Anime Hunter X Hunter New Anime Discussion

[kindredxiuxiu]

I dunno. I know you really like that scene in the manga, mrsticky. But in my eyes, Madhouse has redeemed themselves with how they handled the Zoldyck Arc and Heaven's Arena. Yes, we got to see Hisoka vs. Kastro (eff yeah!), Hisoka vs. Gon was beautifully animated and amazing, and the characterization of the cripples was done quite well. And then there's the butler. To answer your questions, I'm glad Madhouse took the direction they did when animating these scenes.

I agree that the anime shows Hisoka as being dangerously skilled, over being psychotic, in regards to that one scene. But what Madhouse has shown us in Hisoka vs. Kastro made up for that, IMO. They could've easily censored/altered Hisoka digging into his arm to grab a card. They didn't do that, though. Sure, his blood wasn't gushing everywhere and we got pixie dust when he's arm got sliced off. But overall, I got the impression that Hisoka was that psychotic dangerous that you see in the manga when he massacres those guys in the swamp.

And Madhouse certainly didn't skirt around the issue that Hisoka is a raging battlephile. We got his characterization as it was in the manga, AND we got a little extra (i.e. Hisoka standing in front of a huge window naked).

Take the change in Killua's heart scene, for example. I like the manga version a lot, but I kinda prefer the way Madhouse did it. With the manga version, all I was thinking was "Woah, there's a kid assassin here. That's cool. He's not afraid to kill anyone. Oh - oh my, did he just crush the guy's heart? This kid is dangerous. Gon should watch out for him. Yay, characterization!"

With Madhouse's version, I was thinking something like, "Hey, why isn't he crushing it? Wait, is that really Jones' heart beating? It's still beating? When is he going to crush it? The silence is suffocating me, the heartbeat is the only thing I can hear - the only focus. Oh, the way Jones looks at his heart is - oh, he died. His heart stopped beating, and he died. Oh god. Hey, Killua's putting the heart back. Cheekily. He's not just an assassin, but a kid assassin who likes playing with other people's hearts. Literally. Yay characterization!"

The manga made me think of the assassin part of 'child assassin' (implies that Killua is dangerous because he won't hesitate to kill anyone), while the anime made me think of the child part of 'child assassin' (which is more disturbing, frankly). Same thing, different focus. I find Madhouse's version much more tasteful, and I'm incorporating that to my head canon even though it wasn't the way the manga did it.

I would've preferred the heart get crushed, but I think both versions drove the point home. Killua is a ruthless assassin, who is also a kid. But your analysis here is pretty spot on!

What you said just made me realize how messed up the Zoldyck children are. Killua included.

 

[Demonspeed]

Guys, Shadow Beasts are too unhuman. I think we will actually get very minor censorship as they don't look human enough for it to be much of a problem. Same goes for Chimera Ants.

I hope they'll change the time slot for Ants arc.When i have seen that HxH would have a remake,i didn't think it would be produced in the morning,but i realized that it's necessary because it will permit to increase its popularity.Ants arc will start in episodes 95-97 and with this YS arc,its popularity will increase a lot.If HxH was uncensored or censored just a little it would be really perfect.

I really don't see Ants arc being produced in the morning.

 

[Cinnabar]

What you said just made me realize how messed up the Zoldyck children are. Killua included.

They're all pretty messed up, aren't they? And yet look at how they all generally act like the family killing business is just that - business. (Well, most of them anyway.) They still see each other as family, no matter how dysfunctional that looks like.

I think Killua's actually pretty stable considering his background. If I didn't know he killed people, or how he acts when he's pissed off, I would think he's actually pretty normal at first glance as far as HxH (and anime characters in general) go. I mean, he's got the concept of friendship and companionship down pat by the time we get to Greed Island and the Ant arc. I still see Gon as a bit more wonky than he is.

I really don't see Ants arc being produced in the morning.

NO. This cannot happen. Ever. They have to change the time slot by then. They have to.

 

[Kamen Rider Dragon]

It really isn't that easy to change time slots. They have to pay to acquire a new slot and it's not guaranteed they'll get a better one than they have now.

 

[kindredxiuxiu]

I think Killua's actually pretty stable considering his background. If I didn't know he killed people, or how he acts when he's pissed off, I would think he's actually pretty normal at first glance as far as HxH (and anime characters in general) go. I mean, he's got the concept of friendship and companionship down pat by the time we get to Greed Island and the Ant arc. I still see Gon as a bit more wonky than he is.

I agree, for the most part. Killua's been able to handle himself extremely well, all things considered. I actually like this characterization better than someone who, because of their past, are dark/brooding or struggling with that part of themselves. On the other hand, Killua looks at it and just accepts it, and uses it as a tool more than anything.

Gon, on the other hand, has sociopathic tendencies.

Spoiler

Heavily exacerbated by Kaito's death.

The thing with Killua's crazy is that it always seems to be shadowed by something. Well, at the beginning of the series, he's the most messed up character of the bunch. He's quite sociopathic, and has a likeness to Hisoka.

