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 Spotlight: Hunter X Hunter (The Conclusion)
Written by Barb Lien-Cooper
Previously, on Spotlight:
http://www.mangalife.com/features/SpotlightHunterXHunterPart.htm
We now return... to Spotlight
Volumes 6 and 7: We Don't Need Another Hero, We Don't Need To Know The Way Home/All We Want Is a Life Beyond The Battle Tower
Hunter X's creator is also the creator of YuYu Hakusho, and these volumes are where it starts to show. Now I've never read YuYu, but my husband got me hooked on the anime. I bring this up because one season consisted of The Dark Tournament, which was an event so interminable that only true YuYu fans held on to the next season. It consisted of nothing but fights, training, and explaining each others' powers to opponents. Unfortunately, Volumes 6 and 7 of Hunter X are a lot like that. However, I'm actually glad that my husband and I survived the Dark Tourney, as the next season, called Chapter Black, was the best in the whole series. That's the way this creator's work seems to go. First you get a great storyline, then you get a mediocre one, then it picks up again---except in no particular order and with no particular consistency.
The plot: Gon and Killua need to hone up their skills, so they go to a place that's called a Battle Tower or some jive thing. They fight; they lose. They find a trainer, who lectures them about concepts like "Ten" and "Nen". For "nen", just substitute "chakra" and you get the picture. I know that some fanboy/otaku types probably go nuts for figuring out how this stuff works, but as far as I was concerned, I found the training (which mostly seemed to be standing around with an aura around your body, with your palms up) to be really boring. The fights were okay, I suppose. The Human Top lookin' character had an okay power, but it felt too superhero-y.
Then Hisoka showed up and kicked some ass quite brutally and cleverly, which is why this storyline gets a B instead of a C.
Grade: B
Volumes 8 through 13: The Ultimate Auction (aka The Mafia Auction)
After the Hunter Exam storyline, the Auction storyline is about the best, most imaginative one of the series. It's also the most over-the-top, violent one, as well as the one where I just had to admit to myself that this series isn't for little kids (even tough ones). The Auction takes six volumes, but it reads like a dream. Even I, who am somewhat wary of long battles, had to shake my head in admiration of the arc.
The setup: Gon and Killua have discovered that Gon's father, Ging, was a co-inventor of a video game named Greed Island (much more on that in the next storyline). In order to get the game, they have to get a lot of money and go to a Mafia auction. It's around this time that a reader starts wondering if this series is an alternative reality or set in the future or what, as the series goes to some weird, wild places that don't always make sense to me exactly, but make for great reading. Meantime, Gon's friend Kurapika is out for revenge against the Phantom Troupe, who killed his family in order to get their valuable scarlet eyes. Yeah, scarlet eyes---just go with it. The series' favorite nutjob Hisoka is a member of the Phantom Troupe, it turns out, which shows you what psychokillers these guys are. They all meet up at the Auction where action ensues... and ensues... and ensues.
It turns out that Kurapika, although cute as a bug's ear, is one bad mofo in terms of powers and that obsession-with-vengeance thing.
Grade: A
Volumes 14 through 18: Oh My God, Doesn't This Video Game Have An Off Switch? (aka Greed Island)
Greed Island is the nadir of Hunter X Hunter. While it only takes up about as two-thirds as many volumes as the Auction storyline, Greed Island feels like it takes forever and a day to finish. Let's start with the setup, shall we?
Gon and Killua find a way into Greed Island, the video game that Gon's dad invented. I'm starting to think that Ging isn't a father worth finding, if this game is any indication of his sadistic personality. So, we get the old saw about the video game being real. If someone is killed there, they stay dead. No Father's Day gifts for you, Ging, ya jerk. Not only is the "real" video game a clichéd plot, the game itself is one with no replay value. The game is sort of like a real-life Yu-Gi-Oh, where the players have to collect cards in order to be able to leave the game. Like the line from War Games says, it's a funny game---the only way to win is not to play (feels that way anyway).
Just when you think something might happen in this storyline, creator-san decides that Gon and Killua need more training! Although their new teacher, Biscuit, is a welcome addition to the series, her training methods do not make for fascinating reading. We desperately need the awesome power of The Montage with some of these training sequences.
About the only good stuff comes when Hisoka (again!) shows up and teams up with Gon and Killua in an insane and deadly version of dodgeball, of all things. Oh, there are a few good scenes with Gon and Killua in terms of character development, too.
But ultimately, I could have skipped this storyline without too many regrets.
Grade: C+
Volumes 19 through 21: The Bugs That Wouldn't Stop It
While just about anything would be an improvement on Greed Island, the newest Hunter X Hunter storyline is a sad affair. No, not sad as in "not well written," but melancholy and just plain not any fun to read.
