Hiatus x Hiatus III: Goodnight, Sweet Princes

HaxeyeMihawk

Havent read the chapter yet (just pressed the link) but am I the only one who gets a surge of anxiety when you first view the number and size of the text bubbles upon opening HxH these days?

pariston_hill

@maxterdexter:

Also, not handholding? While explaining Nen to stupid details, again, and having the characters analize abilities that we the audience already know how they work for pages? That is not respect, that is stalling, page filling.

I’m willing to take some page filling here and there if that means he enters in a 2 volume a year routine.

But, really, I don’t feel more like I can defend his actions. Trying to make every character into a 4D chess player is being a little to obnoxious for my taste.

I wanna see all hell breaks loose on the succession war, so we can go back to the Zodiacs and the expedition plot.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

nobody

!
…and fire assistants, I suppose

@KageKageKing:

I guess it's easier to read in japanese, I think?

Yeah, these fan translations, especially rushed ones, are a big part of what makes it unreadable. But seeing the spoiler image that was posted earlier, there is no difference between the amount of text. Maybe it just "flows" better in the original japanese?

For comparison, VIZ usually handles it better: https://imgur.com/a/UJYtd

Long John Silvers Rayleigh

@Sakonosolo:

This was much better than the last few chapters in my opinion. For as much text as there was it was at least interesting. We got more info about postmortem nen and the whole thing about curse nen was great. And Camilla having an entire group of curse specialists who are assigned to each prince was really nice. I'm still kind of confused about if you actually need to kill yourself to activate a curse though, since at times when they were talking about it, it seemed like they could do it without killing themselves. I'm not even bothering remembering most characters' names though. I had a similar issue with LotGH where tons of names characters were being introduced but just like that series, if a character does enough to deserve being remembered, I'll remember their name. No point in remembering the names of fodder that will never do anything.

Those were the bodyguards of the princes already dead, so they wouldnt have to kill themselves.

Ageless_Bum

I honestly couldn't bring myself to read this chapter. Considering this is a shonen manga, I have at least a little expectation of movement in the characters. Every image I can remember is literally just one or two people standing and talking. It's like watching a drawn version of a show set in Victorian England.

maxterdexter

tldr;
Camila was more prepared for this shit that it seemed from the begining. She has a group of suicide nen users that by killing themselves and hating their target enough, they will eventually kill them, and this is an ancient Kakin tradittion. They want to test this by making the one asigned to Wobble kill herself asap.
Benajmin's army is terrified of Halkenburk, they monologue a lot about it.
Prince ugly's mind control is extending, but she is wholesome, and if her book is sincere, she doesn't want to kill. Yet.
Prince Ghandi and Prince (Legal) Drugs showed up but did almost nothing. Basho (in service of prince (legal) Drugs) acted like he was sharing info with one of Benjamin's guards, but PSYCHE! no, he didn't trust them!!!

zeltrax225

Guys hear me out
What if
Togashi always wanted to be a writer and not a mangaka.
Like he always wanted to write Japan's lord of the rings or literature epics.
But then he became a mangaka and now his name is tied to his reputation.
Hxh is just a testing ground for him now to see how much and how far he can utilize his ability with words
But not as an author but as a mangaka.
See that's the difference, he's so revered that he no longer needs to be afraid of failure or public criticism.
He can write and write and write and people will praise him because of his reputation as a mangaka.
Now if he started his own novels? What if people realized he's no longer doing it as a mangaka and started calling him out on it?
Like he can't write books at all but he's good at manga so he should go back or give it up.
No no he can't risk that so Hxh gives him the best of both worlds.

And if you've read all that boy i pulled that all out of my ass just like whatever the fuck he is doing now
If you are going to defend him please at least acknowledge that he's lazy because he wants to write a bunch of characters and conspiracies without doing the actual work
Hence we get this chaptet.

glass

Lets be honest, the real reason Togashi calls it a manga is because he knows words can't do justice to the majestic turkey

Silence

I am officially disengaged.

This screen-filling navel-gazing just isn't interesting anymore. I find myself barely skimming these text dumps because I know reading them will have no tangible effect on anything. If Togashi has a planned endpoint for this arc in mind, communicating the movements of the principal characters involved wouldn't necessitate page upon page of random NPC #134's stream-of-consciousness, or dozens of new nobodies introduced per chapter. Instead, it feels like he's using these walls of text to talk himself through his own story as he goes along. Like there's no self-editing—or even editing at all—what-so-ever.

And I'm not someone who decried it when he told the story this way in the Chimera Ant arc. It made sense when the events were happening in an extremely limited period of time during the Palace Invasion chapters. There, a moment's indecision meant certain death and knowing as a reader that you were hearing what could possibly be a character's last thoughts led to a heightened tension that served the arc's themes well. Here, there's no good cause for it. There are much better ways to communicate intent and move the story along in this medium than this.

