I'm such a fag for this series for some reason and I can never resist the urge to discuss )':
oh Arlong Park, how I long to quit you
@Rashou:
1. hectic pacing
Honestly, I liked the whole "shit guys what just happened" transition between the Varia and the future arcs. It's like, hooray we beat the Vari–lol the future sucks, being in the mafia is unhealthy
@Rashou:
3. Gokuderaaaaa
Maybe I'm crazy, but I think Amano does a fine job of developing/explaining characters like Gokudera. In (not very) short:
! he's been told for pretty much all of his life that he's just not good enough (being a bastard child, abandonment by Shamal, numerous rejections by various mafia families, so on), not to mention he has enormous trust issues (poisoning by Bianchi out of love, the mafia killed my mom!, abandonment by Shamal again). Along comes Tsuna, who actually saves Gokudera's life when Gokudera was trying to kill him. Cue obsessive loyalty.
! Yamamoto, on the other hand, is sort of a rival figure except Gokudera doesn't want to admit that he considers them to be on the same level. But Yamamoto's inherently very good at this whole mafia thing and thinks it's a game, while Gokudera's had to work his ass off for his life's ambition. This plus the weird overly-friendliness is probably what sticks in Gokudera's craw. I think by the end of the Varia arc though, he trusts Yamamoto (and, to a much lesser extent, a couple of the other guardians) to be a good family member, which is why he punched out future-Yamamoto that one time. He trusted Yamamoto enough to protect Tsuna, but if even an older, stronger version of him couldn't do it, how can Gokudera trust Yamamoto to take care of Gamma? Not to mention the stress of suddenly being thrust into the bleak, bleak future and his own insecurities about his abilities (lost his Ring fight, couldn't do much during the Sky battle, Tenth is deeeeeaaaaad ;_;, bitchslapped by Lal Mirch who is a freaking girl).
p.s.: Gokudera actually is a douchebag, not to mention a fucking nerd
The anime is…not the worst thing ever, but it's pretty mediocre. It's "dumbed down" so it can air on weekend mornings (this decision never made sense to me, especially since the manga was well into the Ring battles by then and the production staff knew how much shonen-style violence there was going to be). Most of the voice acting is good though, especially in more recent episodes. Just don't watch episode 5.
I don't see it doing well as a dub here, because most kids are like "feh a little baby, that's laaaaame"
also I will be heartbroken if they don't dub Squalo well orz
[/terek]