TotallyNotMark started reviewing Hunter x Hunter arcs around two months ago following the success of his One Piece & Jojo videos. He's reviewing every arc in the series after reading it without the context of the following arcs. This newbie perspective analysis is entertaining and informative to watch.
He picks up many more nuances than I do. He makes a wrong takes sometimes but it's excusable because it's a blind-review. As someone who watched Hunter x Hunter multiple times, I still find new things to learn from him.
The Review Video:
In this part 3, TotallyNotMark reads and reviews the first half of York New City following the ending of the Heavens Arena arc. While covering the two parallel stories of the York New Arc, this video ends on a cliffhanger and I was disappointed, but not for long as I watched part.2 soon after.
Thoughts & Impressions:
TotallyNotMark describes the structure of this arc which follows different characters. Togashi is a master of multiple POVs. I have to agree that it the strength it does to a series is amazing! Extra points for using DBZ Namek Saga as the example.
The unpredictable nature of Togashi stories and his complete focus on originality, competes with Oda's attention to detail.
"Gon's negative traits are his most relatable ones." I totally agree. I love how they're executed it, so much it hurts.
Gon has a lot of Shonen heroes positive traits, like pureness, challenge-mindset, loyalty. The thing is, they're in a human child now, and children can get disillusioned. It shows you why Luffy and Goku don't have Gon's relatable qualities: They don't make a heroic person!
From HxH story I can say for certain that Togashi is the type that gets bored quickly. (I'm like that myself.) He doesn't stick with one scene or emotion for too long. He's closer to Toriyama than Oda in style. Togashi almost never plans ahead.
Wow! Around 05:00: The scene when Gon & Killua talk about their future plans and Gon wants Killua to be with him forever. I TotallyDontRemember this piece of foreshadowing!
[^] I don't think TotallyNotMark watches his videos, because the footage in that segment!!
05:54: The box opening scene is an amazing scene. It shows how forward thinker Ging must be. The importance of Nen to Hunters. It also showcases Ging power as no one could open the box with force.
I relate to the "I don't want you to find me" scene so much! I can imagine how Ging probably feels, and I know exactly how Gon feels when he hears it. Like TotallyNotMark, I think this comes from Togashi's personal life or experience. This also reinforced by a video I watched about his older series YuYuHakushou.
Gon doesn't want to connect to his father. Yup! That's a subtext I noticed too. He doesn't refer to his father in a longing manner at all, opting to use the distant Oyaji over Tou-san in the original Japanese. He even refers to him by name. Love that TotallyNotMark noticed it too!
- Kurapika plays "Among Us" so he can get hired by Mafia. #ThanksForTheMeme
12:05: ...You're too used to One Piece, Mark.
Hunter x Hunter doesn't explore new locations as we go to them. When it does, you won't notice it. I don't think it's a flaw of the series, though.
Greed Island introduction is really interesting. Think about it: Ging made a Limited-Edition game, that needs Nen users to work, just so his son could play it 10+ years later. #MessedUpActOfLove #BestWorstParentEver
I didn't think about the surprise Sep 1st event that much so I can't comment on it. But I agree that surprises work well when they re-contextualize the scenes.
Understanding how Nen in general works is essential to understand Kurapika's abilities. His Chains Hatsu has many rules. His application of Nen is almost the opposite of what Nen is supposed to do. (I have more to say here so I hope to go back to this after TotallyNotMark catches up with the Manga.)
- Kurapika vs Uvogin is awesome! One of the best fights in anime/manga especially emotionally.
I always think that Hunter x Hunter message is the opposite of Naruto's in this regard. Revenge in Hunter x Hunter is shown realistically and neutrally. It doesn't tell you that Revenge is bad and unnecessary, but a necessary evil. Compare to Naruto in which the story frames it as something villainous.
- I think both anime versions of the fight work well. Though I agree that somber soundtrack fits the fight more. I think 2011 choose the hype route by design as they deemed the fight too dark if they did that... At this point of its run, 2011 version was being aired at for younger audience TV time slot.
- 22:20: Hustle x Hustle! This part in which Gon, Killua & Leorio try many ways to make money! I love it! ...The Manga is teaching us entrepreneurship guys!
That scene when the appraiser talks with them and analysis Gon character might be the most important scenes for me in this story. He sums up that Gon has no morality system. (Or at least, his morality system is very bizarre.)
24:40: ...Another foreshadowing piece I missed in my first watch.
The Video finishes on a cliffhanger that left me going: "What?! WHY?!" This stalking scene is amazing because it uses Gon & Killua strengths, (stealth) and puts them against stronger enemies they have no hope to defeat. Then they get found out.
That's all for today's article!
I already wrote most of the next Review thoughts. I was planning on publishing them together, but it was too long. I decided to split the article in half.
Editing this part alone took more than a week. (Well, collectively less than 5 hours.)
- First image is taken from the thumbnail of the linked video. All other images are taken from the manga.
- This article is a cross-post here on Hive and Read.cash. Different images used there.
For more Hunter x Hunter:
- Read my thoughts on TotallyNotMark's Hunter Exam Arc Review.
- Read my thoughts on his Heavens Arena Arc Review.
Didn't know Totally Not Mark started a Hunter x Hunter series! Last thing I watched from his channel was about Keijo (reminded me of Gigguk, and not in a good way).
I'll watch these and come back.
That's you! That's you from Facebook right? I'm glad that you're here!
I didn't watch any of his videos other than the One Piece and some Dragon Ball one... I'm familiar with Gigguk, so I think I know what you mean by "Not in a good way."
Keep in mind that his "Blind" reviews are first impressions. He doesn't dissect these series like he was doing Dragon Ball right now, so he'll talk more about the good parts than the weak points. I'm sure when he gets familiar with these series, you'll see him dissecting them like he does Dragon Ball series.
It is me, my friend 😄 I like it here, and as always I'm overthinking what I want to write about on my first post 😂
Interesting, from this post it feels like he went in depth to an extent, but good, he kinda overdoes it with Dragon Ball, makes it sound deeper than it actually is sometimes.
He does that with Hunter x Hunter too, but in a good way.
I've just watched the Phantom Troupe and Chimera Ant parts of his review.
Honestly I don't have much to say other than that his entire focus seems to be on Gon and Killua, he ignores important parts of the series and spends big chunks of his videos talking in depth about these two, he also seems to consider anything that doesn't advance the main plot a waste of time.
It's interesting to see how some people view a story differently and what they prefer in it, I also have a different point of view than him when it comes to the Chimera Ant arc, but I find his criticism reasonable, I won't get into details in case you haven't watched that one yet.
Thanks for reading.
Do you like Hunter x Hunter too?