Hunter x Hunter

[lilboocorsola]

Episode 105:

Spoiler: show

This was a tense episode. The scene with the King and the Gungi had me on the edge of my seat. Though for some reason my favorite part was when the butterfly guy leapt to try and fix the King's arm and got knocked back. Seeing him so flustered and concerned for the first time was refreshing, showing even these monsters have human roots. Then when he willingly offered his head when the King refused help... Even if it's to someone so horrible, his loyalty is something to behold.

Knov's portion was somewhat less exciting with all the monologuing. At least they did him and the audience the decency of animating his stealth approach nicely while he explained his plan.

I do think the secretary character was kinda necessary since it's hard to think the Ants could keep up the charade for long without assistance, having no extensive knowledge of human politics. That said, he was indeed ugh creepy. At first when he paused on the woman's face I thought maybe it was his wife or something. I actually wasn't quite certain what was going on since the subs said "Here are the bodies" and that initially made me think it was a list of dead people, but the fact they were all women and his actions were clearly... >.>; (I started to wonder if he was a necrophiliac. ^^; )

Anyway, once they revealed "Thinker Bell" (lol) was Palm I was pretty relieved, for a number of reasons. XP I actually prefer this version of her better tbh.

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

In the manga, the Chimera Ant Arc was widely hated because of the delays Togashi took to it, not to mention the deteriorated art. But, aside from some silly developments, it was actually pretty darn entertaining and well written through the end.

Because I was able to read the whole arc in one go, I didn't have the problem you (and the manga readers of the day) did, which was where the wait between chapters was agonizing. Be thankful! You don't have to wait 2-3 months between episodes. And the production values are noticeably better than...well.

In my experience I've mostly heard general excitement towards the Chimera Ant arc, though I was aware of frustration about delays. As for the art, I heard rumors it got bad since he was sick but... Wow yeah, that is pretty atrocious. ^^; My admiration for Togashi and the publisher though for pushing through with it.

[Doppleganger]

I'm not going to voice my complaints for the Chimera Ant Arc yet, but I did have some serious problems with it that I'm dying to discuss. When I vented my points on Arlong Park, I got two classes of folk: people who agreed and didn't argue, and those who were emotionally stricken by the Chimera Ant Arc and warped logic to try and defend against my barbed attack.

Originally Posted by Talon87

I thought his health issues were more along the lines of the psychiatric or chronic fatigue syndrome. Even if he were dying of cancer, I wouldn't expect it to compromise his drawing ability like that -- I would expect that either he can draw (no pain, no mental impairment, no motor impairment) or else he cannot (any of those three). What you showed me look like the scribbles of a child. I'm somewhat confident that if I were to pick up a pen and paper and try my hardest over the next 12 hours that I could turn out a page that looked better drawn than his. It's that bad. What the hell happened to him? Does he have some sort of PNS problem?

I'm not sure what his "illness" was, but from the art many speculated he'd injured his hand. But that wouldn't have lead to the delays, or triggered Naoko Takeuchi to say "if my husband dies, I will continue Hunter x Hunter".

Given the lack of detail, you have to assume that it was probably very difficult for Togashi to continue filling in the drawings, and he opted to do the details later when he had more time.

[Talon87]

The thing is, Togashi's pretty notorious for going on HxH hiatuses whenever a new Dragon Quest game comes out. To me, that makes it seem like his problem is more psychological in nature (e.g. something along the lines of motivation problems) than it is a disease of some other organ system. The only other thing I can imagine would be alcoholism (for the behavioral tie-in), but were it alcoholism, I can't imagine Shounen Jump standing by him even if his wife Naoko did.

Like you, I'm inclined to agree that Shounen Jump's willingness to stand by the man in light of how awful his submitted artwork became indicates that his problem, whatever it is/was, was something that Shounen Jump's executives were willing to take seriously. They didn't dismiss it the way many an idiopathic affliction like chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, or idiopathic depression gets dismissed (at least in the West). If Naoko were to pick up the phone and tell SJ "I'm sorry, but my husband is too depressed to get out of bed, much less work on your next chapter," were this America he'd be fired, and even with it being Japan I still don't know how much they'd respect that. (I honestly don't know.) So given that, yeah, I am inclined to agree that maybe it was something they were more sympathetic about like ...

