Flying Catches Up

Currently Liveblogging Hunter x Hunter

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I should probably mention that I finished watching Hunter x Hunter this year. Too many responsibilities to have ever liveblogged it, also nobody told me that when it really starts getting good, the show basically starts liveblogging itself? That would've been awkward. Maybe I'll compile my random thoughts I wrote on discord as I was watching, into a post.

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aww, this is just wholesome

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I’ve also head that Netero is huge asshole later on, but I mean... he presides over the hunter exam that has several dozen ways to randomly (from the perspective of a rookie anyway) die in the process, so that’s not exactly a shocker

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I have to say, Hunter x Hunter is a really difficult show to not be spoiled on if you have any interest in anime at all. Just today I foolishly uncovered the wrong spoiler text... now, I had already heard of some of the main arcs of the show like the Greed Island arc and the Chimera Ant arc, but without context that’s not much of a spoiler, but now I know that Greed Island is...a video game? Also some shit about a ‘yandere’ character named Palm...eh, it is what it is, but I need to pick this up again soon if I don’t want to be spoiled on too much to make it enjoyable.

Now you might say “what the shit are you talking about Flying, it’s been like 5 years, just watch the damn show on your own”, but no, I’m not going to do that. I definitely care more about doing this as a liveblog, just to one day say I finished a crazy long liveblog, than I do about getting to the end of an old 145 episode (or something around that mark) shonen anime just to watch it.

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One last thing

While I was going back through the episode to double check the conversation about the gate, I remembered this. This glowy aura shit didn’t seem like just a symbolic effect to tell you that this guy’s a badass, he was doing some kind of specific power-up technique. I keep wondering if we’re being shown this Nen thing used by some of the tougher customers before it’s actually mentioned or explained

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A little more on Ep 22

I want to talk a bit about this

The most straightforward way to interpret the meaning of the gate would be that it establishes a pecking order among the Zoldyck family, but there’s ten members of the family and only seven gates, so it’s not as simple as one gate per family member. Either way, we could assume that there’s someone in the family that can push 128 tons(!!), except...

 I was trying to think of how Killua’s gate works out to “sixteen tons”... if the first gate is two tons, the second gate should be four and the third should be eight tons. If each doubled weight actually adds on to the previous instead of just being a total, then the third gate should be 2+4+8=14 tons. I even checked the japanese word for 16 in case it was a subbing slip up, and sure enough, Kurapika definitely says “ju roku”.

..okay before y’all shoot off a bunch of asks, I just talked with someone who’s seen the show and it turns out EACH SIDE of gate one weighs two tons, and you have to push both sides to open the gate at all (not how double doors normally work but its a special testing gate so why not). 2*(2^3) does indeed come out to sixteen, and now my inner nitpicker can rest easy, hooray~

So that means there’s a Zoldyck who can push 256 tons...well shit. That’s over half a million pounds!

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Well that ends Hunter x Hunter Episode 22: A Dangerous Watchdog. In the wake of the whole exam arc, the pace seems to have slowed down quite a bit. Which is fine, doesn’t bother me, but it does result in me having less to say about what’s going on for the time being. They reached Killua’s doorstep, got past the gatekeeper and the guard dog, and are ready to face whatever challege comes next on this mission. I’ll see you next time for Episode 23!

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So Mike is a friendly guy if you don’t encounter him under the wrong circumstances, it seems.

Not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t a skinny giant wolf thing

Well that’s different. It’s just a giant wolf, Gon, have your recent experiences humbled you that much?

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Too late dude, he’s Gon already

You’ve worked for them how long and this is still a speculative venture?

Oh well, carry on then

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Well this is definitely worse than if you had just taken the key without talking to the guy at all.

I’m not sure what you expected, Gon

If you could just chill a notch or two, guy, that would be great

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Ah. Well this tells us something more about Gon’s limitations, but at the same time is accurate to the situation at hand. Gon’s done with exams and shit, he just wants his friend back.

I mean you could almost certainly nab the key with your agility if you don’t feel like climbing.

Killua isn’t the only person who lives here though..

Gon’s kind of dense huh

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Ah. So it’s just to keep out the riff raff.

Well shit. How many tons is that?

Huh? Maybe I need to rewatch this scene but I’m a little lost on the math here

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So the gate is really to keep Mike in more than to keep intruders out.

The gang worries about you sometimes, Leorio..

Oh so he is a bit of a badass after all. Not sure what the point of that is if Mike is there to eat all the intruders. Also what’s the point of the gate if he’s just going to open it for them? I guess I’m being a bit more nitpicky than usual because there doesn’t seem to be a ton going on in this episode so far.

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She must be new on the job

Guy needs a bigger trash can

It’s for plumbers and eletricians and such, think for a second Kurapika..

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Why do they pay this guy exactly? Guess its better than dealing with every overly curious tourist but couldn’t they get someone with some basic ability to actually defend the gate?

Oh its to set up this gag. Carry on then

Well that answers one of my questions

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Kinda screws up the overall aesthetic of your gate, Zoldycks, but you do you I guess.

Somehow I doubt he’d allow that.

Huh. Setting aside the seeming contradiction of a group of assassins doing something as high-profile as keeping an entire mountain and its base as private property, I have to wonder if these guys are unusually dumb or if lots of things like this remain mysteries to the public despite the existence of some kind of internet?

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I sort of failed at reading comprehension in the subtitles of the last screencap I took last time. Getting hunter licenses means they have MORE access to public transportation, if anything. And it’s probably not even some kind of trap this time.

“Lamentation Tour” isn’t a supicious name or anything. Also is Zoldyck Killua’s family name? Seems so unless there’s multiple assassin families around here.

Are some of Killua’s family giants or is this just for the sake of presentation?