Then he hangs around Gon more, wants to make friends and whatnot, and he gets a lot better. In the meantime, Gon appears to becoming more and more like Hisoka, in terms of Hisoka's desire to fight opponents stronger than him. Gon is a battlephile, minus the sexual undertones.

Greed Island is probably the most moral I've seen either of the two at a given time.

Then we hit Ant arc...(character analysis time)

Spoiler

Gon LOVES fighting, but we get the impression that he doesn't like killing. He had hesitations in killing his opponents at the beginning of the arc. This worries Kaito. Then Kaito gets killed, and Gon descends quickly into darkness/insanity/sociopathy/whatever.

Killua, on the other hand, instantly goes back into assassin mode to tear ants apart. Gets very protective over Gon, as any good friend should, but almost becomes stalkerish. He's still very level-headed despite everything that's happened, though has multiple emotional breakdowns over his abilities to protect Gon, Gon's descent into madness that he has no control over, and his overall helplessness in protecting Gon from the evils of the world.

On top of that, he's killing ants without any second thought. It's like second nature to him. Sure, he's primarily doing it because he has to, but there are a couple instances in that arc where it seems as if he still finds pleasure in killing his opponent. There are scenes in that arc that are reminiscent to those at the beginning of the series, just substitute humans with ants.

For Gon, it's hard to say whether he has qualms about killing others or not after the ant arc. I mean, he killed one ant at the beginning of the arc (hagya's squad vs. Gon/Kaito/Killua) and then there was Pitou. Whether he killed the owl ant, I'm not sure, and I think he just incapacitated the bat ant. Though he did threaten to kill Meleoron if he betrayed him. The thing with Gon, though, is that he doesn't have killing intent towards an opponent unless that opponent has done something to piss him off. But revenge-driven Gon is scary, and you certainly don't want to piss the kid off. Killua will kill something if he feels that's what needs to be done and is very detached from his emotions when he does it.

But, despite those moments, Killua is much more of a functioning human being than Gon is... probably because Killua is able to, for the most part, keep his cool and look at things more logically than Gon is.

As is, though, both of them were complete messes during that arc. Holy damn.

It's also interesting that we see some traits of Killua's siblings in him. He has Illumi's protectiveness and occasionally Kalluto's sadism. Alluka's her own brand of crazy. Milluki's probably one of the more normal ones (and still crazy).

 

[Crude]

I just hope that if Hunter x Hunter actually does get a different timeslot, it won't lose its ratings (which imo are pretty great). The series airs on Sundays correct? Isn't the time slot formerly occupied by Fullmetal Alchemist (both series), Code Geass R2 and most Gundam series on a Sunday? I've heard it's quite a good time-slot, and I wouldn't mind Hunter x Hunter getting it.

 

[kindredxiuxiu]

I don't think it'd lose ratings.

Either way... whether they get a new time slot, or keep the old one, the Ant Arc must get animated (it probably will).

 

[xScar]

I just hope that if Hunter x Hunter actually does get a different timeslot, it won't lose its ratings (which imo are pretty great). The series airs on Sundays correct? Isn't the time slot formerly occupied by Fullmetal Alchemist (both series), Code Geass R2 and most Gundam series on a Sunday? I've heard it's quite a good time-slot, and I wouldn't mind Hunter x Hunter getting it.

Gundam, Geass, and FMA ran on TBS at 5:00pm.
HxH is on NTV at roughly 11:00am.

NTV doesn't have a similar block, I don't believe. The only anime that runs around primetime that I know off the top of my head is Detective Conan, which is at 6pm on Saturday night.

I don't think it'd lose ratings.

Either way... whether they get a new time slot, or keep the old one, the Ant Arc must get animated (it probably will).

The ratings would be terrible.
The only reason it's doing marginally well is because of its current timeslot.

Madhouse shows usually run late night (midnight and later). Look at the ratings for those shows, they typically are under 1.0.
HxH is currently getting 4.0 in its morning slot...

They will never be switching timeslots. Madhouse/NTV won't sacrifice 3/4 of their viewership.

 

[Noonealive]

I found a pretty funny memes from another forum.

Spoiler

 

[mrsticky005]

I dunno. I know you really like that scene in the manga, mrsticky. But in my eyes, Madhouse has redeemed themselves with how they handled the Zoldyck Arc and Heaven's Arena. Yes, we got to see Hisoka vs. Kastro (eff yeah!), Hisoka vs. Gon was beautifully animated and amazing, and the characterization of the cripples was done quite well. And then there's the butler. To answer your questions, I'm glad Madhouse took the direction they did when animating these scenes.

I agree that the anime shows Hisoka as being dangerously skilled, over being psychotic, in regards to that one scene. But what Madhouse has shown us in Hisoka vs. Kastro made up for that, IMO. They could've easily censored/altered Hisoka digging into his arm to grab a card. They didn't do that, though. Sure, his blood wasn't gushing everywhere and we got pixie dust when he's arm got sliced off. But overall, I got the impression that Hisoka was that psychotic dangerous that you see in the manga when he massacres those guys in the swamp.

