Digimon Xros Wars – Toki wo Kakeru Shounen Hunter
Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets a digimon for himself.
I keep hoping for the good kiddie shows to come back, but after Nippon Animation’s demise and how bad the sales were on the WMT revival series, I’ve pretty much given up. This episodes introduces a new low for the digimon franchise. Before, you could still give it credit for originality. With this though, it has given up all pretense and just flat out stated that it aims to be a pokemon rip-off. I could still get behind the first Xros Wars as an experiment, but with this, the creators came with an even more blatant premise, an even dumber male lead and no semblance of progress whatsoever. The worst part of this episode was where the male lead saw a random digimon walking around, and killed it. Yes, kids: randomly attacking strangers is good! The sole salvation of this is that the animators had their moments. Just too bad that they have to work with bland and uninspired character designs.
OP: Bland pop tune, but at least the visuals aren’t bad.
Potential: 0%
Fate/Zero – Again
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is still going to fight in a war for the holy grail.
Erm. Okay. So yesterday when I watched Fate/Zero, I forgot that it was supposed to start with a double episode, and I accidentally ended up watching a version of this episode that just contained the first half. That was a headdesk moment. In any case, now that I watched the second half of this episode, things fall even more into place, because the end of this episode had an actual climax that fitted well: the summoning of the servants. In any case, the second half of this episode pretty much continued in the same style of first wanting to set everything up correctly, rather than start with a huge climax immediately to draw in viewers. I haven’t watched Fate/Stay Night beyond a few episodes, so the only character I recognized was the younger version of a very annoying tsundere, but apart from that the main cast has a lot of potential, and they’re in no way as annoying as from the Fate/Stay Night anime.
ED: Bland J-rock. The visuals are actually well animated, but seem a bit undirected and chaotic. Also, why did you spoil the identity of the seventh magus when the episode tried to be all mysterious about it?
ED2: Just a black screen with credits. The lack of vocals makes it better than the first ED, but still unimpressive.
Potential: 85%
Hunter X Hunter
Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to become a hunter
I may have been bitching about this series, but don’t get me wrong: if this gets done right, it can easily be the best shounen of the past years. The problem is that we won’t know about the intentions of the people who are tasked with adapting this thing until the Yorkshin arc arrives, especially because this series will be aimed at a younger audience. The big question is: do these creators believe that kids are idiots, or will they actually put in effort just like what studios as Nippon Animation do? Now, this episode was definitely faster-paced than the first season, and because of that it didn’t have as much detail in it as well. The hunter that Gon runs into, who tells him about his father? Completely gone, which is a bit of a pity because it gave the first season a unique start. Still, the creators put in effort here. The characters are true to themselves, and especially the captain, who was definitely made to appeal more to kids, actually worked well as this old sea captain. The voice actors do have their issues: Gon yells a bit too much, while Leorio’s voice actor didn’t know whether he should use Leorio’s voice of the first season, or just stick to his own. It definitely was a fun episode. The big challenge for this series seems to be its pacing: this series wants to go fast, which inevitably will lead to some things getting cut. Do not cut the best parts!
OP: Cheesy J-pop and running.
ED: Hisako?!
Potential: 75%]]>
Some Quick First Impressions: Digimon Xros Wars – Toki wo Kakeru Shounen Hunter, Fate/Zero and Hunter X Hunter
The reason Kite didn’t appear is that the creators are saving that for a flash back after the Hunter Exam to lessen the gap between his first appearance and reappearance during the Chimera Ants arc.
This episode, was simply amazing. Followed the manga well enough and didn’t waste any time, like the older and lesser anime.
I hold Togashi’s story-telling in high regard and for the previous anime to have torn his story apart was a huge disappointment (which is part of why it failed). This series looks to be much closer to the manga, which is very good news.
Is it the same story as the old anime series?
bob: yeah, pretty much. With differences, apparently.
I thought the pacing for the first series was good, why speed it up, they completely ignored mito and gon’s relationship and leorio’s first meeting.
