one thing i like about hunter x hunter is how each of the main crew has their own distinct flavour of tboy swag

Listening to @friends-table's Media Club Plus and was ruminating on about how Jack has been picking up on how Hunter X Hunter will very frequently jump into the subjectivity of characters that are not the protagonists. And then it occurred to me that that's actually something that's really common in shonen manga and anime. Like one of the classic overdone jokes about DBZ is about how often they cut away to other characters reacting to Goku, and jokes aside I legitimately think that Dragon Ball and most other simply do not inhabit the subjectivity of the main character very often.

I recently came across the bit from a reader q&a where Eiichiro Oda of One Piece talks about how he always tries to avoid giving Luffy thought bubbles because Luffy "thinks out loud" and "acts before he thinks" so we've got a series we never get the protagonist's internal monologue but we will get internal monologue from antagonists pretty frequently.

Also the villians in op also tend to get a lot more external dialogue in fights than the protagonists, save for Usopp probably.

I think this is tied up with some of the core appeals of the shonen battle genre. A big part of the joy in these series is to be surprised by the protagonist pulling out some impressive feat or new ability or transformation and seeing the previously insurmountable antagonists be as surprised as we the viewers are is hype as hell. I feel like I can think of tons of times in Bleach or Naruto or any of there other dozens of shonen battle anime where we get a lot of cut aways of villains being shocked by protagonistic bullshit. At the same time it's really interesting how often these manga that are not especially morally complex will have the view identify with subjectivity of the bad guy who we want get their asses beat.

I do think Hunter X Hunter is exceptional in how willing it is to launch into long explanations from side characters or narratorial voice. In terms of stuff I've read later Jojo is one of the few things that holds up to HxH in that regard.

Still it's a super interesting topic and makes me wanna revisit manga and anime I probably haven't thought that deeply about with this framing in mind.

Me starting to listen to Media Club Plus talk about Hunter X Hunter: "oh yeah, I love Leorio! He's my favorite of the four!"
Me listening to them recap episode 11: "hmmmmmmmmmmm. Well. There's other cool characters in Hunter x Hunter."

It also sucks just because the rock-paper-scissors thing IS a part of this arc that always stuck with me, and I was looking forward to getting to it here, and remembering this shitty gross & kinda transphobic part before it just killed my enthusiasm. (Deeply appreciate the MCP folks talking about it as being awful and bad but having fun with the convo still)

Me starting to listen to Media Club Plus talk about Hunter X Hunter: "oh yeah, I love Leorio! He's my favorite of the four!"
Me listening to them recap episode 11: "hmmmmmmmmmmm. Well. There's other cool characters in Hunter x Hunter."