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NEWS: Viz Media Adds 2011 Hunter x Hunter Anime

>Funimation actors in a Viz dub

Try again.

Panzer Vor wrote:

>Funimation actors in a Viz dub Try again.

Kyle Hebert, Adult Gohan in DBZ (FUNimation) and Kiba Inuzuka in Naruto (Viz Medua)

I'm just glad to see Viz licensing stuff again. It seems like after Sailor Moon, they kind of stopped picking up any other new shows and it seemed like they were only doing Naruto and Sailor Moon for awhile there and I was worried about them for a bit.

While I don't watch/read this series, that'd be interesting if that Maile Flanagan to play the lead. I say this because Junko Takeuchi also played Gon in the other versions.

While I don't watch/read this series, that'd be interesting if that Maile Flanagan to play the lead. I say this because Junko Takeuchi also played Gon in the other versions.

Now that I’ve had a night to allow my gleeful fanboy joy to settle, I’ll jot down a few thoughts on Viz acquiring Hunter x Hunter.

First of all, I have to give Viz Media major credit for being the company that finally stepped forward and picked the series up. At times, I legitimately feared Hunter x Hunter would forever languish on Crunchyroll, without a dub or disc release. Call me crazy, but I actually thought at one point that Discotek or Sentai were more likely to pick up the show than Viz. After all, the first Hunter x Hunter anime burned it pretty badly. But it would have been shortsighted of Viz to let this opportunity pass based on that prior experience, for a number of reasons.

Looking back, it’s hard to imagine how Viz could have made the 1999 Hunter x Hunter anime a success. The publisher released a decade-old show in the aftermath of the Great Recession, gave it a questionable Blue Water dub full of unconvincing performances and then dumped it on DVD with little ceremony. As an added bonus, the show itself wasn’t even that good. While I fully admit its animation occasionally outperforms the 2011 series during a selection of key scenes, the 1999 anime simply didn’t capture the best aspects of its source material. Director Kazuhiro Furuhashi painted the series with a layer of his signature gloomy, ostentatiously artsy style, and it dragged the show down. Add to that unappealing character designs, drab colors, wonky filler during the first arc, inconsistent censorship and a rather poor transfer of the cel elements, and it’s easy to see why Viz didn’t have an instant hit on its hands.

Though not a perfect show by any means, the 2011 anime version of Hunter x Hunter is different. Sure, it made a fair share of mistakes when animating Togashi’s manga, abridging occasional plot points and altering Gon’s meeting with a key character in a way that baffles me to this day. For the most part, however, the show is an example of exceptional workmanship from Madhouse. The character art is colorful, charming and full of energy. The animation is consistent and peaks regularly. And most important of all, Togashi’s style comes through wholly intact. It also already has a sizable fanbase in the West, thanks to its high ratings on Crunchyroll. Viz has a show with all the makings of a hit on its hands. With the Naruto anime heading towards an inevitable conclusion and the Bleach anime run finished on DVD, Hunter x Hunter could be Viz’s next hot successful Shonen property. All it has to do is handle the release and marketing competently.

I do have my share of concerns. While I doubt Viz could mess up the show’s visuals, like what happened with Sailor Moon, I’m anxious about what decisions the company will make with the dub. Its quality will largely depend on how Viz casts Gon and Killua. The endearing friendship these two share is essentially the heart of the story. Their English voices could make or break the dub singlehandedly. Unfortunately, casting voices for young boys is not an easy task. Megumi Han and Mariya Ise absolutely nailed their personalities in the original Japanese version. They’re tough acts to follow, no doubt about it. But I’ll try to be optimistic. As long as they steer clear of casting adult men to voice Gon and Killua (Nicolas Roye as Shingo in the new Sailor Moon dub was a disastrous miscast) they should turn out alright.

Given its length and the need to justify dubbing costs, we can probably expect Hunter x Hunter to air on Toonami. That should give this underrated property much-needed exposure in the States.

Looking back, it’s hard to imagine how Viz could have made the 1999 Hunter x Hunter anime a success. The publisher released a decade-old show in the aftermath of the Great Recession, gave it a questionable Blue Water dub full of unconvincing performances and then dumped it on DVD with little ceremony.

As an added bonus, the show itself wasn’t even that good. While I fully admit its animation occasionally outperforms the 2011 series during a selection of key scenes, the 1999 anime simply didn’t capture the best aspects of its source material. Director Kazuhiro Furuhashi painted the series with a layer of his signature gloomy, ostentatiously artsy style, and it dragged the show down. Add to that unappealing character designs, drab colors, wonky filler during the first arc, inconsistent censorship and a rather poor transfer of the cel elements, and it’s easy to see why Viz didn’t have an instant hit on its hands.

As long as they steer clear of casting adult men to voice Gon and Killua (Nicolas Roye as Shingo in the new Sailor Moon dub was a disastrous miscast) they should turn out alright.

Given its length and the need to justify dubbing costs, we can probably expect Hunter x Hunter to air on Toonami. That should give this underrated property much-needed exposure in the States.

As for the Hunter x Hunter OVAs, I have not watched them (since Viz never picked them up) but I've heard that those were handled by different people and that the Greed Island episodes in particular were worse than the TV series.

The announcement of a dub is promising - it means Viz can at least try to get the show on Toonami.

If Viz is dubbing it, then they better cast Steve Blum as Hisoka (or Troy Baker).

I'm so happy about this since I live the HxH series but this makes me wonder whether or not this will inspire Togashi to finally start writing more chapters

Yeah I noticed that I think Inuyasha was the most recent Ocean production in a while, wonder if they will get any work again at some point.

Panzer Vor wrote:

>Cathy Weseluck in the same cast as Crispin Freeman, Kirk Thornton, and Doug Erholtz >Funimation actors in a Viz dub Try again.

Well, getting somebody from Funimation wouldn't be impossible. After all, Laura Bailey, Troy Baker, and Travis Willingham used be primarily Funimation, and Funimation was able to get most of the LA born cast members back for the "BlazBlue" anime.

Also, another thing that hurt the 99 releases was that Viz weren't able to get the second Opening & second & third Endings due to music rights issues and they had replaced them with the first OP & ED for all of the episodes (including the finale which didn't even have an OP & ED). Now this may be considered a minor thing depending on who you ask but keep in mind that they were also releasing NANA & Monster at around the same time which had similar issues (including a rearranged music score for the latter which was thanks to them getting a different set of masters which were used in other countries) and people had already lost faith in Viz at that point (as also seen with Monster getting cancelled), especially because they didn't warn anyone about these issues before these shows were released which was bad because companies have seen how fans reacted to that kind of thing in the past (see Bandai's release of Zeta Gundam, BVUSA's re-release of Gunbuster & FUNi's release of Kodocha for examples) so it wouldn't surprise me if that's another reason why the sets didn't sell.

Some of Baker's roles continue to exist in anime now though, and Viz will be in a bind should any of those five Pain bodies reappear in Naruto.

NJ_ wrote:

As for the Hunter x Hunter OVAs, I have not watched them (since Viz never picked them up) but I've heard that those were handled by different people and that the Greed Island episodes in particular were worse than the TV series.

I can't imagine watching the 1999 TV series without watching the first OVA which finishes the arc. Japanese viewers were pissed when the show ended so that is why they made the OVA. The TV series ends on such a cliffhanger right near the end of the York New arc. The first OVA resumes right where the TV series left off and its very consistent with the TV, they even list them as episodes(63-70 for OVA 1).
Viz not at least releasing the first OVA is a big shame.