker and will still read new chapters of HXH the moment he comes out with them. Yes, something is wrong with me, but part of me shamelessly doesn't care, I admit.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I liked the whole election part and especially the ending to the plot but unfortunately it probably won't lead to anything. But I bet it would have been a great stand alone story idea.

But yeah, HxH doesn't really have a plot anymore. The characters have no goals, there's no overlooking threat (since the Ryodan have been shunted aside), and no real drive. He should have just pulled in all the old characters and enemies from the old arcs in the Chimera Ant arc and ended the whole thing there. Having Killua, Gon, Leorio, and Kurapika somehow take down some enemies instead of... "that ridiculous thing that happened to Gon" would have been way more rewarding than some of the things that happened. He wrote himself into a corner.

Anyway, when it comes to Togashi always just go with the anime first.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The only major loose-end to the story would be Gyro. I mean, clearly Togashi was hyping the shit out of that guy to be the biggest, baddest villain in all of HXH. He had an interesting back-story and whatnot....but nothing has actually been done with him yet. Over a hundred chapters after his introduction, and we know nothing more about him. That's a mistake that rookie shonen mangaka would make. Seriously, why did Togashi even introduce that character if he had no intention to use him for a long while? At least if he didn't go on hiatus, I could forgive it, but whatever. Even if that loose-end wasn't tied up, I'd still rather have had the series end at chapter 339, which concluded the Chairman Election arc. It would have honestly been a pretty sweet and warm-hearted ending to a surprisingly (at times) disturbing series. Mainly, it would have just put this whole thing to rest and opened up Togashi to some new possibilities.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Watching what's hip with the kids.

[TheEclecticDude]

The other day me and a friend (whose a big Toonami fan) sat down and had an anime binge. We watched the following:

Dragon Half
Full Metal Panic Volume 1
Evangelion 2.22
Angelic Layer Volume 1
then finished up Diebuster from the last time he came by to visit.

Today will consist of Pizza Night followed by me and my brother finish watching Pani Poni Dash

[Grave]

Re-watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Hellsing Ultimate and Sengoku Basara (season 2 and Last Party) arrived so hopefully that'll renew a spark for me to get interested in anime again.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

...fuck.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That's probably one of the genuine saddest parts of Monster, for me. In any other series killing off a character like that would probably just piss me off. But the way its handled so carefully over here, it makes sense and really tugs at my heart strings. Its just written so well with such perfect build-up, that its easily one of the most memorable parts of the series for me. Thank god there weren't too many more segments in the series on this level, though. There were plenty of other sad, dark, and depressing parts to be sure, but this one really got to me, and I really don't think my heart could take it if there was more of it in the story.

[Spark Of Spirit]

He's always at his most wretched and vicious when he deals directly with his targets. At some point you almost envy the ones who meet Roberto or one of his lackeys instead of meeting him. I doubt they suffer nearly as much.

[TheEclecticDude]

Currently watching Aria the Animation, via Nozomi Ent. channel on youtube.

Girls and Gondolas yahoo ^_^

[Lord Dalek]

Tenchi Muyo: War on Geminar is about as boring and generic as the last time I watched it, no joke.