100% Blind HUNTER X HUNTER Review: The Hunter Exams

this video is sponsored by nordvpn hunter hunter has a better start to its story than most manga i've ever read dragon ball one piece jojo's bizarre adventure all of those eventually got amazing but from right out the gate i sincerely believe hunter hunter has reached a level of nuance and complexity far quicker and in a much more entertaining fashion early on having been born and raised in ireland shows like dragon ball yugioh digimon beyblade and even metabots made their respective cultural impacts here shows like one piece however didn't catch on nearly as much around my neck of the woods though i do remember it being spoken about here and there from time to time but hunter hunter i never even heard of this thing until maybe my second year of college and by that point i was busy failing my exams so i never watched it fast forward to present day thousands of recommendations later while i still have little to no knowledge of this story i find myself both excited and nervous excited because this is one of the most highly regarded shonen properties out there with many telling me that aspects of it are better than one piece now we'll see if that's true but i'm also nervous because this series has a bit of a reputation that comes along with it a reputation that might prove to be a difficult obstacle once i really start to get into the meat of this series but i'll never shy away from my challenge just like my one piece reviews no matter what stands in my way i intend to catch up with this critically acclaimed and globally beloved story in the only fashion i know how by sharing this adventure with all of you so everyone i hope you're ready because these are my first impressions of thoughts on and review for the beautiful the whimsical and the subtly tragic tale of a young boy in search of his father this is my blind review of hunter hunter's hunter exam arch [Music] day hunter hunter has a wonderful exciting and horrifyingly scary world the title hunter is a broad term used to identify someone that's passed the hunter exam and often specializes in different fields and there are lots of murders in this hunter exam a series of ludicrously intense challenges testing physical mental and emotional strength are pitted against its examinees of which most drop out or die i think the passing rate is something like one in one hundred thousand this is the goal of the first arc for our main character gun to attain his hunter license as i mentioned in the opening of this video the pacing of the story was what surprised me and impressed me the most over the years i've gotten used to there being a sort of warm-up period where the author either discovers what works or sets up the necessary pieces for down the line both of these can feel significantly less fun than the latter part of the series when placed alongside for comparison however hunter hunter it got going really really quick and by the second or third chapter i was fully engaged it is worth noting however that unlike akira toriyama who's previously written a successful story yes but in an entirely different genre and oda who'd done one shots before his outing with one piece tagashi had already penned the massively successful yuuyu haku show making him a very seasoned and successful writer within this genre and already a master of his craft ghan's introduction to this story unlike many manga mcs that get a quick upbeat inciting incident with bouts of momentary sad elements hunter hunter instead feels like it's a story trying to convince me it's about adventure and friendship primarily but in reality has some very serious themes of fatherhood family and abandonment lurking right beneath the surface of its pages and it's that unease and subtle hint of poison in its text that kept me very interested particularly in the early and latter stages of this arc specifically this unease and awareness of this element also helped to highlight for me at the least just how wonderful of a character gone is and the first chapter is great in this respect in addition to learning about his desire to pass the hunter exams and to become a hunter all in an effort to find his possibly estranged father there are pockets of certain key scenes where gun demonstrates qualities yet unknown to me that inform actual hunters like kite that gun is in fact a person of interest someone worth keeping tabs on but all of that aside one specific scene that got me on gun's side immediately has to be when he chose to protect that wild baby animal despite it being painful and difficult he doesn't want to leave something on its own a not so subtle metaphor signifying perhaps what might be to come and shockingly this i would think crucial scene is cut from the most recent anime and it's for reasons like this i will always choose to read the manga as my primary source gone has an emotional story ahead of him and i feel like it's going to be torturous so i want to have the most accurate interpretation of that story that i can also whenever father figures are involved in a coming-of-age story like this i am always a ball of emotions and i know something big is on the horizon here so i want to make sure that i get the experience tagashi wanted me to unlike many shonen heroes gone's primary goal isn't to necessarily become a highly reputable or impressive hunter but to reach and reconnect with his father unlike dragon ball one