Forum - View topicREVIEW: Hunter × Hunter Blu-Ray 1
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Valhern
 Posts: 916 |
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Of what I've seen of the 99' anime, I think that they were certainly more ambitious than the 2011 version, since the last didn't even expect to go much further down in all of the arcs, and just juggled through it a little carelessly. As soon as it hits the Heavens' Arena the whole direction of the anime becomes more immersive and find its own path, visually (and not only in the moments of great animation, it also applies to designs and overall aesthetic), sound-wise, and direction-wise.
In their defense, in the manga spoiler[Kurapika behaves exactly like in the 2011 anime. His Crimson Eyes fade, he stumbles a little and says "I was in that state too long", and then he buries Uvogin far more unceremoniously. In the page he talks with Melody (and they have even less dialogue than in the 2011 anime), and we immediately just see Uvogin being buried, Kurapika only gives him a brief look before walking away. While the directional approach of the 1999 is much appreciated, they did ad lib a bit of his character when implying the duality of his revenge when you can only see one of his eyes in red, and with him falling on his knees after killing Uvogin. I think Kurapika was purposefully ruthless with Uvogin, after he accepted that he killed all of his family without a care in the world. He does have doubts, but they are ultimately put aside until the final confrontation with Pakunoda, which is when his whole revenge plot makes him crumble down, not when he killed Uvogin. Not as if he ever lost that capability of killing, Gon himself wanted for Kurapika to not wake up of his fever because he would want to fight the Ryodan again. And in the most recent arc, while for one part he became extremely more methodical on his way to recover the eyes, when Mizaistom as much as brought that topic to convince Kurapika, he totally threatened him to carefully consider his words.] I hate to talk about HxH because it ends up as a text wall. |
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Divineking
 Posts: 1293 |
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The thing with the two scenes you mentioned is that is that what Togashi, and by extension the 2011 version of the anime was going for and what Furuhashi was going for in the 99' anime were two different things In the first scene, spoiler[Gon isn't really supposed to be horrified so much as angry, and while that could have been conveyed in more than just one simple shot, it gets the message across, whereas the scene in the 99 version is kind of contradictory to Gon's character since he's intentionally rarely horrified or traumatized by anything he comes across and the fact that he isn't is a meant to be a sign that there's something a bit off about him as a person] As for the second, spoiler[it's also pretty clear that Togashi's intention WAS for Kurapika not to really have any regrets over murdering Uvo because for him, eliminating the Phantom Troupe is the main thing that drives him and it was meant to highlight that he's willing to be as ruthless as they are to achieve it. ] It's debatable which intent is more interesting (I personally thought Furuhashi's stuff got a little too melodramatic but he had some interesting ideas) but Furuhashi's version of Hunter x Hunter and Togashi's differ greatly in several instances, and one of the goals for the 2011 version (for better or worse since the direction of the early episodes is slightly lacking), was to stick as close to Togashi's vision as possible, and most of the departures from the 99' version's tone are pretty much for that reason (well aside from the Kite thing that was just Madhouse literally trying not to do the exact same thing as the old anime) |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11454 |
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^ Scene 1) Well, the difference between them is mostly in spoiler[how potent the poison was, unless Gon has some supernatural ability to remain unfazed by poison, which we immediately learn he doesn't. He wasn't horrified in 1999 but what he endured while recovering was an ordeal, which I thought was realistic. I got that he was angry in both versions.]
Scene 2) For me, it has more impact if spoiler[Kirapika is not a cold-blooded murderer and yet is nevertheless willing to be as ruthless as the Phantom Troupe to achieve his goal. If killing has no effect on him and he's just "meh, another one down" after killing them, all that's left to the viewer to feel afterward is, "Looks like he won. Yay?" It's pretty much the same as watching Killua take someone out.] I guess everyone's mmv, but I don't particularly care about the manga. I was just saying which version of the anime I preferred. 
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jr240483
 Posts: 4390 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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actually it was pretty solid dub and its a lot better than other shonen jump type dub releases, like say buso renkin. it wouldnt have surprised me at all if viz had used that that cast instead of the new one. definitely a surprise to say the least,especially with the casting. was kinda expecting lowenthal or naruto's VA to voice as Gon when the dub cast was announced, not miss erica cause it would probably conflict with other vocal commitments. relieved it wasn't the case cause even i would admit that the new dub is much better than the 1999 series, even though both are fine by dub standards. though there are definitely have some differences from that version. now there is a debate on whether this new series is the actual adaptation of the manga since the 1999 version had a lot of things different from the manga.especially when it came to Gon's mother. though there is one thing i am probably certain. spoiler[there is ZERO CHANCE that leorio is a freaking teenager considering how old he looks. ] he had to have been in some kind of a coma when he was a kid. its the only explanation i can think of. |
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Souther
 Posts: 604 |
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Spoilers: spoiler[I prefer the way the 2011 anime went about it because it casts far more aspersion on Kurapika's character and motives, and gave more humanity to Uvogin (though I'm on team Kurapika when it comes to his revenge lol). ] |
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BikuRed
Posts: 3 |
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Just my two cents, but I think it's a little unfair to criticize HxH 2011 for not having some of the flourishes that were added to HxH 1999. Like, sure you can have a preference for whichever version you want, but the 2011 version was clearly intended to be more faithful to the original manga (not that I'm saying you have to read or care about the manga or anything), so this particular critique doesn't really seem productive to me. Madhouse was never going to stray too far from Togashi's stuff anyway.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that I myself am a big fan of the 2011 version (haven't seen 1999 yet) and enjoyed reading this review! |
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1dbad
 Posts: 712 Location: Texas |
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While the 2011 adaptation is more manga-faithful overall, there are some cases where the 1999 version was the more faithful adaptation, funnily enough. Like including Kite in episode 1, Killua crushing that guy's heart with his bare hands rather than using a paper bag, etc.
