Hunter x Hunter Anime, Reboots: New Staff and Cast Members, Revealed!

Weeks ago, it was confirmed that Yoshihiro Togashi's Hunter x Hunter will have a new anime series, most fans assume that they will continue the series starting with the Chimera Ants Arc but to the surprise of everyone, they decided to take the reboot route. In simple terms, the new anime will retell the events of the original series till they will reach the current manga arc.

In the series to those who are living under a rock, a Hunter is one who travels the world doing all sorts of dangerous tasks. From capturing criminals to searching deep within uncharted lands for any lost treasures. Gon is a young boy whose father disappeared long ago, being a Hunter. He believes if he could also follow his father's path, he could one day reunite with him.

After becoming 12, Gon leaves his home and takes on the task of entering the Hunter exam, notorious for its low success rate and high probability of death to become an official Hunter. He befriends the revenge-driven Kurapica, the doctor-to-be Leorio and the rebellious ex-assassin Killua in the exam, with their friendship prevailing throughout the many trials and threats they come upon taking on the dangerous career of a Hunter.

Hiroshi Koujina (Rainbow - Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin, Neuro - Supernatural Detective) will direct the anime at MADHOUSE (Death Note, NANA), and Atsushi Maekawa (Dragon Ball Z, Fresh Precure!) is in charge of the scripts. Takahiro Yoshimatsu ("Something Yoshimatsu" of Future GPX Cyber Formula, Slayers) is designing the characters, while Toshio Nakatani is producing.

Asides from the new staff, the original voice actors will not reprise their roles, instead their roles will be given to the following people:

• Megumi Han replacing Junko Takeuchi as Gon Freecss
• Mariya Ise replacing Kanako Mitsuhashi as Killua Zoldyck
• Keiji Fujiwara replacing Hozumi Gôda as Leorio
• Miyuki Sawashiro replacing Yuki Kaida as Kurapika
• Daisuke Namikawa replacing Hiroki Takahashi as Hisoka

The new Hunter x Hunter series will premiere this October 2nd on Japan's NTV at 10:55am.

Source: Anime News Network (link 2)

New Hunter x Hunter Anime Confirmed

We have previously reported that Hunter x Hunter is rumored to have a new TV series and its just recently confirmed that a new TV anime series has been planned to air this Fall!

More details will be provided in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. The last time the said manga had a TV series was on March 31, 2001 which was later followed by a series of OVAs, namely, OVA 1: Genin Ryonan, OVA 2: Greed Island and OVA 3: G.I. FINAL. The TV series lasted for 61 episodes while the OVA series lasted for 30 episodes, all were animated by Nippon Animation.

Source: Uri-Sure Matome + via Anime News Network

New Hunter x Hunter Anime Coming Soon?

A copy of a sales sheet has been posted on Japanese message boards which suggest that Yoshihiro Togashi's Hunter x Hunter will be getting a new TV series! The sheet mentions that more information about the new anime will be revealed soon.

It asks that the revealed information be posted together with the other materials for the release for volume 29 of the manga on August 4th. Volume 28 of the manga was released on July 4th and it was announced the manga will be resuming serialization in Shonen Jump in August as well.

The last time the said manga had a TV series was on March 31, 2001 which was later followed by a series of OVAs, namely, OVA 1: Genin Ryonan, OVA 2: Greed Island and OVA 3: G.I. FINAL. The OVA series lasted for 91 episodes while the original TV series lasted for 30 episodes, all were animated by Nippon Animation.

Source: Hachima Kikou via Crunchyroll News

Hunter x Hunter Vol. 28 Manga Tops Oricon Charts

The 28th volume of Yoshihiro Togashi's Hunter x Hunter manga sold 571,502 copies in its first official week of sales to top Oricon's comic sales chart for the July 4-10 week. The manga is returning to Weekly Shonen Jump magazine next month after Togashi's latest hiatus of about a year.

The 28th volume already sold 61,580 before it officially went on sale on July 4, so it now has a total of 633,082 copies sold. The 29th volume is slated for August 4.

Togashi was known for earlier manga such as Yu Yu Hakusho and Level E before he launched Hunter X Hunter in 1998. Since then, he has taken a number of breaks for "creative reasons," only to return with renewed readership numbers.

Source: Oricon (link 2) via Anime News Network

Hunter x Hunter HEROtv Promo

It seems that HEROtv is having a good final quarter of the year! Aside from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and D.Gray-Man adding to their arsenal, the popular anime that once? graced on GMA, Hunter x Hunter is set to premiere on cable! Here's the promo.

Special thanks to theSandies!

Nostalgia Trilogy 3 of 3: Anime Resurrection

RAYGUN!

