Anime / Hunter x Hunter

Frankly I find it very bizarre that it's not popular around here. Or maybe it is popular but no one wants to post in the thread? I'm actually quite surprised that they've managed to keep the production quality good for so long.

As am I...

Something of a sleeper hit, ain't it?

Progress: Hisoka showed up again, and Nen has been introduced.. Hisoka's one of the coolest characters. The moment I saw him playing cards with one of the other antagonists, I've liked him, vague as he is. He's almost what I wish Orochimaru would be.

edited 31st Oct '13 10:18:54 AM by FOFD

Sad this thread isn't very active since it's a great series. Well I hope to revive it. Anyways, now that it's also shown more of the troupe's powers in the anime, I've been thinking. How do you think of Kurapika's future fights against them?

Doesn't make a difference, honestly. The entire point of his anti-Spider chain is to force them into zetsu, ie: they can't use their powers. And the entire point of going after Uvo first was to prove that without nen even their physically toughest would be helpless in zetsu. So basically he needs to catch them off guard with the chain. Which is exactly the same as it was in the first place? No change.

Other than of course the obvious thing, which the series emphasized, which is that they now know the conditions of his abilities. They know his weakness, which is non-Spiders. Rather than directly confronting him, the Spiders will probably hire a 3rd party assassin to kill him. Such as, I don't know, the 3rd party assassins they hired to kill the mafia godfathers (ie: Killua's family). Or maybe just ask Hisoka to do it as a favor in exchange for being able to fight Chrollo. They have plenty of options, none of which involve their own abilities in any way.

Frankly it seems like a silly question.

But by going indirect they'll also be hinting Kurapika on what they now know, I'm sure Kurapika is smart enough to question the attempts of assassination if he pulls through.

And indeed Pakunoda provided the other members some knowledge on Kurapika's abilities though they wouldn't know about a portion of his powers such as the invisible chain. So yes, it's true he would be able to catch at least another one off guard. But how about the next? Or after that? Will the rest of the troupes just decide to stay ignorant on his powers? He already proved himself to be a threat remember.

Kurapika's abilities seem to work best in only taking out one troupe member at a time which can be very detrimental.

edited 7th Nov '13 8:10:25 AM by PsychoFreaX

Kurapika already knows that they know. That's the risk he prepared for when he honored his deal to save Gon and Killua's lives. And letting him know that they know doesn't actually hurt them in any way? If one assassin fails then they hire another. Still safer than confronting him directly and quite frankly the Zoldycks are formidable.

As for the rest of it... no change from Yorknew. Which was my point, I had thought? Well, they also know he's conjuration instead of manipulation, which makes them naturally more wary of invisible chains. So I doubt they'd get caught off guard by that in particular. And honestly he never relied on that in the first place. He caught both Uvo and Chrollo without using anything like that, after all.

edited 7th Nov '13 8:42:25 AM by Clarste

Well then the troupes would be avoiding confrontation while Kurapika will seek confrontation thus, try to get around that. It would all depend on who plans better I guess.

...were you even paying attention? Kurapika has already said that he's putting off the Spider hunting until he figures out a way to completely disband them. He had previously thought killing their leader would stop them, but now he realizes that they're sturdier than that. Until he comes up with a plan to, I don't know, kill them all at the same time or something, he's going to focus on collecting the eyes of his clan by working for the mafia.

Which means that the Spiders know where he is (since they can track mafia employees through the Hunter site), and obviously they're much more free to hide or move around. They have all the initiative here. But last we saw they were waiting for Chrollo to get exorcised because death curse etc etc.

edited 7th Nov '13 8:56:48 AM by Clarste

Oh right, I might have to look back on that it's been a while since I read it. Who knows how things will turn out though if Togashi decides to twist some things. We'll just have to wait for god knows how long for the series to continue.

Enjoying this so much. I loved the manga, but I got Arc Fatigue right about the time Kurapika and Melody started bonding, so getting to see the whole Auction Arc animated was kickass. I'm on the Chimera Ant Arc now, and dear god, it's like Togashi read a hardcore scifi-fantasy degradation hentai and decided, "Yep, these're my next villains."

I'm not yet ready to declare it the worst thing ever like my fiancé (who whenever he rereads the series just stops cold after Greed Island), but I miss Hisoka already.

The arc takes a really long time to find it footing, but I'd call the latter part of it some of the best the series has to offer. The first half is way too full of sadistic ants to really take seriously, but ultimately it's trying to examine the alien mindset of something entirely inhuman. Specifically the pure unconditional love they feel for each other.

Trailer for the next movie released. Normally I wouldn't care that much because non-canon filler movies tend to be fairly forgettable, but it includes a brief shot of the Vice Chairman so there remains a small chance of this being the greatest thing ever. Very small, given the rather silly looking villains, but still a chance. Because, come on. Rat. You know you love him.

I presume this thread is for the 2011 remake series? Typically I don't care much for shonen, but the main characters are all very likable. I'll mention I am a newcomer to the series (it came highly recommended to me).

It was smart to limit the main character to a basic four man ensemble, all too many series of this type get bogged down with way too many characters, which I feel is unfortunate because those others can get overlooked.

Honestly there are only two main characters: Gon and Killua. Leorio and Kurapika lose relevance in later arcs (because there's no reason for them to not split up and pursue their own interests), and get replaced by a cycling cast of secondary "party members".

Aww, I thought it was for both.

edited 26th Nov '13 3:25:49 PM by FOFD

That eight pack Killua has.

My God.

A whole episode of narration, nice.

