What They Say:
Gon, a young boy who lives on Whale Island, dreams of becoming a Hunter like his father, who left when Gon was still young.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The use of the Phantom Troupe in the previous episode was a pretty nice twist on things as they returned to Meteor City, which was pretty much their original stomping grounds, as the place was taken over by the Chimera Ants with a nest built nearby. that’s resulted in a pretty disturbing looking city with what’s happened there and it also allowed for some great action sequences, albeit ones without much in the way of connection or empathy to some degree, as the Troupe separated to cover more ground and deal with more opponents. That also allowed them to go full out with some of their abilities since there was no need to hold back against such strange and diverse creatures. Each of the members is just as unique as the various Chimera Ants, but they have quite a lot more experience and engaging abilities because of their nen and the like.
The show does have some awkward fun as one of the opponents uses his spider-like powers in a comical way because he literally shoots them all out of his ass, so we see a lot of puckering going on here and even his complaint that doing it is a literal pain in the ass. It’s basically you’re comical old man opponent that has some cute bits to him but also plays to the general caricature idea. It does get a little disturbing as he’s taken down more and more in a pretty nasty way. Shizuku handles it all well as it goes on though and she has some strong and precise attacks, even if events do require her being stripped down to just her underwear. But I’ll admit that I liked seeing the inclusion of her tattoo just to reinforce who they all are.
The show also spends some time between Feitan and his opponent, the very different Queen than we’ve seen before as she controls this nest. Feitan’s got little in the way of personality overall, so the Queen is the one that stands out here in that way, though he’s at least precise and powerful with his attacks. Watching the fight between them, it works well since she has some flair at first and then realizes that she’s being outclassed, as well as having her beauty ruined. That plays to the other villain trope and she goes over the top in anger to take him out after that. Normally that would just be annoying, but she has a really fun transformation here, one that doesn’t go quite to Feitan’s expectations. That changes the nature of the fight to some degree, but largely just works to expand it a bit rather than truly change the dynamic of it. Both side of it play well and as the intensity ramps up, the music in particular really reminded me of the original 1980’s Conanmovie with what it was trying to do when it came to the final act fight.
In Summary:
The clearing out of the nest is something that definitely works nicely when it comes to what the Phantom Troupe is up to since it does have some meaning to it. We had some good startup pieces in the previous episode with it and some pairings that worked well for what they had to do. It also provided a welcome break from everything we’ve had for awhile now when it comes to Gon and Killua and their training side, which had gotten to be a bit much for me. It’s not exactly a diversion as it puts the Troupe into the picture, but it’s a good side story that worked very well for me in a number of ways, even if it did go for the comical fanservice route with Shizuku when it really wasn’t a necessity.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
