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)
I’ll admit, back when I first started watching this, I never expected it to go on as long as it did. With the previous series and OVAs making some distance but still falling off towards the end of it, I figured that Hunter X Hunter would do a couple of seasons, four at most, and we’d get something fun that could breathe a little new life into the manga series itself. That it’s spawning a couple of movies and breaking the hundred episode mark – and forced into a time slot change as events in the show aren’t family friendly anymore – certainly is surprising. But will the time slot change be its demise if the ratings drop? I hope not as I’d love to see even more of the previously unanimated source material find a life here.
While we’ve had some mixed material in the last few episodes focusing on Gon and Killua, we’ve had a fair bit about the other events going on as there are a few stories running through this arc. The global nature of it and what the Chimera Ants represent since the King was born has definitely altered the dynamic and made it something that speaks of a world in serious danger. What we’ve seen from the Chimera Ants definitely confirms that as they don’t hold back and there are those that are definitely feeling very crafty about what they’ve accomplished, especially with the amount of fear they’ve put into everyone. They’re not exactly subtle, but a lot of what they’re doing has gone unnoticed for so long that they’re able to get further than a lot of the Hunter Association higher-ups figured they would.
While the show plays to these events well enough early on, we also get some decent action elements in the episode. Giving Killua a chance to shine a bit here, which is actually quite necessary considering how he’s been sidelined a lot for quite awhile now, works well as he really gets to show off his skill against a very strong opponent. It’s not a full on grudge match kind of throw down, since it works from a distance for a good part of it, but it’s something that helps to show the way Killua handles a situation and tries to turn it to his advantage. Similarly, we get that with Gon as well as he faces off against his opponent, having shifted the fight to one of the desert regions so he can see him wherever he is. Between his dialogue with his opponent as things get into place and Killua’s aggressive nature, they both provide some good balance to the episode.
In Summary:
Hunter x Hunter hits an achievement here but like almost every series that hits those magical numbers, they pretty much ignore it and just work the story at hand rather than focusing on milestones. And that works well as we get a bit more information about the world at large with what they’re facing when it comes to the Chimera Ants and then we get a half of the episode dedicated to the two main fights with our lead characters dealing with. Both of them have some good moments to it and it opens up some intriguing possibilities, especially with Gon, but just having some quality action and intensity from the boys at this point is well. The show has meandered a bit while trying to get to a certain point but it’s now starting to feel like it’s coming together properly, albeit slowly.
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.