• freak flesh-eating bacteria consuming part of his drawing arm
• a treatable PNS disorder which (at least for a time) compromised his ability to draw
• a treatable cancer the treatment for which frequently left him too tired or in too much pain to draw
• ???

I just really don't know. It's all so strange to me. Because like I said, Togashi already had this reputation (and continues to have this reputation) for slacking off when it comes time to play the next DQ. I know DQ's a bit of a cultural phenomenon amongst Japan's white collar working class, but still. It just gives me the impression that his problems were (and/or are) more motivational than anything else.

[Doppleganger]

Jump is in a crisis right now for manga and Togashi's one of the most recognizable of the bunch, and has a good rapport with his editors and his manga was a top seller. He's like that former star baseball player who is good in limited exposure but needs to be babied of sorts, because he's old and fragile relative to the players around him.

I definitely feel like Togashi was injured. The man has too much pride in his work to let assistants draw it, so it's a contradiction for him to publish sketches instead. He loves his fans and that's a great disservice to his fans.

Dragon Quest didn't help (and Kentaro Miura is famous for being as easily distracted by The idolm@ster) but I don't believe in a phantom injury. It felt very real and very debilitating, even though fans online were quick to accuse Togashi of laziness.

Honestly, that venom was a big reason I didn't get into HxH originally when I was big on manga. Frustrated HxH fans accusing Togashi of being a deadbeat and cursing his habits.

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

I definitely feel like Togashi was injured. The man has too much pride in his work to let assistants draw it, so it's a contradiction for him to publish sketches instead. He loves his fans and that's a great disservice to his fans.

Honestly, that venom was a big reason I didn't get into HxH originally when I was big on manga. Frustrated HxH fans accusing Togashi of being a deadbeat and cursing his habits.

Isn't it kinda contradictory fans complained about the hiatus but didn't appreciate getting at least some art, even if they were rough sketches? *shot*

Besides the point I know, just thought the contrast was funny. *shrug* Can never please everyone.

[Doppleganger]

Hence why I never was proactive about reading HxH and waited until the anime to get into it, and why my little anecdote from earlier about the Chimera Ant Arc suggested I don't like or want to understand HxH manga fans.

[Talon87]

Episode 106 (last week's):

Spoiler: show

This was an okay episode. I appreciated the amount of development for Knov though perhaps not the content. (Conflicted.) I do like how Togashi confirms that Knov cares very much about Palm's well-being. Stops just shy of confirming it's love though. *darn it* I also appreciated finally learning what one of Palm's powers is. I say "one of" because there's no reason why her crystal ball alone would mean that she can destroy Bisky or Gon or whomever. Locate, sure, but not necessarily overpower. That has to come from somewhere else.

Not much else to say. I could state many obvious things like how creepy the secretary is or short Morel's and Leol's bits were, but that's okay, I'll pass.

Oh, one last thing though: didn't realize "the selection" was for manipulated warriors for the King. I thought they were being selected as food and/or breeding stock.

[Doppleganger]

Personally, I think Knov x Palm is creepier than Gon x Palm. Then again, I kind of have a complex against younger women couples. >_>

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

Personally, I think Knov x Palm is creepier than Gon x Palm. Then again, I kind of have a complex against younger women couples. >_>

Not sure how you can compare a pairing of a woman in her 20s and a boy in his 10s with a pairing of a woman in her 20s and a man in his 20s or 30s. :\ Knov looks young, young, young. No way is he older than a decade over Palm. Which is the same gap Palm has over 10-year old Gon. (He's 10, right? I forget. Show's been going on so long at this point ...)

[Doppleganger]

There's a guy in Legend of the Galactic Heroes who was 22 when he met a 14 year old girl who, eight years later, became his wife. That creeped me out majorly.

I think the conjecture that, "when you were nine years old, you were rocking your future wife in a cradle" just upsets me a lot.

The reverse isn't true. I personally prefer an older girl - not milf age, but 5-10 years is good - so 12-year old Gon and 22 year old Palm fits right into what I'm OK with. And in truth, with one of my favourite romantic pairings - Kusama Daisaku, age 12, has a 6 year difference with Ginrei.

For reference, my sister is two years younger than me. Anyone her age or younger triggers the spine crawlies. I think one year younger or same age is probably as young as I could go and not go crazy.

