Gon does a bit of reflection as te people behind the series take a small breather.
What They Say:
A letter from Gon arrives at Whale Island for Mito… (A recap of everything that has happened.)
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Much as we saw at the end of the first “season” of the series, Hunter x Hunter opted to do the whole letter to home thing wherein Gon writes to his Aunt Mito back on Whale Island. The use of this kind of framing for a flashback episode is definitely decent and it works better than just dropping us into a series of flashback scenes. Giving it some sort of context allows the flashback to “fit” within continuity, not that it assuages the fans who have been faithfully watching the series to date. It’s essentially an off-week for them since it’s something that’s already been watched and lived through, though a good recap episode can provide some good context for it. At least here we get a look bookend material to it with Mito getting the letter and Gon doing some of the minor voiceover narration for it to tie it together.
In Summary:
The recap here is annoying, there’s no getting around it, but I can’t bring myself to truly grade it because it’s now expected at the quarter marks as a good jumping on point for new fans. This one doesn’t do quite as good as the previous one since it’s just dealing with more recent material from the end second half of the Exam and a lot of the challenges Gon faced there. Still, it covers the bases well and you get a feel for the characters since it doesn’t just showcase big action moments but also includes good character pieces. At least the recap only lasts one episode and we’re on to new stuff again next week. The show is one that is just so good so much of the time that I don’t mind a decently done recap like this done once every “season” to give them a little downtime.
Grade: N/A
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.
Hearing the full version of Just Awake was nice.