The setup: A giant insect queen is about to have a royal heir. To keep up her strength, she sends out her giant bug minions to gather human flesh. There's a particularly unpleasant scene where two children were eaten (the fact that they sort of reincarnated as two of the queen's buggy henchmen doesn't make one feel any better about the scene). The problem is that the queen has chosen an eco-friendly island that doesn't allow modern technology on it, so the bugs can't be easily squashed. Gon and Killua and a handful of hunters end up having to take on the bugs without having any weapons. Now, seeing how many powered beings there are in Hunter X Hunter, the audience soon asks, "Hey, where the heck are the other hunters? Do they have something better to do than to keep the world from being overtaken by bugs? If so, what exactly? And what about Killua's assassin family? Do they really care so little about their beamish boy that they wouldn't put down whatever the heck they do when they don't kill and get their killer butts over to that island ASAP? And where the heck's Leorio, Hisoka, and all of Gon's other allies?"
As I said, the storyline just doesn't have the insane, imaginative, manic energy of the other ones, which is a big minus in a story that isn't known for either its logic or believability. Plus, giant, man-eating bugs seem so... over-done, somehow. Overly familiar, in other words. Oh, sure, I'm interested enough to find out how the arc ends, but I'm hoping that afterwards, we see a return to form.
Grade: C+
Park Takes Over: Volume 22 and Beyond.
Hey kids, it's me, Barb's husband, the one who got her into this by constantly saying "I have to tell you this more part about Killua."
Before you ask (yeah, right, like you'd bother): The reason why the images for this particular Spotlight feature Leorio instead of Gon or Killua or the rest of Dear Old Gang is that when I searched for images, those are the best that came up. Leorio's not ugly, so don't freak out and think I don't know who the main characters are or anything.
Anyway, since Barb wrote all this, Volume 22 of HXH came out, the latest installment in what we call The Bugs That Wouldn't Stop It.
Barb: "I told them already that we call it that."
Park: "Yeah but I like saying it."
Barb: "Okay, fine, it's not like they're stopping it yet."
The opening of volume 22 is great, in which the media finally notice, even on this backwater island, that lots of lethal deadly monsters are eating people. The hunters have started killing or capturing them, and at one point when a reporter asks a half-lion thing for proof that he's a for-real monster, he bites off the top half of her body. Note to the media: don't ask monsters that sort of thing.
Barb: "They could have shown me the footage instead of just showing a spray of blood; I would have liked to see that..."
Isn't she a little spitfire, folks? Is it any wonder I married 'er?
Anyway, after that rather postmodern little beginning, we go back to par for the course for The Bugs That Wouldn't Stop It, sadly.
--Some of the bugs set up a hive at Meteor City, home of The Phantom Troupe, who make short work of said bugs-- well, 100 pages worth of short work. The result is dynamic, but they're kind of all bad guys, so you don't really care all that bad who wins.
--Next, Gon and Killua sneak stealthily into another nearby country where the bugs have spread to, a dictatorship that's a thinly veiled North Korea, allowing the creator to put words into Killua's mouth about how much he hates dictatorships... such as North Korea, by the by. I'm down with your anti-dictator policy, Mr. Togashi, but I was already getting the point, really.
--Next, while Killua is off reconnoitering and stuff like that, a few bugs attack Gon. Is he strong enough to deal with them on his own? Well... I'll give you a hint: probably. Someone powerful is watching the fight, though...
--Next volume: Killua is really getting hacked off with this whole evil-dictatorship-turned-evil-dictatorship-of-evil-bugs thing. But will he bite off more than he can chew? Also, the person watching Gon offers to team up with him...
Well, that's it, you're caught up, yet without too many spoilers, I think. I'll just finish by saying that Viz tells me that they're about to release the DVDs of the anime of HXH later this year... yay!
I now return you to your regularly-scheduled commentator.
Barb:
When Hunter X Hunter clicks, it clicks big. When it doesn't, the storyline in question is like a wet firecracker---soggy and a grave disappointment for the thrill-seekers out there. All and all, Hunter X worthwhile reading, but man, is it a series with highs and lows in it!
There is a Hunter X Hunter anime out there that deserves a distributor. I know because I did something I would never otherwise do. I checked out a couple of fan-subbed episodes. Now, as I said, I don't do this often. I don't like seeing anime that I haven't rented or bought. It's just a fairness issue thing with me. But because I was doing this article, I chalked it up to research. I only allowed myself to watch two episodes and I must say, it rocks. It might be a good idea for Adult Swim to pick it up, for instance. C'mon, it's like One Piece, Naruto, and YuYu combined in one bizarre package. So, please, someone, pick up this anime series for TV!
Thanks.
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