C&C - Hunter x Hunter - "Salvation × And × Future" [6/15]

[veemonjosh]

Opening theme: "Departure!" by Masatoshi Ono [VERSION 6]
Ending theme: "Reason" by Yuzu [EP 147 VERSION]​

Characters:

Spoiler

Gon Freecss
Voiced by: Erica Mendez
Gon is a young boy from Whale Island who became a Hunter to venture the world and find his father. His quest eventually led him to meet a Hunter named Kite and become involved with a battle against a destructive species known as Chimera Ants. The war against the Ants was long with many casualties, including Kite, which drove Gon to the breaking point in which he sacrificed his ability to use Nen to gain a temporary boost of power strong enough to take out one of the Ant King’s Royal Guard. In the aftermath, he fell into a coma with life-threatening injuries, but finally recovered thanks to Killua and Alluka.

Killua Zoldyck
Voiced by: Christina Vee
Killua is the youngest son of the Zoldycks, a family of assassins known the world over. After meeting Gon, the two quickly became best friends and he followed alongside Gon at every turn of his journey. He also overcame personal obstacles in the fight against the Chimera Ants, but became incredibly distraught as he gradually saw how damaged his friend had become at the same time. With Gon hospitalized, Killua sought out any way he could to heal his friend, resulting in him meeting with his neglected sibling Alluka, who used her powers to heal Gon.

Alluka Zoldyck
Voiced by: Xanthe Huynh
The second youngest member of the Zoldyck family, Alluka has the ability to grant wishes to anyone who fulfills three of their requests. But this power comes with various rules and trade-offs, many of which can bring a terrible fate upon the wisher if they’re not careful.

Ging Freecss
Voiced by: Marc Diraison
A Double-Star Ruins Hunter and Gon's father, Ging is shy and stubborn, but has a childlike enthusiasm, being carefree and eccentric. No matter how impossible something may seem, Ging always goes for a goal, making sure to enjoy the journey along the way. Due to his constant travels, and his own personality, Ging hasn’t seen Gon since his son was a baby. But he left various clues along the way, preparing Gon for the day they’d eventually meet, which they finally have.

Episode 147
"Salvation × And × Future"
Chapters adapted: 337-338​

Last time:

Spoiler

Gon apologized to Ging for failing to save Kite and his father instructed him to apologize to Kite himself instead, affirming that he would wait for him to return. Meanwhile, Killua sealed the creature inside Alluka away, to ensure that his sister could live a normal life beside him.

This time:
Now recovered, Gon has a chat with Kite, before he and Killua go on one last trip together.

Notes:

• The chapters which this episode covers can be found in volume 32 of the manga release.
• Toonami is currently running a poll on their Facebook page to pick a fan favorite Hunter x Hunter episode, which will reair on the 29th. The choices are Netero vs Meruem or the death of Meruem and Komungi.
• Episodes 1-99 are currently available across five Bluray/DVD sets from Viz Media. The two movies, “Phantom Rouge” and “The Last Mission”, are also now available.

 

[Gold Guy]

I can't believe just two episodes left.

 

[PapaGreg]

Kite's one of those girls that look akward but grows up to attractive.

 

[animePWNS]

Ah, the memories.

So it ends next week.

 

[Radiant97]

Don't be sad y'all. We'll just have to wait for the continuation to come out sometime between 2019 and... does anyone know when the world ends?

 

[Yojimbo]

Feels like yesterday since we had a long winded Chimera Ant soliloquy...

So that's Kite. Bit of a relief he finally got to talk to Gon. It was also nice to see Kite's old team at the house, too.

Bittersweet to see Gon and Killua part ways again though.

And Ging has one more challenge left, oi, of course.

 

[PicardMan]

Bittersweet to see Gon and Killua part ways again though.

I guess we'll have to read the manga to know if they really part ways for extended periods or not. No reason to wait another decade for HunterXHunter: The Final Act to come out.

 

[Lawren22]

Well for those curious about that but dont want to read the manga.

Spoiler: Manga spoilers

[Gon has only shown up in one chapter in the chapters of the manga that place after the anime ends. Said chapter confirmed that he still cannot use his nen. Killua is still with Alluka and the series now follows Kurapika as the main for the current arc with no Gon or Killua at all]

 

[Yojimbo]

Well for those curious about that but dont want to read the manga.