I have to disagree with your comment. The first show did not waste time. They followed the manga and didn’t cut out the original story telling. The original manga has a brilliant story, it is far superior to the re-writing shown in this episode based on the original writing.
I have read the manga and watched the first animation of Hunter X Hunter. Not just once or twice but many times.
I enjoyed both the animation and the manga. It is a story that is fun to re-read or watch more than once. That is my personal bench test of a great story. Can you watch it again and still enjoy it.
So far from wasting time the first Animated Hunter had a better pace of story telling and it clearly shows.
This production has re-written the story and did nothing to create a better pacing or story. It in fact has become less interesting.
I don’t have much hope that this production will be anywhere near as good as what has been done. They may or may not get better but if this first episode is an indication of what kind of value they will present, I don’t see how it will be an enjoyable version of the tale.
The first episode should have been a great first step. You put in your best animation, your best and most interesting camera angles and views. You don’t do what this one has presented. Change characters, change the story and present poor animation for the very first show.
I can’t see why they are doing the show if they didn’t have some better goals than what they have shown for this first episode.
I am very sorry to have to write this way about a show I was looking forward to. The first animation production set a high level to match in terms of be true to the story.
jzar, it doesn’t matter whether or not you consider the original anime adaptation superior or not because it didn’t even get any proper closure. We never got to the Chimera Ant saga and OVA series were required to even finish the Phantom Troupe arc. :/
My impressions from this episode is that they are going for a more Brotherhood approach on pacing: lean up the first few arcs then go for broke once the focus gets to Yorknew, Greed Island and the Chimera Ant arcs.
Also, I don’t know why I have to state the obvious here, but the real purpose of anime adaptation is NOT to recreate the exact manga in animated format: manga and anime are different media in the same way that novels and movies are different, and thus it is unrealistic to expect a complete regurgitation of the manga (even the original series from the 90’s didn’t get everything in!)
It’s one episode in….is it too much to not ask people to whine like bitches until the series gets an opportunity to develop some?
The story should be good on it’s own then yes? Can you look at the first episode and really think it was well done.?
In my opinion they don’t tell a very good introduction story, and it really fails when you look at the source material. That was my point. The job they take on is to tell the story based on the original in a interesting way.
I don’t see why they can’t be held to a high standard. Yes even in the first show, where simple logic says they should put forth their best effort. You have a hope that they will get better somehow, well who knows, they might.
Yet from your comment even you seem to think they didn’t do a very good job with this first episode.
I sure don’t see how a comment on a poor first episode is a ‘whine’ but I can see how you do want to give the show a chance. Who knows you may be right in the long run.:)
SEIKAN HIKOU REAL PV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNBUX1SjURg
On the contrary, I think the first episode WAS well done actually. Sure it felt condensed to those of us who’ve seen the original series, but it was lean and well paced nevertheless.
The point I was trying to make was that there’s no way to know whether or not the overall story is going to suffer or benefit from just this one episode, because taken on its own merits it had good continuity, Gon and the gang got some development (albeit with less interaction between one another), and the production values look quite a bit snazzier than what we’ve seen before.
Again, I’m pretty optimistic about this, and I don’t see any good reason why folks should be complaining this early in the game.
All I really care about in the end, is that we will get a really good adaptation of the chimera ant arc.
@none This is actually the manga’s original meeting with Leorio. The older series added a random filler changing their meeting as well as personalities. As a huge fan of the manga I highly enjoyed this pacing.
Also for those complaining that the Kite flashback is missing, it has already been highly publicised, that the Kite story will be told via. a flashback once Gon returns to Whale Island after the Hunter Exam and Zoldyck Family arc. This is being done to lessen his gap between first appearance and his reappearance.
Don’t complain about things, when you don’t have any understanding of the structure the new series will be taking.
It seems that people who watched the previous anime which was a quite poor adaptation, are hating on this more accurate portrayal of the manga, simply because it is more close to the manga. Remember this is not a “remake” of an anime, it is a “re-adaptation” of the manga.
