#and it would be very togashi of him to bring back side characters that everyone forgot about and made them central to the plot

[moretheta]

why do i have the feeling this is gonna be important later..... i feel a new faction coming on... can taste it on the wind...

[tekka-dan]

One thing l love about hunter x hunter is that Togashi let Kurapika seek and get justice for his clan and the people responsible suffer for their crimes whereas Kishimoto made Sasuke obedient to the village that wiped out the Uchiha and those responsible got away with it.

Exactly, I agree entirely.One thing I want to point out between Sasuke and Kurapika is even though people compare them to be copy and paste of one another, they differ drastically in the goals they wish to achieve and the measures of which they each go about pursuing it.

When Sasuke was first introduced and asked about what his aspirations are, he reveals that he does not particularly like anything and that his one goal is to kill one man and avenge his clan. This dialogue from Sasuke we learn that he’s goal oriented and very focused, simple minded. We learn from those first few seconds that he only wishes to defeat this person who slaughtered his clan.Whereas when we first meet Kurapika (officially) and he is posed the question of why he wishes to become a hunter, Kurapika dodges the question by completely avoiding to directly answer it. Gon and Leorio have no qualms revealing what their intentions are once they obtain their licenses but from the dialogue alone from Kurapika we are given the impression that he is cautious, calculating and doesn’t wish to reveal his true motives due to the fact that it quite literally is none of their business. However he does bend to revealing his intentions once he obtains his license and we learn that he’s going to exact revenge on members of an organization that massacred his clan, and that he is a lone survivor. In two different dialogue reveals we learn more about Kurapika’s character and goal far better than we learn of Sasuke.

