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Marx Headroom posted:To me Chimera is the most iconic arc but Yorknew is my fav. The Phantom Troupe is so ridic out of Gon & Co's league but Kurapika's cheat (which is specific to his character and backstory!) leads to tons of bluffing and reversal that layers suspense over every encounter. Chimera Ant is fascinating because it’s like watching a slow moving train wreck, the ants are dangerous monsters initially but they’re monsters in a very literal sense, they treat the killing of humans in an almost robotic way. Then they get names. Then they start liking killing humans in an almost cartoonishly evil way, that only started because they assimilated more lovely humans. And THEN they learn Nen, shortly before disbanding and wreaking massive havoc across the continent. It’s honestly pretty shocking how bad things get in that arc for a series with no full heals like Dragonball. One of the things I most appreciate is how gradual their evolution is in terms of self-awareness, which is something a lot of writers would have neglected.
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Dec 13, 2020 03:13
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| # ? May 29, 2024 03:21 |
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For sure, Chimera has amazing pacing in the buildup. I think that's part of why it was so dread inducing. Every time things get worse you can apply the rules of the world to them and almost predict how things can still get even worse, and then it does, and the heroes are almost never spared from the consequences. It feels hopeless sometimes, there are several scenes where a hero accepts their imminent death, and you buy it every time (partly because in a clutch narrative move one of the more impressive characters eats it early on). There's a real sense of hope (grace, almost) when they overcome the odds, whereas in Yorknew there's more suspense bc neither side is super confident in how things will shake out. Marx Headroom fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Dec 13, 2020 |
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Dec 13, 2020 04:12
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I hope they get around to releasing a complete box set of the anime. I like the show but not quite enough to spend ~$200 on a bunch of different sets when it's already at least partially available to stream with my current subscriptions.
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Dec 13, 2020 04:14
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my favorite thing about yorknew is the context the current arc brings to it. kurapika essentially stumbled on to a self-destructive path to power, and despite the veneer of competence he has absolutely no idea what he is doing. yorknew was his flash in the pan. he can't beat the troupe straight up and he can't hunt them from the shadows any more. it's over, he's done. hisoka is far better at spider hunting than kurapika ever was and he doesn't even have a power set dedicated to that task!
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Dec 13, 2020 04:23
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Eej posted:Okay but everyone tears up at the end of Chimera Ants and no one* does for Yorknew I cry thinking about Hisoka getting blue balled all the time.
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Dec 13, 2020 04:24
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Rudoku posted:If an episode ain't spending 10 minutes narrating people jumping out of a hole, then I ain't watching. The absurdity of the start of the Palace Invasion super turned me off to the pacing in Chimera Ant. It straight up beats Freeza's 5-Minute Namek explosion for ratio of screen time/in-world time. 
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Dec 13, 2020 04:27
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AlternateNu posted:The absurdity of the start of the Palace Invasion super turned me off to the pacing in Chimera Ant. It straight up beats Freeza's 5-Minute Namek explosion for ratio of screen time/in-world time. it owns
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Dec 13, 2020 04:37
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:yorknew was his flash in the pan. lol remember when Kortopi left busted up body doubles everywhere and the heroes were like "Yep the mafia mooks totally killed them with boring rear end machine guns" and Kurapika stared at his cellphone for like 2 straight episodes
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Dec 13, 2020 04:37
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AlternateNu posted:The absurdity of the start of the Palace Invasion super turned me off to the pacing in Chimera Ant. It straight up beats Freeza's 5-Minute Namek explosion for ratio of screen time/in-world time. That actually makes me appreciate it more
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Dec 13, 2020 04:41
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Yeah I don't understand, all that happening at once is friggin' awesome and makes me want to do a rewatch
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Dec 13, 2020 04:55
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I super love that video mainly because it shows how much of an absolute bellend Pouf is. (And/or how little Togarashi thought to do with him during the initial invasion.)
