@“Gaagaagiins”#p42494 lol it sounds like if there was a Gaagaagiins and Syzygy venn diagram, I'd be the section in the middle where your descriptions of the two of you overlap!
That sentence sucked, but hopefully you get what I'm saying!
@“Syzygy”#p42497 those links just lead to posts where you're being really cool, did you mean to link those
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@“whatsarobot”#p42446 @UnparalleledDev Yes! I watched all of the Azumanga Daioh anime back when I still lived in Canada, and before I even knew Yotsubato! existed. I love it, except for the creepy bits (that should be the official slogan for all manga). I still sing Chiyo-chan’s “tsukurimashou” song all the time, and have taught it to my daughter lol. I got the manga volumes when they were reprinted in a nice three-volume set several years ago.
@"whatsarobot"#243 you tagged me instead of tagging @"Unbeknownst2U"#637 :)
I could imagine getting very into manga if I ever had a nearby English language mangakissa, but those are usually Japanese, French, or Korean. Maybe someday.
I've enjoyed what I've read which was mostly Osamu Tezuka stuff.
@“UnparalleledDev”#p42521 Dang it! Sorry about that! Thanks for letting me know.
And sorry to you too, @"Unbeknownst2U"#637 !
don't know much about manga personally but I read Good Night, Pun Pun a year or two ago and it was great (and harrowing)
@“yeso”#p42535 I was reading Good Night Pun Pun around december last year but fell off after like 6 volumes, it was great but it was too heavy for that particular time in my life, I plan to eventually get back and finish it though.
@“穴”#p42541 yeah for sure I know what you mean, it's totally crushing and cathartic and I was pretty scrambled after reading it…
@“Syzygy”#p42427 Jojolion is a triumph but I wonder what the legacy will be after people have the chance to consume it in whole a few more times. I truly don't know whether I like it more than Steel Ball Run yet. It was quite a trip to come in toward the back quarter and catch it monthly until its finish. Some of my favorite battles.
@“fugazi57”#p42441 Right now is the best time to finish Berserk. It's a masterpiece.
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Dai Dark is a subversive dark fantasy sci-fi comedy romp. I love it. It's by Q Hayashida, the creator of Dorohedoro (which is also great for a lot of the same reasons. It has a pristinely entertaining Netflix adaptation). Great art, inventive ideas and really competent world-building.
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If ya'll like Devil May Cry and find yourself even a little bit invested in its grungy soap opera story, Visions of V is worth a look. Solid character design and dynamic action scenes rendered with a bit more heart and sentimentality than you'd expect.
@“KingNothing”#p42548 This looks incredible, and I'd never heard of it before. Thank you for bringing it to my attention - definitely want to check this one out.
@“Syzygy”#p42481
Man, I love Hunter x Hunter to a completely unreasonable degree which I think it not quite in proportion to the quality of the actual work, but who knows. There is just something about it that grabs the essential appeal of a battle shounen for me in a way that nothing else quite does. Some tout it as a "deconstruction" of the genre or whatever, but I kind of feel like it is just a really, really good example of what the genre can be when it's best (apologies to the One Piece fans, but HxH is by far my favourite). A lot of my emotional attachment to the characters is admittedly likely because I've been following it for 17 years or so. I watched the 1999 anime for the first time around 2004 I think and since then I have read through the manga and watched that first anime as well as the 2011 anime multiple times.
The hiatuses can be painful, but at this point I've just sort of accepted it to the point that it doesn't even bother me anymore. If the manga is never finished I am very happy with what we already have, if Togashi ever finishes another arc I will read it. In fact in general, I have become very chill with unfinished artwork over the last decade, I enjoy what is there and if it ever finishes great, but if not it doesn't really diminish my enjoyment of what is there.
In general I sort of have the same problem that many mentioned in the thread, namely that i always enjoyed anime and I always enjoyed books, but somehow comics/manga were never quite as appealing to me as either. However, I did enjoy some manga, I remember reading through about half of the Danish translation of Dragonball in a single day when I got my hands on it as a child.
In general I agree that it is a lot more enjoyable to read physically than digitally. Since I moved to Japan I have been reading more as used manga is very cheap here. For example I finally read through a bunch of Urasawa Naoki's manga which I had always wanted to do because of how much I loved the Monster anime. His other stuff is also great! I also read Berserk for the first time here, despite having really liked the 1997 anime for a long time. Good stuff.
@“yeso”#p42535 Wow I just shoved the first 8 chapters into my eyeballs and I'm really invested and also quite scared about having to feel these feelings.