piece where the protagonists have much more traditional shonen goals in hunter hunter the typical shonen goal is no longer a goal but a vehicle towards a much more complicated and emotional one becoming a hunter isn't the goal it's a lodging off point towards something much more important to him and i thought that was pretty interesting he's a strong character determined kind and boasting a tremendous attitude and these chapters managed to endear me to gone almost immediately and that's important because as the arc quickly progresses into god's adventure with the hunter exams he ends up sharing more of the spotlight than you might expect the main protagonist to share thankfully however those he shares the screen with are fantastic additions to help round out the cast enter lyorio and kurapika once again this is where i think togashi's brilliant and much welcomed desire to show and not tell comes into focus early on in these stories a lot of the exposition about a given character is often clunky serving the purpose of getting the boring pieces of information out of the way as quickly as possible thus giving our main character reason to recruit them or have them follow along on their journey one piece tells us a lot about the reputation and ability zoro has before we ever meet him and this is what draws luffy to zorro in the first place in dragon ball goku joins bulma in what will eventually become a big adventure after she divulges the necessary information all this is honestly perfectly serviceable but in hunter hunter togashi doesn't tell us who leorio or kuropika are right off the bat and in fact there's no clunky means with which they come into contact at all gone is simply on a ship bound for the hunter exams and the rocky seas incapacitate all but the three of them as it happens those rough seas were part of the preliminary hunter exams themselves meaning the qualities that make these characters who they are is what created the natural circumstances that led to their eventual meeting and this is achieved without any words it's brilliant furthermore their relationship and role in this opening scene together i believe beautifully foreshadows something important to come okay so hear me out when one of the crew members falls overboard during the storm altogether the three of them leap forward towards the fallen crew member now this obviously tells us a lot about these characters personalities and their willingness to put themselves in danger to protect someone in trouble but i noticed maybe something else despite being in a worse position to reach the crew member on time gone still manages to reach his target or goal before kuropika and lyorio can however it is still up to leorio and corepika to each grab one of gon's legs and pull him back onto the ship metaphorically speaking this could be interpreted as gone is gifted and therefore has the potential to go farther than both of them but can't last on his own he needs them to ground him and protect him when he overextends himself without gone the man would have fallen overboard to his death and without quarter pika and leorio gone may very well have died trying to save that man in other words they need each other it's a brilliant scene and these are just the first two chapters we have our goal to pass the hunter exam and to use that as a platform to find jing gon's father we have this new group of friends to follow gon a character i know will make me cry at least once before this video is done and two tremendous supporting characters in the brainy and noble corepika and the brash but kind leorio particularly the instances here and there sprinkle throughout where gun shows that he's just a decent person i adore being the only one to thank the sea captain after he lands the ship leading that very sea captain to point him in the right direction once again reaffirming that the impressive physical attributes of gun are not all that's being judged here but okay enough beating around the bush it's time to get into the real meat and potatoes of this arc it's time for the real hunter exam challenges the following challenges all offer something very different and this is particularly what makes this section of the story so damn fun one chapter is spent trying to figure out a dilemma posed by an old lady another is a whodunit mystery with a cabin in the woods and another is a whole lot of running and these are just but a few of the first ones all these challenges are funny or engaging in their own respective ways but the real reason they're there is to offer us as an audience a number of unique and great opportunities to get to know these characters just that little bit more personally and this works as effectively as it does because a number of these challenges are specifically designed in universe to give the hunter association a means with which to judge each of their personalities and by association we the audience gain that insight too whether that be through figuring out lyorio's initial shallow motivation to earn money actually comes from an altruistic place in wanting to help people as a doctor or corepika who's driven by an intense urge to avenge his people's massacre to all of these characters the hunter license doesn't represent the ultimate goal but a means to an end goal something they all share in common which plays a large role in the success of my favorite early challenge the running segment it's beyond ridiculous