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Dec 13, 2020 04:58
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I wasn't super into that sequence at first, but it heavily grew on me.
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Dec 13, 2020 05:02
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The best thing the anime did with the Palace Invasion was Netero and Meryum's fight that was in non-consecutive chapters in the manga, and put them in a single episode. They should have been that bold with the rest of the arc.
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Dec 13, 2020 05:11
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The payoff to a lot of stuff is great in Chimera Ant, for both new characters and old arcs started all the way back in the Hunter exam, but it might as well been a completely different show for how it was paced; there was no need IMO to spend a full 10 episodes for Kite/Killua/Gon to run towards the hive only to get cut down unceremoniously (which isn't helped by Kite being just this random dude you've only just gotten to know in the anime as opposed to the first Hunter-related thing you see in the manga) and both the King's selection and the palace invasion are almost comical. I wouldn't go as far as to call it the lowpoint of my watch (that goes to the stretch of rescuing Killua up to the end of Heaven's Arena) but it was far more effort than I normally would have been willing to give a show.
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Dec 13, 2020 05:15
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The only thing bad about the Chimera Ant arc is that I've watched it, so I can't experience it anew
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Dec 13, 2020 05:23
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Nate RFB posted:The payoff to a lot of stuff is great in Chimera Ant, for both new characters and old arcs started all the way back in the Hunter exam, but it might as well been a completely different show for how it was paced; there was no need IMO to spend a full 10 episodes for Kite/Killua/Gon to run towards the hive only to get cut down unceremoniously (which isn't helped by Kite being just this random dude you've only just gotten to know in the anime as opposed to the first Hunter-related thing you see in the manga) and both the King's selection and the palace invasion are almost comical. I liked that stretch of episodes when they were going after the queen. It had clear, beat-the-clock stakes and a good speckling of fights. For me the pacing falls apart after that. First Gon and Killua explicitly aren't allowed to have adventures, and have to train instead. Then Gon gets his Nen sealed so he really, really can't have adventures. Eventually, he and Killua gets to have adventures, but it's in a completely different country that I don't care about yet, but they're still going to tell me too much about that countries politics. Also this isn't even the main adventure, they're just killing time until Selection Day where they can have the real adventure we've been waiting for.
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Dec 13, 2020 05:24
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oh jay posted:I liked that stretch of episodes when they were going after the queen. It had clear, beat-the-clock stakes and a good speckling of fights. For me the pacing falls apart after that.
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Dec 13, 2020 05:28
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Nate RFB posted:It felt egregious to me in the sense of, "...wait why are there 50 more episodes after this?" being a constant thought throughout it that killed a lot of the stakes for me. Personally, I've never really watched an anime knowing what the main arcs are and how many episodes are in each. Though of course sometimes I know how many episodes there are in total, when watching an already completed series. So the most confused and disappointed I have been on how a stretch of episodes was paced was Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The "Promised Day" began on episode 49 or so and I knew that there were 64 episodes, so my naïve rear end thought that they must beat Father in the next 10 episodes, and there's another 5 episode mini-arc epilogue after that. It never occurred to me that all of that would be one long drawn out sequence, including actual zombies to pad it out even more. I still can't get over those drat zombies!
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Dec 13, 2020 05:46
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Nate RFB posted:there was no need IMO to spend a full 10 episodes for Kite/Killua/Gon to run towards the hive only to get cut down unceremoniously (which isn't helped by Kite being just this random dude you've only just gotten to know in the anime as opposed to the first Hunter-related thing you see in the manga) If you've spent 10 episodes with Kite then I don't think he can be considered "just this random dude" anymore. I've been rewatching Chimera Ant recently and I think people seriously overstate how much omitting Kite from the early episodes of 2011 impacts the story. Like yes, it's kind of lame that a cool long term callback gets changed to a simple flashback that happens right when he's introduced, and he's absolutely important to Gon's character. But to claim changing that aspect suddenly turns Kite into "just some random dude" whose death carries no weight even though we've just spent the last several episodes with him teaching Gon and Killua about being a Hunter and Gon learning more about Ging from one of his closest friends (who Gon had still met beforehand, it's not like they retconned that out) is absurd.