As for the pacing, it was absolutely fine. The older series spent too much time on certain things, such as the old hag who asks the question in the next episode. Man how the hell is that whole episode worthy? Thank god they are combining it with the fox beast episode. It is a much more logical thing to do. I suspect episode 3 will cover the tunnel and introduction of Killua and end with Hisoka planting some cards in that guys face. Just my prediction going by this pacing.
I am excited to see how they handle the relationship between Gon and Killua. Judging by the way they have handled Kurapika and Leorio, I have very high hopes 🙂
My main problem with the first episode isn’t actually the pacing, but instead how all the characters seem to in my opinion have been altered for the worse.
Gon somehow seem even more of a typical shonen hero than he did in the original.
Kurapica sound even more like a girl than in the first anime, which was fine there, but here it is done to a point where it just sound wrong.
Leorio is ok, but Keiji Fujiwara don’t seem to know how he want to portray the character.
Mito seem to sound too old for a 25 year old character.
And then there is the crew on the ship, they seem to have been dumbed down just so the creators can show how nice and capable gon is.
Though I guess I will wait and see how they handle Hisoka, if they do him well enough that might somewhat make up for the rest hehe. ( though I’m doubting it )
@Nimroc have you ever read the manga? If you have you would realise the characters are much more accurate to the original source material than the previous anime which decided to make Gon, act like he was way older than actually is (which might I add is not his personality at all), when he is simply a 12 year old kid, pure innocence, unaware of the darkness of the world. Watching that innocence fade is the greatest part about Hunter x Hunter. Unfortunately that experience wasn’t had in the old anime. However it is the main theme of the manga, the loss of innocence as we understand the world around us.
I honestly think you can not say the characters personalities and voices are all wrong if you have not even read the manga. This is not a remake of the old anime. It is a readaptation of the manga. A much truer one at that. I was happy to see Gon acting like Gon.
As for your claims about characterisation and voices, let them develop. If you can tell me one anime or manga that has a fully developed character in it’s first episode of chapter I’ll eat my hat. Because honestly it’s too soon for you to even act like the characterisation is bad or that Gon is a shonen stereotype. For christs sake he was more of a stereotype in the old series.
Do you know why the older series never caught on? Because it was a poorly adapted nightmare, that whilst being good in it’s own merits, was a financial failure in Japan (where the manga is hailed as one of the best of all time), because it could not translate the manga that people loved so much into animation properly.
As I’ve said previously, if you are uneducated on Hunter x Hunter, do not make a post acting as if you know the characters and how this is horrible, because I’m sorry Nimroc but this is far better than the croc that old series was. That’s just going by the first episode as well.
I like the first episode just fine. The pacing was fast compared to the original but the direction was very well executed. Just imagine if it were done like other shounen show like Beelzebub, blech.
Mito-san’s voice did grate on me, too old for her character. Kurapika’s character design is way too cute, makes me want to pinch his/her cheek.
I’m seeing complaints about the first episode of this new HxH adaptation in other places on the web now too…which leads me to believe they haven’t read any of the manga in the first place. xD
Oh well, let idiots be idiots. I’ll be pretty annoyed if they don’t get to the Chimera Ant arc though :/
For the ones bitching about the animation, don´t know anything about it.
As a animator, I can recognize that the animation during the last part of the episode, was more fluid than the old HxH, can hope for.
The old HxH by Nippon animation, has good scenes only.
In Hisoka vs Gon, Kurapica vs Ubogin.
And the Ryodan ova.
The rest is bland.
This MadHouse production is crispier, and the character designs are more similar to the original manga.
The problem is that nostalgia fag (9o´s version), will bitch about… simple things.
For the ones bitching about the animation, don´t know anything about it.
As a animator, I can recognize that the animation during the last part of the episode, was more fluid than the old HxH, can hope for.
The old HxH by Nippon animation, has good scenes only.