There is a point past which reading these thought slabs ceases to be worth it if the payoff isn't worth the setup.

Razh

@maxterdexter:

tldr;
Camila was more prepared for this shit that it seemed from the begining. She has a group of suicide nen users that by killing themselves and hating their target enough, they will eventually kill them, and this is an ancient Kakin tradittion. They want to test this by making the one asigned to Wobble kill herself asap.
Benajmin's army is terrified of Halkenburk, they monologue a lot about it.
Prince ugly's mind control is extending, but she is wholesome, and if her book is sincere, she doesn't want to kill. Yet.
Prince Ghandi and Prince (Legal) Drugs showed up but did almost nothing. Basho (in service of prince (legal) Drugs) acted like he was sharing info with one of Benjamin's guards, but PSYCHE! no, he didn't trust them!!!

Lmao.

Btw, for all we know, the suicide squad might not have even been planned during the last batch. I don't remember seeing any of those introduced in this chapter in any of the previous ones. But I never did a reread so I could be wrong. Am I?

Long John Silvers Rayleigh

What was the coordinators aka glasses-kun name again?

Shobu Yoruichi

Didn't read hanta and Stone for 2 weeks… two chaps of Stone takes 7 mins... two chaps of hanta takes 40 mins... wtf??

Really learned the lesson... never ditch Togashi for one week
Both were fodder chapters tho, like Kurapika is awesome and dolphin can directly help Gon to do something but he isn't here, nor Leorio or Hisoka yet... damn, not even good cliffhangers... like i would be catched by a mere tremor.

Sakonosolo

Two chapters in 7 minutes strikes me as speedreading, regardless of the series really.

Razibot

I can tell you don't follow any fighting manga like Baki ahah

Anyway, making the effort to read it all I can guess how it's interesting, but there's no proper fun in what's happening.. it's a shame after an arc as good as the chimera ants. I'm getting claustrophobic staying in all those suites..

Robby

I like that starting from page 10, the assistants start drawing the full blown character closeups, not just distance shots and backgrounds. Not every closeup, just, some of them. Randomly in the middle of the page. You can tell because the inking style changes radically and they start shading in a different way, and things like the hair looking completely different compared to every surrounding panel.

All the authors use assistants and there's zero crime in that given the weekly schedule. It's just always weird with Togashi because its super clear where the divide is. You can just tell that an elaborate background or a bunch of background characters are being done by someone else, and there's no attempt to merge the two.

Like in OP, I know Oda has somewhere between 4 and 8 assistants, but most of the time, you can not tell. Oda says he does everything that moves, and if that's still the case even today I can't tell any different. His team does backgrounds and details like Hawaiian shirts in a way that organically match what he's doing and its near impossible to see the divide. Over in Naruto, one of the assistants moved on to do Boruto, and from carrying the team it looks really close to original Naruto's style. (And over in Bleach I have no idea at all what the assistants did except maybe fill in blacks.)

Here… you have entire pages at a time that might be assistants with zero art from Togashi, or full blown close up character shots added in later and its just jarring.. and that's before he switched to all balloons all the time.

Candide

@Robby:

above

Tbh I am at a point now, where I really doubt if there even is a Togashi-plotline behind all of this stuff. I guess the wording is still his…

choperman

@maxterdexter:

While explaining Nen to stupid details,

All of the other stuff I agree with, but I like almost everything about nen, the different types, how personality fits into it, everyone's ability being unique, all the different ways to use it, the water test etc.

I'd put it as my favorite power system in manga, although I also like stands and devil Fruits

EDIT: although I'm not sure how I feel about Nen Beasts or whatever was happening this chapter?

Razh

@choperman:

All of the other stuff I agree with, but I like almost everything about nen, the different types, how personality fits into it, everyone's ability being unique, all the different ways to use it, the water test etc.

I'd put it as my favorite power system in manga, although I also like stands and devil Fruits

EDIT: although I'm not sure how I feel about Nen Beasts or whatever was happening this chapter?

It's not about Nen, it's about needlessly roundabout way in which abilities are explained. Not to mention pages upon pages are dedicated to explaining the basic concepts of Nen to new users. New characters need to learn the basics, yes, but readers don't need ALL of that information repeated. So it comes across like padding. Which it probably is. When it's done in an anime based on a manga, it's the studios buying extra time. I can only assume Togashi is also buying time for something.

And it's not like Togashi never cut corners with Nen.

SunnyBlue

The series is back on hiatus, as usual.

Kondo

@SunnyBlue:

The series is back on hiatus, as usual.

Starting this week? Doesn’t he normally give a week in advance warning?