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@“SU2MM”#p42581 Man, I love Hunter x Hunter to a completely unreasonable degree which I think it not quite in proportion to the quality of the actual work, but who knows.
Still choosing to post in this thread despite it being a manga thread and not an anime thread, but I consider the anime adaptation of the Chimera Ant arc to be an absolute masterpiece, a GOAT not even among shounen or even anime but up there on a more generalized ranking of audiovisual entertainment.
The first time I watched it, it was during a time in my life when I had an abundance of free time. I remember it was late at night, after I had probably watched a few episodes already, that I watched the first episode in the arc. My cousin, who recommended me the show in the first place, had hyped me up for it already, so since I was enjoying the show a lot already, it was an exciting moment. I might have watched one more, but it was not more than that before I went to bed.
Over the next two days, I pretty much did nothing else besides watch the 59 or 58 remaining episodes of that goddamn arc. I did not plan that, I mean, again, I had an abundance of free time, but I did nothing else besides eat, sleep a normal length once, and a bare minimum of stuff around the house. I was absolutely transfixed. When I rewatched the series again I think sometime last year, I tried to recreate that as well as I could, and I didn't watch it at quite a crazy pace but it still put me in a vice grip. It took me a week at most. Whenever I hear someone is watching Hunter x Hunter, I always do my best to tell people to set aside time to watch that arc in as few sittings as possible, if nothing else for sure the back half when shit pops off.
There's a lot that could be said about it, so I'll try to put it succinctly. I think the main quality that makes me love it so much is the incredible amount of tension that is built up and then released. I wholeheartedly agree with you that it isn't a deconstruction of the genre at all, and this arc in particular is a treatise on the curious event of a narrative medium ending up with a problem it perhaps inherited from videogames more than anywhere else--power creep. After about 76 episodes of following around wunderkids who will conveniently get more powerful or learn new stuff and overcome every challenge one way or another, the whiplash that this arc causes on that sense of comforting and exciting upward momentum is a gut punch you feel as hard as the characters do. That shocking spike in the sense of fear and danger you feel for the characters just does not let up. Plus, the speed at which so much is built up in the first half, characters, their motivations, places, relationships, backstories, dangers, plots, schemes, stakes, new systems for the videogame-y shounen stuff, shit, even some servicable geopolitics, a lot of it evokes the feeling of watching Diet Coke being introduced to Mentos.
I'll repeat that I think maybe you do need some degree of buy-in on shounen genre conventions, but yeah, it's good enough that I think it permanently altered wo what degree I expect stuff in narrative fiction to come together. Nothing is perfect and Chimera Ant Arc is no exception but it raised my expectations for building up to climactic moments, just like, in general. Just the sense of drama and spectacle and the razor's edge sense of struggle and mortal peril is overwhelming in that arc. And even with all of that maximalist teen boy Cool Shit going on, it still manages to deal with a wealth of heady themes and there are some truly heartwrenching and beautiful moments. I checked just now, I still tear up easily thinking about ||Meruem and Komugi.||
@“Gaagaagiins”#p43299 Out of curiosity, how many episodes are there before the Chimera Ant arc, and do I need to watch all of them first?
@“whatsarobot”#p43301
There are 75 episodes before the beginning of the chimera ant arc, but I definitely would not recommend watching the latter as a standalone. While it does feel noticeable different from what came before and introduces a lot of new characters, it would still be quite confusing if you haven’t seen the rest of the show and some of the impact will be diminished if you haven’t followed the characters through their other adventures. The good news is that the rest of HxH is fantastic as well though! So I would recommend to just watch the whole thing although it is definitely a time commitment. The series does start somewhat slowly but personally I was hooked once the Hunter exam really gets going.
While I personally enjoy the 99 anime and prefer its version of the earlier arcs (despite the hunter exam filler content) and the York-Shin arc in particular, my recommendation to most people is to just go with the new show, which aside from a slightly rough start has a through-line of quality (Greed Island arc is better than the old OVAs) and includes the chimera ant and election arcs. Of course you could also follow Syzygy's recommendation and read the manga, would be a lot faster!
Also, Hisoka's voice actor in the original anime was amazing and cannot be matched by the new one, although he does a decent job. There are two musicals mostly featuring the cast of the original anime floating around on the internet and while they are hardly great, they are a fun watch, with Hisoka's song being particularly memorable.