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Revolutionary
 Posts: 603 Location: New England |
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Well, the 2011 series was plenty brutal for me. I've got to tell you all, I had put off watching this series for years thinking it was just another generic Shonen and that it would probably not do anything exciting. However, earlier this fall, I ran out of shows to watch while I eat (I like to watch shows while I eat breakfast/lunch/dinner/etc.) and I recalled that I still needed to watch this series. I saw it had something like 137 episodes (don't quote me on that exact number!) and that it would be keep me occupied for a long time and probably not distract me from studying/practicing. I was wrong. I flew through all of those episodes in like two weeks if that. xD
This series is SO deceptive. Like what in the world. Gon is the most cutest, innocent looking Shonen protag that I've ever seen. That combined with the colorful image they have for the series on CR just really made me think this was going to be very light, even for a Shonen. Boy was I wrong. But I will say I really do like the series. It's among my top Shonen. Mainly because although some of the early stuff felt pretty generic Shonen for me, that last major arc in the anime really took me by surprise in the way it was handled (including the protagonist - spoiler[He at one point there straight-up acted like a villain, and not in some generic sense, it was kind of frightening.]) and concluded. Very good stuff. |
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Mr. Toto
 Posts: 139 |
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Reading this review and these posts was really validating. Back when the 2011 series first started, I had to campaign hard to explain why some of these major differences between the 1999 version and the 2011 version were made (and also why its deceptive early episodes still didn't make it the "kiddy show" the promotional material disguised it as). Check out my post history if you want some entertaining reads--there were fans seriously attempting to destroy the show's clout because of nostalgia. (Start on pg 6 of my post history, in the Fall 2011 Fall Anime Preview thread)
This is still my favorite anime show. Togashi really did an excellent job crafting the story and I actually appreciate the fact that I can disappear from the anime world altogether for months/years at a time and still return back once it becomes relevant again. If you're on the fence about this show, I highly recommend you stick with it. |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5420 |
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In regards to the Nippon and Madhouse debate, I find the heart scene very misleading, from what I remember it was the only scene where Madhouse toned it down more than the Nippon version. Other scenes like that were mostly the same for each version, but regardless some people still regard Madhouses version as the censored version, someone even uploaded the Nippon version on YouTube with the title "Uncut version". It seems silly that such a small thing has had such a difference on peoples perspective.
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1dbad
Posts: 712 Location: Texas |
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There's some other scenes too. I remember the fight with Hanzo was watered down compared to the Nippon version. There's also Gon in the tree, but I believe that instance was a case of a Nippon embellishment. |
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Mr Sinister
 Posts: 157 Location: NY |
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I've seen all of both versions of the show, haven't read the manga though so I don't know if anymore is explained about Hisoka's powers, but are we supposed to know how Hisoka spoiler[turned that guy into butterflies before the first exam?] Like... where did that come from? That felt so weird.
To me it felt like they were trying to make the show less dark until the later arcs. A lot of scenes that happened at night or in dark rooms were changed to be during the daytime or very well lit rooms. I thought Illumi looked silly rather than scary to me in his bright green outfit. They cut out the girlspoiler[ whose dad Killua's family assassinated], which felt like they were saying that was too grey/dark of a story for this new version. That girl in trick tower was a spoiler[psychiatrist who drove her patients to suicide in the '99 version and was changed to be a "notorious gambler" in the '11 version.] As mentioned by someone else, the Hanzo fight was less intense and they didn't show Killua's spoiler[hand go through that guys chest when he killed him in the final exam]. I could go on and on... These are all small changes I know, but there were so many that it all added up to feel like there was a conscious effort to tone it down for a new audience. Admittedly, this all went away once they reached the spoiler[phantom troupe part, which felt like everything was back to the way it should be.] Again, I haven't read the manga, so maybe the 2011 version changes were correct all along, but just going off of the '99 version, I thought they had tried to make it a lighter show. |
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Valhern
Posts: 916 |
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That's actually censorship. In the manga and the 99' version it's just blood coming out of there. Up until Heavens' Arena there is literally no blood or gore-ish content.
I've read the manga and spoiler[I don't know this girl you are talking about whose Killua's family assassinated, but they do show Killua straight up murdering two guys on the ship. About Leroute (the girl in the trick tower), she is not a psychologist in the manga, but perhaps they added that because she does mentally trick Leorio to win. Hanzo's fight was just Norio Matsumoto going wild with it and the overall direction being plain more ambitiuous. Killua's case was, again, censorship, and he doesn't put it in a bag, it's wrapped in his skin, they didn't care about any of that crap in the York Shin arc for sure.] |
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