Afterwards comes the interesting part: pursuing their goals. Sasuke pursuing Itachi, growing stronger in order to just be a rival to him and then ultimately defeat him is intriguing for the journey alone. But being as Itachi is the only person Sasuke is hunting down it doesn’t really leave much room for anything else, as as we already know he’s focused on killing Itachi solely, he cares about nothing else.Kurapika on the other hand is hunting down an entire organization of people, not just one person. So this leaves his journey to be far more interesting due to the fact it isn’t dwindled down to just one member, he holds every single member accountable. However the difference is that while Sasuke is learning to entrust his friends and form bonds, Kurapika is still very calculating and isolates himself. Not that he doesn’t trust anyone, it’s that he in general is a very cautious person. We only see this personality waiver when he is around Gon, because Gon reminds me of living for the sake of others rather than revenge for the sake of himself. When the part comes to where Sasuke finally meets Itachi and is demolished and tortured, we as the viewers go through the exact same agonizing defeat Sasuke feels to realizing he does not have enough hatred to defeat his brother nor the power. Kurapika upon meeting the Phantom Troupe, we learn as viewers that this is an entire group he is facing not solely one person, therefore his calculations and going about his plan has to have multiple steps if he wishes to succeed. Due to his selfish rage though he endangers his friends and this is when his personality shifts between avenging his clan or saving his friends. In turn this arc revealed to us that Kurapika is multidimensional, not entirely inhumane and brewing in animosity and hatred. As we come to realize this of his character we also come to realize this of the Phantom Troupe as well. We learn that Kurapika above all else of avenging his clan, he is not an emotionless, ruthless killing machine. Another thing that Togashi did far better than Kishimoto was entertaining the idea that the goal of executing the members of the troupe for Kurapika would be taken away, what would his character do? Wish to achieve? React? In a monumental portion of this arc, it is revealed that every troupe member has already been killed, and for a couple episodes we witness Kurapika spiraling downward of losing the one main goal he has his heart focused on to avenge his clan. With that goal ripped away from him, it leaves him empty and brooding with uncertainty of how to go on and what to do with himself. The key difference in this phase is that Gon, Leorio and Killua are around to lift his hopes of finding a new purpose. Sasuke doesn’t have this. When it is later revealed that the corpses of the troupe members were fabricated, Kurapika realizes his goal is still obtainable and he reverts back to his mission of eliminating the troupe members. The fact that Togashi explored character depth in which he takes away a characters drive and ambition as a challenge to see how they develop was phenomenal. In Kishimoto’s case..this doesn’t bode well. Sasuke never questions the possibility that Itachi could be killed before Sasuke has the chance to kill him. It doesn’t cross his mind that he won’t be the one to bring his brother down which is his one main driving ambition. Therefore we do not explore Sasuke’s character development outside of having to abandon this goal if it were ripped away from him. We don’t see him face conflicting emotions of dealing with the fact he would not have achieved avenging his clan and would not have lived up to the promise of defeating his brother. Writing a character with their only premise being revenge is difficult on its own, but it’s important to make your character face challenges that will force them to either accept or reject the possibility that those goals might not in reality be attainable or that it would be seemingly impossible if the case were to be it was taken from them entirely. Togashi excels in this while Kishimoto could use some work.However, when Itachi is defeated and brought down by Sasuke (mostly), Sasuke in turn is told the truth regarding his brother and we learn where his character will go from there. His goal ultimately shifts to eliminating the Leaf Village and the Elders, which brought him into a pivotal character development. Whereas for Kurapika’s character fades off from the light due to the story focusing around Killua and Gon’s journey. However when we are shown segments of Kurapika we presume he is still pursuing his goal in defeating the troupe members and as he isolates himself he falls deeper into the despair of his darker side. When Naruto ended Sasuke basically abandoned his goal to eliminate Konoha and become hokage due to Naruto’s bullshit speech and half assed defeat. It massacred Sasuke’s development because seemingly his goal of defeating Itachi was fulfilled but avenging his clan was never justified. He becomes submissive to the very same village that oppressed and isolated his entire clan, forced a child to annihilate them to prevent a revolt, and he goes off on a journey that he claims is atoning for his sins because Sasuke believed that his pain and agony was in turn his fault. He blames himself for being consumed in dread and despair of losing everyone he’s ever cared about as a literal child because Konoha makes him feel he has to do so. Konoha takes no blame for the actions that pushed the Uchiha’s to form a revolt in the first place and Konoha doesn’t apologize to the Uchiha’s for oppressing and isolating them either. But as soon as Naruto opens his fucking mouth and talks about bringing justice then everything is washed under a rug and erased from existence. As you’ve realized, the Leaf Village goes to great extents to hide the Massacre and cover it up. They aren’t sorry for shit, yet the last remaining Uchiha feels he owes them apologies and a redemption journey to come to terms with everything. And still they offer no form of comfort for Sasuke. At all.Kurapika after his brooding episodes, in the manga his journey is continued and I believe he joins some organization where he is hired to personally protect someone as a hunter. The details are blurry to me because I read that in 2012 and I don’t remember it very well, however with Kurapika’s goal of eliminating the troupe members still possible, he is given a new aspiration of protecting a new born baby prince named Wobble. His character now has another goal he can achieve as well as still exploring the possibilities of going even further, and that’s what makes Kurapika’s character that much more developed. His family being slaughtered ruthlessly doesn’t take a backseat to his unwavering rage, he only learns to control it but his hatred for the troupe still prevails. Kurapika’s ultimate goal in defeating the members can be pushed as long as the manga continues, and still leave things open for exploration in his character. Togashi didn’t end with Kurapika having one main minuscule goal, he gave the possibilities of that one main goal being challenged in a multitude of ways. Which makes Kurapika’s journey of avenging his clan that much more constructed and executed plot wise.

TL;DR: Kurapika’s character isn’t primarily based and focused solely around exacting revenge for his clan, due to the fact his character is explored and developed phenomenally outside of this aspiration. Whereas Sauske’s primary goal is to defeat his brother that eradicated his clan, and once that goal succeeds it leaves him temporarily stunted in character growth. However when he obtains a new goal to achieve, he completely abandons it. And Kurapika is given room to explore outside of it.

