I really enjoy how human the characters in SnK are?? Characters cry and fear, and are drawn in a way that doesn’t make them look pretty while fighting for their lives. I guess other stories would’ve made, like, Erwin to be an entirely selfless leader, but he confesses his true desire to see the basement. Levi and Mikasa to be the typical cold and strong people who don’t show a shred of emotion. It’s great!!

Yes! All the characters are fleshed out and so very human, gray and capable of doing the monstrous and the beautiful. I absolutely love the vast majority of characters and they’re so well developed. I wish for beautiful endings for all of them, whether they make it or not. 

20181116 Translation of Ishida and Takahashi’s interview with BuzzFeed Japan

kenkamishiro:

It took me 3 days to translate this monster of an interview (~3.5k word count lol), but it’s finally done! My hands need a break after typing for so long…

Thank you to the interviewer Kashima Yui for asking some really great questions, and BuzzFeed JP for making this interview happen. I really enjoyed seeing Ishida and Takahashi banter back and forth, you can really tell that they’re great friends, and I’m happy to have witnessed a sliver of their relationship.

Also, I’m far from perfect, so if I’ve made a mistake or mistranslated something, please let me know.

Keep reading

I just recently started watching HxH and im up to the episode where Chrollo meets the fortune telling girl. I’m very curious about Chrollo but I don’t have time to go any further in the series for a while becoz of irl responsibilities. So without spoiling anything could you tell me what sort of villain category Chrollo falls under? Am I gonna he perplexed by his morals and ideology or is it more like an Overhaul case where he’ll brutally use anyone for his goals including a little girl?

I don’t really know how to describe him… he’s not like a villain with a goal like say, Dabi, but he is a person in search of an identity. I think he’s a lot more compelling of an antagonist (not a full villain, he has redeeming traits like how much he loves his Troupe) than Overhaul is, though. Like, by a huge margin. 

This is a video that, while longer, excellently sums up the intrigue of Chrollo’s character. 

You mentioned you don’t like Chrollo-antichrist imagery. That got me thinking, I haven’t seen Monster but read discussion of its ending. Someone said they liked how Johan was portrayted in the end: he isn’t some evil mastermind, (like many would typically expect), he’s mentally ill. Do you think Togashi might be doing something similar with Chrollo and Hisoka’s (maybe Illumi’s) portayal too? Charismatic, stylish and baddass villains as troubled, damaged children who don’t want to grow up?

Oh, I didn’t mean to imply I didn’t like the imagery! I think it’s interesting, I was just hesitating about comparing it to a cult. 😛

I love Monster, and that’s kind of accurate, though it’s not exactly defining Johan as mentally ill, I’d say. It is showing a different perspective to a character who has been built up as an evil mastermind: that he’s a very broken child, and that there is good potential in him as well. 

As for whether that’s where Togashi will go with it… it’s hard to say. I think it’s clear that that is my ideal direction for it to go (that’s what I want), but we’ll see. I do think that since Hisoka is Gon’s shadow, Chrollo Kurapika’s, and Illumi Killua’s, I’m fairly confident that they won’t be killed by the protagonist in the end (whether or not they survive), but instead will reconcile with the traits the adult trio represent, as the shadow plotline tends to go. 

All of them are really childish in their mindset. Hisoka is a man child, Illumi is a childlike abuse victim fully apologetic of his abuse to the point where he’s abusing Killua and Alluka, and Chrollo is–well, the reddit post sums it up well. Illumi is especially likely to be acknowledged as a victim at some point in my mind–because he unquestionably is, canonically, and his motivation is kind of a desperate scrabbling for love and a complete inability to understand it–and that inability is from his shattered mindset as a result of his childhood. Chrollo as well we know some hints about his backstory–Meteor City and his broken sense of identity, wanting a family, so there’s set up for that, but Hisoka might be a bit harder since some of his appeal is his complete flippancy. We know nothing of his background and I don’t know that we will. But even without his background, I think that can be portrayed, and the fact that he’s currently spiraling is perhaps significant in that it could set up for a refutation of Hisoka’s life philosophy–which might show him as pitiable at some point.