In Hisoka vs Gon, Kurapica vs Ubogin.
And the Ryodan ova.
The rest is bland.
This MadHouse production is crispier, and the character designs are more similar to the original manga.
The problem is that nostalgia fag (9o´s version), will bitch about… simple things.
Gale Hunter Fan: I don’t think that you can dismiss the first season so easily. Just as you criticize people for finding this adaptation too different from the first anime series. The first anime added a lot of things, and for me it worked well. The first anime had enough strengths of its own, and just labelling it as a poor adaptation and attributing it to poor sales doesn’t really seem right (“they changed it now it sucks”). There have been plenty of excellent anime that didn’t sell well.
“the only character I recognized was the younger version of a very annoying tsundere”
So I you didn’t recognize the F/SN main character’s dad, his Servant or the final boss Servant?
@PSGELS I am dismissing it for not following the source material. I’m attributing it’s poor sales to it’s low popularity among Hunter x Hunter manga fans. It is facts mate.
The original series added things that changed the original characters too much and the manga fans rejected it. As a manga fan, the original series is not something we hold in high regard.
It seems if you haven’t read the manga you like the original series. Which honestly is disappointing that you older series fans, did not enjoy the series the way it was originally intended. Instead you preferred something that tore apart Togashi’s brilliant story about a boy who loses his innocence as he learns about the darkness of the world.
The older series did not at all capture the true heart and spirit of Hunter x Hunter. While it may be good in its own way. It is a poor adaptation and that is why it was never successful. Plain and simple. This new series is what it always should have been like. To compare this new series as being bad in comparison to the older series is like saying Dragon Ball Z Kai is bad for cutting the filler crap out of DBZ.
Your logic is way off PSGELS, you are usually so spot on with your reviews and impressions. But this time you were so far off the mark.
Fan: I’m not dismissing this series yet and I never said it was bad. However, I do have issues with some of the arguments you use. For example, the Ao no Exorcist TV-series is selling well, even though just about everyone agrees that it’s a bad adaptation. There have been plenty of other anime that sold poorly, despite being great adaptations.
Also, you can’t just compare hunter x hunter to dragonball z. These series are totally different, and the impact, meaning and results of their fillers are completely different.
My big fear with this series doesn’t lie with its manga, but with the writers who are going to adapt it and the timeslot. My big fear is that they’re going to dumb it down intelligently.
Ao No Exorcist is popular and sells well because the masses generally think it is good. It is the hardcore otaku and critics such as yourself who do not.
I will admit the filler serve different purposes in HxH and DBZ. The filler is DBZ is to drag things out so they didn’t catch up to the manga. The filler in HxH while argueably doing the same, randomly changed the characters personalities completely. The difference in personalities alienated a lot of the manga readers, who couldn’t handle their favourite characters acting so differently.
I guarantee to you that it will not be dumbed down for kids. If you want proof, look at the ending theme. Hisoka’s glowing crotch is still kept in.
Not to mention the flashs of the brutal massacre of the Kurta Clan and Killua’s torture.
Japan is more lenient when it comes to violence than the Western world. I tell you now, blood will be shed.
Well, HXH’s first episode was good. It was different from the 90’s animation but at least it stayed true to the manga. I just have one complaint – the pacing! It was way too fast.
Anyway, I DO hope that the Chimera arc gets animated since this will be a waste of time reanimating it.
Reminds me of FMA:B. Ep 2 everyone was complaining at how fast it was going compared to the “great original” (which did have a great first half.. while following the manga’s plot mostly). Then Brotherhood started to be different and by the end, people consider it the better adaptation.
Personally haven’t seen the original HxH, but I bet there can be arguments as to why both are enjoyable as well as why one person prefers one over the other, but by the end.. this will, probably, near unanimously end up as the superior version assuming the manga is heaps better than anime original material such as the case with FMA.