speaking of someone that did a bit of running in the past the very concept of this follow the leader running challenge made me laugh out loud at the sheer scale and preposterousness of the event it's it's it's just so damn long it's like an ultra marathon but at marathon length olympian level pace consistently after running the equivalent of two and a half marathons in around six hours the first person drops out as the rest of the examinees ridicule him for not being enough i'm sorry i didn't realize everyone running in this race is literally elliot kipchoge on steroids i mean they didn't need to drink water or eat food or anything thankfully though i get my representation amongst these demigods of athletics through the humble lay oreo who like a normal human being is struggling massively but putting on a brave face it's mystery and speaking of the oreo this is where i learned to love him his tenacity and desire to not appear lesser than the rest is stupendously fun in tandem with his hilarious depiction in the manga running shirtless i mean the dude runs like three sub three hour marathons back to back all the while carrying his briefcase what an absolute chat asaurus rex what i found interesting was that at a number of times throughout these various challenges multiple individuals remark in amazement at what gun is able to do whether it be athletically how well he can hear see or even taste his abilities when performing was asked often during these challenges hint at least to me towards something specifically special about gun though nothing that outshines his personality and attitude towards conflict and his friends [Music] if you're looking for a vpn service provider nordvpn is what i prefer using the most whether it be keeping your personal information from the scary world of the internet or you're like me and really want to unlock some of that region lock goodness on netflix seriously i need it if you need anything like that nordvpn's got you covered on both your desktop and your mobile phone with its easy to use application all i've got to do is just click on one of the many servers in a different country and boom it works like a charm and i can take my delusions to another level by pretending i'm on vacation in that country and not trapped inside my room due to the ongoing current global crisis right now you can get a two-year plan at a huge discount at nordvpn.com totally not mark and use coupon code totally not mark to get one additional month free and you're not risking anything with nord's 30-day money-back guarantee i particularly like it for its peer-to-peer sharing so downloading torrents is much more safe and secure which nord makes exceptionally easy by downloading the extension onto my browser all of this coupled with 24-hour customer service at your disposal you're in the best of care so if you want to be in control of your internet experience head on over to nordvpn.com totally not mark to take control of your internet again he chose being a hunter over his own son yeah isn't that amazing [Music] outside of the much appreciated and humorous cooking challenge i thought two instances stood out to me as the most noteworthy and it has to do with the character of kilua much the same way as i outlined before we learn about kilowatt not through clunky exposition but instead quite interestingly by the choices he makes or doesn't make when faced with conflict in this arc killua at this time in the story seems to me to be tied with gone thematically they first meet at the beginning of the great run and during it become fast friends however when faced with the dilemma of staying with kilauea charging ahead or going back to help his friends gunn without hesitation goes back for his friends leorio and corepika landing one of the most satisfying hits i've ever experienced so early in a series making the save for leorio against the creepy clown man hisoka okay more on him a little later again just to reiterate this is still ridiculously early on in the story and already i'm so invested in tagashi's writing that shots like this make me squeal with delight a sign of things to come i hope but at this point however i didn't recognize this particular decision as anything significant to kilauea until i found this scene to be very telling while in transit to their next challenge and while everyone is sleeping from the great run the chairman of the hunter association challenges gone and killua to a game of ball the object being if they can get the ball away from him then they win while offering a fun visual and distraction from the past contests this particular challenge is also a great mechanism to help us as an audience to further distinguish between gun and kilauea in both approach and personality through the eyes of the terror we learn that kilauea has assassin type skills but perhaps most interestingly as soon as killua gets an indication that the old guy is far above his level and that he cannot possibly win he gives up but gun keeps trying meaning it doesn't matter to god one way or the other if he can win or not he just wants to best himself this helps to build the dark aura around kilauea and brightens guns respectively reinforced moments later by this horrific panel depicting killer was slaughtering a bunch of people in the hallway and then it made me think every time gone and kilauea separate after their eventual meeting it's due to some key character differences