But we’ll see; again, I (currently) expect all of these three to make it to the last arc whenever/if ever we get there, but HxH is like impossible to predict beyond that 😛  I trust Togashi to frame them well because he’s framed them really well so far, so whatever he does, I think it will fit. I do expect him to handle them, like he’s handled every single one of his characters so far, with empathy. 

The post isn’t what I meant actually. It’s the comments, chain starts from maniacmartial’s comment “This. I really wish it is expanded upon in the future, or at least..” It’s about Chrollo’s line, maybe it’s the key to understanding myself, in japanese and what it might imply.

I was thinking how to link directly to that comment and forgot to specify. I am sorry.

Ah, no, no, I’m so sorry!!! The link was acting weird so I finally just googled the name of the article to get to it. My mistake, sorry Anon! (Like I said, I did find the original post interesting to read, too.) 

And YEAHHHHH I love this! This is so eloquent!

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I completely agree haha. I think Chrollo–like Hisoka and Illumi–has a very childish mentality in a lot of ways, in that he does not want to actually consider teh responsibility of his life, so he relies too much on the concept of fate to excuse himself. I also definitely think he sees the Troupe as a family of sorts, and that’s an excellent point that he’s never alone. I think what Chrollo truly fears is, just like Kurapika, being alone. 

An old brief analysis of Chrollo from reddit. Thought you might like it. I found it similar to your interpretation. It also analysis one his line: /r/HunterXHunter/comments/5b9h8v/the_phantom_troupe_and_cult_behaviour/d9n6rsr/

Interesting! There are some similarities, I suppose, but overall I’m very uncomfortable with several aspects in that post, and think it displays kinda a very weak understanding of a very real issue in cults. 

Which, well, is something I know firsthand. I grew up in a cult of sorts and I don’t really want to make that kind of comparison. 

Nobunaga’s attempts to get Killua and Gon to join are not remotely framed as threatening. Machi’s threat for Hisoka is also not the same as a cult member threatening another member for not following the rules. The PT doesn’t consider itself primarily philanthropic–they only occasionally do it. They know they’re murderers and thieves. Feitan even says it. “We’re thieves.” 

They aren’t brainwashed, I think that’s pretty clear, and that’s something that cults generally do–and cults also tend to reduce the idea of self-worth. I don’t think the PT does that–Chrollo has his issues with self-worth and definitely uses the PT as a crutch, but the idea behind cults is that it is very… predatory in seeking to erase self-worth to recruit. The PT is not doing this, and a lot of the things cited in this post are flat out taken out of context. 

Wanting to save Chrollo is not dependence on a leader–it’s wanting to save a friend, and that is how it’s framed. Devaluing outsiders–sure, but it’s just not quite the same speaking as someone with direct experience in this. The hitting thing is also framed as comedic. 

So yeah. I actually very much disagree with the post, though I do agree that Chrollo uses the group as a way to try and desperately define his own identity, because he’s got no sense of self outside of it. And there is antichrist imagery with Chrollo but… I’m just not comfortable with it.

That being said, thank you for the link! It was an interesting read, even if I ultimately disagreed with it (and don’t worry, I’m not triggered or upset). 

do you read the manga of banana fish because you probably wouldn’t like the ending

I have read it! I actually do like the ending. I think it fits thematically and is not nihilistic either. (My friend warned me before I started how it ended.)

Or, well, I have complicated feelings on it. I appreciate it and still understand why people don’t like it. I am actually working two metas on it that I’ll post once it’s aired (because I don’t want to spoil anything for anime-onlies), one trying to work through my complicated feelings on it (aka, why I like it as a whole, but why at other moments I don’t like it and really do understand why some people hate it), and one on the theme the ending really reinforces. 

No nihilistic ending

That’s literally all I wanted. 

It really doesn’t matter to me who the guy is (my guess is Jean but there’s no real evidence for it so I’m probably wrong) or whether the baby is the guy’s or Eren himself or Historia’s or Eremika’s or Galco’s. 

But the ending is not going to be nihilistic, no matter how many of our cast die. That means a lot to me. I’m tearing up.

Thank you, Isayama.