Hunter × Hunter volumes 1-4

As I mentioned it awhile ago already, I decided to pick up reading this manga again. And since it’s so long, it might be a good idea to blog about it *g* If I come to like this, maybe I’ll blog also about other manga.

Awww~, Gon’s pet Kon is so incredibly cute… and the other animals too! *___* (He himself is cute as well! XD I wonder if he’ll grow up, just like in Hikaru no Go where the protagonists have become really handsome *g*) I wonder if Kon will ever appear in the manga again… considering how much I like him already after 2 pages XD A shônen mangaka who draws cute animals is rare *_____*

Notes about chapter 4: Your daughter or your son?

It’s great to re-read the manga from the beginning again. I notice so many little things that I didn’t when I read it 4 (or 5?) years ago. At that time, I only really noticed chapter 3, the test with the 2 questions (“If you can only save your daugther or your son, which one would you choose?”) Out of all those action/battle manga in the german shônen anthology Banzai!, this chapter had convinced me that this manga is (at least slightly) more intelligent. And I liked how Gon looks rather dumb on the surface, but is able to think deeper than everyone else. To be exact, I was amazed by that chapter: Such a simple question, and so much meaning behind it!
I hope HxH will stay as good as this. (I even heard it gets better after volume 10! I’m looking forward to it~)

Mangaka x Mangaka?

Oh, and I’m still wondering why such a good mangaka is married to Naoko Takeuchi, the biggest and probably most stupid mangaka diva out there. Hm. (Why doesn’t he try Masami Tsuda? *hrrr* They’d fit.)
A propos Masami Tsuda: To me, in some ways, Kareshi Kanojo is actually the pendant to Hunter x Hunter. Kare Kano runs in the “sister magazine” of the Banzai!, an anthology full of rather stupid shôjo. Chapter 3 of Kare Kano deals with Arima’s past for the first time, and that’s when I felt like this manga is better than your typical highschool shôjo.

Notes about chapter 19: What a futile thing democracy is!

Majority choices… yes, this highly interesting matter is also subject in my favourite anime Kino no Tabi. Simple democracy effectively does not create a unity, but divides people! The reason why democracy nowadays works, while Hobbes (for instance), considering the situation at his time, did not believe in it, is what I would call “modernization of democracy” or what Milkmaster would call “free democracy”. A civilization has to mature enough to be tolerant towards minorities…

Notes about chapter 20: Psychology of the logic

Jan-ken-pon, oh my, the japanese name for this game is the ugliest I have ever heard. But that’s not the subject here: The psychology stuff about what you tend to use is interesting… this is the psychology of people who think logically and intuitively at the same time!

Notes about chapter 22: Geniuses?

Another time, the mangaka chose – I mentioned it already, seemingly dumb – Gon to be the one with the brilliant idea who saved everybody, while they were about to split up. In fact, he chose to ‘cheat’. I have always been a little bit annoyed by mangaka who create a stupid and mindless protagonist… but who shows incredible intelligence when it comes to a crisis. It always appeared like a marketing strategy in order to make the dumb masses, aka the readers, identify themselves with the dumbness of the protagonist – while being able to feel special and intelligent at the same time.
Later, I understood that highly intelligent people *really* are like that: They think so differently that it seems stupid, but in difficult times, it’s these people who came up with original ideas.
The only bad side effect of this revelation is that a seemingly stupid person doesn’t automatically have hidden talents that just do not show. MOST people really are stupid.

In fact, I have mentioned a lot of subjects that are pretty important to me, but didn’t talk much about it… I’m sorry. If I have time, I will definitely add more to the democracy point.