Here’s the strange thing with this series: at first you’d think that they’d try to rush through the first material Brotherhood-style in order to get to the new parts… only for the pacing to slow down significantly afterwards. This episode? It was just about Gon and Killua playing a game with the hunter exam chief. With this pacing, I assume that the creators are aiming to make every episode significantly different from the other, so that every week will be a different experience. Or at least that seems to be the plan until the arcs get longer.
The result is a bit strange. In this way, some chapters are rushed through (most notably this is what happened last week, but also the first episode had this), while others really take their time, like this one. I mean, next week will be completely different, and this episode just consisted out of the characters killing time before it happens. Less than 50% of the episode was spent on some very good characterization. The rest, more than 10 minutes, was spent on a simple game. If the creators wanted, they could have done this in about half an episode by clever cutting and pasting, however I do like the charms of this episode. Building up is always tricky to not drag on, but this episode had a very nice “calm before the storm”-atmosphere that is very different from the norm.
The standout point of this episode however was near the end, when Killua gave up and ran into those two guys. That was the proof that the creators have no intention to tone down the gore in this series and are not afraid at all to make it dive into the darker parts of the story. Now, all that I want to see is hints that they also plan the same with the dialogue. Meticulously detailed dialogue is pretty much a requirement for the Yorkshin arc.
Rating: * (Good)]]>
Hunter X Hunter – 07
I’m really glad they kept the part with Killua and the two guys there at the end, because it’s small bits like those that really differentiate the manga Killua and the old anime’s Killua (where both had great characterization, but were vastly different).
You say that they don’t plan to tone down the gore, but in the manga it was much much much much worse, i.e. killuah cut their heads in half and brains were oozing out of the skulls on the floor.
well, at least there was at least some splashes of blood…
Also I really hate this kurapica – I mean, seriously, he’s like a foot tall, he looks too much like a dude, his haircut is horrible, and his voice is too deep for me.
Otherwise, this show is entertaining i guess
I’m just sad that the chimera arc is probably going to be 100x worse due to the lack of eating brains out of skulls like soup and prevalent limb amputations…
Huh what? Kurapika IS a dude, and he is actually voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro,, so the exact opposite of what you said…
I liked this ep anyway, Im glad they know this is a fighting anime first so they make the fight scenes much longer and shorten the other stuff we dont care about
I liked this episode more than the last one. Well it had a lot of Killua and Gon. I also think the episode did a good job exploring their characterization further during the game with the exam chief (but also the ending with Killua).
Although what Killua said about his family being assassins told us something about his character. His reaction to losing the game and what he did to those two hunter contestants said even more.
It’s episodes like this one that make me think that this adaptation’s staff definitely know what they’re doing as far as pacing and content goes (despite what all the haters seem to believe).
At this point, the only advantage the last HxH has over this one for me is that it spent more time fleshing out various things through filler episodes and the like.
Whether people want to admit it or not though, the original HxH anime ultimately screwed itself over because it spent too much time pacing itself and not enough time advancing the story. In particular, I felt the arc involving Killua’s family could have lost 3/4 of its running time and still been effective.
This new series has proven that it can balance pacing and content and even throw in the important bits of character development that the original series had in spades. Lets see how things play out from here! 😀
During this week I marathoned the whole old series. It cannot be topped, I’m positive about it.
Animation actually looks worse in the new one. Plain solid surfaces, less details, shading non-existant, just look at the four pics here. Compare Netero with this one: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/11/snapshot20111114025248b.jpg/
@frost: I meant that he is too masculine. His features are supposed to be androgynous.
I found it a bit wierd that KIllua went ‘Wahhh’ at the city lights below, since his family owns private jets, he’s rich, and has seen these type of views many times before. Is his characterization a bit off?
@Gabest: That’s more of a new anime vs old anime. The shading is flatter in most anime nowadays.
I do agree that the old one had better animation so far though. I remember it to have very consistent animation with minimal static scenes.
Not that the new one has bad animation. It can get very fluid when it wants to and it has a couple of cool scenes in every ep. Too bad that for every cool one it has a couple of static ones.
Anyway. We’ll see.
They had to have that scene in with the old man the way they did, as the manga makes a huge parallel with this way later on. But its something to take note to remember with this episode.
@farank bell: I know what you mean about those parallels. When I watched this episode, I immediately made the connection. Very sly of Togashi.
@Mira and Psgels
Actually, there’s another parallel that you’re supposed to take note of in this episode. Remember how back in episode 3, Hisoka removed a man’s arms for bumping into him? In this episode, Killua murders two men for doing the same. You’re supposed to wonder if Killua is really any that different from Hisoka.