Spoiler: Manga spoilers

[Gon has only shown up in one chapter in the chapters of the manga that place after the anime ends. Said chapter confirmed that he still cannot use his nen. Killua is still with Alluka and the series now follows Kurapika as the main for the current arc with no Gon or Killua at all]

Joke's on you, Lawren22. Now I want to read the manga.

 

[Radiant97]

I'd love to continue reading the manga, but I simply forgot which chapter I last read. I'm pretty sure I'm like 30 chapters behind. I do know though that so far

Spoiler: MANGA SPOILERS

they STILL haven't reached the Dark Continent.

 

[Yojimbo]

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but after the last episode of the anime, there's 50 manga chapters to read starting with #340?

 

[Lawren22]

Your right,you have chapters 340-390

 

[PicardMan]

PSA time. A reminder that there is no reason to pirate manga. Go to your public library if you can't afford to pay for it. If your library does not have the manga, do an interlibrary loan request.

 

[Yojimbo]

PSA time. A reminder that there is no reason to pirate manga. Go to your public library if you can't afford to pay for it. If your library does not have the manga, do an interlibrary loan request.

Exactly, what I did. I just put a request for Vol. 32 to 35. Should arrive at my library at the end of the week and I'll read'em after the last episode airs. Then it looks like Vol 36 (#371-380) comes out in early August.

 

[Radiant97]

I've bought volumes 32-34, which are the only post-anime volumes already translated by HxH's Indonesian publisher. Volume 34 was just published literally 3 months ago, a full year after the English release, so it might be a while until we have volumes 35 and 36 translated.

Makes me wish Shueisha provided their free Manga PLUS app with a paid option that would let us view their entire back catalog, but they'd probably need to fix the app first and make it not crash all the god damn time.

 

[WickedChild]

I might as well post this now since next episode is the last. Maybe someone can crib-note all this for me before the finale.

This entire final arc is confusing nonsense.

Nothing about the election made sense. Who is Pariston and why is he evil, or if not evil why are we not supposed to want him to win? It was briefly implied that he may have been extorting some votes, but besides that we never get any hint of what he's actually up to or why we shouldn't like him. He sure as heck never actually does anything that helps us understand his character.

I never once understood a single bit of the political strategy being employed on any side, mostly related to us through Cheadle's inner monologues. I think this was how we were supposed to understand what was "really" going on behind all their outward facades, but it was just more double-speak and confusing double-bluff long-con thinking-10-moves-ahead type stuff that I couldn't keep straight even if I was taking notes. Of course none of this was helped by the fact that we knew basically nothing about any of the zodiacs, and it seemed like they tried to shoehorn in character motivations that I couldn't possibly care about (the old guy that Illumi killed apparently wanted to reform the exam - but why, and why did he get involved with the hunt for Illumi, and how did it relate to his campaign, none of this had enough time to get explored).

I guess it's possible that this could be the entire point - Pariston knew Cheadle would overthink the entire situation to a degree where she'd basically outthink herself. But I don't think this is the case, as Pariston implied that he magically knew that Leorio would become a successful dark horse, and magically knew that Gon suddenly showing back up would suddenly erase anyone's desire to vote for Leorio, and I guess he also magically knew that this would all happen with such precision timing with the actual voting so as to derail Cheadle and Mizaistom's chances and swing the election in his favor.

And then of course he resigns right after winning so none of this matters. Was the whole idea of this entire storyline that Pariston was a troll and just liked messing with Cheadle's head? Did we need 12 episodes for that to play out?

I'm slightly less confused by the Zoldyck story, and at least I knew and cared about a few of the characters involved, but it was just as much of a mess in terms of logic and motivations. About the only person's motives I truly get are Killua (he genuinely loves and wants to protect his sister - or brother or whatever he/she is supposed to be, another pointless bit of confusion to add to everything else that served no purpose), and Hisoka (who barely does anything, but I get that he just wants to cultivate a situation where he ends up having the most fun fights for himself).

