Re: Hunter x Hunter Chapter 341 Spoiler Discussion (& One Shot)
One Piece basically has a plot that goes like:
1. Straw Hats go to an island.
2. Some kind of injustice happens there.
3. Straw Hats beat up the bad guys
4. Straw Hats party.
5. Go back to #1.
Now there's nothing particularly wrong with having a simplistic plot, except if you look at the interview with Oda or OP's random feeble attempts to have some kind of major overarching story roughly once every 10 volumes, the plot in theory isn't supposed to be that simple. There's the whole will of D, the ancient weapons, the lost story, and whatever the heck One Piece is actually supposed to be. After something like 70 volumes about all you know about the will of D is that guys that have D in their middle initial are special. This isn't foreshadowing or plot building. It's simply a complete inability to pace the story, and possibly he might not even know what the heck will of D is supposed to be. But, that doesn't mean Oda is bad. Not every person who can draw is supposed to be good at coming up with a large overarching story. Oda needs someone who can outline stuff like 'take about 5 volumes to talk about this and then next 5 volumes on that". That's why he'd work fine in HXH where there's plenty of material to work on and everything is already neatly paced.
On the opposite end Togashi, who has a hard time drawing 10 chapters a year, would do way better in a world like OP where there's no rigid restriction. Whenever he gets tired of drawing he can just have the Straw Hats completely annihilated due to one of the random dumb decisions made by Luffy (Togashi is pretty much merciless even on his main characters) and it wouldn't even be the craziest thing he has done.
Now I think before I start this, I should preface by saying I like HXH and One piece. I think nowadays I appreciate HXH more, but I do like both series.
With that out of the way, I think you're oversimplifying a but much there. To illustrate, let me break down HXH into it's simplest building blocks using the same logic. Lets call these 'pattern A' and 'pattern B'.
Pattern A.
1) Gon gets a lead on his dad.
2) Gon gets sidetracked.
3) Gon gets no relevant information about dad other than he's awesome.
4) Next arc.
After he and Killua learn nen then we can employ pattern B.
Pattern B.
1) The boys go somewhere.
2) Someone sees how pathetic/talented they are and trains them in nen.
3) This someone is impressed by their abilities.
4) They barely win against a villian// are fodder to another bigger fight.
5) Next arc.
Now I do realize I'm oversimplifying here myself, but that's essentially HXH in a nutshell. Spitballing anything brings out just how overly simple it is to usually detrimental effects. I'm not trying to say that One piece is shakespeare or anything, but we have to rememeber that these stories are in the shounen demographic which employs a call and response type narrative since it's target demographic tends to enjoy that. For the most part in shounen series like these you already have a good idea of what's going to happen except in the case where an author (rarely) goes off on a tangent, like Giga Gon mode actually nearly killing Gon (though him being healed without much repercussion is TOTALLY shounen), or a certain brother figure dying mere moments after being saved. My point is shounen manga are really YMMV type things. You either like the cliches being employed in possibly newer and innovative ways or you hate seeing the same thing over and over again.
Using this logic, you could also say that HXH's plot progression actually happens at pace that's even slower than OP's. From what I recall, the series is about finding Gon's Dad, yeah? Yet Ging only appears in the current timeline during the Kujira island arc, and before and after then he's only mentioned without us really knowing where he is. Then we get to the Election arc and he's just sorta there, and Gon kinda just walks up to him. It's sorta like if in One piece, Luffy is fighting a bad guy, and wins then goes to Target or something to buy refreshments for the after villian smackdown party and finds the One piece in stock on one of the shelves, and its' actually a one piece dress. Then it's sort of like all of the build up before that was sorta worthless. The only thing that salvages that last development is HXH doesn't seem to be over yet.
The only reason OP seems more contrived despite having a bit in common with HXH is One piece constantly appears every week and releases tanks on a regular basis. HXH is saved by the fact that it runs irregularly so by the time it appears in print again people have more or less forgotten the actual cycle. At this point the hiatuses are kind of a price of entry as well, so no one really shits on Togashi for taking so long. Lets not forget that HXH is actually longer than OP if you look at their start dates. It's easy to identify OP as a one trick pony since it's around every week, while HXH is more like a series of novels that comes every so often. Unless you read through the whole series each time a new volume comes out, it's easy to forget that Togashi has the same themes presented in identical ways throughout the story.
What I will give Togashi over Oda is he's not afraid to have the protagonists switch roles in an arc. I like that Yorkshin has Kurapika as it's protagonist, and the election arc had Killua. (Leorio arc where?) Gon is the lead, but Togashi can shift him aside and develop the other protagonists which is something Oda doesn't do to some extent. You can also praise HXH for emplifying that there is a consquence for acting like an idiot. (Losing your arms and having your voice box crushed for one.) Most shounen reward the protagonist who runs in despite the odds, and while HXH isn't too different in this regard it at least rewards the leads a little less. If you really think about it, Gon and Killua have never really won a fight other than in GI. (And even that was sort of close).
I dunno if the two should switch jobs, as much as it is that they're writing in a specific genre that expects specific things. HXH seems like a jumbled mess of genres and stories with only superficial connections to each other if you really break it down to it's roots. That's a good thing and bad thing sometimes, as it sort of feels like each arc is a throwaway. The superficial connections are enough that it makes sense to read the entire story, but it also feels like HXH has a lack of coherance sometimes. Like Oda's repetitive storytelling or not, OP has an overall coherance to it. If something is introduced you know at some point it becomes relevant. Little throwaway panels have some sort of relevance in the big scheme of things, and it never really feels like one arc is just sorta there. I agree though, one thing I have never liked about OP is it's snail pacing. It's sort of like Oda knows people will buy his stuff so he doesn't need to be in any hurry to resolve anything. Then again, Togashi doesn't touch up art or bother following up on information for the same reason I guess.
In short, before this post gets any more out of control....both series suffer from repetitive storytelling it's just more apparent in OP since it doesn't go on hiatues for entire years.
. I guess it's to show that those 3 have an incommensurable power( like God) that they'll use to protect their King, who is even stronger than them.
