The fallout from Kurapika’s round slows things down for most of the episode, in a good way.
What They Say:
Gon and Kurapika have won their matches, giving the group a 2-1 lead, but their opponents claim that Majitani is only unconscious, so Kurapika’s match hasn’t been settled. Leorio grows impatient with Kurapika, who refuses to finish the job. The five members begin to bicker as time ticks away…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While we almost had a look at a member of the Phantom Troupe from Kurapika’s fight as his opponent had faked being one with the tattoo, the whole thing ended quickly overall. What it did give us was a look at how intense Kurapika can be when he’s got an opponent he wants to tke out. While his main desire is to deal with the Phantom Troupe that haunts his background, he’ll do what needs to be done anyone that gets in the way of it. At least to a point, as we learn here, as it turns out that Majitani wasn’t taken out properly as he’s just unconscious. Which means the match continues until he either wakes up and concedes or Kurapika gets out there and does what needs to be done. And doing that just goes against his way of doing things.
This throws a good part of the episode into the real trap of the Trick Tower, the problems that come from the majority decision angle. Leorio wants too to do the expedient thing but everyone else sides with Kurapika, largely because the majority decision won’t actually change Kurapika’s mind and they can’t take down Majitani themselves either, so it’s pointless to participate in it. That Leorio actually makes it a public vote as well since the system won’t accept votes from questions made by the participants, it just frustrates him all the more, especially as they see their time whittle away. And as Majitani continues to fake the position he’s in simply because every hour helps them in the end to eliminate a year off of their sentence. It’s a pretty good plan overall on his part that takes quite some time before it’s actually figured out. And it’s one that makes a whole lot of sense.
The game gets more complicated as the tensions rise and as Leorio takes a more direct tact with the criminals by betting time over things, which shifts the next round onto him a bit earlier than it should be, but there are no rules related to whether the various matchups have to happen one after the other or if they can happen at the same time. Seeing the challenge as its worked through is a lot of fun. The majority of the episode is given over to this, which works right for me, but we also get to see a bit of time spent with Hisoka as he works his way through the tower in a fairly strong and brutal way. It’s the kind of brief scene that’s needed to change things up a bit here so that it’s not just about the primary characters and the lengthy challenge that they’re facing.
In Summary:
Watching the way things break down a bit here for the team is pretty fun since it’s not going as badly as Tonpa thinks it is, as the group beyond him has managed to work together well so far. This is more of a learning point for each of them about how they’ll handle situations and it’s pretty enlightening. It also puts a good bit of focus on Leorio and how he’s sort of all over the map, but more that he’s being proactive with the situation instead of just waiting for events to finish out. That’s the positive for him and it works well to give him a showcase that he’s not just a hanger-on type here. Between the fun of this particular round and that of seeing Hisoka get his game on, this episode went by fast and was a whole lot of fun to watch unfold, especially with Majitani’s internal dialogue.
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.