[Talon87]

Episode 107:

Spoiler: show

Morel's fight against Leol was entertaining to watch, both conceptually as well as visually. Morel is proving with each passing episode just how wrong I was to look down on his smoke ability. It seems we would be better off considering him a manipulator of air than of smoke, and considered in that light it's quite easy to see how much of a threat he could be with adequate lung capacity and a clever mind. I wasn't too thrilled with Togashi for going the CO₂ route: it's obvious he was trying to be clever, showing how he understands that even an ordinary gas can, in sufficient quantities, prove deadly; but given that Morel seems able to conjure smoke (and not just clouds formed from water vapor), it seems doubtful that he couldn't produce a poison from his pocket, place it in his mouth, and then exhale it into the puffs of air he's releasing into the room. Even worse, I don't care for Togashi's implication that Morel is not affected by the very same CO₂ hypersaturation in the room -- after all, if Morel's inhalations derive from the very air he claims he was gradually polluting bit by bit, it's rather incredible that, once he resurfaced, he wasn't affected by the effects of his own experiment. (Was he still holding his breath? Maybe. Perhaps I shouldn't be so quick to roll my eyes ... *shrug*) But perhaps worst of all to me is this: since they were battling in such an old church, I find it a bit hard to believe that there were no leaks in the building above the water level. I mean, sure: it's not like it had a huge crater opened up towards the sky or anything, but I still would think that there would have been leaks in the building which proved problematic for both Leol and Morel. Oh well. Putting all of those complaints aside, I really quite enjoyed this fight.

Oh, one last thing though: I thought it was strange how Leol insisted so adamantly that the Inazuma ability was his. ^^; Even once the cat was out of the bag, the Japanese he kept using made it sound like he very much considered Inazuma his own move and one he was very proud of. Kinda sad that the so-called "king of the jungle" ended up like this. Perhaps that's why Togashi saw fit to give Leol such a pathetic end.

Palm's scene was good for what it was ... but was cut insanely short for dramatic effect. I guess all I really have to say for now is: Palm's definitely prettiest with her naturally purple eyes. Oh, and I have a question that I may as well ask here: how exactly does Palm plan to escape / how exactly did the group plan for Palm to escape? It's my understanding that Knov has to control the opening and closing of the portals. That just because he placed them does not mean they work for anyone and everyone. So with Knov out of commission, how exactly is Palm going to get out of there?

Speaking of Knov's being out of commission ... yeaaaaah. Wasn't a fan of this. I was grateful at least that they had Palm similarly freak out (since it helps to put her on the same level as Knov) but then had her steel her resolve once she saw the Nen vapors disappear (which empowers her as a strong female character, one might argue) ... but yeah, I'm none too happy that Knov is so utterly pissed-his-pants terrified right now. Not because the nature of the threat they're up against isn't scary. But because a) I'd have figured Knov had already seen other threats of similar or greater magnitude to this one given the high impression Netero has of him and b) because wunderkinder Gon didn't freak out when he saw it. I mean ... maybe that's not quite true. He did freak out a bit (followed by a suicidal holler ). And Killua obviously panicked. But what about Kite? Is Togashi trying to say that Kite is (or was ) a much braver man than Knov is? I guess that's okay ... I like Kite and all ... but ... I dunno, I had gotten the impression that Knov was either top of the same class Kite was in or else was one grade higher than Kite. So it's weird seeing Kite (and to a lesser extent Gon) be able to face down a threat that Knov has a mental breakdown over. So long as Togashi fixes Knov before all's said and done, we're cool. If Knov's Hunter days are over as a result of this run-in, I'mma be pissed. DON'T KILL OFF THE PORTAL MAN!

The third and final major scene of the episode was of course Killua's and Ikalgo's. The first half of the scene was fine; the second half was better, I felt, if a bit too hammed up at points. It's great to see that Killua really does consider Ikalgo a friend and what that label means; after what Killua's said dozens of times before in the episodes leading up to this fated encounter, it's so, so great to see that he's finally made another friend besides Gon. If any of our new ant friends have to die before all's said and done, I hope it's Meleoron. Not because I hate him or anything, but just because I really want Ikalgo to stick around.

All in all, this was a better episode than last week's, but Hunter x Hunter's habit of ending too soon rears its ugly head yet again with this one. While the episode certainly gave us lots of little advancements, none of these were so huge as to sate my appetite. That stated, getting to watch two episodes in 24 hours has allowed me to not feel quite so HxH starved this time. I can wait until next week for 108. But man do I sure hope it moves the plot further along than it's sneak peek suggests it will.

