Board 8 > seabassdebeste watches hunter x hunter 2011 (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

El oh el
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thanks! didn't get a chance to watch last night because internet was having issues.
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Episodes 60-61

Recap: Gon and Killua, after training, pass the Nen test and enter Greed Island. Killua gets zapped by a tracking spell, and Gon declines an invitation for the pair to join a Guild.

Lots of infodump these episodes to set the scene for the action to come, so not al ong writeup.

Like I said, it's kind of hilarious how we find out we've been epic-trolled by Ging the moment Gon enters the game. It does put a limit to my enthusiasm for the arc - I don't need to see immediate progress on Gon's quest to find Ging (and was fine tabling it entirely during the Phantom Troupe arc). But for this particular arc, this is Gon's only clue, and it sucks that it's stated to be a dead end. (I guess we can be surprised later, but I have my doubts.)

Greed Island as a setting looks fun. Love the rando neko NPC chef who's impressed by G/K's eating prowess. I'm not sure how well-conceived the card system is yet - like Nen, it feels like a framework that was put together spur-of-the-moment by the author and will be kind of vaguely filled in. But so far, it hasn't painted itself into any corner, so we might as well be optimistic about it. It's fun watching characters have access to powers that they don't always have.

The girl following G/K is super-excited about their relationship. Killua's eyes get super-watery when Gon says he's lucky to have Killua as a friend. "Such a beautiful thing, the friendly innocence of two boys." D'aww.

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* I loved Kurapika leaving early. I also always like it when Melody compliments someone else's heartbeat, or footsteps. Earlier, she told Killua that he had the quietest footsteps she'd ever heard. Here, Leorio would be a good doctor/teacher. #wholesomemelody

* That gigantic-underbite redshirt who claims that no one lined up will pass the exam... lol.
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"I passed the Hunter Exam forty years ago" GODDAMMIT JAPAN
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Everyone loves little girls acting like adults.
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Episode 62

Recap: Gon and Killua win a rock-paper-scissors tourney to get the SWORD OF TRUTH, but it's promptly stolen from them by a gang. Vowing to protect themselves, they set off for a town where they might find some defensive Spells, passing through bandits (who just want some money and clothes, man) and monsters (including some giant ogres) until finally they become the students of Biscuit Krueger (...)

Gon and Killua are such a great pair, and the most surprising part of this dynamic is Killua's wholehearted acceptance of Gon. While he is cunning, Gon is obviously far more idealistic than Killua - but Killua, while grumbling at times, never begrudges his friend that viewpoint. It's great.

The pairing also works because hyper-talented though they are, they're still kids. Here, G/K easily stop the one dude trying to steal their card, but recognize how badly they're outgunned by the gang. When they go on to the RPG portion, they're actually very hit-or-miss versus the array of monsters that assail them. They're able to HIT THE WEAK SPOT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE, but they also get chased around by what looks like a FROG IN WAITING. They're still too inexperienced to remember to use Gyo, even when it seems obvious that by default you should be using Gyo to suss out your enemies - so you can believe it wholeheartedly that they'll accept help from Biscuit.

I cracked up at everything about the bandits. The net effect of G/K's sojourn with them is that they got robbed - literally giving up the clothes off their back. They wind up feeling bad (as who wouldn't expect a reward in an RPG for helping the sick people?!) but it's a hilarious subversion of the bandits who rob them by force.

On the flip side of things, we get to see Shalnark's strategy. The guy is always smiling, and his delight is contagious. Here, he's excited to be establishing the rules of the place - for example, that Kotopi can't replicate a working copy of a restricted card, or that NPCs will respond mechanically to unexpected questions, or that Nen cannot be used to harvest cards, or that the players' bodies must be in a real-world location (based on some clear hints). His decision - to get the God Eye card. I love it.

Meanwhile, Feitan and Phinks's strategy is to kill lots of dudes. The contrast is really amusing.

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* the loli is actually 60 years old god damn it japan

* She's aight though. I like her SWEARING VENGEANCE FOR THIS GREAT HUMILIATION - the great crime of being told "no thanks" for her offer to accompany the duo.