between them instead of keeping his head in the game towards the front of the pack with killua gun went back to save his friends and instead of giving up in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds like kilauea did gone stuck it out and eventually improved upon his prior efforts i love killua's character he's in many ways an inversion of the gun character with enough in common to build a believable friendship between the two he's got a dark past and as we later learned down the line this is primarily due to a troubled family history huh a lot like god in that respect also an interesting relationship most definitely and things only get more intense as we make our way through the final three phases this is the single longest challenge presented to our team so far chronicled across eight individual chapters our heroes end up grouping together to overcome the unique challenges this tower presents as they endeavor to make it all the way to the bottom in the allotted time the team is composed of gun kilauea kurapika and leorio all characters we are happy with but the conflict in this story comes about as the rookie crusher joins the team living up to the name he pretty much tries to sabotage everything and i hate him in this tower of trickery there's really only two natural points of noteworthy conflict the first takes place in a form of a 5v5 contest as our team of examinees square up against five prisoners looking to waste as much time as possible so that they can get that time off of their sentences welcome to hunter hunter where children get to fight literal in-universe psychopaths and murderers for their very lives there's a great mix of lighthearted comedy clever mystery writing and even some great action and so first up is the rookie crusher looking to show his team that he's actually a team just kidding he quits i i don't know what you could have been expecting here all right the score right here is 0-1 in favor of the prisoners and the second round sees gun participate in a weird candle holding game to be honest i really enjoyed this one it was strangely effective in building tension and what's more is gon found a quick and clever solution to this worsening scenario he's not a dumb guy scores even at one to one a piece third up on the hero team is kurapika this one really offers him a chance to explore his more aggressive side i never mentioned this but he becomes enraged or emotionally compromised when his eyes glow red and he'll show very little restraint when they do so as an audience we knew this about kuropika before the fight began and so when it comes to our attention that the dude he's facing doesn't have any intention of coming to blows and is in fact a coward we know things aren't going to end well for him and this is where things got a little clever deviating from the simple formula and starting to become less predictable there's some clever manipulation of the rules during this portion corpico won't kill him and so all this dude's gotta do is play dead having leorio carry out this deed is a great choice from an audience standpoint kuropika already proved to us that he's awesome and so didn't need to finish him we all knew that he could and because leorio's section ultimately ends in failure and relies largely on comedy lyorio's quick solution to get kuropika the victory helped to even out his worth in my mind it's a small thing but these are decisions that make or break comedic scenarios had leorio done nothing to help his team prior to throwing so so many points away in exchange for touching a breast those funnier moments would have a greater chance of coming across as annoying in retrospect in short the victory leorio got for kuropika is as much his and the loss is also his and so now with the contest all even it comes down to this bruiser of a prison killawa wins i mean come on the kid's a cold-blooded killer what did you expect he literally stole his heart metals now this is where we get to my favorite part of this challenge the guys are left with one last decision a choice between two passageways one will allow only some of them to make it in time and the other one they could all take but it's a significantly longer trek and they definitely won't make it in time if they take that route now in preparation for this first review i was shown some of the anime's key moments from this arc and this was one of them and funnily enough the anime both in the 1999 version and the 2011 version make this scene i think worse and gone less intelligent or impressive in the manga gun pieces together a solution to their issue that gets everyone there on time and he comes up with this when he sees the weapons on the wall and recalls that those they faced in the previous contest managed to break the ground or rocks around them using only their hands and so using that piece of info coupled with this dilemma they have he devises a plan to tunnel from the bad path to the good path everyone wins genius decision i was very impressed but in both anime adaptations instead of recalling this vital piece of information from earlier in the challenge leorio and the others start fighting amongst themselves and that's when he notices the weapons break the ground that way it's significantly less impressive both from a writing standpoint and a god standpoint he never had to recall any information and repurpose it he just saw it and just made the connection there and then