*Starts playing Standing At Edge of The Earth* Back then, this song is used for a promo on GMA’s Anime Resurrection block… and back then, they are THE Anime Authority here in the Philippines. To be exact, this is the first AMV most young Pinoys back then watched. To those whom did not have the chance to see it, it is best describe as all the best bits of every anime in GMA combined into a 1-minute plug. The shows, scene in the commercial, if my memory serves me correctly are Ghost Fighter (Yu Yu Hakusho), DragonBall Z and Flame of Recca. The best part is, it is on the primetime lineup! Sweet.

Those where the days, but since my parents are watching the news in the opposite channel, I did not have the chance to watch these shows… on primetime! Except if my parents are not looking and doing something or the other station’s reception became fuzzy, that is the only time I watched those shows. I almost forgot, back then, GMA had a back-to-back Red Hero lineup before it evolved into Anime Resurrection, namely, after Lupin the 3^rd (In which Lupin, as usual, wears his red coat) is DragonBall Z (in which Goku wears a darker toned orange gi).

The only time I got the chance to watched anime on primetime is during Fridays, the titles aired during Fridays, on GMA are Pokemon followed by Fushigi Yuugi and on ABS-CBN, Digimon Adventure later on replaced by Digimon 02. Since I have the remote on Fridays, I watched both shows, namely, Pokemon and Digimon simultaneously. After I discovered about the seizure event that happened in Japan just because they watched Pokemon, I got scared and just watched Digimon.

In case you are wondering if back then there anime programs are aired in the afternoons, yes, there are programs aired during the afternoons! In GMA, they aired Gundam Franchise (To be exact, Wing, G and X) while in ABS-CBN, Evangelion and B’T X, that is why it created a certain mark back then that GMA has the right to air Gundam… till SEED and SEED Destiny aired on ABS-CBN years ago! Aside from that, I really love watching Mojako back then on GMA. That orange fur ball is entertaining! More than that, I loved watching the earlier episodes of Doraemon. Doraemon’s voice back then sounded like a reliable cat… not Son Goku of DragonBall stuck in a robot cat’s body.

As the years past by, the primetime anime lineup has been dissolved and moved in the afternoons. That is why, I had the chance to watch those programs aired in the afternoons. That is when I knew their stories and got hooked with them. The only show in the old primetime lineup that never aired in the afternoon slot was Trigun. The only episode I watched is when Vash and that guy in blue shoot themselves together and the blood that spurted out from their bodies was ketchup!

Back then, I was addicted to Voltes V (Voltes FIVVVE! VUH!), Daimos (ERRIKA!), DragonBall Z (KA… ME… HA… ME… WAVEEEEE! VUH!), Hunter X Hunter, Doraemon (Ang Mahiwagang, *Insert Name of Gadget Here*), Ghost Fighter (RAY GUN!), Flame of Recca (FLAME POWER!!!), and more titles. Back then, I memorized all Recca’s flame dragons (and still memorized them! Proof? Saiha, Nadare, Homura, Setsuna, Madoka, Rui, Kokou, and Obeshi) and tried doing the kanji on the air. In addition, Ohayou was my LSS back then (and still now!). Those shows mentioned above are the popular shows back then.

Since back then GMA is the Anime Authority, they aired many unknown titles like Flint (I am not sure if this is the official title), Gadget Boy Kanipan, Ah! My Goddess!, Witch Hunter Robin and even Hunter X Hunter OVA Greed Island, just to name a few. On the other stations, to be exact, IBC, they aired Crayon Shin-chan and Cyborg Kuro-chan in which celebrities dub the lead characters, namely Shin-chan and Kuro-chan and their theme songs are song by a rap group named Salbakuta! From the two, my favorite was Crayon Shin-chan. Elepante Boy, FTW! *Does his dance*

Since I am too focused on GMA (GMA hogged most of the known titles Filipinos know by the way), I will now tell you the other shows aired on ABC, the future Anime Authority better known as TV5.

ABC aired one of the most popular Magical Girl genre anime, the Sailor Moon franchise. I still remember Usagi, transforming as Sailor Moon and that little girl as Sailor Chibi Moon. Mamoru Chiba always acting like the dashing masked knight who will stole the scene at the end of some episodes which caused Usagi to blush. Those where the classics. Most of the shows aired on ABC back then are targeted for girls, to be exact, the other well know anime aired on ABC was Fancy Lala. The only shows that targeted back then for young boys that aired on ABC were Slam Dunk, dubbed in English and Yaiba.

Wondering what shows that aired on ABS-CBN every morning? Most of the shows they aired are anime shows that aired on Japan back in the 80’s or late 70’s like Cedie, anime adaptations of Secret Garden, A Little Princess and Daddy Long Legs. Cedie, is one of my favorites back then, I love how he plays his flute and the fact that he is the grandson of a duke. As for GMA, don’t ask the shows aired on GMA during the morning timeslot, they only aired Sesame Street, Batibot and Teletubbies.