Gon’s attempts to get into the grounds has met with problems, but they’re problems he’s intent on overcoming.
What They Say:
Gon and his friends have decided to pass through the Trial Gate to see Killua. First, they must train in the servants’ residence until they can open the gate. Meanwhile, Killua has learned that Gon and the others are here to see him. Gon, Leorio, and Kurapika are able to open the gate after completing their training, but the apprentice butler Canary stands in their way.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The attempt to get back together with Killua is definitely not a surprising path for Gon to follow after the Exam phase and his doing so brought us to the Kukuroo Mountains last time around where we got a good look at how the family operates its mansion and surrounding lands. While there’s some fun to it being an attraction on a tour, what’s inside is anything but as Gon does what he can to try and make his way in even as the family does what it can to illustrate that Killua is not and cannot be saddled with “friends.” What the trio have lucked out in is that they managed to befriend the gatekeeper, a kind old man, and he’s given them some suggestions on how they might change their approach.
And what it comes down to is more training, which isn’t a surprise, since it is a shonen series. Putting the trio into training mode to get stronger is definitely useful since there are obstacles in the way to them getting to Killua. And Killua has his obstances as well as the family is essentially torturing him in order to cleanse him a bit of what has come during his time at the Exam phase and what his older brother might have said about it when it comes to him having made friends. So seeing his friends actually going through the effort, as much as Gon can with his injury as well, does a lot to make progress with the hired help that works the property. There’s a good sense of uplifting material to it here as they work on getting stronger to open the gate.
Thankfully, the time spent with the gate and the immediate area isn’t something that’s taking too long to be dealt with and works well to showcase some growth and to clue us in to the area. It’s done in a way that expands and introduces the setting rather than dragging things out. So when we do get the forward progress again here, meeting up with the character of Canary feels pretty natural as the trio now has to deal with a butler in training who is intent on making sure that, um, none shall pass. Few have made it this far before in general and that’s definitely attracting attention across the board, changing the dynamic a bit because of what Killua has done while out in the world. It’s a neat little change to things and getting more on Killua throughout the episode in general goes a long way towards making him more accessible.
In Summary:
As much as I shouldn’t be surprised at this point, Hunter x Hunter continues to get me with how smoothly isn’t handling its story progression and characters. With just a short bit of time they not only make us understand Canary but sympathize with her in what she has to do here. It gives us a lot of ground to work with when it comes to the staff here but it also helps to reinforce what Gon and the others are willing to do to get to their friend. In a short amount of time here there’s a heck of a lot going on and many layers being peeled back from different areas of the series, making it a thoroughly engaging episode that’s doing a great job of expanding the world that the series takes place in.
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.
