Phew. After suffering from a bad bout of depression for three weeks, I caught up on Hunter 2011 as well as watched the entirety of Yorkshin in 1999. I gotta say, I agree with sticky here, though my reasons are a bit different.
For one thing, I don't think the pacing is an issue. In the manga and the first anime, Kurapika became the main hero (or in the case of Shinobi's reviews) heroine. All three mediums pretty much reflect this. Now this may be an annoyance to people like me (and no I am not trying to insinuate that sticky feels this way.), who do not care for Kurapika much. I like yorkshin as much as the next Hunter fan, but the series shines when it is about Gon and Killua. /opinion. That being said, I like Leorio and feel like his scenes shouldn't be shafted be it for time or any other reason. Although Koujina and his crew didn't promise us this with the new anime, what was implicitly insinuated is that we'll get a product that sticks a bit closer to the manga. I mean, why the hell not? MH has 30 volumes to work with, and apparently they at least talk to Togashi more than Nippon did. If they're willing to cut 2 minutes of Leorio screen time, what's next? Entire characters? Entire chapters? This is a slippery slope, and I for one do not care for it. That being said, although it irratates me that they'd cut that, it didn't break the episode for me. I agree with mr.sticky that the characters should be represented as the manga presented them, because there really isn't a reason for them NOT to. Leorio having street smarts instead of brawn isn't a big deal in the long run, but if Togashi included said scene in the manga, I think the anime should at least follow suit.
Now as I said, the pacing up until now has been fine IMO, but it worries me greatly that they're going to (possibly) speed through several chapters. I sorta liked the Zepile stuff because it was so very anti-shounen. Like I really enjoyed the different methods of spotting fakes and the terms of apprasial given in those chapters. It makes the HXH world seem like a mirror of our own, with good, bad, ugly and beyond. I find it interesting as well that Zepile really describes Gon the best when he says 'this kid is like an abyss'. It's exactly what Gon becomes in the ants arc, not to mention Zepile himself is a pretty fun guy. I really hope the episode titles are off or wrong, or MH has some kind of master plan, since unlike popo-san, I do not believe that if they skip the material they will revisit it post-yorkshin. In any case, we'll see.
This really goes back to what I said in the 1999 vs 2011 thread. Neither adaptation is perfect, and even if we argue about this for years the only thing we'll lose is time. That being said, I think everyone has made valid points about how the last episode was handled, but lets not forget it was one episode out of many more. I am a little bit disappointed in MH's handling of the arc so far, but that's more to do with some of the choices they've made in omissions than fillers. Like it or not, this arc is the Spider's show. Gon, Killua and Leorio get to shine a bit later in the arc, but Yorkshin is mostly about Kurapika and The PT. I don't mind them padding the troupe out, nor do I mind minor omissions here and there (since it's actually much more rampant in anime adaptions nowadays than you'd think.), but when these omissions start to modify character personalites and interactions, then that's a bad, bad, bad thing. I mean it's exactly why 1999's adaptation is merely 'The loosely related adaptation of the manga named Hunter X Hunter'. 2011 is slipping down that path too, and I really hope Koujina can stop that from happening.
Either way there's still the manga.
In any case, sticky, you're right to be upset and you've got a supporter here. (Brofist).
