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So I'm watching the new Hunter x Hunter anime, and there are a few things I dislike about it.
First of all, the pacing is bad. Apart from episodes ending at questionable times in the action, it also goes too slow. I know the original manga is a wordy shonen, but a sentence that lasts two panels during a fight in the manga shouldn't last 40 seconds in the anime. It also does that thing anime do, where they repeat a scene that happened at the end of an episode at the beginning of the next one, which is annoying. While it has almost no filler, the stuff they added is mostly here to pass more time. It's harmless enough though, and while at times I wish they didn't add it (the sailor on the ship at the beginning, the Nostrade bodyguards showing off in random scenes), I'm glad they did at other times (Canary's backstory, that short scene of the Phantom Brigade killing the remaining Shadow Beasts in episode 45 was alright, and the part with them not wanting to let Nobunaga out of Owl's bag too). Every episode basically screams "the manga is better!" at me. It's not terrible, it's just... Very annoying. I suppose it's not an easy manga to adapt while keeping it as good, and it turns some minor annoyances of it into bigger flaws by spending more time on them.
The censoring is also kind of grating. While Togashi censored some of his stuff himself, he still kept the violence there. The anime isn't TOO bad with it, especially lately in the York Shin arc (episode 44 and 45 were smart about it, still leaving blood and broken limbs but hiding the more gruesome stuff like headcrushings or the inside of a half-bitten off head), but earlier on it was kind of really dumb. I suppose it's to allow it to air at a more opportune time of the day in Japan.
Another complaint is basically that there is no sign of Kite/ Kaito yet. Was he entirely cut from the adaptation? if that's the case... Well, that blows. It's kind of a plothole, really, especially later on.
It has good points though. It looks good and is animated well, the music is okay with some good stuff here and there, the voice acting isn't grating (nothing that really stood out though) and it's mostly faithful to the source material (again, apart from Kite). Most of the action is eh, but some scenes still stand out (Gon grabbing Hisoka's number, Gon vs Hisoka in the Heavens Arena, and I'm hoping for good things in the upcoming episodes for Kurapika vs Uvogin and later on for the remaining of York Shin, Greed Island, then Chimera Ants).
Also I wish they would have a new song for the OP, this one is getting old. The second ED reminds me of X Japan except not as good. Oh, and the Hunterpedia parts are cute.
It's not bad but I hope it gets better. If it all could be as good as the last two episodes and the Gon vs Hisoka fight, I'd be pop flyin' (though these still had time-wasting stuff).
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