Toonami

[Daikun]

What's on at 12:30, DBZ Kai? Because it would be weird for me to have a half hour gap of nothing on the block.

Oh, right. I forgot to include in my previous post (oops) that Toonami is moving back to 11:30 next week.

[Peanutbutter]

Toonami's Gundam: IBO trailer

Wow. It's very reminiscent of their Gundam Wing trailer back in the day. They even use the same music and similar narration!

That was a thing of beauty. Pure, undistilled nostalgia.....

[Avaitor]

Damn, I had to miss the Gundam premiere, since I was out with friends. I made it in time for HXH, though.

I want to catch up on the show before next week, but I can't find the dub up yet. If I can't in time, I'll just give the sub a watch.

[Daikun]

I want to catch up on the show before next week, but I can't find the dub up yet. If I can't in time, I'll just give the sub a watch.

http://www.adultswim.com/videos/mobile-suit-gundam-iron-blooded-orphans

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I was kind of browsing threads online to see what people were saying about the early episodes of HXH to guage how the Toonami audience was generally receiving it. The  lukewarm response is about what I expected for the early material, and people give some legitimate criticisms about the beginning of the series.

Then I checked out ToonZone and I find people bitching about their being a lack of female characters....out of all of the legitimate things that they could gripe about, some people somehow single that out?

So, people have issues with a Shonen series primarily targeted at a male audience being comprised of a mostly male cast? It'd be one thing to complain about a series if it had a poor portrayal of women, but I'm utterly irritated when people think that a series should just throw in more female characters just for the sake of having them, "because otherwise it's sexist." Nevermind if it has any interesting or nuanced female characters, they just need to be there for....reasons. The irony here is that throwing in female characters just for the sake of filling out a quota is one of the most sexist things that I can think of, for people claiming that they are speaking out against sexism. I even saw a poster wondering why there weren't more female characters since it would be an easy way to get more guys to watch the show. Did they mean more female characters used as cheap fan-service? Because, personally I would have a pretty poor opinion of a fan-base that only watched a show for that reason.

Honestly, I wonder if anyone ever complained about Sailor Moon having a predominantly female cast, and featuring most of its male characters as villains, jerks, or perverts, with the exception Tuxedo Mask and maybe one or two other minor characters. Because, from what I've seen, nobody ever really seemed to call out a Shojo series targeted towards a female audience doing things that would cater to that very demographic.

[Dr. Insomniac]

The Toonami audience on 4chan's opinion on HxH varies. Some are bored because of this arc, while the majority think Kurapika's hot.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That's dumb. Everyone knows that Hisoka is the hottest HXH character. Clown-fetishes are just so in these days.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Funny you should mention that. Recently in Japan Hunter X Hunter fans polled who their favorite female characters in the series were. These were the results.

    1. Biscuit
    2. Heavens Arena 200th floor receptionist
    3. Machi
    4. Shizuku
    4. Gon's great-grandmother
    4. Mito
    5. Neon Nostrade
    6. Alluka Zoldyck
    6. Komugi
    7. "Woman B" Killed by Tserriednich
    8. Elena
    8. Melody (Senritsu)
    9. Seiko
    9. Killua's grandmother
    10. Reina
    10. Amane

How can people criticize the series for lacking great female characters when it's rife with such deeply characterized and memorable characters like the Heavens Arena receptionist and "Woman B"? 

In all seriousness, it would've been nice if Hunter X Hunter had a female protagonist that was as important as the rest of the main four, but at least the few important female characters it does have like Biscuit, Palm, Komugi, and Alluka, are well-written, which is better than having a token female protagonist that just exists for a superfluous romance subplot or fan-service.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Nobody remembers Ponzu or Palm.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Nobody remembers Ponzu or Palm.

WatchMojo voters remember Ponzu. They voted her death the best in all of anime.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Here's another fun fact: in the manga, Togashi apparently purposefully kept Alluka's gender ambiguous, avoiding any terminology which directly referred to that character as exclusively male or female, so for all we know, "he" may not technically even count as a female character.

That said, how is Pakunoda missing from that list? Even as a mere supporting villain, she had a surprisingly nuanced character mini-arc during the events of Yorknew City.

Also, Melody is a pretty good female character who I'd argue is important to Kurapika's character arc (in fact, I DID argue that very thing in an article I wrote about this series a few years ago).

::EDIT::

Where the fuck are Palm and Komugi!?

Seriously, what the shit Japan!?

[Dr. Insomniac]

I always assumed Alluka was trans since Killua refers to her as his sister while Illumi refers to her as "him", showing a difference between how the two care about their younger sibling.

Shame that Cheadle or Tsubone didn't get on the list over Woman B or Receptionist too.

[LumRanmaYasha]

IIRC, in the Viz translations and Crunchyroll subs, Killua refers to Alluka as his sister, whereas the rest of the Zoldyck family refers to Alluka as a male. I believe the idea is that Alluka is biologically male, but considers herself a girl, which would make her a trans-woman, something that only Killua acknowledges because of his bond with her but the other Zoldycks ignore because they only see her as an object to be used.

Where the fuck are Palm and Komugi!?

Komugi is on the list. She's ranked #6.

[Dreamer2]

So, this is my first post.

To start off, I was one of those people complaining about the lack of important female characters in HxH on Toonzone. And I still find it to be one of the few flaws of the show. I don't want female characters to be thrown on the show just because. But, I just wanted more balance among importance related to the story for female characters. Once Melody showed up, she was awesome and that was good. Then Biscuit appears and she's one of my favorite characters on the entire show, so that was good to. I still think female characters could have overall more importance, but it seems to be getting a tad better. I'm in the middle of the Chimera Ants arc and Palm just went on her "date" with Gon.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Welcome to the forums!   

Like I said, it would've been nice if there was a female protagonist as integral as the rest of the main four. Still, the important female characters HXH does have are all very distinct, memorable, and well-written with strong characterizations and/or character arcs, which I think counts for more. It might not have as many important and well-developed female main characters as, say, Gintama, but compared to some other Shonen Jump action fare like Dragon Ball, Fist of the North Star, the first five parts of JoJo's, or even Togashi's previous series Yu Yu Hakusho, HXH still boasts significantly more nuanced female characters with integral and purposeful roles in it's story.