the best part of the musical was when leorio sees a pile of a bones and is like “what are those????” and kurapika has to explain to him that those are human bones, reblog with your favorite part of the musical
My favorite part was Grandpa Zeno doing sweet backflips and the Butler Secret Handshake Dance
…also the super adorable Gon and Killua song where they sung about each other
honorable mentions: killugon tickle fight, kurapika covering up leorio’s dick, illumi dancing for the hell of it, and silva giving gon killua’s hand in marriage
Just a simple PSA that I am finally trying to plan this!
Tentative date is Sunday, February 12th at 6:00pm EST. I figured it would make sense to plan this near v-day because the musical is essentially about Gon proving himself worthy of Killua’s hand in marriage to Killua’s parents ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I will post more info soon… Day will most likely remain Feb 12th but the time could change. I might make a poll to see when is best for most people.
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someone: the ‘you are light’ scene from hxh is overrated and toxic
me, an intellectual: killua’s inner monologue of: “gon, you are light, sometimes you shine so brightly i must look away,” is effectively him cementing his skewed perception of gon into something frighteningly permanent. killua– who sees himself as a foil of gon– believes himself to be dark, lightless thing, someone who’s already long since lost the innocence that he has found again, or believes he’s found, in gon, this seemingly golden, island, seaside-boy. he knows gon is wrong about kite. he knows gon is being foolish and reckless and wrong. but twelve-year-old boys are allowed to be these things, things killua never had been allowed the chance to be. he’s placed gon on a pedestal, he’s let himself believe that gon’s innocence, his light, is something killua must protect. killua cannot lose that innocence twice. so he follows gon into hell, lets himself believe it’s anything but. because he loves gon, and he reckons that the only way he can give that love is by protecting him, from the sidelines, in the darkness. sometimes it’s painful to be met with that bright, brash childishness. but even so, killua wonders, for the both of them: “is it alright if i stay by your side?”
honestly i think the context of “in the manga, mito told gon right out that she took custody of him from ging and lied to him” makes gon’s statement to killua (that mito overhears) that mito is the only mom he’ll ever need that much more poignant.
and it makes her tears more significant too – she lied to him and let him believe something that wasn’t true, and then when the lie fell apart she couldn’t admit the entire truth until later. but he still considers her to be his mother, so much so that later he outright rejects the idea of learning more about his birth mother – because he has mito already.
i have a lot more empathy towards mito and her well-intentioned lie than i do towards ging tbh. like i do genuinely think ging leaving gon on kujira island was the best decision, but that and surrendering custody doesn’t absolve ging of any moral wrongdoing tbh. and i do genuinely believe that mito lying to gon about his parents being dead was the wrong thing to do. it’s just more morally grey than “good mom” vs “deadbeat dad”, obviously.
holy shit ‘99 version Mito brought Ging’s crusty ass to court and took Gon away, then lied to Gon all his life by telling him his dad was straight up dead.
THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT!!!!! MITO IS NOT AS PURE AS EVERYONE MAKES HER OUT TO BE!!!
for the record, this is not just ‘99 mito. this is manga canon, the difference being that in the manga she told gon this to his face in the first chapter of the manga (incidentally, gon says he already knew). i just, in advance, don’t want people to see this post and go “oh my god it turns out mito is a terrible person how did we not know”, because when you look at the context it is way more complex than that.
it wasn’t as if mito left the island to track down her vagabond cousin and take his kid away. ging came back to kujira island with gon to leave him there, with no indication of how long it would be before he returned.
imagine gon and killua fighting some Bad Guys and one of them gets a cheap shot on gon. killua’s first instinct is to yell “DON’T TOUCH MY GON” so that’s exactly what he does.
gon closes his eyes and claps one hand to his cheek, already beaming as he jajankens the guy into space like he’s part of team rocket. oh gosh. “my gon”, he said. gosh, killua.
scrolling thru AO3 and reading HxH fic summaries and read a few school AUs where Gon sees the mysterious Killua and becomes attracted to Killua first….
This might sound a little cold but I honestly think Gon would not be THAT interested in Killua at first…. Like maybe a little, enough to strike up a greeting and just become regular friends.
Cuz like… Gon’s #1 reasoning for noticing Killua during the Hunter Exams was cuz they were the only kids around….
If anyone is gonna be interested first, it’s gonna be Killua interested in Gon honestly!! Gon is the one who is naturally charismatic and charming without realizing. His earnestness and desire to learn about people is what gets people to warm and open up to him! He doesn’t judge (unless you’ve personally hurt his friends) so like… Gon is just someone you WANT to be friends with, someone that you would want to like you…..
Ahaha, I’ve… gone off on 99 a few times on this blog before. I wish I could point you to some of those posts, because I don’t want to sound like a broken record to everyone following who’s lived through my griping about 99 in the past lol, but yeah, I also dropped it. It’s no surprise but I’m really not a fan of the original anime.
There’s definitely some merits to it, but I think it really depends on what your interests are and what enjoyment you derive out of the series. For example, there’s much more filler, usually comedic in nature, so that appeals to some people. There’s also more Leorio and Kurapika, plus added subtext between them, so some people enjoy it for that. It also adapts the first chapter of the manga (somewhat faithfully) where as HXH 2011 totally skipped over it, so that’s also a plus.
My main grievance is that the characters were reduced to OOC tropes in order to neatly fit into typical shounen cookie-cutter molds. I’ve given this example numerous times, but the first phase of the hunter exam is just not adapted well at all and the characters really suffer for it. In the manga and in 2011, Killua introduces himself to Gon first. As we later learn, Killua is desperate to make a friend, and this desperation is what Illumi takes advantage of when manipulating Killua at the end of the exam. However, for some reason, the writers of 99 chose to make Killua more aloof and “cool” and therefore had Gon introduce himself to Killua instead, and even made Killua refuse to introduce himself in response. This small change has MAJOR consequences for our understandings of these characters!
Gon was also reduced to a plucky, innocent shounen protag. While he obviously has moments like that in the manga and 2011, all of his interesting moments where he displays gray morality and cunning were inexplicably removed. One example is how, instead of taking Ponzu’s badge after she passes out, 99 had Leorio do it instead. Again, a small moment with major implications. All of these small moments matter, as Gon’s atypical sense of morality and justice are crucial to his character and also what makes him much more interesting and unique compared to other shounen protags.
I also want to clarify that I am not anti-filler or against any and all changes to the manga – they just need to be thoughtful and consistent from a world building and character development perspective. For anyone who’s only seen 2011 and hasn’t read the manga – did you know that the penalty time spent in trick tower was entirely anime-original filler? It fits perfectly within the narrative, so chances are, it probably didn’t scream “DISCLAIMER: this is original filler” to you. The penalty scene in Trick Tower is an example of GOOD filler because it’s actually purposeful and enhances our understanding of the characters – we have Tonpa call out Leorio’s failings when gambling against Leroute, and Leorio reflecting on it as well, which contributes to the tensions between them at the end of the exam phase. The tension is also heightened by all the idle time spent in the penalty room – it gives you a sense of just how much time was lost. Just skipping over it, like what happened in the manga, makes it seem insignificant.
Sorry for the long post, but I think this basically sums up my feelings on 99 and why I regard 2011 as the superior adaptation. I’ve heard other people on this blog comment that the hunter exam is handled poorly in 99 but that York New is handled well. I haven’t seen the 1999 adaptation of the Yorknew Arc so I can’t really comment on that but I wanted to make sure I mentioned it.
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