* Really like that Gon learned his lesson - when the scrub pulls out his Book at the start of the episode, Gon immediately responds by bringing out his own as well - it's a bluff that his opponent sees through, but it shows Gon is learning.

* It's subtle, but Shizuku got dat ass.
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where everyone at
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Waiting for updates
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I'm still reading, but I don't have a lot to say about Greed Island. I'm on this ride for the next arc
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well ok then

guess i'll just power through too then!
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I don't mean to imply that you should rush through it. Take your time and enjoy! There's a lot of fun in Greed Island as well. I just don't remember it well enough to say much.
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Episodes 63-64

Recap: Under Biscuit's tutorial, Killua and Gon beat up on a serial killer, but up rocks, become better about using Gyo, and formalize the techniques of Ko and Ken. Meanwhile, other parties also gather.

Glad to see these episodes here. I think that it sounds pretty corny a lot of the time when the kids state exactly what they're doing during training, but I probably can't afford to be too nitpicky here - at least they're showing it. That serial killer is a painful opponent - he doesn't hit cleanly once, and within a matter of days, G/K are just way above his level, and his character design is miserable (especially as a kid).

The digging is the best part. Super-old-school, clear progression why this makes them stronger, room for error, no need to come up with a patsy opponent, room to discover specific technique with Nen to increase speed.

Also super-fun - when G/K are getting good enough at Gyo that they can instantly identify when Biscuit is showing a Nen number. The loser of the race to identify it is supposed to do a thousand pushups, which they dread... until they start tying every time. After this, the duo is so bummed that there's no winner/loser that they just play rock-paper-scissors, and have the loser do a thousand pushups. Love their enthusiasm for training - that's what this is about.

I appreciate the nod to the idea that Greed Island is basically an idealized training ground.

Three months pass in the flash of an eye and I am ready for some plot!

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* The loli thing is that much more annoying since Ging is depicted as looking around his age.

* Another Condition has been revealed - the Bomber's. And his small tribe is smart enough to take people into real life to kill them before getting their rings.

* Four Troupe members are approaching from outside Greed Island, proving Shalnark's hypothesis correct - hype!

* FISTFUL OF GUNPOWDER - LITTLE FLOWER... SECOND OF LIFE - COUNTDOWN
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woo almost forgot to bump this

I think Greed Island is a bit slower of an arc and works fine taking your time.
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On the contrary, I often push through slow arcs swaths of episodes at a time. The bigger constraint has been that I've been watching a lot of Supernatural lately.
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I've seen that compared to Buffy a lot. How good is it
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I watched Supernatural starting relatively early on, before Buffy.

During the myth arc of Supernatural, which spans the early seasons, it's comparable to B/A in terms of really strong story arcs, the mix of MOTW/mythology advancement, humor, and creative unique one-off episodes. In its two best seasons, which cap off the myth arc, I'd say the episode-to-episode quality is better than Buffy's, and the dynamic between the main characters is at its absolute best. I'd highly recommend watching those seasons (and while I won't spoil where the myth arc ends, it should be fairly obvious, IMO).

Since then it's been past its prime and incredibly sloppy - especially with consistency in mythology - and but I don't let these seasons (which still have good occasional runs and usually really good finales) taint the earlier ones.

Supernatural has some of my favorite "Previously on" segments ever, particularly the finales.

Buffy is way above Supernatural as a whole in its dialogue, characters, and grand themes, which are really important to me.
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internet last night was very uncooperative, so no progress :(
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no one should be subjected to bad internet
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Supernatural I would say varies wildly in how good it is season to season

Its best episodes are phenomenal (on par with some of the best of Buffy), and while almost nothing (except a few episodes in season 1) gets to 'the worst of Buffy' levels of bad, it tends to drag on the badness over long stretches of time instead of just being a couple episodes. It so far has always managed to bring it back though.