it's a fun scene in both the manga and the anime but the manga does this much better i think and with that said the hunter and the hunted this challenge has a really exciting premise that pits unlikely opponents against each other it's a manhunt of sorts where each contender is given an id badge representing themselves each candidate then draws lots and through this they randomly receive their individual target if they have their own id badge by the end that's three points if they get their targets id badge by the end that's an additional three points every badge in your possession that isn't yours or your targets you get one point and you need six to pass overall it's such a fun game and gun drew hisoka this hisoka clown guy is drawn all sorts of creepy and the way he participates in these ongoing challenges as the numbers whittle down more and more becomes somewhat intimidating and for the first time since gun made the save in la oreo during the running segment actually managing to land a shot on hisoka and getting super scared of the weird killer clown man gun has to face his fear and through his own strategy has to figure out how to best the clear front runner among the remaining contestants kilowatt goes about things on his own to great success but gun and hisoka pretty much play a role in everyone else's business at one point or another during this contest there's some supremely creepy imagery as ghan is forced to stalk hisoka for days waiting for the perfect chance to land the steel and even then after the fact the only reason gan got to keep the id was because hisoka was impressed with his patience and skill in securing the initial tag leaving gon to reflect on all the mistakes he made leading up to that point it's a big growing moment for gone i also like this section because we got to see the blossoming bromance between kuropika and leorio develop even further and if the previous challenges and chapters leading up to this one didn't demonstrate the wonderful friendship these three all have then the ending for this particular phase will secure that particular hang up for you as all their individual character traits aid in solving the cave snake problem they found themselves in towards the end but long story short togashi is goaded and everyone moves on to the next and final round including this weird frankenstein looking dude that's been looking creepy for a while now and of course hisoka is there among a few others [Music] this was a moment i wasn't prepared for and one that makes a lot of sense when taking into account the greater context of the story there's a sort of melancholic maturity to gone as a character he's a sort of tragic and lonely protagonist it really helps to bolster why he doesn't want to be alone and even sheds light as to why he sought out kuropika and leorio after he had already passed the previous round he's a lonely soul and wants to feel worthwhile and that's i don't even know what to say to that i love gun and it's amazing what's been achieved with his character in just the first arc of the series and takashi isn't done surprisingly with him either yet not by a long shot time for the final phase now there's only one step standing between our heroes and their licenses to be hunters and tagashi ops to utilize the most traditional shonen challenge here for this final phase a series of one-on-one fights and he decides to present it in a rather unconventional way one of the aspects that i thought was sort of neat was how in addition to intelligence and physical awareness being judged and intangible was taken into consideration when drawing up the brackets and as a result of this intangible gun got one of the most favorable and forgiving of placings all they have to do is win one fight to get their respective licenses and guns placing here means that he could afford to lose a number of contests and still have a chance to get his license in the end and first up he has to fight hanzo the ninja this fight is brutal with a capital b the only way someone can win is if their opponent quits and shockingly despite seeing him overcome most physical challenges with apparent ease gun is put on the back foot and tortured physically from the moment the fight begins hanzo is demonstrably more skilled in combat and through a series of at times difficult to watch scenarios hanzo inflicts more pain unto god in three hours than many might receive in their lifetimes watching on in horror and anger kurupeek and leorio are on the verge of throwing away what they have and interfering with the fight fearing that god's life is at stake here and then we get to chapter 34. and to be perfectly clear here chapters like this don't normally affect me the way this one has i've been blown away by chapters characters and events in one piece an absurd amount of times and while moments from that series broke me down emotionally with relentless sadness all of those moments in one piece that made me emotional in one way or another on some level even if it's my news i felt coming ever so slightly but with this chapter i was completely taken off guard something i want to bring to your attention is that i don't write these scripts as i read and at this point in the story i had completely forgotten what gon said or outlined in chapter one regarding his motivation and so when hanzo begins berating gone and asking if his pride is the reason he won't quit my mind sort of reverted to what