I was curious to see when we last cycled OP verses. I didn't do a thoroughly exhaustive search, but from what I can tell, it does seem like we've been stuck on this verse of "Departure" ever since Episode 76 (the first episode of the Chimera Ant story arc). For what it's worth, it's the second of the two verses. (The first one goes "kodoku demo hitori ja nai sa" while the second one goes "saigo made akiramenai sa.") So while the OP's certainly seemed to have overstayed its welcome ^^; , this could perhaps be a sign that Madhouse is waiting for the current story arc to end before unveiling a brand-new song. After all, if they were planning to stick with "Departure!" forever, we're past the point where they should have cycled us back to the first verse again. (Verse 1 was Episodes 01-26 and Episodes 50-75; Verse 2 was Episodes 27-49 and has since been Episodes 76 thru 107.)

[Doppleganger]

Knov didn't have the experience. He's a lot like a hotshot talent out of school who is faced with a nightmarishly tough situation he'd never even heard of in a textbook. Netero brought him along because of his amazing ability and talent, but his mental strength definitely lagged behind that.

You might find this surprising, but most Hunters in the HxH universe are not strong. Pokkle and Ponzu would be average strength. Knov and Morel are probably in the top 1% of Nen users among the Hunters, and the Chimera Ants Royal Guards (not to mention the King) all dwarf them in strength. Togashi thankfully is very good at contextualizing how freakish a scenario this later in the story.

Regarding Morel, I think the fight was a bit different, but I might be remembering things funny. I recall a stakeout where Leol was on the surface, saw the bubbles and hung around waiting for Morel to come to the surface. Morel had sucked in all the air in the room but was only slowly letting it percolate to the top. That's why Leol didn't react versus another kind of poisonous gas, because he didn't expect it to be an attack derived from ordinary breathing.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

Regarding Morel, I think the fight was a bit different, but I might be remembering things funny.

Spoiler: show

I recall a stakeout where Leol was on the surface, saw the bubbles and hung around waiting for Morel to come to the surface. Morel had sucked in all the air in the room but was only slowly letting it percolate to the top. That's why Leol didn't react versus another kind of poisonous gas, because he didn't expect it to be an attack derived from ordinary breathing.

Regarding your Episode 107 spoiler comments ...

Spoiler: show

Originally Posted by Narrator

Morel used his immense lung capacity to suck in the stagnant air trapped in the church and exhaled it with an increased concentration of carbon dioxide.

The way the episode portrayed it, it's not so much that Morel sucked away all of the air in the room causing Leol to asphyxiate like an astronaut whose oxygen tank has hit empty. Rather, it's that for every breath Morel took in, he returned to the room a breath which was that much more concentrated in CO₂. Thus, the room slowly but surely became overconcentrated with CO₂, leading Leol to slowly asphyxiate due to CO₂ (which weighs more) filling up his alveoli -- first the basal ones, then the central ones, then finally the apical ones -- and making it impossible for him to inhale the oxygen naturally present in the room.

Had Morel been able to suck away all of the room's air in one go, it stands to reason that Leol should have noticed immediately (ears popping, gagging on lack of air) and died shortly thereafter. The fact that he took so long to die suggests either:

1. your theory but modified to where Morel is sucking up the room's air only slowly but surely
2. what I think actually happened

The rejection for the remainder of #1 comes from the fact that we saw bubbles breaking up out of the surface of the water rather than (eerily) "popping into" the water from above. It would've had to have been the latter had Morel been sucking up the room's air from the safety of the church floor. But since the bubbles were doing their natural thing -- air rising -- it stands to reason that Morel was exhaling.

Now, here's where I have to give Togashi credit -- given that CO₂ is so much heavier than O₂ and N₂, and given that they constitute some 98% of the air, the CO₂ would have settled along the bottom of the room's air (between the water's surface and the air) and would have only gradually worked its way up. Thus, Leol really wouldn't have noticed what hit him until it was too late. And once he fell off the surfboard, that was checkmate -- because if the air he was inhaling before was oxygen-depleted, just imagine how bad the air immediately above the surface of the water would have been.

I still enjoyed the scene, whether I am right or wrong to be wagging my finger at parts of it. So don't worry.

