#1: Natsuiro Kiseki – 08: I love travelling series, and this episode captured that perfectly. Trips are fun and all, but getting there is very often underestimated. As much as I like the direction Kimi to Boku turned into, in the end I do like Natsuiro Kiseki better, because it accomplished the same thing, while needing half of that airtime. – **+ (Excellent+)
#2: Kimi to Boku – 20: This time it’s the turn for Shu’s brother. As annoying as he was in the other episode he was featured in, as charming he was here. Seriously, that was some good romance there, especially for a guy with as little airtime as him. – **+ (Excellent+)
#3: The Legend of Korra – 07: By far the lest interesting part of the Legend of Korra is its romance, but that really got a push into the right direction with this episode when everyone finally seems to drop all of the tension. Aside from that, once again the action was great and I indeed saw confirmed that I’ve been suspecting all along now. – ** (Excellent)
#4: Nazo no Kanojo X – 07: The male lead’s big flaw is that he is very unremarkable. There is one point at which he sets himself apart from his counterparts though: the way he reacts to his girlfriend. Add that to a played down performance that isn’t trying too hard, and you’ve got a male romance lead that I really don’t mind watching. Nevertheless though, the female characters in this series remain the better ones. – ** (Excellent)
#5: Shirokuma Cafe – 08: A grizzly bear, a polar bear and a panda go fishing. I never imagined that they’d actually make an anime out of that. That bird in the first half of this episode was also hilarious, not to mention Shirokuma’s past. – ** (Excellent)
#6: Jormungand – 07: Nice episode, especially in terms of the gunfight. Koko’s date was a bit anticlimactic, though, but this show is steadily making its cast more interesting. – *+ (Great)
#7: Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki – 20: The thing with this series is, that the entire cast is just fun to watch. It’s not just Poyopoyo, but the brother and sister tht own him are well acted and just as fun as he is, if not even more. – *+ (Great)
#8: Hunter X Hunter – 32: This is one fights which was done completely different when compared to the 1999 series. Overall, I prefer the waythe 1999 version did it, for one main reason: this episode went overboard with the explanations. It just went on and on with guiding us through every step in the ultimately brief fight. At times it also felt like the characters were talking to the audience, rather than each other. It’s a shame, because with the right execution the creators could really have done some impressive stuff here. Also, I disagree that my arguments can be dismissed because “this is a shounen series”. Genre conventions are guidelines. Be bold! Screw conventions! Break them! Hunter X Hunter is the perfect series to do that with! – * (Good)
#9: Saint Seiya Omega – 08: Okay, so apparently I dropped this show right at the wrong time: stuff actually happened here. I admit that the golden saint is interesting, but this episode did not fix the character issues I have in that they’re just too bland and uninteresting. That gold saint was one of the best characters so far for a reason. – * (Good)
#10: Sankarea – 08: There is one thing I am really struggling with with this series: it has parts that are really good. But it’s completely boring during the rest of its time. Now, will it get better/ Knowing Studio Deen, they will milk this show into a second season, but even thhen this is a manga adaptation where a lot of focus will be on how they handle the ending.This episode was already dragged out, despite the good bits at the end of it. – (Enjoyable)
#11: Medaka Box – 08: You know, it’s nice and all that the genre shift is about to begin now… but this show will be over in four weeks. Yeah, it’s only a 1-cour series. So yeah, in the meantime we have another dull episode about some random police officer who takes het job way too seriously. Also, if she didn’t have another uniform, what happened to the one she was going to make Medaka wear? – – (Disappointing)
Still the shonen have to explain the attacks for a reason. the audience want to know how powerful the attack is.
Also is the way to prove that is not an asspull.
But look at the bright side! There a lot of blood this episode!
A good portion of HxH fanbase wants POWERLEVELS so they do need to appease them too, haha. Long explanations that go like “Listen to all the reasons my attack is unbeatable!” “No, listen to all of its weaknesses I identified in a split-second!” is the easiest way to do it.
exactly,the fight was poorly executed but it isn’t really a surprise knowing the director of the new series,the fight on papers was Amazing,for the love of god,they couldn’t get one moment right and the acting for Hisoka was horrible,such a shame,the new series is such a shame to HxH overall
“I disagree that my arguments can be dismissed because “this is a shounen series”. Genre conventions are guidelines. Be bold! Screw conventions! Break them! Hunter X Hunter is the perfect series to do that with!”
