Hunter X Hunter Episode 115
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)
As the initial matches have settled out here in who is facing off against whom, Hunter x Hunter has settled into the predictable part of things while allowing the action to take center stage. After so many episodes of quiet setup, dialogue and other little bits that helped to flesh both sides of characters out, there’s definitely a lot of appeal in just going for the action, even if an entire episode feels like it covers a minute or two of actual time rather than more than that. The breakdowns of the matches that are squaring off definitely work well though since each offers something different and there’s an expected set of twists to come with each since the Hunters aren’t going to know everything that the Chimera Ants have up their sleeves. Particularly when you get a match up that includes Netero out there just waiting to go all out.
The action moves a bit slower here, though time moves faster, as we get some more of what’s going on in the underground area where the boys are facing off against the array of chimera Ants that are down there. It’s actually amusing as it starts off as we get one of them that’s about to move into the area but is unsure of what attack will come from where and if it could come from an ally, giving him visions of his own demise by friendly fire. That makes for a comical moment but one where there’s a certain bit of reality to it as well. That provides some nice balance with the more action oriented part of the show that has Knuckle and Shoot going up against Youpi and finding a fair bit of difficult there. But Knuckle definitely makes for a fun character to watch, especially when he goes all out without his shirt as there’s a great kind of intensity to him.
That’s also in contrast to how bad off Shoot is at this point, having been severely wounded and doing all he can to not pass out at this point. Which is critical considering what his abilities are currently doing in the area in general. This kind of slow progress, paired with what Welfin is going through as he moves about the underground side of things, definitely gives the episode an odd kind of pacing after the last couple of episodes. But it’s interesting to watch the slow and careful approach some of them are taking in going after their opponents, realizing that there is a serious scale of power in play here and that it does warrant a good deal of caution rather than just running in. Which is, after all, what we saw Gon doing. All of this is, in the end, about stage setting as we move forward a bit and we definitely get that couple of seconds worth of exciting visuals at the end that the show really needs to capitalize on.
In Summary:
I continue to really like Hunter x Hunter overall but there are moments where an episode, even as interesting as this gets in some ways, can be a bit dull. I suspect that in watching this in marathon form that it’ll flow better as the quiet between the storms of battles that are occurring in this part of the arc and there are things to like with the kind of caution being used here in getting around. But as a twenty-minute episode where you’re watching just that and only that, the really interesting moments are few and far between and feel like they’re coming from the episodes around it rather than this one directly.
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.