[Doppleganger]

Spoiler: show

Leol died from CO2 poisoning in the manga as well, but he saw air bubbles in one spot and thought Morel was going to swim to the surface, then saw other bubbles as well. His mistake was that he thought the multiple bubbles were camouflage, when they were actually a way for Morel to breath out a higher volume of CO2 into the room without him noticing. He didn't realize that Morel had whale lungs until it was far too late. Sucking up all the air in the room was just a way for Morel to get enough air to pull off the stunt.

I'm not sure I buy the anime's explanation if it was "increasing the CO2 content of the air" for the reason you stated. But the Leol-Morel battle was decent length in the manga, not one episode, so maybe they condensed that part.

[Talon87]

Everything you've said is what happens in the anime. Why don't you just watch it!? ^^;

[Talon87]

Episode 108:

Spoiler: show

I am such a sucker for love stories.

She finally has a name. Komugi.

He didn't have a name before now. Nor does he have one now either. -_-;

I liked how the King wasn't the only one improving -- Komugi was too. But I was less enthusiastic about her suddenly gaining a Nen power. Seemed a bit farfetched. It also feels sort of like cheating rather than innate talent. Hard to defend why, but it just does.

Shaiapouf is pretty clearly gay for the King. :p He went beyond being a devoted servant this week to being a jealous housewife who daydreams about killing the new woman in her man's life.

Don't die, Ikalgo.

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Episode 108:

Spoiler: show

I am such a sucker for love stories.

She finally has a name. Komugi.

He didn't have a name before now. Nor does he have one now either. -_-;

I liked how the King wasn't the only one improving -- Komugi was too. But I was less enthusiastic about her suddenly gaining a Nen power. Seemed a bit farfetched. It also feels sort of like cheating rather than innate talent. Hard to defend why, but it just does.

Shaiapouf is pretty clearly gay for the King. :p He went beyond being a devoted servant this week to being a jealous housewife who daydreams about killing the new woman in her man's life.

Don't die, Ikalgo.

Spoiler: show

The King does have a name, by the way. That's a spoiler though!

As for Komugi's growth, she awakened her own Nen as a necessary step to reach new heights, because her talent had already plateaued. She didn't need Nen to get that far, but she needed it go further.

I hate all three of the Royal Guards, but surprisingly Pouf isn't the most hated. Since there's three, I'd actually put him on the more likeable side since I hate Neferpitou, and the other one starred in a rather stupid fight.

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Episode 108:

Spoiler: show

Shaiapouf is pretty clearly gay for the King. :p He went beyond being a devoted servant this week to being a jealous housewife who daydreams about killing the new woman in her man's life.

Spoiler: show

I liked the scene where he thought about killing her and the thought process behind it (and subsequently not doing so).... Until he pulled out the violin and started fabbing like whoa. ^^;

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

Spoiler: show

The King does have a name, by the way. That's a spoiler though!

Didn't we learn his name already?

Spoiler: show

I thought the Queen named him when she died. (Granted, I don't remember what it was.) Colt just hasn't delivered the message yet.

[Talon87]

Episode 109:

Spoiler: show

As calm-before-the-storm episodes go, this one was great. But I want the storm now!

Though I'll admit I was hoping for some more King x Komugi development before the battle got underway. Doesn't look like that's going to be happening now: what we've seen is what we get.

Confused as to why this happened:

• previous weeks: the heroes were planning to teleport into various spots in the castle using Knov's placed portals
• this week, beginning: the heroes make clear their intention to teleport in at three spots behind the castle (A, B, and C)
• this week, what they actually did in the end: everybody teleported to the same exact spot outside the castle

Scrapping the first bullet was bad enough, but I was really confused by the scrapping of the second one. What happened!?

It's nice for a change to see the Royal Guard not being omniscient. Neferpitou not recognizing the heroes' use of Knov's portals and mistaking it for the heroes using zetsu to hide amongst the crowd was nice. I was a bit disappointed when the opposite happened -- the same old, same old -- and Shaiapouf magically anticipated that the heroes might try to teleport the King away to some secluded location out of the Royal Guard's reach, but having Neferpitou be ignorant of Knov's power was a welcome sight. Thanks, Togashi.