[animesavior]

“But it's not our place to judge [their actions]. We don't think it's right to let them die just because we hate them. Both sides risked their lives in battle, and both are prepared to kill if necessary. But when the fight's over, we'll those rules cease to apply.“

-          Biscuit Krueger, Hunter x Hunter (Ep. 74)

This week’s Toonami Trending Rundown is a double-feature for the nights of November 18-19 and 25-26, 2017. A big two weeks for the better cartoon show as the second half of Countdown would be showcased while Beerus collects the Super Dragon Balls and summons Super Shenron, Gon fighting off Genthru from killing him for his cards, and Gene has a score to settle with the McDougal Brothers, among other great moments.

For November 18th’s Toonami on Twitter, every show save for Shippuden, Bebop, and GITS would successfully trend in some capacity in the US during the East Coast airing. Meanwhile both Toonami and Dragon Ball Super would also trend on tumblr.

And finally, Dragon Ball Super continues strong as the buzz would help the show once again make it on Nielsen Social’s top 5 most talked about shows on the day, reaching the #4 spot with a combined 34,000 total interactions between users on Twitter and Facebook. This is the 27th time for Super and 41th time a Toonami show overall has made onto Nielsen’s daily list since we started recording this feat.

The following week’s Toonami took place during Thanksgiving weekend, so this year Toonami has opted to take the week off regular scheduling to show episodes 131-140 of DBZ Kai, but not before showcasing the finale of Countdown. In terms of trending, both Toonami and #DBZKai trended in the US and Toonami trending on tumblr, ending a drought of the last two marathon nights of a show not trending.

Of course, for the past two weeks, Toonami showcased both parts 3 and 4 of Countdown, which you can see below. As previously mentioned, this will be the last Total Immersion Event until at least mid-2019 as the Toonami crew wants to have more time to create the next one.

Unlike previous Total Immersion Events in the modern era, the post-Countdown look wont entail any major new changes to the block’s look aside from a battle-scarred TOM and a few new additions to the Vindication. This is because according to Jason DeMarco, the TOM 5 look still remains popular among viewers and the Toonami crew to keep it awhile, though there are plans to have a revamp sometime next year.

We will however see some new changes programming wise going into next week, but before we get to the big news, here are some notable Toonami-related news of note going around within the anime community:

Very unfortunate news within the Dragon Ball community as since February, Christopher Ayres, the voice of Frieza has been battling End Stage C.O.P.D., a progressive and incurable condition that affects your ability to breathe well. As the illness has unfortunately kept him away from working in the booth, Daman Mills, the voice of Monaka, has assisted as an understudy for Frieza in the meantime. With the need for a lung transplant and various other medical related procedures, if you wish to assist Chris in his medical bills, his family has set up a YouCaring page which you can help donate to this cause. This afternoon, he posted that is being discharged today, which hopefully is a good sign. On behalf of the Toonami Faithful, we wish Chris and his family our thoughts and prayers as he gets through this.

Additional sad news for the Dragon Ball community as Hiromi Tsuru, the Japanese voice actor for Dragon Ball’s Bulma and Trigun’s Meryl Stryfe has passed away last Thursday from Aortic dissection at the age of 57. On behalf of all DBZ fans, thanks for the memories and rest in peace.

And in some very disappointing news to say the least in regards to a Toonami classic, Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of Rurouni Kenshin, has been arrested for possession of child pornography. Because of this, Kenshin, which was previously seeing a revival of the manga, now is on an indefinite hiatus.

For those interested in seeing what could be to come, Yen Press has announced during AnimeNYC that they have licensed the Sword Art Online: Alternative Gun Gale Online light novels for translation and publication in US shores. Yen Press has also been in charge with US distribution of the light novels and manga for the mainline SAO series as well as the Progressive series. As previously mentioned, both Alternative GGO and Project Alicization are presently in the works for anime adaptations, with premiere dates to be determined.

And for those who have caught up to the recent editions of the Hunter x Hunter manga may know, ailing health has forced series creator Yoshihiro Togashi to bring Hunter x Hunter in and out of hiatus in recent years, with the most recent hiatus going since last August. However, Weekly Shonen Jump has indicated that the series will be continuing on the January 29th, 2018 issue. 

