What They Say:
Gon is unable to hold onto Razor’s throw and is sent to the outfield. He uses Back to return, but Hisoka is also injured and the situation looks grim. However, Gon has an idea for defeating Razor, but he needs Killua’s help to pull it off.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the Greed Island arc moves closer to completion, we’ve gotten the reveal now that this is a real place and not within the game. That’s changed Gon’s perceptions of things, particularly about what it may mean when it comes to his father, but that’s not something they can focus on too much because of of the way some individuals are coming closer to winning the game. That’s forced us into the rather generally uninteresting subplot of dealing with Razor and his crew in order to gain a needed card. The dodgeball instance previously had some decent material to it at times, but it also felt like it was just spinning our wheels outside of the information it brought, and that it brought Hisoka into play on the same team as Gon and Killua.
With the dodgeball game continuing here, the intensity of it is ramped up a bit as both sides attempt different uses of their abilities to gain position in the scheme of things. But there are losses along the way, especially on Gon’s team, as they get reduced in players a fair bit and that leaves fewer targets for Razor’s side to go after. Which becomes amusing on some level because of how the remaining three play with Killua, Bisky and Hisoka. Hisoka in particular gets to shine here a bit and you have to laugh that with all that he’s capable of, he is in a sense reduced to being a part of a dodgeball team. It has its importance to be sure but considering what we’ve seen him involved with before, there is a kind of surreal aspect to it even with the level of power and danger involved. One that has now gotten Gon to really ramp up in intensity himself, which we rarely see.
Watching as Gon gets really into it and builds up his power to an immense level, the best moment is not the match itself but rather the little sound that escapes Hisoka as he sees the fruit he’s placed out in the world ripen just a bit more, almost becoming tantalizingly juicy for him. Though Gon has accomplished a lot with what he’s brought to the table now, it’s not without sacrifices involved and it’s not something that takes down Razor entirely either, making for a dangerous and prolonged attack on him. But it’s one that does show the kind of game that the boys will play and how they’ll go about it with their own sense of honor. Of course, it’s all just drawn out and delayed so we don’t get any resolution here, but it’s welcome to get the feeling that the tide is finally changing.
In Summary:
While this episode comes across better than the previous one since it’s more focused on the core and active characters rather than the dummy types that Razor has brought into play, it does all feel drawn out a bit more than I’d care for. But that’s part and parcel for a series of this nature. We do get some good strategy put into place here and the challenges are ramping up a bit more as well. But it was seeing Gon finally get hugely intense about it, moving to a new level himself, and even getting Hisoka all excited by the prospect of what the seed he planted is turning into. The match itself isn’t doing all that much for me but there’s more to like here than there was in the previous episode.
Grade: B-
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.