Haven't the ending credits shown Snowcap Ikalgo with human hands? I felt bad for him all episode with his still-amputated limbs. Thank goodness he's an octopus. :'D

Aww, Knov's hair turned white. Quit turning my portal man into a little bitch, Togashi! Knov looks fine with white hair but he was really rocking that black hair.

Will be ticked if Knuckle, Shoot, Morel, Knov, Palm, or Ikalgo die. Preparing to be ticked.

Do we get one more episode before 2014? Or is this it for the year?

Spoiler: show

I could easily see this being it. Seems like a good place to stop if next episode begins the fighting. But the sneak peek makes me wonder if Episode 110 is going to be a mini step back in time, to the hours leading up to where Episode 109 ended, given that it features some lighthearted Comic Animation Gon back in Knov's portal hub along with the others and does not show any of them outside the portal room.

[Doppleganger]

The fight between Netero and the Chimera Ant King is one of the manga's best. It's up there with the Third Hokage vs. Orochimaru way back when in Naruto. This is probably the only fight where there's two heavy weight fighters going back and forth - most of the others usually involve one distinctly overpowered character.

[Talon87]

No one said nor asked anything about that. That was pretty random, Doppel.

[Talon87]

Episode 110:

Spoiler: show

The good news is, it wasn't a flashback episode stalling for time (yay! ) nor was it a filler episode (yay! ) nor was it a non-existent episode. (Yay! ) The bad news is, it was an episode which started up an entire new subplot with the wolf Chimera Ant (uhhhh ... ) and ended almost 100% identically to how Episode 109 ended: with the heroes dramatically exiting Knov's chamber, ready to kick some Chimera Ant butt. Umm, guys? That worked last week. You don't seriously expect it to work twice in a row like that ... especially not after the kick-to-the-nuts "GOT YER NOSE! " you pulled on us between 109's ending and 110's sixth minute.

But bad news aside, I quite enjoyed the episode. I was pleased as punch that it was none of the bad things I had feared it might be and I found it to be generally entertaining.

Same question this week that I asked last week: does anybody know if we're getting Hunter x Hunter this week? Guess we'll find out soon enough, but if anyone already knows we're not getting an episode tomorrow then please do go ahead and spare me the getting all worked up for nothing these next fifteen hours. If we do get an episode this week, it would seem to bode well for the possibility of zero New Year interruptions: given what the sneak peek shows, I'll be both surprised and ticked off if there's no new episode 7½ days from now.

EDIT: Whoops. Keep thinking today is Monday. Take each of the times in the paragraph above and add 24 hours.

[Doppleganger]

I think HxH will be interrupted for New Years, but I'm not 100% sure. It is the typical show that gets shafted this time of year.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

I think HxH will be interrupted for New Years, but I'm not 100% sure. It is the typical show that gets shafted this time of year.

Googled for the show's schedule. Couldn't find it, but did see the Wikipedia article for all of the show's episodes, such an obvious starting point in retrospect, and so I loaded it up to see if anyone had updated the bottom row or two to include as-yet unaired episodes. Sure enough, there's Episode 111 -- with an air date of January 8, 2014 provided. So yeah: no new episode tomorrow.

[Talon87]

Rewatched Episode 110 and noticed something during the sneak peek that I hadn't noticed last time:

Spoiler: show

Zeno Zoldyck makes an appearance next week. It's not exactly clear whether he's fighting alongside Netero or whether he's fighting against Netero. I would assume from the footage and the context that he's fighting with Netero, but only time will tell. Regardless, it's an interesting Zoldyck cameo. I figured we'd see Illumi or Kalluto before we'd see Zeno or Silva again, Illumi because it's been ages and Kalluto because he/she's a member of the Phantom Troupe and we already know that they're aware of the situation with the Chimera Ants. But Zeno should offer some fun and/or interesting insights into Netero's past, given that both men are probably about the same age and thus it's probable that they not only know of one another but might even have some past history together. (Hell: for all we know they may even have been best friends when they were young. Or they may even still be best friends!)

Also, something I forgot to mention last time:

Spoiler: show

Hina (Leol's female henchman) was cute as ever. But lol @ the pregnant belly thing being brought up again. haha Also, lol @ the fur that Togashi gave Hina over her breasts and torso, revealed this week for the first time ever.

I also thought Hina's servant was kind of cute, what with how she behaved and whatnot. It's too bad she's so insectoid and not more anthropomorphic like Hina.