Insanity x And x Sanity
Surprise surprise; sugary goodness found in new Hunter x Hunter. Greed Island is on its final legs.
Hunter x Hunter
Pirates x And x Guesses
A x Heated x Showdown
Guts x And x Courage
Bargain x And x Deal
Chase x And x Chance
Oh to think they would top Hisoka naked so soon. What a wondrous anime. Continue Reading
15 x 15
50 down, 50 more to go. With speed of that caliber, our dream team is ready to show Greed Island who’s boss.
Strategy x And x Scheme
Sponsorship can be a tricky issue in this day and age, but I feel that the Hunter association made the right choice.
Strengthen x And Threaten
For all of you amateur nen’o'logists out there, heaven is a place on Earth. Sadly my Earth also has a lot of suck in it, so what you’re getting this time is the low budget 5 minute version of my blog posts.
A x Hard x Master
Training portions can be a real pain in Shonen, sometimes slowing all progress to a crawl. But with the right amount of care, there’s really no stopping them from being mad quality material. Needless to say, this episode is up there when it comes to training.
Reality x And x Raw
And the answer to the mystery of Greed Island is behind door number 3! (last paragraph, second to last line)
Invitation x And x Friend
I’m starting to think the Troupe forgot to teach Bonolenov how to speak. Or that he exists.
I had to look up that name.
For all of it’s infamy, Greed Island seems surprisingly pleasant. Expansive grass fields to towns full of clueless NPCs, the game itself shows very little danger of it’s own. Even the spell cards which players can use on each other have no apparent offensive capabilities, rather granting standard effects an item would provide such as quick travel or information on an enemy. This being a humongous homage to the RPGs of olden days (DRAGON QUEST DRAGON QUEST), there’s bound to be dangerous encounters out of town and other perilous game constructs awaiting those who quest for the more difficult prizes, such as the higher ranked cards (SS – S – A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H) scattered across the land.
But for all the immense amounts of MASSIVE JERK I feel radiating from Ging, Greed Island’s infamous nature may not stem solely from the game alone, but rather from players such as the hinted Bomber, who has already claimed the life of one of Battera’s hired men. So essentially, it’s exactly what you’d expect from the setup Online Game (now with Full Life Consequences!!!). For what it’s worth though, this is the first full length episode on Greed Island. And we’ve thus far clearly established the magic system at the player’s use while revealing relatively little, while addressing the issue of player abuse and abuse of the system, while demonstrating player tendencies and the world mechanics at work. It’s a surprising amount of information, and while it could easily feel overwhelming as it nearly did last episode, it’s provided with grace here.
Gracefully, like how Madhouse spoils twists before they even introduce themselves. It could be a fake-out maybe?? But for us new watchers, really, might as well be the most disappointing aspect of Greed Island thus far. But for an arc that’ll apparently last for the next half a year or so, I guess it’s small pittance. There’s far more here than that one twist, after all.
Our good ol’ buddies of the Phantom Troupe for one, of whom Phinks and Feitan are currently in the game for their own amusement. While Franklin struggles to read puny human books, Bonolenov is busy practicing his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Lexiconic Matters, and Machi sits by the grave of… aww man. Shalnark in the meanwhile decides he wants himself, along with Shizuku and Kortopi, to enter the game for Troupe related matters. There’s no other thing he could be talking about than “that”. Ready for a round of simple, straightforward and more than likely obvious speculation?
Round Start!
At this point in time, the central Troupe related matter would be to return the status of their recently missing boss back to normal. For that, they need the abilities of Nen Removal, meaning that inside the game there must either be a) an item which does just that or what I’d imagine to be far closer on the mark b) a person with such skills. So perhaps akin to how he initially learned of Nostrade’s bodyguards, he has once again acquired a list of names. While I could picture that the names of all the players who entered the game through independent means might not be available, although not entirely without merit, we did just have a large Greed Island participation test. With capable Nen users lining up to join, might a mythical Nen Remover be amongst them? Who could it be, maybe Puhat? Mister tall and lanky, or little miss goldilocks? Nervous OP guy,vaguely vicious looking duo, dead body man??!
The possibilities are indeed endless.
Lack of cast names aside, Precocious Loli does take an interest in our protagonists with Gon’s refusal to join Mister Glasses’ and Barely Shaven’s alliance, so we’ll have at least one more name to work with soon enough. Between Killua delivering a pant wetting moment to a senior player right off the bat, and Gon’s ability to discern what’s off about the game after very little time there, Greed Island is off to a solid start.
Now on to adventure.
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End x And x Beginning
Melody is such an unambiguously sweet person. Thank you to York Shin for letting her out alive.
Such is farewell, as the cast members of York Shin exit stage left. Kurapika (and Melody) leave without a word to Gon and Killua, as you’d expect him to. Gon in turn, is as upset by this as anyone would be, but as things are, Kurapika is out of town, which is for the best. Kurapika can best concentrate on his goal of collecting the scarlet eyes of his kin, away from all the hustle and bustle of murder and revenge. Leorio returns to his medical studies as well, receiving Melody’s unknowing blessings, and say his goodbyes to the boys. To be honest, as little as Leorio gets to do, it’s always a pleasure to have him around, the guy radiates charm.
As for Zepile, he fulfills his promise to the two boys and gets them their money back, and is determined to gain big bucks himself by entering the Hunter’s exam to get himself a license. Well… he’ll live, probably. The human blob was also somewhere in this episode, but he’s gone now, so breathe a sigh of relief.
