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Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Hunter x Hunter


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PBsallad



Joined: 19 Dec 2009
Posts: 338
Location: Phoenix
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 12:14 am Reply with quote
Just started reading Hunter x Hunter, thanks to Viz Manga (coincidence this article comes up shortly after it gets added?). I was also in the process of writing a review of the first volume myself. But I procrastinate too much and it'll probably never get finished.

Good article Jason. Glad the series will have some more interesting adventures in future volumes. Bought volume 2 a few days ago but haven't started reading it yet.

Jason Thompson wrote:
Leorio quickly fades into a side character to make more room for them.

Kind of dissapointed to find out Leorio isn't used much. Not surprised though. In the first volume I got a feeling that would be happen. But I still liked him and hoped more would come of him.
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snickersnack



Joined: 22 Mar 2011
Posts: 34
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 12:36 am Reply with quote
Wow, I never would have guessed that Hisoka's glowing crotch in the anime ending was straight from the manga.

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Thatguy3331



Joined: 18 Feb 2012
Posts: 1790
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 1:15 am Reply with quote
PBsallad wrote:


Jason Thompson wrote:
Leorio quickly fades into a side character to make more room for them.

Kind of dissapointed to find out Leorio isn't used much. Not surprised though. In the first volume I got a feeling that would be happen. But I still liked him and hoped more would come of him.


Well on the plus side, he makes a explosive return, although its a good while from after the chimera ants and GI and its fairly brief. still, there's always hope for this next arc, which I cling to because he's one of my favorite chars.

will make a full post later.
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Bob from Accounting



Joined: 14 Mar 2012
Posts: 93
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 2:29 am Reply with quote
Thatguy3331 wrote:
he makes a explosive return


Oh hell yeah he does.

Hunter x Hunter is my favourite shonen adventure manga. Hell, it's one of my favourite manga full stop. I love it so much, so it's been a delight reading this article that goes into such depth about why it's so brilliant.
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Raikuro



Joined: 22 Feb 2009
Posts: 347
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 2:30 am Reply with quote
Quote wrote:
it's been recently re-adapted into a new TV anime, 14 years after the first one was canceled.

The first TV series wasn't canceled until 2001.
Quote:
Greed Island, a special game made only for Hunters, created by Ging's father himself!

Um...
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 2:45 am Reply with quote
Raikuro wrote:
Quote wrote:
it's been recently re-adapted into a new TV anime, 14 years after the first one was canceled.

The first TV series wasn't canceled until 2001.

I wouldn't even say it was "cancelled". It adapted all the material that there was available and then stopped. I suppose it could have gone into filler hell, but that just doesn't seem right for HxH. After there was more content, 3 different OVA series comprising 30 episodes in total were eventually made.
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 2:53 am Reply with quote
Quote:
as for Takeuchi, she works occasionally as his assistant and colorist, arguably a comedown for the creator of Sailor Moon, to become merely the Lynn Varley to his Frank Miller, but they sure make beautiful manga together.

I think she's one of those people who was ruined by success. Sailor Moon blew up her brain.

Megiddo wrote:
Raikuro wrote:
Quote wrote:
it's been recently re-adapted into a new TV anime, 14 years after the first one was canceled.

The first TV series wasn't canceled until 2001.

I wouldn't even say it was "cancelled". It adapted all the material that there was available and then stopped. I suppose it could have gone into filler hell, but that just doesn't seem right for HxH.

There was a significant amount of original material in the first TV adaptation, though. It was just spread out instead of dumped down in lumps. It was also at the least decent and often good.
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Raikuro



Joined: 22 Feb 2009
Posts: 347
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 2:57 am Reply with quote
I was just wondering where he got the 14 from. It barely been 14 years since the manga first premiered.
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sainta



Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Posts: 989
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:20 am Reply with quote
Thatguy3331 wrote:
PBsallad wrote:


Jason Thompson wrote:
Leorio quickly fades into a side character to make more room for them.

Kind of dissapointed to find out Leorio isn't used much. Not surprised though. In the first volume I got a feeling that would be happen. But I still liked him and hoped more would come of him.


Well on the plus side, he makes a explosive return, although its a good while from after the chimera ants and GI and its fairly brief. still, there's always hope for this next arc, which I cling to because he's one of my favorite chars.

will make a full post later.

At least he returns and does not have his story unfinished like Kurapica.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15279
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:46 am Reply with quote
Killua apparently likes hip hop. Laughing
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outlawwolf



Joined: 25 Dec 2004
Posts: 645
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:21 am Reply with quote
I really liked HunterxHunter, but the ending of the Chimera Ant arc was so sudden and so insulting after waiting such a long time that I just couldn't bring myself to care anymore. Seriously, reading HunterxHunter could cure cancer and I wouldn't care to read it after that shitshow.
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Thatguy3331



Joined: 18 Feb 2012
Posts: 1790
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 8:26 am Reply with quote
Now then, Hunter x Hunter! one of my top 3 ongoing manga's of all time above one piece but below beelzebub( I'm a comedy person, and I personally think Beelzebub is funnier than both, besides Gash bell trupms them all for me XP )

I have to say that I've heard of it for a while but didn't really get into it until recently when it was announced his latest hiatus was ending accompanied by the new anime. I think what sold this manga for me was the subversions of everything. it was such a different piece of work from usual shonen works I've seen and I've acctually grown to like the characters instead of care halfway about them or only caring when their injured (and hell when they get injured they're f***ing inured.) while there is no replacement of one piece for me as one piece is one piece and hunter x hunter is hunter x hunter no matter what (as well as all other series I like) I feel hunter x hunter makes things a tad bit more realistic (as realistic as boys smashing rocks and shooting electricity will ever be) to the adventure tone, yet isn't so freaking insulting with it *cough**cough*medakabox*cough**cough* its all around fun to read.

outlawwolf wrote:
I really liked HunterxHunter, but the ending of the Chimera Ant arc was so sudden and so insulting after waiting such a long time that I just couldn't bring myself to care anymore. Seriously, reading HunterxHunter could cure cancer and I wouldn't care to read it after that shitshow.


