What Are You Watching?

[Grave]

You said that you "couldn't bother to continue the series" and the main reason for that was Kuwabara. That's how.

So I'm currently trying to re-watch Yu Yu Hakusho, and pretty much like last time, having a hard time getting past Flowers of Blood to even care to continue (I just don't watch the Spirit Detective arc at all) and it's mainly due to Kuwabara. I know there are so many characters worst than him out there, but for me him and Keiko are the worst in this series.

If this is what you're referring to, like I said, outta fights he's annoying. In fights he's boring. The fight itself bored me, and that little tidbit with him running around to Yusuke annoyed me. That little bit gets me so annoyed to the point of almost ejecting the disc immediately. But because I know Kurama's fight is right after I don't. It's a phase I go through everytime I start off with disc 1 of the Dark Tournament.

Yeah but I can't stand Naruto as a character, even if I don't mind most other underdog characters. So having Kuwabara pitted with the likes of him kind of makes me cringe, personally. But, that has more to do with the fact that I hate idealist characters in anime/manga.

Sorry,but in the words of the FGC, hold dat. In all fairness though, I have to do the same thing since Kuwabara's not going anywhere. At least not until I get to 3 Kings

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

1. Who the hell is FGC?

2. Eh, whatever. I'll still take Kuwabara over 99% of the generic, boring shounen characters of today.

[Grave]

Fighting game community. I don't know if any other community uses the phrase "Hold Dat", but it's stuck with me since getting with folks from there..... Anyway.

Heh, you act as if I care about modern shonen, let alone shonen in general. Honestly, shonen is probably that last type I'd go to, especially these days.

[gunswordfist]

Watched 4 or 5 more episodes of Hunter x Hunter.

[gunswordfist]

Keiko isn't a damsel. She only gets captured and except for an attack from Sensui, a fight or two at DT and the destruction of the stadium, she gets in no danger after Saint Beasts. Thats one of the things I like about what Togashi did with her.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

One thing I'm enjoying about GTO is that whenever Onizuka helps a student or someone else with their problems, it doesn't seem forced but really genuine. I also like how the students that cause a lot of trouble make a change and become his friends after he helps them.

[gunswordfist]

And more HXH episodes were watched in the early morning. I'm loving how fast the adventure started and this is the one shonen where I like frequent new characters. The part with the mist forest reminds me of Genkai's tournament and I believe one of the dudes that attacked Hisoka had Kuwabara hair

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

One thing I'm enjoying about GTO is that whenever Onizuka helps a student or someone else with their problems, it doesn't seem forced but really genuine. I also like how the students that cause a lot of trouble make a change and become his friends after he helps them.

That's what this series gets down that so many other shonen series fail at. I mean, yeah, most of those are different kinds of series entirely, but if you think of them at their core, a lot of shonen have the good guys fight other guys who are on the verge of becoming bad guys but can be turned back to the right path in life. Really, Onizuka and his students are no different, in that regard. The difference is that unlike most shonen series where it comes down to beating the crap out of another guy in a fight to get him to join your side (which is entirely a terrible message to send to kids), Onizuka does it the right way. He gives the rotten kids the treatment that they deserve, of course, but if you really look at what he's doing, not once does he ever force his way of thinking down their throats. Hell, he downright encourages them to make their own decisions, but his point is usually that they need to take responsibility for who they are and what they do, and they can't just single-mindedly blame adults for all of their problems. He also does this in a way where he talks to them as equals. He doesn't look down on them for who they are as people, but rather teaches them not to look down on others just because of what they don't like about them.

I also like how downright self-aware Onizuka is. He's a total goof-ball and he clearly knows it, even if he'll never downright admit it. But the best thing about his character is that without even having read about his own days as a student in the original series, SJG, you can still clearly get that his character is one that really went through many struggles himself when he was as young as the kids in this series, so he really can understand them on that level. You don't need a flash-back to understand that, which is what most shonen series would resort to. In this case, you can just understand this based on his personality and general character, alone.