Its biggest fault is probably that it suffers from modern CW-itis though, in that status quo is god to an actually ludicrous degree. Huge, potentially game changing things happen and then its back to the status quo after a single episode 99% of the time.

I'll definitely add to my must watch list after I get through angel.

S4 has been really tough to get through though
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yeah, by far the worst buffyverse season. S5 might be the best buffyverse season, though, so push hard!
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SeabassDebeste with the correct opinions up on here
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always

also, still having uncooperative internet, will update when i do manage an episode :/
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I don't know he didn't appreciate yorknew as much as I do.

But it's ok to be wrong sometimes.
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i think i'll get through a slew tomorrow and have writeups to go by sunday or monday

but i've been wrong before
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Up
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O_O
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Episodes 65-70

Recap: Killua gets his Hunter's License rather cruelly. Gon and Killua wrap up their training and turn their attention toward collecting cards. With the Bomber going crazy, several Greed Island parties join forces to stop him from winning the game, but an area requiring fifteen crew members is very difficult to overcome. G/K eventually recruit Hisoka, who's been playing using Chrollo's name, and now we're balls-deep in a pretty intense volleyball game, where Gon has just unveiled his full-powered Janken-Ko.

One of the best parts about Hunter x Hunter is the reasonable takes for everyone. Bisky forces G/K to train hard, but she's still focused on winning the game - very willing to turn her attention toward card-collecting when the time comes. And, when shit gets real, she's ready to throw down. When Gon learns about the bomber, he wants to visit the camp that the bomber wrecked... Bisky tries to deter him, citing logical reasons, but then also finds justification.

We've moved forward a lot in plot, but I really like the quick scenes of Gon and Killua racking up cards one after another. The best of course is when they return to the bandit clan to get their card, after they'd sacrificed their clothes and money previously. Monopolizing the Leave card is also a clever ploy.

Razor is fucking fantastic. He seems to bear no one any ill will, but he's a violent brute who doesn't remotely mind the risk of killing someone in the name of the game. How about Ging the shit father too, just happy to let his bro Razor kill his son. Guy's old-school sink-or-swim.

I'm getting the sense that this battle, to claim the Patch of Shore card, will represent the end of the arc in some sense. HxH thus far has avoided seeing arcs to their bitter, thorough conclusions. The Hunter Exam ended with Gon not having to win a fight. Killua just got let go by his parents in the Zoldyck part. Gon didn't push it with the Heaven's Tower, but rather was satisfied by returning Hisoka's badge. And there was no genocide of the Spiders - Kurapika actually orchestrated a deliberate short-circuiting of the arc by capturing Chrollo and turning the Troupe agianst one another temporarily.

Which is to say... Gon and Killua are highly unlikely to clear the game, and I don't think they'll be the ones to kill the bomber, either. It will probably be sufficient to stop the bomber from winning the game by monopolizing Patch of Shore (as another team leader already mentioned).
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* Of course everyone runs into Hisoka naked. And can't stop staring at his dong. Then Hisoka is very noticeably checking out their asses, to the point where they demand that he walk in front. What the fuck is this character, man.

* BTW, what exactly is Hisoka's endgame here? Everyone's convinced he's lying about just looking to restore Chrollo's Nen. And it's been buried since he deceived the absolute shit out of Killua (way to forget to use Gyo, mate...)

* I do like his hair when it's more "au naturel" though.

* The bomber is bland and cliche as an enemy, and that's mainly okay. His ability is kinda neat and he looks cool, so I don't need too much else from him.

* Kind of hard to believe that no one in an entire year's worth of Hunter recruits can even stand up to Killua... the previous year had Hisoka and ninja-boy and Illumi.

* I liked the eventual exchange of information among team leads (with Killua realizing that now he and Gon are finally in position to demand that others prove themselves worthy to them). Not so much a fan of the girl whose only purpose was to jiggle her boobs every time she spoke.

* We're randomly introduced to the Risky Dice here and they play a huge role for like an episode (enabling card thievery, massive payouts at casinos, and sudden death). Killua's micro-addiction to gambling is funny, but WTF is this in lore-world?!