I really can’t see why a series almost 15 years old should break the conventions. What this new iteration of HxH should do is stick as close as possible to the manga and keep airing so we can see the chimera ant arc animated. So far so good.
Maybe because this is an ANIME not a manga! Seriously there is things you can do in the animated form that you cannot do in the written. To ignore that is just being lazy in your adaptation.
I don’t see the need to change stuff when the source material is already very good. That’s not being lazy, just respectful. Plus they have been adding some extra touches here and there like the Canary flashback, some foreshadowing like the different nen types of everyone in the ED.
I don’t say it’s always bad to deviate from the source material when you do an adaptation, but adapting faithfully is just the obvious thing to do even if it leaves little place to creativity.
Then why even bother making an anime if you’re just going to clone the original out of some pathetic idea of “respect”? You might as well just leave it well enough alone.
The entire point of an adaptation should be to take advantage of the new medium’s format and try to improve on the original, even if that means involving the original author.
But that’s not what adaptations like this are – these are lazy cash-grabs. Apologizing for their laziness isn’t doing a service to the original.
You can’t ‘clone’ the original into another format. What the fanbase here wants from what I gather is HxH, only animated. Gasp, shock, I know.
Remember FMA and FMA: Brotherhood? Hunter x Hunter 1999 was basically like FMA, an original take on the story (to an extent, of course, because it didn’t diverge). This new version does exactly what Brotherhood did: retell the same story but in a way that is faithful – identical – to the original source. Nothing wrong with that, if you start with the premise that it’s so flawed it needs to be ‘improved’ you end up with series like Tsubasa Chronicles which the original’s fanbase universally hate – especially not if the ‘improved’ version already exists! (And is a very decent improvement at that!).
And ‘lazy cash-ins’?! Are you kidding me?1 The only thing that’s cheaper than for an original story is the script adaptation, every other cost – the majority of the costs! – are still there.
Its fine to adapt the original story. But comparing this to FMA:Brotherhood is ridiculous. One was a pretty faithful adaptation that made the most out of the anime format, the other is not. But you’re right, if this is what fans of the HxH wanted, then I see nothing wrong with its laziness. I just expected more of HxH fans.
it isn’t about changing the source material at all ,it’s about how you execute it,both are different media,they couldn’t build the fight in a shocking way neither Hisoka playing on kastro’s nerves,it all wasn’t there,it just didn’t reach me,here the director fails
same as Gon vs Hanzo,I fuilt nothing,if I were to descripe the new series ,it’s just tasteless
-the Ant arc is an amazing and deep arc however with how this anime is going,I’m sure it’s going to be pictured as DBZ arc for the anime only people
ah the ant arc, where the anime’s art will be significantly better than the manga. It’s funny because HxH paid homage to DBZ with the Ant King looking like Freeza.
The Ant arc was so messy at time, that the animators will need to take a lot of creative liberties, I dont have high hopes
I’m pretty sure that the Ant King was meant to look like Cell, not Freeza.
I can see design elements from both really, in term of assimilation, he is more like cell. I always thought cell was not as good of a villain compare to Freeza
Still think you should give Omega one more shot man
I agree with garfield15, you might have chosen a bad week to drop it.
Come on Psgels are you really still going to bash Hunter x Hunter without any real reasoning?
How much more reasoning do you need?
The choreography was kind of meh and the explanation was strained and – yes, you’re right – obviously done for the purpose of explanation, shattering the 4th wall in process. That said I think the way the 1999 series completely skipped the fight was disingenuous.
Just like machi i had my doubts at first but now i’m pretty sure
You really are just a 1999 fanboy trying to bash this series.
The trick was complicated so it needed that explanation. Following shounen
Conventions would have them make it an ass-pull with a lot of screaming
involved.
