Where 1999 HxH outshined its 2011 successor

[Papasmurf]

While this will be a bit of a biased review because I found most of the Hunter Exams to be worthless fluff in both series and the manga and therefore never really watched much of it in either edition, I feel I've watched and discussed enough of both series that I can accurately judge the rest of the series (sans Greed Island which I found boring enough in the manga to never watch in anime form).

Firstly, until around 50 episodes in I found 2011's opening and ending choices to be mediocre at best, especially with them recycling the same opening for the entire show and having that gay-assed Dubstep song as the first ending. I also wasn't very fond of 2011 HxH's OST at all until most of the Phantom Troupe arc was finished, whereas most of 1999's OSTs were fine, other than the second ending song being pretty disappointing compared to the first. The Yorknew OVA is where the differences really shine, as while some plot points were outright skipped (Castro vs. Hisoka etc.) due to low ratings in previous arcs, this series actually expanded upon many of the manga's scenes in areas where the original depiction was lacking, particularly in Pakunoda's death or in Kurapika's more iconic scenes:

As you can see, the 2011 depiction sees Kurapika as perhaps depressed at best in a scene where even the black and white manga depicts him with almost fiendishly wrathful expression, which the old anime adapted well while the 2011 one feels watered down at worst and just a typical shonen manga to anime translation at best.

This doesn't mean the new anime did NOTHING right however, I found the animation (other than the direction) to be moderately superior in the 2011 edition, and it did to its credit skip some of Kurapika's boring Greed Island-like nen training expositions. Overall though, I found the old version to be much more emotionally executed with less awkwardly positioned BGM, and one can never forget that Hisoka's fagging toward Chrollo was much more legendary in the 1999 anime than the 2011 one:

https://youtu.be/hvdIE8jRA-k?t=5m46s

Although in the case of his :withheld moment toward Gon in the Heavens Arena, the 2011 one was indeed far more colorful and better executed.

In b4 ahill pops a boner :mikey :mikey

 

[Captain Cadaver]

I'd probably disagree when it comes to ost as far as character specific themes go, seeing as how they seem to be equally good in both versions, with Killua's theme being for better in 2011 than in 1999 and vice-versa for Kurapika's theme, equalling things out somewhat. I'd also prefer the 2011 anime far more for the pre-Yorknew events as whilst 1999 did a good job expanding on things such as Killua's past sins, it overall bogs down the pacing of events that were still slightly above average as a whole.

Whilst I'm unsure as to the 1999 version pulling off the Yorknew Arc better as a whole, I definitely agree it handled Kurapika's character far better from what I've seen.

 

[Papasmurf]

The character songs are only a small part of the anime's overall soundtrack placement though, and for the most part only get used when a character is owning another. the 2011 Gon theme is garbage and got spammed almost as much as Stardust Crusaders in the Part 3 David Productions anime, leading to an NGE-like awkwardness in upbeat songs being used in inappropriate situations. I also wasn't really fond of the new anime fagging up gory scenes like Killua ripping out that guy's heart, although like I said I thought Hunter Exams was a poorly planned first arc that wasn't worth much in retrospect, and the 1999 one had the natural disadvantage of having to avoid catching up to Togashi's hiatus-ing manga and at least did fillers better than Naruto, One Piece or most other shonen imo (though that isn't saying much, since a lot of shonen filler is shittier than Elfen Lied).

From what I hear the Greed Island OVA is where the 2011 tends to be superior for the most part since the old version was in that awkward point where the trend shifted from cel shading to computer animation and the style consequently was a little awkward similar to a lot of series in the early 2000s, but that arc was garbage almost from start to finish with the only saving grace being Razor owning the Troupe or starting the meme of Gon constantly losing his arm(s)