* Bisky is solid and basically just a loli version of Wing. She won't affect plot (as evidenced when she loses the match but doesn't get injured like the others) and is purely there as support. That's not awful for her as a character, but it does mean she's not gonna be particularly compelling.

* The "City of Love" has a bunch of clumsy-girl trope storylines. Very amusing.

* Some of the sports contests are cool and ridiculously stupid. The new guy that G/K bring in to box is an in-fighter, like Ippo, which is great... meanwhile, one of the contests is, er, making a free throw.

* In one of the Greed Island Tutorial bits at the end of the credits, chibi-Gon tells chibi-Killua, "You can see inside my binder whenever you want." Let's keep this show PG-13, man!
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SeabassDebeste posted...

Killua gets his Hunter's License rather cruelly.

Hey man at least that year didn't have a body count
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SeabassDebeste posted...

* Kind of hard to believe that no one in an entire year's worth of Hunter recruits can even stand up to Killua... the previous year had Hisoka and ninja-boy and Illumi.

To be fair, Killua now knows Nen. That's a pretty massive advantage. And even before Nen, I think Hisoka and Illumi would have been the only ones stronger than him the first go-around!
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True! But that class was 4x the size of Gon's, and no one got a license at all. Even assuming that you have a few exceptions in Gon's year, you'd still expect like 20 new Hunters that year!
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xp1337 posted...

And even before Nen, I think Hisoka and Illumi would have been the only ones stronger than him the first go-around!

We don't really know what Hanzo was capable of.
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pjbasis posted...

xp1337 posted...

And even before Nen, I think Hisoka and Illumi would have been the only ones stronger than him the first go-around!

We don't really know what Hanzo was capable of.

That's why I said I think!

i am by no means claiming authority here
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I think it's implied that Hanzo learned Nen at the same time G/K learned it - he's shown in a montage training.
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I spent last night finishing S13 of Supernatural.

SeabassDebeste posted...

Which is to say... Gon and Killua are highly unlikely to clear the game, and I don't think they'll be the ones to kill the bomber, either. It will probably be sufficient to stop the bomber from winning the game by monopolizing Patch of Shore (as another team leader already mentioned).

never been so glad to be wrong
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shype
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Episode 71-72

Recap: Gon, Killua, and Hisoka use teamwork to overcome Razor's strongest attack, and they defeat him after Gon passes out in exertion. Having earned Patch of Shore, G/K are quickly contacted by the Bomber. Tsezgerra offers to stall for three weeks in exchange for Card #75, while Gon trains and Killua schemes on how to defeat Genthru. The hunt is on between Genthru and Tzesgerra, and we find that Genthru has killed the old guy paying the prize money for beating the the game.

Okay, so was the bomber never playing for the prize money or did he just do this to get rid of the guards, or what? Feels like a dumb villainous move just for the sake of being villanous.

I continue to enjoy Gon's concessions to practicality. We're talking about the guy who will only punch the ball if he gets to break his best friend's hands, or will decline to win against Razor unless he's passed out. He's predictably all-fucking-in on taking down Genthru (and stupidly blurts out his name in anger), but he accepts Tsezgerra's deal proposal that lets him scheme and train ahead of time. I also like that for a change, he doesn't take immediately to his training. Bisky tries to advance Gon's Emitting skill from "Level 1" to "Level 5" in one go, but three weeks just doesn't seem to be quite enough time - and thus far, we aren't there yet. Should be interesting to see what Killua comes up with.

Watching hunters' strategy is always fun. On Greed Island, it's obvious that while fighting and Nen are powerful, having the right cards is a massive advantage. The guerilla tactics that Team Tsezgerra employs early on are successful because they have a greater supply of Accompany and Leave cards. So when Team Bomber finally mobilizes, their first course of action is to establish superiority in mobility - followed by a reversal of the cat-and-mouse game. Our big advantage is that Genthru underestimates the hell out of Gon. How much longer will he have that edge?

