Fighting Sunday 2-5-2012

11:59 PM on 02.05.2012   |   Josh Tolentino

It’s Sunday Sunday Sunday, and if you’re not into watching American Futbol, you’re probably wondering where the heck our recaps of fighting anime and manga have been. Yes, those are the only two thing you could possibly have been doing.

Thankfully, you need not do the latter anymore, because the fighting anime and manga recaps of Fighting Sunday are right here, ready to comfort you after the Patriots’ defeat, or to swell your manly spirit rejoicing after the Giants’ win.

Yes, friends, Japanese superheroes are unbiased in which American futbol squadrons they support! They just want you to read on and see what we thought of the week in Naruto, Bleach, and Hunter x Hunter!

Anime

Chris Walden

Hunter x Hunter Episode 17

The action finally heads back to Killua, where we see that he is still waiting for the guy following him to make his move. Bored of waiting, he turns around and simply starts the fight himself, which is somewhat interrupted by the appearance of the guys brothers/comrades. Instead of it being an epic three-on-one fight, Killua manages to get the tag he needs with just a few movements. To finish off, he throws the other two guys tags in opposite directions, seeing as he doesn't need them now that he has six points. Any other character and this would appear big headed, but with Killua it always ends up being entertaining to watch. Hanzo, the bald ninja guy we've seen around, was watching the fight as his target was also one of the brothers. He watches Killua as he throws the tags away, and runs after what he thinks is the correct one. Seems that Killua knew he was waiting, as he switched the tag he was throwing to send him the wrong way.

Meanwhile, Kurapika and Leorio head back to the starting point, hoping to find someone for Leorio to win some tags from. They ultimately fail, though they do bump into Gon, who decides to help them find Ponzu with his crazy sense of smell. This guy would put the best sniffer dogs to shame, I'm sure of it. The trio eventually wind up at a cave, which Gon claims that she is inside. Leorio heads in, with Gon and Kurapika noting that they would go in themselves if they don't hear from him in thirty minutes.

Leorio finds Ponzu, though she is in the company of another man. She claims that there is no point in the two fighting over her tag, as none of them would be able to escape the cave. It seems before the man in the cave died, he set a trap to make snakes attack anyone trying to leave. Since he can't revert the trap, both Ponzu and Leorio are stuck. Well, now Kurapika and Gon are too, because Leorio does a great job keeping them away by screaming 'don't come in'. Genius! I get the feeling we'll find out that Gon can talk to snakes in the next episode. That said, it's about time for Killua to rejoin the group, is it not?

Josh Tolentino  

Naruto Shippuden episode 247

Color me disappointed (and yellow-orange)! It looks like Studio Pierrot has opted to represent Naruto’s new Nine-Tails chakra mode as an all-CG model. I can understand why they’d do that, seeing as the manga version more or less shows him as a blob of presumably yellow-orange flames, which rarely represents well, even under the best of circumstances. Just think of Ichigo’s incomplete Fullbring as a case in point!

But of course seeing the fox get creamed by a dozen rasengans isn’t why we’re waiting on this episode, though. We’re here to see the Fourth Hokage in action, which is what we’ll get next week.  

Bleach episode 358

It seems my hopes of seeing Ichigo do a filler arc in his new Kamen Rider Fullbring getup was not to be, but then again, seeing how “well” it’s been animated so far, perhaps that was for the better. At least we got a weird techno mix of Bleach’s “Look at me all powered up” theme out of this fiasco.

Besides that, we’re treated to a surprisingly underwhelming set of crazy-time moments as Tsukishima worms his raper-face way into Ichigo’s friends’ memories. Well, next week promises the actual fight, so from the looks of things we won’t actually be subjected to this for much longer.  

Manga

Josh Tolentino

Naruto chapter 572

Wow, they’re really flogging this “Naruto as a reincarnation of the Sage of Six Paths” notion, aren’t they? All things considered this was in the cards from the moment he got his Nine-Tails chakra design on, but seeing it so blatantly emphasized feels a little “off”.

Y’see, prior to this stuff Naruto’s status as a child of prophecy was more an informal speculation than anything else. Ninja legend did fortell of one “One Who Would Bring Balance The Force Peace To The Ninja World”, but to hear the likes of Jiraiya tell it, it felt more like Naruto held the will and strength of character to suit that kind of hero, rather than having some epic destiny in him.

Eh, but who am I to question such things? Lemme see what he’ll be like with all those tailed beasts in ‘im already!