Fighting Friday 10-28-2011

4:00 PM on 10.28.2011   |   Josh Tolentino

You've got just three days until Horror Day, but don't you worry, Friday is here to protect you. Fighting Friday, that is. It'll protect you, no matter what anyone says. That's what all its training was for. That and looking fab.

A courageous dose of fighting recaps come to you today courtesy of our intrepid editors, with coverage of Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, and Hunter x Hunter!

So come on in, the fighting's fine.

Anime

Chris Walden

Hunter x Hunter Episode 4

Continuing from the previous episode, the hunter candidates have to keep up the pace with the musterious no-mouthed hunter. Only problem is that he doesn't seem to tire, and slowly increases his speed as they proceed forward on their marathon. The geek with the laptop decides to spend his energy early, claiming that he has used the data from previous exams to estimate the length of the course. There's no surprise when he retires so far from the eventual goal. Poor laptop...

Leorio and Kurapika have a very deep conversation about their motives for becoming hunters. Kurapika doesn't believe that Leorio is only in it for the money, which he in turn proves, though it's for a significant cause. He wishes to have money to pay for the treatments to a particular disease for anyone that needs it, having lost a friend over what is essentially a lack of money. A noble cause, one that makes Leorio all the more appealing.

Gon also makes friends with Killua, after discovering that they are the same age. Killua mentions that he is only in the exams as a test for himself, not particularly wanting to be a hunter. After a staggering ordeal climbing huge amounts of stairs, the group finally make it to the goal. Their guide is particularly surprised to see them reach the top with him. It's two twelve year old kids over the rest of the entries, after all.

The guide announces that the new area is called the Swindlers Swamp, a place where the beasts will stop at nothing to lure prey away from the group and attack them. After an interruption by one of these beasts, he declares that everyone should keep up with him to face the best chance at not being deceived. I'll say it again, I like how this series is shaping up! Looking forward to the next episode! 

Josh Tolentino

Bleach episode 345

Bleach continues to follow the manga in lockstep, down to copying individual frames, angle for angle. Not that we expected anything else, but compared to last season's filler I am once again reminded that adaptations need to take into account their media to make the best of everything.

They did adapt some story bits, though, to pad out the time needed to fill out an episode, like with a return of the punks Ichigo beat up in the first chapter of the story. Yay.

There's really not that much to say about this episode, but I do like how the anime is representing each of the various factions' powers.

For example, the Soul Reapers teleport with a classy whoosh, and the Arrancar teleport with some evil-sounding record-scratch noise. The FullBringers, meanwhile, have the green sparkly bits and a kind of sci-fi static burst. It really helps differentiate everyone, which is a good thing since Kubo's character designs have everyone looking kind of the same.

Naruto Shippuden episode 234

Well hello, Konohamaru! It's frankly a good thing that the time-skip has turned the three kids from snot-nosed brats to just plain brats, because anime children are quite often intolerable (with few exceptions). This episode seems focused on reminding everyone that he's actually shaping up to be a pretty rad dude, since he can do a Rasengan and all.

I mean, we already knew he could do one from before, but judging from the way his tore up the ground after it missed, it seems to be even more powerful than Naruto's was at the same point in development. I imagine that if someone wanted to force the Naruto franchise to continue past its increasingly likely end, a spinoff featuring Konohamaru wouldn't be the worst way to do it.

Although renaming the series to Konohamaru would be kind of awkward.

Pedro Cortes

One Piece Episode 520

"Wet-Haired" Caribou catches the Navy spy watching the converging pirates and stabs him, followed by ordering his brother Coribou to bury the still-alive Marine. The main event occurs when the fake Strawhat takes the stage and claims to be reforming the Strawhats. Meanwhile, Brook prepares to give his crowd an encore while his manager sets him up to be picked up by the Navy. He convinces the audience to hold by the feds and allow him to sing one last song. At the end, Brook leaps up and fly out of the arena on the back of a flying ship.

Back at the Sunny, Chopper and Usopp freak out when they see the machine that Franky has become. Robin watches them with amusement while Nami makes it back to the ship. Rayleigh gives Nami a primer on how to pilot the coated ship. The episode ends with the Sunny taking off to meet up at Luffy's last known location on Sabaody.

Manga

Josh Tolentino

Bleach chapter 470

The battle turns in the FullBringers' favor as Ginjo reveals his ability to copy the powers of the people he stole powers from (which is surprisingly similar to the power of the filler arc's Big Bad...is it a coincidence?). Raw power aside, though, Ginjo didn't steal all that much. It's not like Ichigo ever had more than one move.

Riruka, meanwhile, prepares to lecture Rukia on Xcution's special take on Social Darwinism. It seems to be different from Charles Britannia's typical "people aren't equal, and I'm better" schtick, but I'm guessing it's just a basic reinterpretation of that, i.e. Lelouche Britannia's "there's always someone stronger, which is me" schtick.

What I'm really waiting for is to see what kind of new technique Byakuya will come up with to beat Tsukishima. I'm guessing it's something he learned during the time-skip that Tsukishima failed to account for. Perhaps a Senbonzakura that's even more pink than usual?

Naruto chapter 561

I'm really really tempted to make a "balls are touching" joke, but that would be un-PC and oh wait I just did it.

Madara reveals the power of the Rinnegan, which makes Nagato look like a snot-nosed amateur, but what's really ridiculous is how powered-up Naruto has gotten of late. We're rapidly approaching Dragon Ball-levels of exaggeration, with double rainbows meteors and clones that can make clones that can make clones that can make clones of themselves all busting out uber-Rasengans at once.

It's the kind of over-the-top stunts that actually make the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games, which at the time amped up the characters' powers to ludicrous degrees, seem restrained. We're looking at Asura's Wrath, practically.

We also see the first glimmer of understanding between the Nine-Tails and Naruto, as it seems the Nine-Tails hates Madara even more than it hates Naruto. Alliances of convenience lead to genuine friendships, if Yu-Gi-Oh! is any standard. Protip: It is.

Pedro Cortes

One Piece Chapter 644

This week, Hodi is exposed as being simple racist. All he craves is power and to use that power to kill as many humans as possible. He thinks humanity are inferior and will do everything he can to subjugate and slaughter all those who help them. Fukaboshi freaks out, claiming that the fishman's grudge against humanity is what has lead them down that path and asks Luffy to bring the Island back to zero. He responds by promising that the Strawhats will keep the island safe from Hodi's crew and enforcing their friendship. Hodi dashes at Luffy and the rubber man nails him with a flaming, Haki-infused Fire Fist Rifle.