We've moved past it now, but the end of that match is fantastic, weird-ass Killua sandwich included. All three of G/K and Hisoka are needed to withstand Razor's smash; Gon goes full SSJ3 (including his body being unable to handle the strain); Hisoka deals a finishing blow purely for ego. Really nice spectacle, and it's almost weird that it happens at the beginning of the episode, feeling anticlimactic.

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* Ging really is a shit father, lmao. But he seemed like a real redeeming force in Razor's life.

* Bisky's coveted Nen ability is... a nurse. Killua facepalms hard, but isn't this actually very useful for healing his hands? In any case she isn't hooking him up with the cure. Also, the two of them are bonding during Gon's training - cute.

* There are some people, like Bisky or Killua, who lie only for obvious gain. And then there's Hisoka... who lies for no reason at all.
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SeabassDebeste posted...

Ging really is a s*** father, lmao

Worst part about the show tbh. Also Genthru sucks.
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I find it a bit strange how often you talk about Ging in your writeups, even when the episodes aren't really about him (like during the Yorknew Arc)
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I don't think it's uncommon. He's that super mysterious premise character, the macguffin of the central thread.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

I find it a bit strange how often you talk about Ging in your writeups, even when the episodes aren't really about him (like during the Yorknew Arc)

I did a Ctrl+F for " Ging" and I don't see any mentions between 38 (Whale Island, explicitly about Ging) and 59 (where I mention that Greed Island won't give any Ging-clues.)

After Gon beats Razor, Razor talks about Ging, which is why I mentioned him.
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Haha, must've just been the one time I noticed, sorry.
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Episodes 73-74

Recap: Tsezgerra has dropped from the game, but he's left one pack mule on his behalf. Team Gon takes on Team Bomber and isolates the three, resulting in victory on all fronts - bloody, but not fatal - and Gon taking Genthru's cards. With the money assured via the game-runner's backing out, Tsezgerra's boy gives the rest of his cards to Gon, and a hunt for Card 00 gets underway - with every remaining player in contention.

I don't know that having Gon go one-on-one with Genthru makes a lot of sense. Killua and Bisky handle their marks ridiculously easily - with Killua literally toying with his, and Bisky unleashing some serious muscles. Three-on-three would probably have been both safer and smarter. (The guy Killua fights is stated to be strong - but just look at his character design. Can't outrun generic genetics.)

But it's cool watching Gon's training pay off - the use of targeted Gyo to protect his body and inflict damage; the janken strike (which has way too many words in its incantation), the general growing mastery of Nen. He gets to demonstrate his trademark willpower - again his willingness to die before giving up the cards, thus denying Genthru a win. Entertainingly Gon also gets to display some arrogance and genuine mean spirit - he deviates from the plan to take a gamble and lets his arm get blown off just so he can kick Genthru in the face - looking like a true monster - then, even after Genthru surrenders, he decides to obliterate his insides to make use feel really good.

We're given a treatise on the way Team Gon sees human life with the healing (including the wonderful answer to how Killua is more deserving of life than the bombers: "I like you, and I hate their guts!") Even the bomber gets some (unnecessary but kinda nice) redemption when he begs that his partner be healed first. You can see why the archangel's grace is so coveted.

This last phase looks totally different, and I anticipate the arc to end within the next two episodes. Hype?

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* More great tactics: camping the starting point.

* Not that I disliked kawaii Bisky-chan, but this would have been a hilariously fun character design to hang with as the mentor.

* The Troupe has discovered their mark. Yay.

* Battera tells a sob story that doesn't add a lot, but it's sweet when he mentions that his love rejects all of his costly gifts - keeping only the picture frame that he made himself.
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Bomber
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I figure Gon would have demanded he go 1v1 on genthru.
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genthru worst villain, but perfect for the arc
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Gon letting his arm get blown off solidified him as a badass imo. I don't care how cutesy and kiddy he is at the start of the series. By now, he's a maniac
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but whats great is that it always feels like gon. him doing that is totally in character after seeing that stunt he pulled against hanzo
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