Hunter X Hunter Episode 109
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 material with Meruem, whose name I keep falling and instead just revert to his title for a lot of it, has been decent overall since he certainly upped the intensity of the show and the violence overall. But what’s been fun to watch with him in the last several episodes, too many to be honest, has been the game playing with Komugi that has gone on. His induction into strategy has definitely been fun to watch, but I keep feeling like there won’t be a proper payoff for it. But what we do get in addition to all of that is that he finally seems like he has someone that he cares about, which we got a good bit of at the end of the previous episode and the prologue here as he sees how hurt she is and understands the reason why, which strikes him pretty hard.
What we also got in the last episode was a bit of a tease when it came to the boys and the plan that’s going into motion with Knov and Morel. It was good to have the two back together along with Ikalgo, our octopus friend who is pretty spiffy looking in his hoodie and puffy hat that makes him look even more serious that Gon and Killua. The plan has been well put together and now it’s just a countdown clock for things to happen and they’re handling it fairly well, though Killua has a lot more experience in waiting for a key time to strike due to his assassin history. There’s a lot of little explanatory moments about the plan in a general sense here in the first half and we get to see how pieces of thing are put into motion, especially as Morel and Shoot are out in the city watching how things play out. There’s a lot going on in the city overall and different sides playing at it, though not all aware of how it may unfold.
There’s a lot of material that focuses on the approach of how the Hunters are going to get in, spending some quality time in Knov’s Apartment Complex piece, and playing that against the massive number of people that are marching towards the city to celebrate Meruem is definitely interesting to watch as we get a big scale going on here. Something that the series doesn’t always work with but as we see how Meruem could usher in an utter bloodbath of tens of thousands of people, it’s damn striking and effective. There’s a lot of internalizing going on here as we’re close to the cusp of what’s about to happen and seeing the state of everyone at this stage is certainly useful, though you know those that are a bit exhausted and worn will invariably find a way to overcome in the end when the chips are down and the fight must go on.
In Summary:
There’s been a lot of setup material in this arc overall – you could consider most of the Chimera Ant arc to this point to be setup if you want, but now it feels like we’re really at the prelude of what’s to come and the big moments are almost here. But there’s a part of me that gets wary because we’ve had a few of those moments across this large arc overall already. But there are some good things going on here as we see the scale of events, watching as Meruem sets things into motion through his underlings and observe how the Hunters are planning and plotting their mission. There’s a lot to go with here and it feels so close, but I’m almost afraid to hope for too much.
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.