And Madhouse certainly didn't skirt around the issue that Hisoka is a raging battlephile. We got his characterization as it was in the manga, AND we got a little extra (i.e. Hisoka standing in front of a huge window naked).



I would've preferred the heart get crushed, but I think both versions drove the point home. Killua is a ruthless assassin, who is also a kid. But your analysis here is pretty spot on!

What you said just made me realize how messed up the Zoldyck children are. Killua included.

I agree that Madhouse has redeemed themselves.

Actually it's not so much Madhouse that I blame but rather the whole censorship culture
that forces Madhouse to end up changing Hisoka's scene. Yes I do think it was artistic direction but artistic direction created by the limits of what can be shown at that time slot.
I think a overall viewing of the series thus far shows that Madhouse down right LOVES
Hisoka. Notice how they just had to have the episode end with Hisoka being all Hisoka?

Hisoka isn't even in the corresponding chapters

I think that were they able to Madhouse WOULD have done the massacre
and I think the reason why they didn't do a censored version of what was
shown in the manga was because 1. they were unsure what they could
get away with and 2. if it's too censored it might detract viewers.
I think Madhouse saying that Hisoka would be more "heroic" was
more a type of insurance to fall back on if the censoring was too strict.

Also it's cheaper to not animate that whole scene

Anywho I'm just hope for the best for the next episodes

---------- Post added August 08, 2012 at 04:04 PM ---------- Previous post was August 07, 2012 at 01:35 PM ----------

Btw something about the next episode and the 99 series in comparision I was thinking about

Spoiler

In the 99 series Baise, Ivleknov and Shachmono Tocino all know about Miss Neon's prediction and yet they still attend the auction. However in the manga it seems Dalzollene left them in the dark except for a very vague "someone might attack the auction."

 

[kindredxiuxiu]

Spoiler

In the 99 series Baise, Ivleknov and Shachmono Tocino all know about Miss Neon's prediction and yet they still attend the auction. However in the manga it seems Dalzollene left them in the dark except for a very vague "someone might attack the auction."

Spoiler

I could see Dalzollene being aware of the situation and still sending them to die.

I wonder what was all in those predictions.... I'm assuming one was made for Kurapika and Senritsu too?

 

[mrsticky005]

Spoiler

I could see Dalzollene being aware of the situation and still sending them to die.

I wonder what was all in those predictions.... I'm assuming one was made for Kurapika and Senritsu too?

Spoiler

Dalzollene DID know about the predictions. He sent them to get the items because that's there job I guess? Or maybe because
he didn't want to have to deal with Neon's temper tantrum? I dunno but Dalzollene is kind of a jerk in that regard.

 

[xScar]

Spoiler

Dalzollene DID know about the predictions. He sent them to get the items because that's there job I guess? Or maybe because
he didn't want to have to deal with Neon's temper tantrum? I dunno but Dalzollene is kind of a jerk in that regard.

Spoiler

Kurapika and the other bodyguards were hired knowing full and well that it would be a dangerous job. Dalzollene following orders does not make him a jerk. The predictions weren't made for any of the employees though, were they? Just other men associated with Nostrade who planned on attending the auction were the ones whose fortunes were told by Neon in the car ride.

 

[TheAmericandream]

I think you are spot on Xscar about the predictions, and Dalzollene.

 

[mrsticky005]

Spoiler

Kurapika and the other bodyguards were hired knowing full and well that it would be a dangerous job. Dalzollene following orders does not make him a jerk. The predictions weren't made for any of the employees though, were they? Just other men associated with Nostrade who planned on attending the auction were the ones whose fortunes were told by Neon in the car ride.

Spoiler

There's a difference between risk taking and throwing your or others life away. But you're likely right with Dalzollene not knowing
that it would include the employees.

 

[Akia999]

Spoiler

I could see Dalzollene being aware of the situation and still sending them to die.

Spoiler

I remembered that in the 1999 version ,after Dalzollene told Neon's father about the prediction ,he say "So, I have to sacrifice one of my men? " or something along the line.

 

[mrsticky005]

Spoiler

I remembered that in the 1999 version ,after Dalzollene told Neon's father about the prediction ,he say "So, I have to sacrifice one of my men? " or something along the line.

Spoiler

Yeah, I guess they wanted to make Dalzollene seem like he gave a crap.

 

[Demonspeed]

Does anybody know ratings of the last episode?

 

[bobop]

Next titles (Thanks to tkROUT) :

8/12 - ショウゲキ×ノ×サンゲキ = The Shocking Tragedy
8/19 - ゲキセン×ノ×フクセン = Preparation for Battle

Thanks to Popo for the translation.



8/26 - 放送休止
9/2 - コウソク×ト×ヤクソク
9/9 - オウモノ×ト×マツモノ

Translation please

 

[Salce]

Does anybody know ratings of the last episode?

2.8

Pretty bad compared with the latest weeks.

8/26 - 放送休止

8/26 the anime will have a break. But we already knew it thanks to Crunchyroll.