At one point, Killua actually says "now I understand how everyone in the family feels about Alluka", and they show that manga-style relationship chart of the Zoldycks, but even with that helpful chart (and yes I freeze-framed and read the whole thing), I can't figure out what any of them really want with her, or why they do what they do. Are the butlers really on Killua's side, or just pretending to be? Why does Illumi go to all the trouble to catch them, then just lets them leave when he has them cornered? By the end it seems clear that he wants to use Killua to control Alluka's power, but I can't for the life of me figure out how anything he did in this arc served that goal.

I'm not even going to deduct points for the even-more-confusing ruleset around Alluka's power, or why Killua is exempt, or how laughably convenient Alluka's introduction into the show is in the first place (Togashi writes himself into a corner with his main character - oh look main character's best friend has a magic sister with Thanos-level powers who we never heard of till right now - guess Killua didn't think the entire world was important enough to break her out when they were dealing with the ants, but to save one person, sure). I mean it's basically a magic show where weird magic stuff is always happening, so whatever. And I've seen enough of this and YYH to know how much Togashi loves his weird power-rulesets. But I at least need to understand why the people who are trying to stop/help Killua are doing what they do.

And then we have an episode like this particular one - which features a 9-minute monologue by a Koala I don't remember, talking about something that apparently happened 75 episodes ago I can't remember, and how all of this is supposed to somehow explain how and why Kite was resurrected in the body of some girl I can't remember. What the...?? I don't even care enough to figure this one out. Not the best way to spend half of your penultimate episode.

Anyway, I really did like this show overall. The first few arcs are great fun, kind of lost me in Greed Island (which felt like watching Yu-gi-oh with a game who's rules I didn't understand - oh what the hell am I talking about, I barely understood most of Yu-gi-oh's rules). Then the chimera ant arc is pretty much the best thing ever, it elevated the show in so many ways and took the story in so many weird and wonderful directions, even when it was hard to follow at times I loved it. Even my dissatisfaction with the resolution of Gon vs Neferpitou wasn't enough to completely derail my enjoyment of it. And the ending, which I've heard described as "anticlimax", I found to be pitch-perfect. The king was probably one of the best sympathetic villains I've seen in an anime.

It seems to me the whole point of this last arc, other than writing Gon out of the corner Togashi put him in, was to finish the show (as we have no idea when there will be enough story material to continue) with a situation where Gon could finally meet Ging, which is certainly an appropriate stopping point. But I really feel like we could have done this in 3-4 episodes without nearly as much confusion. And all this isn't to say I wouldn't want to pick this up again if Togashi gets off his lazy butt and gets back on a regular release schedule. I have more than enough interest in Kurapika, Hisoka, Chrollo and the Phantom troupe to see what they might be up to. But no more weird politics please. And also I think I'm all Zoldyck'd-out. I don't know if I can keep caring about those characters at this point.

 

[PicardMan]

@WickedChild This arc was the way it was probably because of the way politics are. Pariston really mismanaged the chimera ant crisis as vice chairman and that's what made him the villain character I think.

 

[Lawren22]

It was also metion that they believed Pariston was responsible for various hunters going missing and that he general was involved in very shady activity.

 

[Gold Guy]

I will say that one of the weak points of the arc is that we don't get to really know the Zodiac members, with a few exceptions, beyond whatever personality quirk they have. Most likely, they'll get more development in later manga arcs - but that's small consolation for anime viewers.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that this arc worked in some ways as the final arc, and in some ways didn't. Well, I think one thing that worked was Gon finally getting to meet his pops. When you think about it, that was part of the initial premise of the show, so even with various loose ends around, one could argue that the main goal of the show was accomplished.

 

[WickedChild]

I mentioned a few weeks ago that this arc worked in some ways as the final arc, and in some ways didn't. Well, I think one thing that worked was Gon finally getting to meet his pops. When you think about it, that was part of the initial premise of the show, so even with various loose ends around, one could argue that the main goal of the show was accomplished.

That's basically what I concluded in the last paragraph of my ridiculously long post, but I think we could have done that without the confusing election story and a more straightforward Zoldyck story. I just hope future arcs are more like the Chimera Ants or Yorknew City and less like Greed Island and this election thing.