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Dec 13, 2020 05:49
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TriffTshngo posted:If you've spent 10 episodes with Kite then I don't think he can be considered "just this random dude" anymore. I've been rewatching Chimera Ant recently and I think people seriously overstate how much omitting Kite from the early episodes of 2011 impacts the story. Like yes, it's kind of lame that a cool long term callback gets changed to a simple flashback that happens right when he's introduced, and he's absolutely important to Gon's character. But to claim changing that aspect suddenly turns Kite into "just some random dude" whose death carries no weight even though we've just spent the last several episodes with him teaching Gon and Killua about being a Hunter and Gon learning more about Ging from one of his closest friends (who Gon had still met beforehand, it's not like they retconned that out) is absurd. So Kite comes around, is killed for honestly understandable reasons (if you're the ants), far more justified than many of the deaths that Gon has been either nonplussed by or at least only given token anger in response to, and all of sudden THAT is the straw that breaks the camel's back and sends him down the spiraling path. Which I think is interesting! It's a character flaw that you can read from him as a kid in over his head. But I think to really make it work for the perspective of Gon's character, narratively speaking it should have been someone that he (and us) had known longer and seen that attachment grow from the start.
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Dec 13, 2020 20:04
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a lot of hxh was about the negative effects of obsession, which was incredibly interesting because nen is powered by obsession.
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Dec 13, 2020 20:10
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Ok I knew this was going to be a shitshow but I was not prepared for that...scene...with Pokkle and Neferwhatsherface.  Whenever Togashi goes dark he doesn't pull his punches. I've certainly encountered plenty of gruesome content in shonen before, but for some reason it hits extra hard in Hunter x Hunter, enough that it feels more like a violent seinen show sometimes. I think it's the mood whiplash. You'll go from light-hearted fun with Gon and Killua to the Phantom Troupe slaughtering everyone at the auction in graphic, bloody detail. It's pretty jarring.Here's what I don't get about the Chimera Ants: why are they so basic? It's been established that the personalities of the people who are consumed influence the personalities of the resulting Chimera Ants. Therefore, wouldn't you see the same range of personalities in Chimera Ants that you see in humans? But every single Chimera Ant, bar Colt and Peggy, seem only interested in food, power, and tormenting humans. Sure, there are plenty of assholes out there, but there's also people who are kind, or inquisitive, or funny, or...you get the idea. So where are all the Chimera Ants with those traits? I never expected them to empathize with humans, who they regard as livestock, but I'd expect some Chimera Ants to empathize with each other.
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Dec 14, 2020 01:50
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Unfortunately some of them only really get in touch with their humanity after the climax of the arc. The epilogue is basically a series of vignettes of ants relearning how to be human. I agree with you that they're pretty simple, and in that respect it's weird how many of them are explicitly cruel. Peggy, Colt, and Pitou immediately come to mind as loyal soldiers acting purely on instinct but doing horrific things. You contrast these with Rammot and it's like... why is he like that
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Dec 14, 2020 01:59
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For a lot of them it's because they were created from members of the NGL underground drug trade, who were total scumbags.
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Dec 14, 2020 02:09
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chimera ants are predators with predator instincts. when that was combined with newfound sentience and emotions, the vast majority of them embraced the violence that came so naturally. the influence from the original humans came later.
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Dec 14, 2020 02:18
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I don't think you even really need to wait for the epilogue for such changes, the back half of the arc changes things up in such a way that for the plot to proceed numerous ants need to become developed enough that they can serve as prominent supporting or leading characters. It's just the NGL arc where they are basically fastracking human evolution that there's this really offputting incongruity between their various personalities, morals, and actions.