Piitan

@Kondo:

Starting this week? Doesn’t he normally give a week in advance warning?

The hiatus is announced in this week's chapter.

Robby

Ten chapters, exactly enough for a volume, and then back to being lazy. Surprising no one.

And that's after multiple chapters of raw text dump with no self editing and little art.

Long John Silvers Rayleigh

If its 20 chapters in a year I can deal with it

Razh

It's like 5 chapters of actual interesting content and 15 chapters of background noise.

maxterdexter

This sprint can be summed up on wiki entries of the prince's powers:

Benjamin is scared of Prince 9 (the "good" one), because he made a soldier of his suicide, and he doesn't know how, and tries to analyze it over 3-5 pages of text, but we do know.
Camila is less stupid that she seems, as she has a solid suicide soldier plan, and a trained nen
Prince Ghandi has coins
Prince Bateman has King Crissom
Prince Adam is being recluse
Princess Ugly is wholesome but has mind control
Prince (LEGAL) Drugs is doing (LEGAL) drugs
Prince Trump is dead, by one of Ben's soldiers
Prince 9 the "Good" one has extreme mind control and decided to play for Kakin's sake
Princess Tsundere's escape plan failed, her stand attached to her sister after her death
Princess the nice one is with her new stand sister back in the ship
Princess Momo is still dead
Prince Hamtaro is still in his safe space
Wobble is still a baby

Hisoka is still hidding, the spiders are still searching for him, they contacted one of the three mafias of the princes (I think that they are under either Ghandi, Bateman or (LEGAL) drugs)

Beyond Netero, Zodiacs and Leorio are MIA

Of the bodyguards that we like:
Melody has been sumoned by Prince Bateman
Kurapika's teacher is resisting Prince Ugly's mind control
Hanzo is doing ninja stuff
Bisket is doing bara princess stuff
Gancho is doing rap-offs

Kurapika discovered how to easily and "riskless" awaken nen, and is giving it away to everyone with the hope of that by gifting everyone Guns, he will archieve a slatemate.

Brainyz

So… which chapter of those was the editor hyping up as history changing for the manga industry?

kevo_koma

Wait Kurapika's teacher is in this Arc ?

Since when ? Have they interacted or know of each other's existence on the boat?

TLC

@Robby:

Ten chapters, exactly enough for a volume, and then back to being lazy. Surprising no one.

And that's after multiple chapters of raw text dump with no self editing and little art.

Lol, what a fucking surprise to no one.

Nectar

My biggest takeaway from the chapter is the Have Nots. Taking advantage of people desperate to be treated like human beings and turning them in your Suicide Squad is screwed up.

@zeltrax225:

Guys hear me out
What if
Togashi always wanted to be a writer and not a mangaka.
Like he always wanted to write Japan's lord of the rings or literature epics.
But then he became a mangaka and now his name is tied to his reputation.
Hxh is just a testing ground for him now to see how much and how far he can utilize his ability with words
But not as an author but as a mangaka.
See that's the difference, he's so revered that he no longer needs to be afraid of failure or public criticism.
He can write and write and write and people will praise him because of his reputation as a mangaka.
Now if he started his own novels? What if people realized he's no longer doing it as a mangaka and started calling him out on it?
Like he can't write books at all but he's good at manga so he should go back or give it up.
No no he can't risk that so Hxh gives him the best of both worlds.

And if you've read all that boy i pulled that all out of my ass just like whatever the fuck he is doing now
If you are going to defend him please at least acknowledge that he's lazy because he wants to write a bunch of characters and conspiracies without doing the actual work
Hence we get this chaptet.

I don't know if he wants to be a novelist, he should do it. Not being snide, Hunter X Hunter would make a great novel series. Then, have an animation studio turn it into an anime.

pariston_hill

@Long:

If its 20 chapters in a year I can deal with it

Agreed, there’s more sereis to mourn it’s hiatus than HxH.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

kevo_koma

@Nectar:

My biggest takeaway from the chapter is the Have Nots. Taking advantage of people desperate to be treated like human beings and turning them in your Suicide Squad is screwed up.

I don't know if he wants to be a novelist, he should do it. Not being snide, Hunter X Hunter would make a great novel series. Then, have an animation studio turn it into an anime.

Or just make a Light Novel of H x H. There's clearly a large and lucrative market for it and it would allow him to write as much shit as he wants.

Seafarer33

Hiatus again ? Bah, see you in a year for the next 10 crappy chapters.
How many has it been this time ? 10, 20 ? I'm losing count, there's so few of them and so little actual content.

Cyclone_Baroness

@kevo_koma:

Wait Kurapika's teacher is in this Arc ?

Since when ? Have they interacted or know of each other's existence on the boat?