And with that, the tonal shift to the next arc finally feels complete. So here comes Greed Island, out with the old and in with the new! Like this whole batch of fresh characters here whose faces we see for the very first time.
We get our first introduction to them in the form of know-it-all Puhat, at the selection site of Battera’s Greed Island players, in a scene which does a great job of contrasting what I like about Gon and Killua. From Gon’s straightforwardness and simple answers for all that faces him, to Killua’s (my favorite little dude) relative complex thought process and his knack for, perhaps habit of, analyzing any given situation. But in the end they both do what they do best as seen back with Wing in Heaven’s Arena; blowing away expectations. Walls too!
So they pass with flying colors while shocking the pants off Tsezguerra, and sign a contract with the help of Leorio before he skedaddles. The essence of the agreement is that Battera and co. waive any responsibility for deaths that may occur, claim possession on any sweet loot found in the game, and in return has 50 billion cash reward ready. But enough about that, Gon finally enters the game.
He’s warped into a strange and pretty rad looking room, where he’s promptly dumped with all the crucial rules to the game. Gon doesn’t get it. Times like this makes you really appreciate having a smarter pal follow you around everywhere. In addition to all the rules mumbo jumbo, the game construct also provides Gon with a secret taunting message from Ging. That’s pretty much all the message is, and I’m gonna be pretty disappointed if Ging isn’t some equivalent of a big jerk in real lif-ahaha wait, what am I even talking about, this is the guy who left his kid behind while gallivanting the lands making really intricate video games, there’s no way he isn’t the biggest jerk.
Final notes; Greed Island is humongous and in a way that adventures should, the strange fairy tale building in the middle of an expansive world captivates me. Also, Togashi’s well known and documented Dragon’s Quest obsessions really shows.
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Bid x And x Haste
Even as we’re moving onto a brand new adventure, seems some elements will carry over.
The opening theme for one, just like we always wanted: Always ALWAYS the same.
NEVER DIFFERENT.
I was already ready to say that the Phantom Troupe was ready for a well-earned pause, especially with Kurapika leaving town with his mafioso buds. He, and likely medical student Leorio, will be out of the scene for a while again. But seems thanks to Gon and Killua, Phinks and Feitan have their intrigue tickled on the famed Greed Island game. I dunno if I can really expect them to play a large part, thanks a bunch new opening scenes, but it’ll be curious to see if other Troupers jump in on the session. Since best friends Phinks and Feitan are already in quite a bit before our heroes, they could even be a form of breaking in the game rules to us viewers. They’ve got to do something in their spare time.
As for the plan to actually acquire the game, it’s surprisingly simple in concept. Since they’re out of cash, instead of buying the game themselves, they enlist in the service of the one who does. Pretty solid in theory, as Killua asserted last episode. In practice however, things always seem to fall apart. With a game as infamous as Greed Island, especially for it’s deadliness, it’s not worth letting low level chumps steal up a valuable player slot. An older hunter, Tsezguerra, further emphasizes the talent needed to survive in the game. The two boys aim to impress, and promptly fail to do so. Goes to show that despite their innate talent, they’re still small-fries on a larger scale.
Now with four days remaining until a screening for those who’ll enter the game, the boys have the perfect opportunity to take their Nen to the next level. We callback to previous concepts of Nen, most importantly to that of Hatsu, which is essentially a person’s special skill eg; Kurapika’s chains. Killua’s naturally got his method of moving forth figured out, taking his Transmuter attribute into high voltage territories, while Gon… Gon… Gon is a cutiepie? Definitely. It takes a little knowing wisdom of Gon’s mind from Killua, using the best friend art of torment to push Gon toward finding an ability. It takes some further advice from Kurapika to get Gon to get in contact with former master Wing for help, but Gon certainly has some legitimate frustration when confronted with his roadblocks. Kinda funny in that regard, as during their captivity in the Spider’s lair, it was Killua who came to a mental block of his own. Naturally, it was largely thanks to Gon that was put aside. They’re a real duo right there, with some honest to goodness give’n'take.
Regardless, it appears that as Enhancers go, their special abilities are as straightforward as they get. Looking at the formerly formidable Uvogin, that mostly rings true. His Nen concentrates where it makes most sense for a boy who wants some BOOM BAM BAM type of power.
More I think about it though, more curious it gets. Nen is kinda amazing isn’t it?
The existence of something like Greed Island got me wondering. How exactly does a game construct like it exist in the first place? These question might be a little premature with our knowledge of said constructs in the next to none category, but even on a base level, how does Greed Island even exist? As demonstrated in this episode, Nen can be instructed to accomplish certain things, like for example to protect the game console from outwardly harm. It was similar back when Gon first received his memory card, Ging had left all sorts of Nen trickery behind, even to the extent of commanding the Nen to delete the contents of a tape once it was paused. It’s similar to coding in that simple tasks can be carried out when given the correct instructions, and people can make games and stuff with all of it. So in essence, Greed Island is an extreme extension of that? What more, the world of Greed Island the opening and ending hint at looks expansive as all hell, so it begs the question how it even came to be. It’s an entirely different beast from Owl’s bag ability which creates it own space. Is it a world made from scratch, or are the players transported into some sort of Digiworld, or is Greed Island an actual place which exists in the real world? Considering it’s Ging who headed the game, any of those sound at least kinda plausible.
This is gonna be fun.