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Dec 14, 2020 02:31
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:chimera ants are predators with predator instincts. when that was combined with newfound sentience and emotions, the vast majority of them embraced the violence that came so naturally. the influence from the original humans came later. Pretty much. They're predator's , it's not weird they mostly default to that behaviour.
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Dec 14, 2020 03:05
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TriffTshngo posted:For a lot of them it's because they were created from members of the NGL underground drug trade, who were total scumbags. This is how I read it. You're basically implanting mafia personalities into hyper aggressive monsters.
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Dec 14, 2020 04:19
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AlternateNu posted:This is how I read it. You're basically implanting mafia personalities into hyper aggressive monsters. Rather funny that animals were acting like Mafia when the previous arc with Mafia had their nen users trying to emulate animals.
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Dec 14, 2020 20:35
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Chimera Ant has the defining HxH moment of A dude being about to punch a cat woman *cut to 20min long flashback covering exactly how strong dude is and his entire strength journey and all the ridiculous abilities he uncovers over time all the way up until his current absurd state* Dude punches cat woman
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Dec 15, 2020 14:01
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Ngl I feel like the Gyro flashback is peak Hunter x Hunter in terms of absurd self-indulgence (that, to clarify, I am all about) but having a whole rear end flashback for Netero going loving batshit and learning how to move at the speed of sound because he pray-punched hard/long enough that was purely coincidental is a good pick ...how old is Netero, anyway.
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Dec 15, 2020 16:13
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I think Netero was 110
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Dec 15, 2020 16:17
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i forget his age in chimera ant arc other than "over 110 years old" but he's like 46 when he first figures out nen
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Dec 15, 2020 16:19
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Silva mentioned how he's been an old geezer for 3 generations of Zoldyck patriarchs. He got up to 60 years old and then decided to stop aging for the next 60 years or so. So over 110 definitely scans.
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Dec 15, 2020 17:12
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The random asides do slow down and interrupt the pace of storytelling but they provide so much background information that makes people think and talk about the setting *checks calendar* almost a decade later
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Dec 15, 2020 21:10
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oh jay posted:Silva mentioned how he's been an old geezer for 3 generations of Zoldyck patriarchs. He got up to 60 years old and then decided to stop aging for the next 60 years or so. So over 110 definitely scans. I definitely remember a flashback to Zeno as a baby and Netero already looks pretty old. Given that Zeno is probably ~70. Also the flashback to Netero aged like 50 flashes back to a dojo that is really a turn of the century or earlier kinda aesthetic. So I think at a minimum it's 140 or so. He old.
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Dec 15, 2020 21:50
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Eej posted:The random asides do slow down and interrupt the pace of storytelling but they provide so much background information that makes people think and talk about the setting *checks calendar* almost a decade later People still discuss the Lost finale. Sparking discussion doesn't automatically = good.
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Dec 16, 2020 04:03
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Started a rewatch with the upcoming holiday free time, just finished Heaven's Arena. Hisoka is such a great character.
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Dec 20, 2020 20:52
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Plutotv has most if not all the episodes on demand, for free and not have to sign up for anything. It’s real limited what they have anime wise on demand but they got hunter x hunter. And a 24/7 American gladiators channel. Edit: Subs only I think? superloosegoose fucked around with this message at 14:51 on Dec 21, 2020 |
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Dec 20, 2020 23:37
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| # ? May 29, 2024 03:21 |
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I watched the original anime way back when, the one that went through the Greed Island arc. I'm watching the new-er stuff on Netflix now, and am in the middle of the Heaven's Tower arc. I'm just curious, because I know the manga has progressed really far beyond the GI arc, which is the last thing I know of (other than there are ants or something later?) - does Battle Olympia ever come up again? They keep dropping that and I'm wondering if that's ever going to come back for a giant tournament arc.
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Dec 23, 2020 19:14
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