I had the same thought lol.

maxterdexter

Kurapika recruited them to try and cover more princes. Like 5 years ago.

andre

@kevo_koma:

Wait Kurapika's teacher is in this Arc ?

Since when ? Have they interacted or know of each other's existence on the boat?

One of the random bodyguards fell in love with her when he saw her true form.

kevo_koma

@andre:

One of the random bodyguards fell in love with her when he saw her true form.

Thats not Kurapika's teacher. Thats Biscuit, Gon and Killua's teacher.

Kurapika's teacher was some random dude he came across in the forest. That's why I was so surprised to hear the dude has been in this arc.

maxterdexter

He was in this chapter, talking to the latest inductee to the Tyson fan club.

I feel guilty for calling her princess ugly so I learned her name. Also it was an easy one.

andre

@kevo_koma:

Thats not Kurapika's teacher. Thats Biscuit, Gon and Killua's teacher.

Kurapika's teacher was some random dude he came across in the forest. That's why I was so surprised to hear the dude has been in this arc.

Well shit, you're right. I remember that guy, but not at all in this arc, which is a testament to this arc, and maybe to that dude.

Sakonosolo

Naruto started a year after HXH did but it has over 300 more chapters. Bleach started 2 years after and has nearly 300 more chapters.

phoenix_fire

@Sakonosolo:

Naruto started a year after HXH did but it has over 300 more chapters. Bleach started 2 years after and has nearly 300 more chapters.

And both are vastly inferior.
Quality writing and plotting takes times

RedGreenBlue

Are they really worse?

In my opinion, this is just as terrible, though it’s on the other side of the storytelling spectrum.

It’s like how you can find crazy people who are completely uneducated, and then also absolute kooks with degrees popping out of their asses.

Sakonosolo

You act like this "schedule" is because Togashi cares about writing quality. Saying Togashi should go monthly is basically a broken record at this point but you don't need such a haphazard schedule to be a good writer and that isn't the reason for the schedule anyway. Togashi would be good to release more frequently so he could actually finish his manga too and considering he had an interview recently saying he wanted to finish the manga I imagine that's why this year we got 20 chapters instead of 10, but we're still in weekly manga page counts with a story that's going pretty slowly on top of that.

Chrior

…yeah, he should have just ended the manga after Gon met Ging. And then, DO-DON, surprise announcement, Togashi is writing a continuation to his famous manga HxH in a novel format. And it's about the dark continent, yay! Look forward to it! ... in 2030, maybe!

choperman

@Razh:

It's not about Nen, it's about needlessly roundabout way in which abilities are explained. Not to mention pages upon pages are dedicated to explaining the basic concepts of Nen to new users. New characters need to learn the basics, yes, but readers don't need ALL of that information repeated. So it comes across like padding. Which it probably is. When it's done in an anime based on a manga, it's the studios buying extra time. I can only assume Togashi is also buying time for something.

And it's not like Togashi never cut corners with Nen.

this i can agree with, we've had it explained waaaay to much, and the whole mental games that are done in trying to understand other people's abilities can get extremely tiring, especially in this current arc

still think it's one of the best power system out there, but this arc would be good if it moved a lot faster, had less subplots, characters we actually care about etc.

Cyclone_Baroness

This definitely needs more show and less tell.

MrBits

I don't think the problem is the dialogue, I just think some of the subplots are just plain boring.

Razh

@phoenix_fire:

And both are vastly inferior.
Quality writing and plotting takes times

The writing isn't so much better than Naruto and Bleach to warrant so many breaks. Even if you discount the time Togashi spent injured/recovering.

AfroSamurai

@Cyclone_Baroness:

This definitely needs more show and less tell.

Remember the cockroach chapter? Basically all show, very little tell, for HxH standards.

It was boring af. The problem is literally the plot. It's dull and empty and goes nowhere and does stuff just for its own sake rather than there being any direction or purpose.

KageKageKing

@Chrior:

…yeah, he should have just ended the manga after Gon met Ging. And then, DO-DON, surprise announcement, Togashi is writing a continuation to his famous manga HxH in a novel format. And it's about the dark continent, yay! Look forward to it! ... in 2030, maybe!

On another hand that would be just as bad as Toriko's ending.

glass

As far as I'm concerned that is the ending. Kill all the spiders doing babysitting duty wasn't the plotline I cared about. At that ending atleast he got all the eyes which is a decent enough consolation price. Netero had three times more charm than his council imo. Nen system is basically just stands/quirks, people just have arbirtary powers. There's some reinforcement manipulation etc thing in there as well but 90% of the time their actual ability is the only thing that matters and when you have the special class "specialist" which a bunch of important characters have it makes it hard to care about the types that much.

Atleast some princes are dying which is nice. Hopefully legal drugs and music lover die off soon considering they got focus these recent chapters. Maybe coin man as well.