Hunter X Hunter Status Report

"Vegeta, what does the scouter say about his power level?"



Okay, so I just caught up to Hunter X Hunter, episode 91. Overall at this point when I'm behind on so many series, it just isn't practical to do monthly summaries anymore. That would be way too confusing and I'll only do them again when I'm reasonably up to date with everything. However, I do have an opinion of this series that I want to voice, because this show still continues to work my patience. This frustration was at its highest at episode 90, and thankfully episode 91 made it a bit less.




But yeah, let's get a bit into my state while I was watching episode ninety. Do you remember Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, and how the pacing slowed down at the point where the series started to go into the material that was not in the first series? Well, Hunter X Hunter did that too. Yeah.



The difference obviously was that Full Metal Alchemist started with a really fast pacing, while Hunter X Hunter has always taken its time. Sure, it was a bit quicker than the 1999 version, but even then it took a year and a bloody half to catch up. The result is that ridiculously long fight between Gon and Knuckle that went on for waaay too long.



And sure, I like the Chimera ant arc. Emphasis on Chimera ants. I like how they're growing, expanding and changing, and how they're coping with the people who come and threaten them and how that plays out. I've gotten really tired of watching yet another training arc for Gon and Killua. I mean for god's sake, how much more can you go with that? "What is this, Dragonball Z?"



Well, that comparison turned to be way more accurate than what I could have hoped with that turn that Gon and Knuckle's fight took when they started talking about power levels. Power levels! Afterwards they started fighting exactly like what they do in small battles in Dragonball Z: they stand while their arms become a bunch of speedlines. It got even worse when in the next episode the king turned out to be a goddamn cell clone.



Seriously, if it wasn't for episode 91, I would have probably given up. I mean I like building up and all, but you need to be interesting while doing that. You don't need to be so shounen-esque as a shounen series. It was this series that showed us that in the first place. Just send Gon and Killua on a bus for an arc, just like what you did with Kurapika or something. Thankfully though, the fight was not dragged out any longer, and instead we got a satisfying conclusion that focused more on the aftermath. That was great, especially if that means that the two of them are going to be out of the picture for a while now.



I am noticing a very nasty trend though. So far, the new episodes have been like this: we first have this string of episodes that aren't really anything special and dabble along, followed by one awesome episode, followed again by a bunch of boring ones. I don't know whether I want to continue watching if that pattern continues. The big difference between this series and Space Brothers is that while both series are slow, Space Brothers remembers to be charming and endearing in every single episode, even though it takes bloody ages to get somewhere. I don't have that with Hunter X Hunter.
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