Hunter X Hunter Episode 107
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)
Morel and Knov have been more fun than I expected over the course of the Chimera Ant arc if only because it often seems like a lot of the supporting characters tend to be under done in a lot of ways. I won’t say that we’re getting a lot of back story for them, but just some of their quirks and actions have been fun to watch. Whether it’s Knov’s sneaking around into the capital to get closer to the king or the languid way that Morel dealt with the cheetah-style Chimera Ant before, they’re definitely coming from a seasoned bit of experience rather than just lashing out like Gon and Killua tend to do. So it is, admittedly, a nice change of pace. But it doesn’t minimize that I miss the young kids and what they do, even if it is a fair bit of regular training.
This episode again works with the pair and gives over a good amount of time in the first half to Morel and his fight, which takes on a surfing approach to it as the Chimera Ant he’s facing off of has a whole beach bummer kind of feeling about him. Which, admittedly, may have resonated a bit more in the 90′s than it does today. Still, there’s some good underground sand surfing going on here and some dirty water that makes for a fairly engaging match-up since Morel gets blindsided by some of it at first. It’s not that he’s cocky about it or anything but rather some of what his opponent brings to the table is unexpected. But as we saw with his previous match, he has some creative ways of throwing off his opponent – even if his opponent realizes what it really is – and that puts a good bit of pressure on him.
While this does dominate events here, we do thankfully start to get back to some of the other characters. Notably, we get some time with Killua, who has been out of it for the past two days after the fight that he got involved in. He’s being treated with others and is all thoroughly bandaged up but ready to go, though the head nurse isn’t intent on letting him go so she uses the payment ruse to try and get him to stay which is pretty cute. Killua’s return to consciousness also brings him back into contact with Gon, though there’s not a lot of real progress to be made anywhere with any of this. Mostly, it’s just trying to get Killua back on track, especially now that he sort of has a new friend after surviving the underground experience he had which did in the end take him down.
In Summary:
Hunter x Hunter keeps things moving well here in the first half by giving us some quality time with Morel in action, which isn’t a bad thing. It may not really give us any progress since it isn’t a finished fight and it just delays things a bit, but at least it’s visually interesting and fun to watch. That keeps things going here which is definitely helpful since a lot of the second half is lackluster as it focuses on Killua as he recovers and gets moving again since nothing is going to keep him down. There’s some nice bonding moments with his new octopus-themed friend, but it’s not exactly riveting material. It’s good to have Killua making an appearance but it’s just a weak piece overall, though it may figure more into the larger picture. Time will tell.
Grade: C+
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.