As for the fight, it was executed very well.
He’s not intentionally doing anything. You can’t help but compare it to the older series (if you’ve already seen it).
The only “unfair” thing is that, since you already know the plot, the new series loses a lot of its charm by default. So in the event that the new series isn’t clearly and obviously better than the old series in most regards, it kind of loses by default. And I don’t think the new series managed to do that.
You’re talking like objective people (to the point of being surgical even) doesn’t exist in real life. From my point of view, psgels should have treated his HxH “reviews” as “my thoughts” from the get go if he doesn’t intend to view it as a separate series from the the old anime.
Reviews, if it isn’t used as a marketing ploy, denotes “fair”, “unbiased”, “objective” point of view from the one who consumed a product to serve as a guide and a source of additional info to fellow and new consumer of said product.
His HxH 2011 reviews are obviously unfair, biased, and very subjective – a far cry from what I would expect from a “review”, let alone from a seasoned reviewer.
I think there is a little misunderstanding going on here: the reason why these blurbs are bad reviews is because I didn’t write them as reviews. These really are meant to be impressions, the things that come to my mind as and after I watch it.
Also, and this is coming from an “experienced reviewer”, there is no such thing as a completely unbiased review.
You must have missed the part “from the get go”. I’m not just talking about the blurbs.
So this is your “excuse”? Since there is no such thing as a completely unbiased review, it’s alright to write a completely biased one? I guess you also missed the “fair” and “objective” part.
But who am I to judge? Just as you said: Your blog, your domain, your rules. In short, if we don’t like what was written, leave.
So I’m leaving… but of course, not without a parting shot.
Writers should value criticisms higher than praise. Praises, while nice to hear, does not help a writer. Criticism does. One leaves you stagnant, the other helps you grow.
Objectivity doesn’t exist, but that is another discussion.
And last time I checked psgels is not claiming to be a journalist or something like that, this is a blog, it is bound to be more personal and more subjective.
psgels; I understand where you are coming from, I really do. And I know it’s the anime and not the manga. But this fight was really 90% Hisoka explaining why he’s so badass. Really, what could they have done? Added a few more punches and kicks? If they cut the dialogue it would essentially ruin the scene. It would end up being more like a typical shounen with moves that look like lazy asspull, and that’s not what I want HxH to be.
still new to hunter x hunter, just start watching and never watch the old version before and never will; i think the way the episode play out is just nice and right =), no offend…i am a newbie in this series thou XD
not new to hxh but i don’t compare it with old version. this version is quite good to watch and i am going to treat this as a new anime. but i am glad psgels did not drop HxH (at least HxH has a place in kaleidoscope >_<). Love to listen all your rants bout HxH (good or bad).
seriously HxH's episode 33 is very good and give me hopes up that this series will get better in future.
Nazo no Kanojo X – 07: You hit the nail on the head: Tsubaki is thoroughly unremarkable, but he’s not boring, and with such excellent female characters, he doesn’t have to be a revelation, and his innate normalness make it easier to connect with him, and his reactions have been consistently realistic and relatable. His pal Ueno, on the other hand, has a tendency to over-act, though not so much as to be a detriment.
I think Tsubaki was meant to be plain, as a contrast to the unusual Urabe. Tsubaki is actually one of the most likable leads for a “romance” manga. He is unremarkable, but he’s one of the few characters that is truly sincere with his feelings for the girl
I agree, Tsubaki makes a boring male lead look tedious, its not easy to be dating a scissor-wielding-drool-sharing cat girl. Besides, Urabe has enough personality for the both of them and isn’t fazed from doing perverse things, albeit her boyfriend doesn’t know about it.
:3
(v);,,;(v)
woo Kimi to Boku at the top again Yay!
You know whats surprising? You are still watching Medaka Box lol
yup, surprised me too. wonder what’s really holding you .
Mystical elemental powers, car races, love triangles, teen angst, violence, giant fighting mechs, hot babes, humor, suspense, big business, police crack down and an old guy screaming about his cabbage all in a kids show?
What more can we ask for?
(v);,,;(v) Why not zoidberg?
YES.