Yoshihiro Togashi

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Play nice, fellas. There's no need to bait each other. Perhaps it would be good if Cartoon X posts the contents of the PM.

I would request that he doesn't. I sent it to him just so that he could vouch that I did indeed address all of GSF's points in case he denied it. I actually don't want to further derail this thread with this uninteresting argument, though, which is why I deleted it in the first place.

My snide remarks after that were because I'm sick of GSF always spoiling a good discussion topics with demeaning arguments just for the sake of it.

[gunswordfist]

Yes, do not ever insult me, ek. Play nice.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

You see? Not a word of that contributed at all to meaningful discussion. He's just trying to instigate me. I shall proceed to ignore it by talking about relevant stuff again.

CX: In response to our earlier discussion, what aspects of KnB in the latter half of the series (where Togashi presumably took on the editor roll for it) do you think were directly influenced by Togashi?

[LumRanmaYasha]

Honestly, I'm not sure. In the interview, it seems the things about Togashi's works that influenced Fujimaki the most were his character interactions and sense of humor. Reading KnB, though, I'm not sure I quite find those elements that similar to YYH, Level E, or HXH, at least not more so than any other manga. However, Togashi is big on experimenting and trying out new ideas, as well as having interesting, diverse antagonists. So, perhaps all the different abilities of the Generation of Miracles and how they were distinct as antagonists/rivals (in their own ways) was partly influenced by that. As far as the final match with Rakuzan goes, it's all over the place nature might be attributed to Fujimaki wanting to cram in as many different things as possible to make the match more exciting, and maybe that was partly a result of Togashi's encouragement to go all out on all sorts of different ideas, especially since it was the final match and such.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I feel that some of those worse qualities are eerily similar to some of my faults with HXH. However, some of the more interesting elements of this manga could also have been influenced by Togashi as well, but truthfully I think that Togashi just OK'ed Fujimaki's manuscripts for the most part, and probably told him to just fix up some parts that he didn't like, without actually telling him how to fix them, so it's still mostly Fujimaki's story, of course.

Still, it was fascinating to find out that he was an editor for KnB. Like Desen said, it may have helped give the manga some spark to keep it worth reading, even in the final game when the general quality was declining.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

And, what d'ya know; Hunter X Hunter is going on hiatus AGAIN. after the next chapter, according to WSJ's most recent announcement. This time we only got 10 chapters. It looks like Togashi has come down with another case of "I'm too lazy to write-itis."

Oh well, I'm not too bummed out since the DC arc hardly had anytime to get underway, so I'm not invested enough in this story to care that he's taking yet another break from it.

Still  I'd rather that he just end the manga once this new arc is finished. It's annoying seeing him drag out the story like this, and at this point I'd rather see him work on on something new. Personally, I think he'd be much more well-suited to writing short but captivating stories than he currently is at writing long story-arcs.

[LumRanmaYasha]

That's the announcement I was talking about yesterday in the Currently Running Manga thread. It doesn't mean that the series is officially on a long hiatus. What they are saying is that the current hiatus that started two weeks ago is being extended at least another week, and they don't know if the series will return with a new chapter the week after. I'm expecting we will get chapter 350 sometime in the next few weeks, since it makes sense for Togashi to put out ten chapters to allow for a new volume to be printed, but afterwards I fully expect that we will get another long, indefinite hiatus.

It's a shame, since all that's happened so far in the DC arc is set-up. If Togashi only puts out ten or so chapters a year, then the DC arc could drag for maybe ten years like the Chimera Ant arc until it's finally completed. It might as well shift to Jump Square and be a monthly series, in that case. If Togashi ever finishes HXH, instead of another long project, he should just make short, one or two volume-ish series. That's what Toriyama did after he ended Dragon Ball, after all.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Ten chapters? I think I guessed that somewhere.

Not surprised. Expect a volume every two years or so. HxH is never ending.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Because I'm bored and can't go to sleep or get anymore work done tonight, I'm going to rank every story that Togashi has ever written through his three main works from best to worst. Of course all of these rankings are based on the manga versions of these series. Furthermore, all rankings are relative to his own body of work (otherwise a lot would be top tier).

S-Class:
1. Chapter Black (YYH)
2. York New City (HXH)
3. Dark Tournament (YYH)

A-Class:
4. Color Rangers (LVE)- Why I want him to do a comedy
5. From the Darkness (LVE)- Why I want him to do horror
6. An Alien on the Planet (LVE)- Why I want him to do sci-fi
7. Chimera Ant (HXH)- Flaws be damned, what it gets right, it gets REALLY right
8. Rescue Yukina (YYH)
9. Zoldyck (HXH)- Underrated as hell, IMO
10. Hunter Exams (HXH)
11. Yu Yu Hakusho Tales: Two Shot (YYH)

B-Class:
12. Spirit Yusuke (YYH)
13. Heaven's Arena (HXH)
14. Boy Meets Girl (LVE)
15. Genkai's Trials (YYH)
16. Field of Dreams (LVE)
17. Chairman Election (HXH)
18. Full Moon/Honeymoon (LVE)
19. Hunter X Hunter Phantom Rogue Special (HXH)

C-Class:
20. You're My Darling (LVE)- Interesting concept, but awkward execution
21. Greed Island (HXH)- Mediocre with a couple of highlights
22. Three Artifacts (YYH)

D-Class:
23. Epilogue Chapters (YYH)- Bizarre, but rather amusing
24. Saint Beasts (YYH)

Black Black Club's Evil Reading List:
25. Three Kings (YYH)

[Spark Of Spirit]

I want him to do a romantic comedy like Urusei Yatsura. I think it would be legitimately funny and very creative.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Cool list and idea! I'll give it a go:

S-Class

1. Chapter Black (YYH)
2. Dark Tournament (YYH)
3. York New City (HXH)
4. Chimera Ant (HXH)

A-Class

5. Hunter Exams (HXH)
6. Heavens Arena (HXH)
7. Zoldyck Family (HXH)
8. From the Darkness (LE)

B-Class

9. Chairman Election (HXH)
10. Genkai's Trials (YYH)
11. Rescue Yukina (YYH)
12. An Alien on the Planet (LE)
13. Spirit Yusuke (YYH)
14. Full Moon (LE)
15. Yu Yu Hakusho Tales: Two Shot (YYH)
16. Hunter X Hunter Phantom Rouge Special (HXH)

C-Class

17. Color Rangers (LE)
18. You're My Darling (LE)
19. Greed Island (HXH)

D-Class

20. Boy Meets Girl (LE)
21. Field of Dreams (LE)
22. Saint Beasts (YYH)
23. Three Artifacts (YYH)

Black Book Club's Evil Reading List:

24. Three Kings (YYH)
25. Epilogue Chapters (YYH)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Nice list. Though it's apparent that my re-reading of Level E over five times has given me a much greater appreciation of it than just about anyone on the planet.

16. Hunter X Hunter Phantom Rouge Special (YYH)

Since when did HXH crossover with YYH?

[LumRanmaYasha]

I much prefer LE in anime form, tbh. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I like both versions. That said, something about Togashi's flat-out bizarre style of story-telling when he's allowed to go all-out without any constraints to logic just strangely appeals to me. Also, I realized that calling Level E a comedy manga is pretty inaccurate since only 3 out of the 7 stories are comedy-centric. The rest are just really weird but (to me) oddly engaging sci-fi short stories.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Togashi and Hachi Mizuno are creating a new two-chapter manga called Akuten Wars.

He finally got someone else to draw.