Yeah I do see alot of this and HxH is overall a VERY trollish manga, though to be honest this was acctually my favorite arc. to me it sort of meshes everything I've enjoyed about the series thus far and added spoiler[the humization of the ant king] while having some great fights, character development between gon and killua, some great togashi style humor and of course, their break in. that was probably the best part.

of course its only my opinion on it but still.

I have to say I liked it alot better than the previous G.I. and yorkshin. now don't get me wrong, york shin was another of my favorite arcs but it was pretty kurapika centric with gon and killua being in the back burner and literally nothing happening with leorio. Then we have greed island where its just gon and killua, and maybe I'll like the new anime's version of this better, but I just found it annoying haveing to memorize all those freaking cards rules and such. maybe some I could have ignored and maybe like the arc better for but still. to me no arc beat puzzles like the hunter exam, which is still one of my favorte arcs because the characters really didn't get that much of a break.
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Bob from Accounting



Joined: 14 Mar 2012
Posts: 93
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:23 am Reply with quote
outlawwolf wrote:
I really liked HunterxHunter, but the ending of the Chimera Ant arc was so sudden and so insulting after waiting such a long time that I just couldn't bring myself to care anymore. Seriously, reading HunterxHunter could cure cancer and I wouldn't care to read it after that shitshow.


Really? I thought that he manged to pull off a pretty damn good ending. It went some way to make up for the extremely draggy middle (but not quite). And the arc that followed was gold.
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Mr. Toto



Joined: 10 Jul 2006
Posts: 139
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:54 am Reply with quote
This was a good article, but I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't much discussion on the emphasis on the human mind throughout the work. For a shonen series, there's surprisingly little fighting and a larger focus on thought processes. HxH's battles are largely won through strategy and careful planning. The word "Nen" itself is supposed to be evocative of the mind and consciousness. The series is also surprisingly heavily rooted in both psychology and philosophical theory. Togashi takes major influence from both of these fields.

Much of the fun of the series comes from watching Gon experience the nature of the world for the first time. Hunter x Hunter initially posits itself as a story of a boy trying to meet his dad, but it's actually a coming-of-age story--a somewhat atypical one for the genre (though this is intentional). You're somewhat right in saying that "Hunter X Hunter is about Gon's simple optimism vs. the evil conniving folks he encounters," but it's a bit grander than that. Gon is based upon the most popular Shonen archetypal protagonists before him, but representative of childhood: its naivete, helplessness, ignorance, and general innocence. Gon's immaturity is manifest through these traits and a gradually increasing desire for power after realizing his own weakness, becoming fervent and blatantly Machiavellian in later arcs--to Gon, power equals having grown up. It doesn't help that he literally sees himself as an adult and is in a field of work wherein children are nonexistent. So if Gon is "childhood," his enemies aren't supposed to be seen as "evil": they're emblematic of the "dark" side of adulthood that corrupts innocence.

The corruption of children is something often alluded towards throughout the work: most of the protagonists and antagonists underwent a severely traumatic situation that ended up forcing them to grow up at a young age (usually, 12). Kurapika, Leorio, Gyro, the Phantom Troupe, etc. The progression of Hunter x Hunter is interesting because you follow alongside as this happens to its central protagonist.

The duality between "good" and "evil" is a major part of the work too. You make mention of "bad guys" and "evil conniving folks" in your article, but you don't also mention that the protagonists also strongly exhibit some of the same traits. There are several parallels between the actions of supposed protagonists and antagonists throughout that point towards their similarities. The following quote sort of encompasses what I'm talking about:

"There are no principles; there are only events. There is no good and bad, there are only circumstances."


This is what I've found after reading the series. The protagonist, Gon, is made entirely amoral as a result of his curiosity always taking precedence over anything else. Togashi does a very good job of distracting his readers from picking up on this through subtle dialogue choices and doesn't explicitly state it until the Yorknew City arc. Gon's drive for power isn't written about in a positive light; his flaws are significant and portrayed as self-destructive as a result of his purity. On the other side of the coin, characters whom are supposed to be "villains" also exhibit traits opposite from what one would expect.

One more thing is that you mention that Hunter x Hunter's arcs seem to be reminiscent of other popular series, but I'm pretty certain that this is entirely intentional. Togashi tries to filter the cliches of shonen through a logical and rational approach. He's trying to seriously examine his characters and what drives them (often a psychological disorder, presented in textbook fashion), as opposed to the shallow characterization present in most shonen manga.


Last edited by Mr. Toto on Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:11 am; edited 1 time in total
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ptolemy18
Manga Reviewer/Creator/Taster


Joined: 07 May 2005
Posts: 357
Location: San Francisco
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:08 am Reply with quote
Raikuro wrote:
Quote wrote:
it's been recently re-adapted into a new TV anime, 14 years after the first one was canceled.

The first TV series wasn't canceled until 2001.


Agggh! Typo, sorry!

Quote:

Quote:
Greed Island, a special game made only for Hunters, created by Ging's father himself!

Um...


Agggh! Double typo! I meant "Ging, Gon's father," of course.

I would change these in the article itself, but to do so would require me and every ANN staffer to get 50 lashes. Thanks for pointing them out so the corrections are in the forum at least.


Last edited by ptolemy18 on Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:14 am; edited 1 time in total
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