Episode 12 covers chapter 22 in the manga, and corresponds to episode 17 of the 1999 series. Though some dislike the slow pace of this episode, I actually liked the focus on the mundane activities of the protagonists. Since the entire first half was filler, the latter half didn't drag. Both versions cover a single chapter, but the filler in the 2011 series could be canon due to it taking place in the 50 hours the protagonists spent in that room. I always wanted to see what happened in that time period, but the manga and first series both gloss over it.
This episode is decent in the 1999 series as well. It changes a lot of things from the manga, but still isn't all bad. The art is pretty good and there's a well-animated scene done by Norio Matsumoto in it.
There are some very good scenes in here of Gon and Killua's friendship. The duo is fun to watch, which was an issue in the 1999 series. If you're interested in the filler, watch it.
Gon and Killua are significantly less entertaining in the 1999 series. I don't mean to go on the offensive, but this is largely due to the 1999 series' shift in character tones. The 1999 series is a bishonen show. You could assign an Ouran HS Host Club archetype onto every single one of the protagonists and have it be accurate. Anyone who argues otherwise hasn't seen the DVD covers.
Because Gon isn't characterized as the "cool" type of bishonen in the 1999 series, he isn't focused on. Togashi's characters aren't like this in the manga--they're cute. But I digress.
So our boys leave the room. In the manga and 2011 series, they end up back where they started. This doesn't happen in the 1999 series.
Leorio complains more in the 1999 series. The 1999 series makes up the pejorative nickname "the Yamori Brothers" for Amori and his siblings. It sticks throughout the series. Leorio grabs Tonpa and yells at him, and pulls a knife on him in the manga and 1999 series. The 1999 series takes away Leorio's switchblade and changes it to a Japanese knife. The 2011 series only has Leorio raise his fists. Gon reveals he pressed X by accident. Killua in the manga and 2011 series thinks that the argument is stupid and doesn't care about it. In the 1999 series, he doesn't acknowledge it.
We hit the final stretch.
This room looks more like it does in the manga. Madhouse caught on that it was structured with the same material as the battle room.
In the manga and 2011 series, the group has to vote upon whether or not they want to take the final challenge before Lippo explains the rules. Lippo's speech about the rules is written completely differently in the 1999 series. The challenge's twist is tossed into the end of it. Lippo also notes (in the Nippon Animation version) that the challenges thus far should have developed camraderie between the applicants. But wasn't the point that they would dissent enough to betray each other? Inconsistency.
The 1999 series starts to understand Togashi's alphabet in this episode for the first time. However, they still utilize it wrong--the words on screen don't match what is being said, and they're grammatically incorrect.
Tonpa votes X as a joke and Leorio gets mad. It's in the manga and 2011 series, not in the 1999 series.
Leorio decides to vote X. Gon decides to vote O.
This is where the series diverge. In the 1999 series, Tonpa fakes chaining himself to the wall and acts as if he's given up, in order to cause the remaining four to fight amongst themselves. Only Kurapika and Killua notice that he's faking--I found this to be a shame because it detracts away from Gon's powers of observation. Gon is more vocal in his intentions and outwardly stubborn in the 1999 series. When Tonpa is revealed to be tricking the rest of his teammates (only Kurapika and Killua notice he's faking), he attempts to fight Leorio. Norio Matsumoto animates the fight scene and it's pretty decent. In the middle of the fight, Gon notices that the ax is strong enough to break the cement floors and assumes that the weapons can do the same to the walls. He uses his ingenuity, gets his team to vote O, and they break through the wall using the weapons.
The 2011 version has Leorio and Tonpa fight, but it's more comical and brief than in the 1999 series. They utilize weapons they probably have no training in using, poorly I might add. Tonpa, blindly swinging around a giant axe, cuts into the wall easily. Gon notices what happens and also takes notice that the walls are the same as the ones in Trick Tower. It looks as if Killua and Gon are about to join the fight, when the screen cuts out to the Trick Tower lobby.
This guy dies. His wound is on his back in the 1999 series, instead of in his gut.
Hisoka is waiting for Gon's group. He has a really generic line in the 1999 series while waiting for them ("I thought that boy had potential...Perhaps I overestimated him."). He's quiet in the manga/2011 series. Also, his wound is still present.
Another divergence. In the 1999 series, the group passes by using Killua's skateboard and creating a raft somehow (what's supporting them? Wood from the weapon handles?). In the manga and 2011 series, three people exit first. You're unsure as to what happens at first, until it is revealed that Leorio and Tonpa passed too.
The number of contestants passing the Third Phase is different. 36 pass in the 1999 series, where as 25 pass (with one dying) in the manga and 2011 series.
Lippo's lackeys in the 1999 series see Gon's solution as cheating. Lippo remarks he would have never thought of it himself. But for a place so preoccupied with riddles, you would think that it was always a possibility. Lippo doesn't say these things in the manga (or 2011 series) at all. In the 1999 series, everyone steps outside to a view of the ocean. But when we saw them at the top of Trick Tower in episode 13, there was no water as far as the eyes could see. At the end of episode 17 of the Nippon Animation version, Lippo has the Hunter Association's airship take the applicants away.