C&C - Hunter x Hunter - "Pose × And × Name" [12/8]

veemonjosh

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Opening theme: "Departure!" by Masatoshi Ono [VERSION 5]
Ending theme: "Hyōri Ittai" by Yuzu [VERSION 1]​

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Episode 122
"Pose × And × Name"
Chapters adapted: 287-288, 290

This time:
Netero tries to finally start his fight with the King, while Youpi and Pouf make their way to their leader.

Notes:
  • The chapters which this episode covers can be found in volume 27 of the manga release.
  • Episodes 1-75 are currently available across four Bluray/DVD sets from Viz Media.
  • The second Hunter x Hunter movie, ”The Last Mission”, has just been licensed and will be screening in US theaters this January. The first movie, “Hunter × Hunter: Phantom Rouge”, is now available on Bluray and DVD.
 

Kitschensyngk

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Must we kill the spider to save the butterfly?

"Exchanging words? You mean, like, talking?"
 
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Mr. Anime

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I said it before and I'll say it again, Togashi likes his villains a bit too much to the point of giving them the moral high ground.
 

Radical

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Episode 122 was pretty sweet,

Previous episode: Menthuthuyoupi's cool centaur form and sweet honorable side/great character development sparing Morel, Knuckle, and Meleoreon, and poor Knov looking terrible:ack:, yikes.

Netero and Mereum's conversation was great, nice of Mereum to spare Netero.

Love Mereum's sweet character development showing some humanity and his diabolical goal changing the world was great.Yoshihiro Togashi awesome at writing villains for character developments.

Netero's 100-type Guanyin Bodhisattva ability is really awesome:D.

Neferpitou giving information and that Mereum has left to Shaiapouf was nice.

Shaiapouf's ability turning cute chibi forms is so cool:D.

Shaiapouf telling Menthuthuyoupi the information and off to find Mereum was nice.

Menthuthuyoupi's character development showing a honorable/respectful side was sweet:D:anime:, love Menthuthuyoupi next to Mereum, Neferpitou, Peggy, Colt, Hina, Ikalgo, and Welfin.

Netero vs. Mereum is a pretty awesome fight, Netero's plan to provoke Mereum was great, Mereum doesn't know his name, nice cliffhanger.
 
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PicardMan

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Personally, I found this episode far more engaging than most of the Youpi fight because Meruem seems to be a scene stealer of a character. Netero's claim that Meruem's compassion comes solely from his human side rather than his ant side, which he claims is completely evil and beyond redemption. This seemed to indicate possible bigotry on Netero's part and we have met some compassionate and caring ants, like Ikalgo. The scene in the board meeting room where they discuss exterminating all the ants with the bug on the window seems to possibly imply that the hunters see the chimera ants as little more than bugs, pests to be exterminated. At least, that is how I interpreted the scene and I wonder if future episodes will confirm or deny my interpretation of this arc's themes. If this is where they are going, Ikalgo vs. Bloster seems to be much more thematically important than it seemed at first. Meruem is still using less than morally ideal means to achieve his goals, but he's been significantly more symphathetic since meeting Kogumi than when he started as a total jerk who treated his subordinates like garbage.

One final thought, the Toonami lineup promo has shown a fight between Killua and a mysterious trenchcoat guy. I wonder if that is part of this arc or the next because if trenchcoat guy is a new character, that overcrowds the canvas quite a bit. Toonami promos always stir curiosity in what they reveal.
 

Lawren22

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Yeah ,Meruem is deffinaly one of the most interesting shonen jump villains I had seen in a while. Togashi has always been really good at writting great villains since the Dark Tournament arc in YYH with Younger Toguro imo. The bombers from the Greed Island arc were an exception to this thought but I guess that becuse GI was really just about Gon and Killua getting stronger and their friendship growing even more so he probaly felt it didnt really need a compelling villain.
 
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Gold Guy

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One final thought, the Toonami lineup promo has shown a fight between Killua and a mysterious trenchcoat guy. I wonder if that is part of this arc or the next because if trenchcoat guy is a new character, that overcrowds the canvas quite a bit. Toonami promos always stir curiosity in what they reveal.

Definitely this arc (although I don't think we'll see the scene until January), but that's all I'm going to say.

Yeah ,Meruem is deffinaly one of the most interesting shonen jump villains I had seen a while. Togashi has always been really good at writting great villains since the Dark Tournament arc in YYH with Younger ounger Toguro imo. The bombers from the Greed Island arc were an exception to this thought but I guess that becuse GI was really just about Gon and Killua getting stronger and their friendship growing even more so he probaly felt it didnt really need a compelling villain.