Oh, and the best thing about Onizuka, which almost single-handedly helps make him my favorite anime character ever, is that the dude isn't a fucking, brown-nosing, goody-two-shoes like most other shonen protagonists. The dude has a lot of vices and is hilariously downright proud of that fact. But for all of his uncivil manners, he's just generally a better person than a lot of the uptight ass-holes that work at the Holy Forest Middle School, and who are the ones likely making most of these students' lives more miserable than they need to be in the first place.

The other important aspect that makes this series great is that the students aren't just douche-bags for the sake of being foils to Onizuka. They have legitimate reasons for having turned out the way that they did, and like ShadowGentleman, I also particularly admire how the series doesn't just write off these characters after they have learned their "after-school lesson" of the day, but instead they stick around with Onizuka, become awesome friends of his and great characters in general, and most importantly CONTINUE to learn from him and his actions as the series progresses, showing that there is a lot more for kids like that to learn besides just a convenient lesson addressing their primary problem in life.

And more HXH episodes were watched in the early morning. I'm loving how fast the adventure started and this is the one shonen where I like frequent new characters. The part with the mist forest reminds me of Genkai's tournament and I believe one of the dudes that attacked Hisoka had Kuwabara hair

Yeah, Togashi is good about not wasting time in his stories and getting right to the meat of what makes his material good, in the first place....well, at least he used to be like that. I'd say that somewhere around Greed Island, he kind of lost his touch in that department, but he's still one of the best writers in all of shonen, regardless.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

You nailed it EK. 

Onizuka teaches his students how to be good people. While being delinquent himself. That alone is awesome.

[gunswordfist]

Over the last two days, more HXH. Two days ago, I saw episodes up to and past episode 20. Yep, pretty dark. As of early this morning, I am up to the first time they meet Hisoka at Heaven's Arena. Random comments: the HA episodes have been slow so far, I am surprised at how fast they got Killua back and without having to fight anyone, no less, I love the first end credits and the fight music that sounds like it is straight out of a game show.

[Grave]

Still doing my little marathon of Yu Yu Hakusho, although, I haven't really been watching it. It's been more like watching me sleep. Not saying it's boring me to sleep. I have an ear infection at the moment and I've been taking some antibiotics for the pain which has been putting me to sleep.

Anyway, I've made it up to Kurama's Stand, I believe that's what it's called. Nothing to really say about the episode at the moment.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Over the last two days, more HXH. Two days ago, I saw episodes up to and past episode 20. Yep, pretty dark. As of early this morning, I am up to the first time they meet Hisoka at Heaven's Arena. Random comments: the HA episodes have been slow so far

That's because Heaven's Arena is mostly just a training arc. Its meant to introduce the concept of Nen, more than anything else, which as you may have noticed, is heavily based off the concept of "territories" which were introduced in YYH.

You'll get to see how clever the battles get in York New City, which is my favorite arc in the series by far.

I am surprised at how fast they got Killua back and without having to fight anyone, no less

I LOVE the fact that they didn't have to fight anyone to do it. That's such a tired trope, and Togashi was too smart to resort to such a thing. I also like that Killua himself didn't need any convincing from his friends to want to join back up with Gon. He decided for himself that he wanted to do that, which is a very big part of his character: Up until he had met Gon, he had never really been able to truly break away from his family. All his life they decided everything for him, and he hated that. Even during the Hunter Exams when he said he had run away from his family, his whole mind-set and thought process was still based on how they brought him up, and he had never truly escaped since his brother was following him all along. I also like that his father pretty much came to him and gave him his blessing of sorts to follow his own path in life. Once again, it would have been easy to make his dad a cliche, stuck-up, douche-bag, but instead they made him someone who could understand his own son, which is once again something that's refreshing for a shonen series to do.

[TheEclecticDude]

Just finished ROD the TV Series tonight, will post my review on it this week.

Now rewatching Bodacious Space Pirates. Title/associated quote for that eventual review will be "Work for? I don't work for anyone; I'm just having fun." lol

[gunswordfist]

Yeah, how the small visit to the Koldyck eststate was handled was really clever. Togashi is good at working around cliches.

So two days or so ago, online I see that my brother started watching HXH. Looks like I indirectly got him into the show. Ironically enough, he got me into Yu yu Hakusho (and Lupin)

[gunswordfist]

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.