The only thing I wonder though: when FMA:B started, the manga’s end was already expected to happen – that’s not the case with HxH is it? What are the odds this will eventually turn to fillers and become another 100+ episode shounen? (assuming it gets good ratings and sales)
@Gale Hunter Fan
You seem to have misunderstood my post completely since it was the manga I was comparing it to, not the first anime.
I’ve been rereading the manga and watching the first anime over the last week so I have both fresh in memory and I really disagree about this new series being more faithful.
If you can say the first anime had an unfaithful gon since he was acting older then this one has an equally unfaithful gon acting younger.
@psgels
I wouldn’t worry about the series dumbing the complex material down–that was mostly present in the manga as is. In fact, it might be able to restore integrity to the awful Greed Island adaptation. And the arc that hasn’t been animated yet is political commentary on North Korea/modern warfare.
I feel the need to locate and personally slap any person who dares to imply FSN adaptation by DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN being goood.
Thats why watching fate/ZERO hurts so much. ufotable did awesome job. This delicious animation, delicious soundtrack, delicious character designs. Ha DEEN studio not gotten their grubby hands we would have had an epic adaptation of all three routes separately by ufotable. Without cutting out and bastardizing all the important stuff like, oh i don’t know, the reasoning and motivations behind main character and his thoughts. Thank you, DEEN, thanks to the mediocrity of your adaptations 99% of FSN epicness and meaning got lost and anime-only fanbase regards shiro as looser(which usually happens when you take out all the character motivations and psychological insight into character and focus on shallow stuff like fighting)
I can only hope that after ZERO ends, ufotable gets a chance to redo fate and ubw routes COMPETENTLY, that would be like a dream come true.
DEEN is so fail, that only draws bishies.
Fate and Umineko were raped. Bad.
UBW ,movie is good. But incomptensible to anime only watchers
@Gale Hunter Fan
From your reply: “The original series added things that changed the original characters too much and the manga fans rejected it. As a manga fan, the original series is not something we hold in high regard.”
Why can you speak for all the ‘manga fans’ of HXH, that they do not hold the first adaption in high regard? You are inaccurate and wrong when you refer to them as a whole, and to use ‘we’ as if you represent them..
I am a fan of the manga and I still loved the first adaption greatly, perhaps even more so than the manga itself.
The themes and changes that they added into the first adaption made it even better in my opinion. I think it did HXH justice.
What I’m getting to is that you can still be a fan of the manga, and still be a fan of the first adaption. You can be a fan of the first adaption, and still going to love this second adaption!
Both adaptions are going to have up and downs, and as pspgel mentions, the quality of an anime is not relevant to the sales of that anime. Thus you cannot say an anime like Gundam Seed Destiny is of higher quality, or more popular than Ano hana, nor can you say the reverse, as a fact. Not everybody even buys a copy of the anime they like. Sales just doesn’t equal quality or popularity, period.
Okay, after having been able to watch a subbed version I can’t fully agree with your Digimon Review, especially not the last part.
He didn’t just see a random digimon and killed it. He saw a digimon others were hunting, his partner attacked it and then it tried to kill them, so of course they had to defeat it (and it wasn’t even killed because of this new hunting concept, just captured)
It may seem like a pokemon ripoff due to the capturing but as long as it isn’t clear why they are suddenly hunting digimon I don’t really care.
The only thing that bugs me is the new main character because he acts extremly childish but otherwise it’s a much better beginnning then the last season had and that one actually turned out good in the end even though it had flaws.
@Riryoushi
What themes in the anime series weren’t already present in the manga? I didn’t perceive any thematic difference.
@Toto
Perhaps ‘don’t take other’s mumblings as truths’? (The ‘written exam’ on the blimp episode during the Hunter Exams!)
I kid, that word is out of place. The changes/addition to the anime series though, I reckon greatly improved the manga. The episode I described above comes to mind. Quite fun, and also gave some insights to the characters.
By the way, the music in the original series is pretty memorable, the tune that plays when they talk about ‘next episode’ (Seigi no Ikari) is really good imo! Hoping this new series will bring some good music as well!