The Fourth Phase draws to a close but not without some challenges to be faced.

What They Say:
Gon and his friends have been trapped inside a cave by poisonous snakes. Bourbon, the person responsible for the trap, is already dead, and nobody knows how to disarm the trap. Meanwhile, Leorio, who was bitten by the snakes, is growing weak. Gon manages to get them out of the sticky situation and through to the final phase of the exam. But first, Netero wants an interview with each of the remaining applicants…

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Hunter x Hunter put the gang in quite a pinch the last time around as the main group outside of Killua ended up together and in something of a trap. Being in the cave where one of the other applicants had died and ad left nothing but vipers around blocking their exit, it’s turned incredibly dangerous for them. What makes it worse is that the other applicant that’s trapped in there that caused the others death is just big a problem as she used neurotoxins to take him down and is in just as much of a bind as the rest of them. Unfortunately, the general idea she has is to wait until this part of the exam is over and have the Examiners come and rescue them. Of course, that means giving up and losing their chance for this year. And with Leorio worsening from being bit repeatedly, he may not make it.

Because of the things involved, there’s a lot of pressure to get out of there earlier than the Examiner’s finding them. Leave it to Gon of course to find the way to deal with things by taking on the brunt of the damage. It speaks a lot to his personality that he’d just do it without thinking, taking things more as a leap of faith and courage, and it definitely helps out some of what they have to deal with in the short term. Gon’s always amusing to watch when he gets into situations like this as he doesn’t exactly think out of the box, but he’s so sharp and sure of what he needs to do that it surprises others. And as the plan to escape is further worked out, it’s amusing to see more things revealed about him and his abilities. Gon’s an almost endless supply of surprises but they’re not beyond what you’d expect for someone like him who grew up playing survivalist.

Thankfully, this is kept to just the first half of the episode as this phase of the exam and it turns out that the results are surprising as nine people have passed and six of them are first time applicants at that. Learning that there are times when nobody passes isn’t a surprise, but everyone is amused and delighted by these results. What comes next is definitely good stuff as the Chairman spends some time with each of the applicants alone to talk about things related to what they’re doing and after, to get a feel for those at this stage of the Exam. The questionings are pretty quick and brief with only a few things to them, but it’s instructive in seeing how those at this stage view everyone else and it even surprises the Chairman a bit.

In Summary:
Closing out the Fourth Phase of the Exam is definitely welcome even if it was one of my favorite parts of the Exam simply because it was with a smaller field of applicants and it made some good revelations about people like Gon and Hisoka. Things are resolved fairly quickly at the start here with the trap that the group is in and it’s another point in Gon’s favor for his style and approach to problems. But just as much fun in a different way is the post period in which the Chairman has sit down chats with everyone in order to prepare for the Final Phase that’s to come. It’s simple but really effective in making it clear exactly how the remaining nine players feel about each other. And it even has a cute little reveal about the Chairman that just makes me grin.

Grade: B+

Readers Rating: [ratings]

Streamed By: Crunchyroll

Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.