If you haven’t heard, some big news for the block last Friday as announced on Toonami’s Facebook. Next week, Toonami will be receiving another expansion beginning next week on December 2 to begin at 10:30pm EST, with both Dragon Ball Super and DBZ Kai moving up the schedule by 30 minutes. In addition, the prime-time presentation of Super at 8:30 will be ending, as the premiere will now be airing 2 hours later. This is in due part to Toonami bringing in its newest acquisition: the broadcast dub of Black Clover, which will premiere on 11:30pm.

Based on the increasingly popular Shonen Jump manga series by Yūki Tabata, which as of this writing has 13 volumes published, the series has been adapted into an anime by Studio Pierrot and began premiering in Japan on October 3, 2017. The series is expected to be 51 episodes in length, barring any future sequels.

The story’s synopsis is as follows: (source: FUNmation):

“Asta and Yuno are two orphans who want the same thing: to become the Wizard King. Locked in a friendly rivalry, they work hard towards their goal. While Yuno excels at magic, Asta has a problem uncommon in this world: he has no powers! But, on the day they receive their grimoires, they surprise everyone. To reach their goal, they’ll each find their own path to greatness—with or without magic.”

Black Clover is one of the FUNimation licensed animes released this season that is receiving a “Broadcast/Simul-Dub”, dubs that are released immediately or not long after the Japanese broadcast, joining Space Dandy, Dimension W, and Attack on Titan season 2 as one of the few Toonami shows in the modern era that are receiving this special fast-track dub to American shores.

Among our main characters, Dallas Reid will take on the role of Asta, while Yuno will be voiced by Micah Solusod, best known among Toonami fans for previously voicing Soul Eater Evans. The full list for the first few episodes has been published by FUNimation, which you can see here.

Time will tell whether Black Clover will be the next big shonen anime series or not, and what it brings to the better cartoon show, but according to Jason DeMarco on his ask.fm page, future plans for Toonami are in place extending to at least 2021. With many new works and sequels potentially on the horizon, these are exciting times to be a Toonami fan, and as long as it has the ratings support from both anime fans and general viewers, the support of Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, and Turner Broadcasting, and the maintaining of partnerships with Funimation, Viz, Aniplex, Sentai, Production IG, Toei, Sunrise, Discotek, and the anime industry in general, I think this train will keep on going for many more years to come.

Besides Black Clover’s debut and the expansion to 10:30pm EST, tune in next week as TOM and SARA are back on the helm as Hunter x Hunter showcases the finale of the Greed Island arc. So until then, stay golden as always.

Legend: The shows listed are ordered based on their appearance on the schedule. Show trends are listed in bold. The number next to the listed trend represents the highest it trended on the list (not counting the promoted trend), judging only by the images placed in the rundown. For the Twitter tweet counts, the listed number of tweets are also sorely based on the highest number shown based on the images on the rundown.

November 18-19, 2017 Trends

United States Trends:

Toonami/#Toonami [#6]

#Countdown [#7]

#DragonBallSuper [#5]

#DBZKai [#7]

#JoJosBizarreAdventure [#6]

#GundamIBO [#21]

#HunterXHunter [#12]

#LupinThe3rd [#13]

#OutlawStar [#10]

Tweet Counts:

#DBZKai [1,305 tweets]

#JoJosBizarreAdventure [2,645 tweets]

#GundamIBO [1,074 tweets]

#HunterXHunter [1,884 tweets]

#LupinThe3rd [1,138 tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

#Toonami

#dragon ball super

Notes and Other Statistics:

#HunterXHunter: @WhoTrendedIT reported that @tsunderica started the trend in the US.

November 25-26, 2017 Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#4]

#DBZKai [#5]

Tumblr Trends:

#toonami

Notes and Other Statistics:

#Toonami: @WhoTrendedIT reported that @blumspew and @clarknova1 started the trend in the US.

Special thanks to @coreymbarnes, @jmb70056, @mmorse1017, and others I forgot to mention for spotting some of the trends on this list.

Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.