I still consider Sensui from YYH to be one of the best Jump villains of all time. But yeah, even the fodder in Hakusho could be memorable, which says something. Sometimes I'm still surprised how lame the villains were in Greed Island, but yeah, I guess it was more about the heroes journey.
 

PicardMan

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Sometimes I'm still surprised how lame the villains were in Greed Island, but yeah, I guess it was more about the heroes journey.

Personally, I didn't find Genthru all that bad a villain. Mad bombers are kind of a cliche, but he at least had a mild degree of menace. He's still better than many Black Clover or Fairy Tail villains (really the worst villains in HunterXHunter seem to be merely okay).

One thing I want to commend this show for is its animation direction. The way certain scenes are shot and composed really elevates a scenes, with Knov's breakdown, Shialopouf's freakout, the reveal of Kite's death, and even subtle things like the symbolism in this episode's hunter board meeting are really impressive with the attention to detail. Some shonen have flat direction and shot composition for their non action scenes, but HunterXHunter really does that part well.
 

Gold Guy

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Personally, I didn't find Genthru all that bad a villain. Mad bombers are kind of a cliche, but he at least had a mild degree of menace. He's still better than many Black Clover or Fairy Tail villains (really the worst villains in HunterXHunter seem to be merely okay).

One thing I want to commend this show for is its animation direction. The way certain scenes are shot and composed really elevates a scenes, with Knov's breakdown, Shialopouf's freakout, the reveal of Kite's death, and even subtle things like the symbolism in this episode's hunter board meeting are really impressive with the attention to detail. Some shonen have flat direction and shot composition for their non action scenes, but HunterXHunter really does that part well.

Yeah, the problem with most Black Clover and Fairy Tail villains are that they feel like filler villains from better Shonen anime.

I definitely give a lot of kudos to MADhouse. Between this, Death Note, and One-Punch Man, they've certainly become a fan favorite to adapt Jump manga.
 

PicardMan

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I definitely give a lot of kudos to MADhouse. Between this, Death Note, and One-Punch Man, they've certainly become a fan favorite to adapt Jump manga.

Studio Bones' My Hero Academia is also awesome. The studios that seem to get the bum rap are Toei and Pierriot. Still, those studios earlier works have some praise and it seems to be the later stuff that gets criticized.
 

Grenzer

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Studio Bones' My Hero Academia is also awesome. The studios that seem to get the bum rap are Toei and Pierriot. Still, those studios earlier works have some praise and it seems to be the later stuff that gets criticized.

Pierrot created a lot of high quality animation from roughly 1990 to 2007. Seriously, check out some of their shows from the late 90's, it was very well drawn and animated, some of the best you can find from that era. I think the quality of their work started slipping after the Global Financial Crisis gutted the anime industry, but how much the two are related is up for debate.

Toei has always been a mixed bag. When they want to, their animators can produce amazing work, but the desire to maximize profits and stay on schedule at all costs often means they will take the cheapest route possible even with high-profile shows like One Piece and Dragon Ball. You can always count on them to finish something they started though, no matter how long it takes, so that is a plus.
 

Gold Guy

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Pierrot created a lot of high quality animation from roughly 1990 to 2007. Seriously, check out some of their shows from the late 90's, it was very well drawn and animated, some of the best you can find from that era. I think the quality of their work started slipping after the Global Financial Crisis gutted the anime industry, but how much the two are related is up for debate.

Toei has always been a mixed bag. When they want to, their animators can produce amazing work, but the desire to maximize profits and stay on schedule at all costs often means they will take the cheapest route possible even with high-profile shows like One Piece and Dragon Ball. You can always count on them to finish something they started though, no matter how long it takes, so that is a plus.


YES, 90s Pierrot was awesome. Seriously, YYH might be to this day one of the best directed Jump adaptions. I've been re-watching it on Blu-ray, and it's shocking how well it holds up. And for a long-runner, it was really consistent, animation wise.

I have to agree about Toei too, sadly. For a company that earns so much money, you think they'd be willing to shell out more cash... I'm truly glad they didn't get HxH.
 

Lawren22

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I love the YYH anime espacallly the dub, its one of my all time favorites. The Dark Tourment and Chapter Black arcs are two of the greatest shonen arcs period imo. The fights in the DT arc in particular had great animation for that time period.
 
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Endeavor24

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Hi everyone I a longtime lurker finally breaking out of my shell and participating with the discussions treat me well :).

Anyway as already said in this thread the development of the king is the most interesting part of both this episode and this arc. While having the main villain gaining development is not exactly the most unique thing in anime, the way its executed here is. How long have they the ants been born, a month or so? Yet in that period of time all of the main villains of the arc now acting the complete opposite of their first oppression.

