A Boy and his Squid - Hunter x Hunter ep. 107-109: Media Club Plus S01E34
Added 2024-12-31 23:27:21 +0000 UTCWelcome to Media Club Plus: a podcast about diving into the media that interests us and the stories that excite us.
We're finally, finally back with Gon and Killua for chunks of these episodes, but there's a ton of other business too. Of course, the King is playing Gungi (or Gungi is playing him?) Also, we start and easily conclude Morel's fight with Leol. Knov makes peace with his panic attack, and Poof has two of his own. Killua has made best friends with Ikalgo and Gon has made Meleoron best friends with Knuckle. Also, no one can get in touch with Palm.
This week we cover episodes 107-109, titled Return x and x Retire, Komugi x and x Gungi, and Taking Stock x and x Taking Action. Next episode we'll be covering episodes 110-112, titled Confusion x And x Expectation, Charge x And x Invade, and Monster x And x Monster.
Featuring Keith Carberry (@KeithJCarberry, @KeithJCarberry), Jack de Quidt (@notquitereal, @jdq) Sylvi Bullet (@SYLVIBULLET), and Andrew Lee Swan (@swandre3000)
Produced by Keith Carberry
Music by Jack de Quidt (available at notquitereal.bandcamp.com)
Cover Art by by Annie Johnston-Glick (@dancynrew) anniejg.com
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To find transcripts of the episodes, go to http://TranscriptsattheTable.com
Comments
I just watched the next set of episodes, 110-112. Holy shit you guys.
Andrew
2025-01-08 00:58:44 +0000 UTCoh thank you! I do have a windows computer but am typically a Linux girl so I tried a bunch of complicated solutions and never this simple one 😂
scarlet
2025-01-03 23:37:08 +0000 UTCYou seem to be able to write a review just fine in iTunes for Windows!
Cassie Jones
2025-01-03 23:27:40 +0000 UTCgreat catch
Friends at the Table
2025-01-02 15:10:46 +0000 UTCAwesome episode as always! Re: whether Meruem's thoughts on "King" being a title were influenced by him playing so much gungi – from what we've been able to see of the game, I think the pieces that are getting referred to as "kings" in the English localization are 帥 (sui) in Japanese, which I'd translate as "commander" or "general" rather than "king". It *is* one of the characters in 総帥 (sousui), the "Supreme Leader" title that Komugi addresses him by!
XF
2025-01-02 06:09:53 +0000 UTCAn interesting nuance in the Sub Vs. Dub. In the episode they comment on Shoot's observations of Killua, saying that while he was almost brimming with confidence, sometimes he almost looks sad. In the subtitles, (I'm watching on Crunchyroll), what Shoot says is that Killua "seems to be on the verge of fading away."
Christiana Ellis
2025-01-02 02:10:17 +0000 UTCThe question came up if nen abilities are influenced by jojo, and I wanted to chime in that yes, they absolutely were. It's hard to tell from the states/english speaking countries because it didn't get popular until the 2011 David Pro adaptations started, but Jojo is probably one of the most culturtally important shonen manga to ever be written. A brief history as far as I understand it: At the time Jojo started, shonen was pretty much entirely about martial arts. Think about Dragon Ball and Fist of the North Star - series where people did kung fu on each other. Sometimes there's beams and special abilities, but it's still rooted in martial arts. You can see this influence in the first two parts of Jojo - the Ripple is magic martial arts that lets you fight vampires, and its creative use is what those parts are all about. Once we get to part 3, the landscape had changed - martial arts was on its way out and psychic abilities were the cool new thing. That's where stands come in - a form of the Ripple (at least at first, though Araki drops that) which manifests as a guy that stands with you. We see a lot of psychic tropes in the first few abilites - ghosts, clairvoyance, pyrokinesis, mind control, fortune telling, and tarot are all brought up in the first few chapters, though this also gets dropped pretty quickly. Eventually Araki hones the "phsycic warrior" idea of a stand into "one specific ability", and this is where he started cooking. Up to this point, Shonen didn't really have a lot of rules in how its combat and powers work. There's ideas of spirit power and ki, but what you can do with those things is down to the author's ideas of what they can do. Araki wrote stands into Jojo and gave them a set of rules they needed to follow. The most important is that stands have a single power, and that power can be basically anything. Controlling an element, turning things into bombs, stopping time, fixing things, being a cool bug, whatever! Part 3 proved to be insanely popular, and I expect that the combination of a set of rules to restrict powers while also allowing them to have huge variety was a large factor in that. Limiting powers means characters need to rely more on tactics, quick thinking, and resourcefulness, which generally leads to more interesting and creative battles. Other authors saw value in this idea and started adapting it to their own stories. You can see that influence as early as YuYu Hakusho - after the dark tournament concludes, Togashi intruduces "territories" - spaces where a human can use a special power as long as they're within their bounds. As the 90s progress, this becomes a basic structure for countless shonen - One Piece, Hunter x Hunter, Bleach, and Naruto are big examples that have formalized power systems that create varied and dynamic fights. So to answer if Nen was influenced by Jojo: Nen probably wouldn't exist the way it does without Jojo pioneering Stands. Obviously as contemporaries, Togashi also influenced Araki (Diamond is Unbreakable is heavily inspired by YuYu Hakusho) but that's a magnitude below how Araki changed the entire industry.
Kabanaw
2025-01-01 21:58:05 +0000 UTClovely set of episodes, and im so excited for the next. great job as always. for the HxH movies: Phantom Rouge actually has some canon stuff but i wouldn't consider it a spoiler. a little segment of it is partially adapted from Volume 0, a two part one shot titled Kurapika's Memories written by Togashi
motheta
2025-01-01 20:30:00 +0000 UTCSteve Job's malevolent post mortem nen prevents me from using apple music without any apple products but if I could review there and give five stars I would
scarlet
2025-01-01 16:29:56 +0000 UTCThese episodes are so good! I really like the Killua 'friends don't thank each other' part coming right off Leol's extremely transactional thanks-based ability, which implies Leol is always acting friendly to be owed the reciprocation.
Wavypavy
2025-01-01 11:31:16 +0000 UTCAlso, very excited to listen to this set!
eddie phlash
2025-01-01 02:16:12 +0000 UTCWrong episodes in the post title? Ep says 107-109.
eddie phlash
2025-01-01 02:15:29 +0000 UTC