So I was reading the character page and it mentioned Hisoka as a Static Character. It occurred to me then that that was just about exactly his purpose in the story; he exists as a yardstick against which the protagonists strength can be measured (something I feel a lot of shonen lack), but for him to work as a measure he has to be largely constant.

Now that I have netflix back, I've gotten around to finally watching the newer anime.

I watched most of the 90s one a while back(I skipped some parts though) and remember it being pretty good, especially some of the fight scenes and the York Shin arc.

This one is pretty interesting so far although the recap episode was an utter waste of time and I feel like some fights the 90s anime did better, Hanzo being a primary example. Like I get you want to stick to the manga but there are times when you can do better and the Hanzo thing is a good example. I got to episode 20 so I know there's still a long ways till York Shin which was my favorite arc. I never did finish the manga. I got to Greed Island which was cool although Biscuit is kind of dumb and the art started getting REALLY poor for understandable reasons.

And jeez Tonpa is such a scumbag. I forgot how despicable that guy was. I felt like the 4th exam sort of dragged on a bit. I remember liking it before so idk maybe I just forgot how long it was.

It's funny that my 3 year old nephew came over and actually watched a whole episode(#20 I think) with me! He even said he liked it despite the subtitles and knowing how to read any of them or knowing what was going on. But bright colors and kid-friendly artsyle does wonders I guess. He thought Illumi was really weird lol and seemed to like Killua.

Of course, I know my sister wouldn't be too thrilled with him watching shows about killer families, pedo clowns and kids getting the snot kicked out of them lol.

And I just love how adorable Gon is although he acts more like a 10 or 9 year old than a 12 year old.

edited 27th Jan '15 9:20:40 PM by Vertigo_High

Biscuit is awesome.

Still no dub come on Funi, Viz, Aniplex this show is done and ready for US fans!

Hmmm I hope they get a decent Kurapika this time as 99's dub Kurapika was among the worst of the cast. Gon sounded unfitting for his personality somewhat although closer to an actual 12 year old boy so his was arguably passable. Killua and Leorio were fine(honestly I find Leorio's JP voice kind of annoying but Killiua was a bit too feminine sounding), in fact contrary to what internet would lead you to believe the dubs overall were pretty decent(seriously Youtube acts like they're the worst things ever). Hanzo was actually pretty freakin good if not better than his original VA. Hisoka was solid if not as good as his 2011 VA(which is excellent).

I can say that 99's OST kind of trumps 2011's so far although the hype riff that plays whenever crucial action happens is pretty nice.

I'm not really a big fan of shounen or action anime. But a lot of people want me to watch this.

I also have a Canary avatar and she's cute. So I should watch the show.

I kind of want to watch the show because Biscuit Krueger is so cute and strong. She's my favourite character. Well... I haven't see it. So I guess I shouldn't have a favourite character from a show before I've seen it. ^^;

But she's cute and interesting and I like her. I kind of want to watch Hunter x Hunter because of her.

Is the new series good? Is the old series or the new series better? Do... do you think I would like it? What's the series like aside from the fact Krueger is cute?

The series is VERY 90s shonen stylistically(like just look at the outfits and hair lol) but not in a bad way, and the sense of adventure it has along with the rotating party members makes it feel like a 90s JRPG in anime form. I think part of what makes Hx H so appealing is that a lot of effort and creativity is put into everything it does to where every battle feels like its own and has meaning in developing the characters in some way.

Both animes are quite good but 99 is better paced(although slower in the start and some think the first few chapters are boring making 2011 better for the very beginning) at least for the hunter exams and has some brilliant animations, plus it's not as censored as 2011's is. Not to mention that 2011 cut out a few things(like Kite which I thought was pretty stupid). But 2011 is prettier to look at and one of the better animated shonen out there, in fact it's quite lovely looking. Of course 2011 goes further than 99 did so eventually you'll going to be watching that one. It's really your choice as to whether or not you want to start with the 99 one and then jump to the 2011 one or simply watch from the 2011 one which would be faster. Personally I thought the hunter exam arc was handled better in 99 after watching 2011's today.

Biscuit doesn't appear until about midway through the series if not later so I'm not sure if watching it for her would hold your interest. It's mostly Gon and killua(both of whom are cool and adorable) that the show mostly revolves around.

1999 is definitely the more violent and darker of the two. 2011 honestly feels slightly watered down in its violence. The hanzo fight is one of the biggest examples, to where in 2011 a lot of his hits towards Gon are offscreen, 99 shows him shoving gon's face into the floor with blood spilling out a few seconds later. It's probably the most disturbing "fight" up till that point since it's basically a little kid getting the crap beat out of him by an older guy for three hours straight.

2011 is lighter and softer somewhat due to airing on a more family friendly channel.

edited 27th Jan '15 11:42:52 PM by Vertigo_High

I haven't watched the old anime, but- the new one has some questionable direction and censorship issues early on, but hits its' stride sometime mid-York Shin and only gets better from there. The Chimera Ant arc in particular is amazing.

As for what the show's like: It's a Shonen fighter written by a guy who knows the genre well enough to not be bound by the usual formula. It's not even quite a deconstruction or subversion of the usual tropes, we just have a writer who's experienced enough to know the strengths and weaknesses of each trope, and therefore can avoid a lot of the normal pitfalls. Honestly not sure how it'd come across to someone who's not much of a fan the genre; possibly it'd be the exception you can like despite not liking the genre, and possibly you just wouldn't appreciate the novelty of, say, the main character flat out losing the climatic final match of a Tournament Arc.