Pitou, an sadistic remorseless killer that took the life of an human without a thought to how it affect others (Gon) now is willing to sacrifice herself to protect a human because of the positive affect it has on the king. Youpi was the one note monster figure that look down on humans to the point of not finishing them off because they of so little worth to him. He later spare their lives because he is both respectful and grateful to them for giving him the opportunity to better himself. Pouf so far shown little development, but he is increasingly becoming more unhinge and the king is even shown to want to negotiate with a human and genuinely don't want to fight Netero.

The best part is how the author didn't go the easy route with this because like Lucario said last week this doesn't change that fact that they still plan to kill majority of the human race. I would continue to go on on how Gon also fit this mold because he went from a kid Goku clone to someone who is perfectly okay with letting a innocent person die instead of waiting a single hour for her to get the help she needed but I hold off on that.

This post is already getting long enough and I wait to this arc ends before I harshly judge him for it. Anyway I see what the author is going for and I also see now why this arc is hyped up the way it is.
 

PicardMan

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The issue of the other chimera ants is an interesting thing. It seems like Neferpitou is healing Kogumi because of loyalty to the king, although she seemed to believe that she held the king back and made him go soft. Despite this, honoring the king's wishes and pleasing him was her major priority. Pitou's vulnerability was a shocking moment. Shialapouf seems to be almost in love with Mereum with how obsessed he seems to be. Youpi seemed to be that bloodthirsty, declaring Knuckle as not worth killing. He did declare Knuckle to be a worthy adversary at the end though. At least, that's why interpretation of the characters.
 

Lawren22

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For the royalty guard it all goes back to what they each said when Meruem asked them his name. Pouf said he dosent need one because he is the king and the king alone this shows that Pouf's love for Meruem is acually love for his ideal king , he dosent acually care about his personal feelings thats why he hates Komugi the most beacuse he's scared that her influence will turn Meruem away from being his ideal king.Youpi just said that it is beyond his capability to answer the question. He's a soldier his only concen was doing his job of protecting the king's life. Pitou however gave the opposite response to Pouf they said that he should pick a name that he likes becuse his feelings are what matters most. I think they had a neutral response to Komugi at first they didnt really care if Komugi lived or died but was surprised to see that the king did. After seeing with thier own eyes how much he really cared for Komugi and the effect it had on him,Pitou made protecting Komugi no 1 goal. It isn't just that he orderd it but becuse as she told Gon if Komugi died the king will no longer be who he is now. Pitou arguably has the purest loyalty and love for the king out of any of them.
 
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PicardMan

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@Lawren22 That is quite the insightful analysis on how Neferpitou and Shialapouf differ in their feelings towards Meruem.
 

Light Lucario

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I thought that this episode was pretty good. Pitou and Pouf were lucky that Gon was distracted enough during their conversation. Pitou was able to explain what they could to Pouf, while Pouf was able to use his powers to to escape. Although, I wonder if Gon did notice Pouf leaving and was just too focused on his own feelings to really react or care what else was going on. Even though he met up with Youpi and they were heading towards the King, Pouf seemed worried about how they were becoming more human like in their behavior and decisions. Now that most of the Royal Guards are out of the castle, I wonder who Knuckle is going to fight. He could probably handle most of the regular soldier ants without too much of a problem.

The King simply wanting to exchange words with Netero was quite surprising. Even after Netero's attack, he just wanted to talk. He was a lot calmer than I expected and his connection with Komugi did change how he felt about humans to a degree, especially when he was clearly worried after she was injured from that initial attack on the castle. Although, his wording was still rather telling. He said that some humans deserve to live and that he would use force to create his ideal words. Making a society where inequality doesn't exist almost sounds nice on paper, but he would still become a dictator in order to achieve that goal and kill innocent people who would stand in his way. King may sound less like a monster than when he first appeared, but he is still a threat to the world.

Considering how dangerous the Chimera Ants are, it's no surprise that people wanted the Hunters Association to just kill them off. They could easily kill many more people and be a threat to the planet if they could get to other countries. We have seen some of the Chimera Ants joining the fight and most of of the important Chimera Ants have become more human during the course of the arc. Even Netero realized that King was behaving more human like. Using the knowledge of his true name to get King to fight back was a smart idea. Netero still needed to fight King and this was a good way to provoke him. Not only has King behaved more human like in his actions, but he was interested in his name earlier in the arc as well. Considering how powerful they both are, a full out fight between King and Netero should be quite interesting. Overall, it was a pretty good episode.
 

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