@"Gaagaagiins"#p43299
It is funny how times have changed. I remember when I first got into HxH the prevailing wisdom was that the Ant arc was a step-down in quality and that Togashi was was getting bogged down in a never-ending arc that had little to do with the previous arcs. This was while it was still being written. I never agreed fully with this analysis, but reading the arc through the long hiatuses was frustrating. After it was done I (and many others) read it again and realized how well put together it actually is. Now it has become many people’s favorite and often held up as one of the greatest shounen arcs of all time. It’s amazing what actually having the full version of a story, not a few chapters every year does for your perception!
This is the reason that I haven’t even bothered with the Dark Continent. I’ll read it once there is some sort of sub-conclusion or if it becomes definitely clear that it will never be finished.
But yes, the chimera ant arc is very very good. Some spoilers ahead.
||I really like the progression of Gon as it builds upon character traits that are well-established but then develops him towards a conclusion that most people would not have initially assumed. His confrontation with Pitou in the throne-room and the issue of Komugi’s injuries is such an intense scene. Also poor Killua. : ( ||
@“Syzygy”#p43302 Point well argued. I know I haven‘t read that far in the manga, but I’ll make it a point to check it out once I'm finished with ONE PIECE.
I should mention that I've read the first 10? 15? volumes of the manga, and was quite impressed, but stopped because I heard the art got rushed and sloppy later on. Sounds like the quality varies over the course of the manga, but that the series is worth sticking with overall.
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@“Syzygy”#p43302 Now take all that and suppose that: the best visual compositions of the anime are just colored stills of manga panels; that it censors the meaningful use of violence; and that the anime made errors of omission and pacing that weaken the emotional impact of the arc relative to how ongoing readers took it. Hate to say it, but I actually think the (2011) anime adaptation is a weak one, held aloft by how great the original work is.
This is all quite a shock to me to hear someone say! One thing I love most about that arc is the pacing. Or maybe I am just so involved in the story and finding out/re-experiencing what happens, I forgive it? Or, maybe I accidentally experienced it in the ideal way, in a breathless frenzy! It was well after the show wrapped up. I guess it's impossible to say.
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@“whatsarobot”#p43301 Gaagaagiins Out of curiosity, how many episodes are there before the Chimera Ant arc, and do I need to watch all of them first?
I'll echo @"SU2MM"#335 and say that there's no reason not to watch the rest of the show, it's great.
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@“SU2MM”#p43304 It’s amazing what actually having the full version of a story, not a few chapters every year does for your perception!
I think one of my first thoughts after the dust settled on my full sprint marathon of the arc was that it would have been agony for me to watch it even once a week as the anime was releasing. Can't imagine it taking _multiple years._
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@“SU2MM”#p43304 This is the reason that I haven’t even bothered with the Dark Continent. I’ll read it once there is some sort of sub-conclusion or if it becomes definitely clear that it will never be finished.
This is a smart move. In a lapse of judgement I went ahead and read it. Whatever the hell is really going on right now absolutely rules, but yeah, recently passing 1000 days without a new chapter is rough to think about. I don't like to speculate about why it is like this, but I hope whatever it is that's going on with Togashi, he's doing okay! His contributions to the medium have already been immense, and, thankfully, _HxH_ doesn't really depend on fulfilling some grand overarching narrative, so much. For instance, I think I would lose my fucking mind if Oda started to slow down to a crawl. The enduring mystery of what the One Piece itself actually is gonna be has sustained that story for over twenty years, _One Piece_ is written in such a way that it could be literally anything and it's going to work out, but damnit, I want to know how exactly it is that the creator wants to present this as. And in that way of course I really feel for _Berserk_ fans 'cause they have to mourn Miura prematurely _and_ the work prematurely at the same time.
Part of me has a sort of intertwined desire for both _Berserk_ and _Hunter x Hunter_, and this might be blasphemy wrt _Berserk_ in particular, but I really do wish that other artists would come together and collaborate in some way to help these creators have their visions put out into the world somehow. Like, if I were to pretend that capitalism didn't exist for a second, and the story really was nearing a meaningful conclusion that Miura sketched out somewhere... just get a couple dozen of the most talented artists who love _Berserk_ to collaborate the last part of it as a tribute to Miura. I bet that would be thematically appropriate, and I haven't even read the damn thing.
Also yes I know I'm a hypocrite and right up there I said I want to know how the creator would have presented it. But the permanence of Miura's passing makes it very different.
...with Togashi it's a little less ambiguous, he's not a bad artist by any means but, you know, If he's an A artist he's a SSS storyteller. Japanese government please just put aside some money in the next budget to get this guy as many assistants as he needs to get the work out. Or let's all just tell him that if he doesn't want to put out the manga anymore, we'll all say he can enjoy his retirement.