i expect from other shonen a lot of stories in this genre tend to value and praise pridefulness or a pride in oneself and truth be told even as a dragon ball fan i've never liked the idea of embracing pride that way there's a terrific quote from avatar the last airbender wherein iro says pride is not the opposite of shame but its source and that statement is true however much to my surprise after three hours of a one-sided beatdown after breaking gunn's arm in two hanzo shouts is your pride all you care about even more than your own life cutting through the silence god quietly responds i want to see my dad six words and i was left utterly speechless expecting one thing out of habit and familiarity with this genre and instead received a sobering wake-up call that this story hunter hunter is something truly special one piece is phenomenal and owns its own identity dragon ball is the same it's phenomenal and owns its own identity and right here hunter hunter cemented for me its very own identity it's unlike anything i've ever read what an incredibly strong character and one of the most relatable and likable personalities i've ever come across that in just six words immediately recontextualized the fight and made it the most emotionally rich experience a first arc of any story has given me i do not have words and so please take the time if you haven't already to read or watch this for yourselves it's truly something special and one i will not forget [Music] this was a very surprising but welcome swerve instead of tackling the events of the tournament after the emotional high of that last bout takashi decided to conclude the tournament off-screen while giving us the surprising and tragic outcomes of the event from ghan's perspective as he awakens from his bout kilauea failed and killed someone choices in structuring your story like togashi has made here is but one of the many choices that afforded this story the breezy and enjoyable pacing it boasts naturally i have so many questions concerning the future of kilauea and as i learn what happened piece by piece the truly creepy nature behind kilauea's family partially reveals itself lending insight into what likely is the source of all the pain he's demonstrated through this first arc with his brother brandishing philosophies that match up exactly to his attitude in quitting early in the ballgame it's unsettling to see what sort of hold illumi has over kilowatt and the reaction god has to the event once he learns what happened much like gun killua is a kid looking for connection a connection gon leorio and kuropika assure that they share with him to his brother [Music] this is the first time i've seen god take action against somebody that clearly is levels above where most people are currently at this point in time in an aggressive and angry way a character like ahsoka particularly leading up to and during the forest id hunt contest ghan was visibly shaken by his initial encounter with the crazed clown and rightfully so he's terrifying and in response to this gone had to practice a very specific skill to facilitate a strategic and well-placed steel which he eventually succeeds in performing however when it comes to illumi kilauea's brother gon literally breaks his arm after grabbing it in anger and after this reprimanding illumi lets hisoka know that he now understands what he sees in him throughout this arc from various characters point of view they've all cited that with gun there is something very special with the sea captain even being reminded of one particular person i assume this is jing there's a power in gone that has yet to fully surface and it'll be interesting to see how this story continues to explore that particularly because we understand how emotionally rich some of the subject matter here is with that said despite leorio kurpika and gone having received their hunter licenses in this instance the ending to this arc is one of bitterness and concern for the future of their friend and perhaps most interestingly kite the hunter that encountered ghan in chapter 1 left him his father's card what that means for the future i can say for sure but as the heroes of this journey begin making their way towards kilauea's family home i can't help but feel the excitement in me build as i ponder what awaits these phenomenally realized characters in the future now having finished this arc and thinking back over what i've read i'm left dumbfounded not only at the pacing of events but this feeling of familiarity i now associate with this series the characters are wonderfully funny interesting and heartwarming in equal measure with a sort of tragedy that manages to seep through the pages if you look out for it or think about it for long enough this arc alone had moments that had me on the edge of my seat and have me shedding tears for characters i've only just recently gotten to know i can only assume this is a great sign of things to come and if hunter hunter can keep things up it might very well measure up to one piece in my estimation but it is still very early days yet and these characters have only just started this no doubt long and harrowing journey of self-discovery but what a start it has been [Music] foreign

Channel: Totally Not Mark

Views: 446,569

Rating: 4.9621401 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 1gM_vaKd68w

Length: 31min 17sec (1877 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 22 2021