What They Say:
Kite uses the location where the Chimera Ant arm was discovered and ocean patterns to determine where the actual Chimera Ant is. It turns out to be an isolated country that bans all forms of technology. Meanwhile, the Chimera Ants continue to evolve.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The Chimera Ant arc managed to boost things up a bit more quickly in the previous episode even as it continues to expand our background knowledge of Kite, and by extension, Gin as well. The queen has started to make her move already and has birthed some interesting and diverse soldiers to do her bidding, which are now out in the world itself, and that plays against Kite talking more about Gin and some of the experiences the two had together. It’s definitely been engaging to see how Gon views everything that’s going on and seeing the connections he has with others, since the two met without knowing before, but it’s also been fun to see how Killua watches all of this and realizes that there is so much more to Gon than even he may have realized early on when he decided to hook up with him for their journey.
With the Queen having sent out her soldiers and bringing back lots of people from villages in order to build up things, it’s an event that has managed to go unnoticed in a way as the general news and tracking has shown nothing, at least from what Kite and the others can find out. But seeing the way the Chimera Ants hit villages and stake people before bringing them back is certainly creepy. What’s helped the Chimera Ant acquisition of villagers is that they’re getting what they need from an island region that has cut itself off from others as they wanted to live natural lives with no machinery to be involved there, which tends to keep most people away. They’re so isolated that it would be too late before anyone found out what was going on there, which makes it an ideal situation for the Queen and her plans with the disturbing array of soldiers she has on hand.
While we get the investigation side going on with Kite, and we see how the Queen’s soldiers are operating, we also get a glimpse at another group that’s certainly weapons capable but is also involved in some dangerous drug creation that they bring out to the urban areas of the rest of the world. With the source of the drug in the same area that the Chimera Ants may be operating out of, it just adds more complications to the whole situation. With a lot of things starting to circle around this particular island and what’s going on, Gon and Killua have small roles overall. But we get more expansion on the individualized soldiers for the Chimera Ant Queen and that makes clear who some of the key players will be, and their lack of understanding about the human world and what that will mean. Those that can understand are the ones that will achieve more and serve the Queen, but it looks like there are only a few that are really capable of it.
In Summary:
Hunter x Hunter does some decent things here as we get more of the foundations of the Chimera Ant arc. The exploration of the queen’s soldiers and how they’re changing, as well as how they’re changing her, is definitely interesting and will lead to some good variety as things move along more. We also get the expansion of where it is they’re hunting, why it’s different from everywhere else and how it’s managed to go unnoticed for so long. But it also brings in some material that will color it all in a different way as there’s a drug running group operating out of there which is getting drawn into the events there as well. Things are taking shape in a good way and it’s getting pieces with Gon, Killua and Kite that bring it all into focus well. Definitely a good episode that helps to set up more of where things are going.
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.
