The Phantom Troupe continues its less than pleasant efforts to find out where the goods have gone, much to the dismay of those that they kill with ease.
What They Say:
No episode summary provided.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Events moved pretty quickly the last time around with the Shadow Beasts attacking the move made to capture one of the Phantom Troupe. With Kurapika’s group having taken Ugovin under their control, speeding off into the night with him, it’s left some interesting events going on back at the main site. With the Phantom Troupe members able to get to fighting now on their own against those that have come to figure out what’s going on as there’s a few sides at play, it’s full of diversity. And not the simple but interesting diversity that we saw back at the Hunter Exam, but rather some really striking diversity in terms of powers and appearance here that speaks of a whole other world of abilities and capabilities.
With the Phantom Troupe, they’re certainly quite skilled and competent as we see how easily they blow through the few Shadow Beasts left standing at this point. It’s an exercise in ease for them as they deal with it, eliminating those they don’t need but keeping alive the one they want, the one with the ability to make everything disappear into a small pouch that he has. Which has one of their members in it and a car, which leads to some good levity for the moment. There’s some humor to be had here, but also a lot of intensity as well that’s tightly controlled and wound up, which makes it all the more dangerous and exciting to see as you want to see what happens when they snap.
When it comes to Kurapika and his group, they’re finding Ugovin to be a curious captive as he doesn’t really feel that he is and even offers them an out. It does make sense since they’re just as unaware as to where all the auction items went as they are and their goal is to just get those, not to get into fights with anyone and everyone. So Ugovin just sees himself in a positive of power and no need to fight with the little things. Things do progress a bit as it goes on though which has Kurapika heading off to where he meets up with Hisoka, who has his own little plans in place to play with him. We’ve seen some interesting feints by Hisoka over the course of the series which makes you wonder what his real goal is here.
In Summary:
After a week off, it’s definitely good to get back into the swing of things with Hunter x Hunter. The show moves quickly here in the first half with what’s going on between the Phantom Troupe and their overpowered and creative selves against the Shadow Beasts. But it also slows down to more ominous tones in the second half as it focuses on Kurapika and his group as they question Ugovin, who has some great lines and a particular kind of personality that works well for what he’s going through. The straightforward nature of why he doesn’t really care to deal with them makes a lot of sense and is something that should avoid a lot of pointless fights, which I’d like to see more of in shows of these nature. Add in some great little Hisoka and Kurapika time where we get a touch more on the Troupe and Kurapika’s personal rage and there’s a lot to like, though it’s mostly just placement and build up here.
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.
