C&C - Hunter x Hunter - "The Word × Is × You" [3/16]

[PicardMan]

In regards to YYH vs HxH I think with the exception of Killua YYH main cast is better imo ( not that the HxH's main cast is bad of the other 3 I really do like Gon especially but he cant hold a candle to Yusuke for me).

Well, YuYu Hakusho never had a 70+ episode stretch where characters disappear (Kurapika and Leorio have disappeared for quite a while). It's also notable that HunterXHunter still hasn't finished while YuYu Hakusho got to finish its character arcs. I do acknowledge that in terms of sheer manliness, YYH has some really awesome characters (Kurama and Heiei are still some of the most BA anime characters out there.)

The main issue I've noted is the tendency for the show to do talky drama bits and that's probably a big turn off to many people as we've seen the ratings go way down in the chimera ant arc, losing to Shippuden filler, and it feels so weird that the show started out with ratings well into the millions. Our last talky drama show, Iron Blooded Orphans, seemed to have similar struggles. YYH seems more accessible to casuals because its action ratio is about on par with most other battle shonen, with pretty good pacing. I showed HunterXHunter to my brother and the slow paced trick tower portion and the overlong rock paper scissors and wagering game sworn him off the show.

 

[Lawren22]

I have a friend like that too, hes not a big anime watcher 90 percent of the anime he watched I got him into he said he liked HxH but not as much as YYH and some of the other stuff I showed him including YYH and HxH becuse too much talking and not enough fighting thought ironically he named this ep as one of the ones he really liked mi mean thev Welfrin,Meruem and Pouf stand still plot.

 

[Light Lucario]

We didn't need this Meruem loses his memory plotline. Just have him walk off the Rose bomb, looking none the worse for wear but knowing that he's finished and just wants to see Komugi one last time before the end. Have Pouf and Youpi catch it too and die from refusing to leave his side. There, I saved us a couple episodes of rather pointless mind games.

I don't think that this subplot was pointless. Despite how incredibly powerful Mereum has become, remembering Komugi helped him to become more human, or at least that's the impression I got from the ending of the episode. That fleshes out Mereum's personality some more, as well as possibly factor into how he'll die. Plus, Pouf was desperate to keep Mereum as his ideal king, but all of his efforts were for nothing because of how strongly Mereum feels about Komugi. I also don't like the idea of Mereum just walking off the bomb like it was nothing and then realizing that he was close to death. Having him be revived and then find out that he'll still end up dead due to the radiation poison is a pretty neat twist and an interesting way to kill him off when he's too powerful.

Admittedly, it probably didn't help to have the subplot after going through so many other ones in just this half of the arc, but I don't think it's fair to brush this one off as entirely pointless.

The main issue I've noted is the tendency for the show to do talky drama bits and that's probably a big turn off to many people as we've seen the ratings go way down in the chimera ant arc, losing to Shippuden filler, and it feels so weird that the show started out with ratings well into the millions. Our last talky drama show, Iron Blooded Orphans, seemed to have similar struggles. YYH seems more accessible to casuals because its action ratio is about on par with most other battle shonen, with pretty good pacing. I showed HunterXHunter to my brother and the slow paced trick tower portion and the overlong rock paper scissors and wagering game sworn him off the show.

I've noticed that for quite some time with this series. There was a bit more consistent action within the first two arcs, but once we got to the York New arc, there were a lot more dialogue heavy episodes. Dialogue heavy episodes aren't bad, but it can make it harder to people to get invested with the series, especially when they can contribute to the slow pace of the series. I like Hunter x Hunter, but I don't know how I'd rank it among other Shonen series I've seen. I haven't seen YYH yet, so I can't compare those two series. Hunter x Hunter is a good series with pretty solid writing, good characters and action, but I'm not sure if it lives up to its hype exactly. It is good, but maybe not one of the best Shonen series good if that makes sense. The rest of the series could potentially change that though.

Anyway, I thought that this episode was pretty good. The poison from the bomb being that deadly was pretty intense and hopefully the poison doesn't spread from Mereum and Pouf. Mereum confronting Welfin was pretty unexpected. While Welfin didn't kill Youpi, I was glad that we saw how he died after spending some time on his fight earlier in the arc. Pouf still trying to Mereum despite how he already knew Pouf was hiding something was a pretty desperate move on his part. I couldn't blame Welfin for being so terrified at dying, but he looked extremely ugly now. Without fur and hair, he looks more like a bulldog rather than a wolf. Even though he was terrified, he was able to mention Komugi's name. I kind of liked how Mereum saw Komugi. I don't know if he loves her, but he does have some fondness for her at least, which is more human than ant-like. Plus, despite all of Pouf's efforts, Welfin said Komugi's name partly because she was his secret. He may not have figured out what was the right word to say if Pouf wasn't so desperate to prevent Mereum from remembering her.

Welfin still turned out more important than I thought he would since he was the one who made Mereum remember Komugi. He was extremely lucky that talking about how the Chimera Ants are the enemy didn't make Mereum angry since he would have died. I think it was a combination of how grateful he was to remember Komugi and how he was becoming more human-like. He wanted Welfin to go find Gyro and live a human life if possible. I knew that Mereum wouldn't kill Pouf right then and there. That would have been anticlimactic. But it was still satisfying to see him being completely crushed knowing that he failed in preventing Mereum from remembering Komugi. I still hope that the poison kicks in for him before Mereum has a chance to kill him, but it was a good start to Pouf's downfall at least. His attempts at being so manipulative did far more harm than good and pretty much set Pitou to their death. Pitou may not have fought Gon right there and then if they knew that Komugi was still effectively a hostage. They still would have fought Gon, but it just might have played out a bit differently and having Pitou back could have helped them a lot. Overall, it was a pretty good episode.