I can’t help but read into this Ant Queen and her minions, and find some
kind of meta-commentary on mangaka and their creations. It’s as a tenuous
a comparison as when Sam and i equated the goony giants in ATTACK ON TITAN with otaku
stereotypes, sure, but… still… this kept making me picture that
self-portrait Jack Kirby drew where he was surrounded by his legion of
superheroic creations.
The whole conception of these villains is just so darkly whimsical. You’d
expect the Queen to be hatching legions of insect-like drones, not a random
menagerie of creatures who are born full-clothed, fully-sentient and with a
full range of distinct personalities. There probably isn’t any point
to that, per se, but it stills seems like the metaphorical equivalent of Togashi dreaming up all the varied bad guys in HXH and YU YU HAKUSHO.
Anyway… the speed at which this arc is ramping up stakes and digging into
meatier drama is really making “Greed Island” look even more like filler, in hindsight. What did we gain from that arc objectively? Gon met
Bisky, and he learned his Rock/Paper/Scissors attack, right? Those both could’ve been
addressed in the space of an episode over the course of “York New.”
I’m not as
quick to dismiss “Heaven’s Arena” because Nen has proven to be so complicated
and essential that you really did need a whole, long arc to explain it. (And,
for the record, the notion of these Chimera minions stumbling on some innate
knowledge of Nen is actually quite creepy).
Again, I’m down for all of this, now. The threat’s actually dire, and
it’s getting exponentially more so with each episode. I just find it amusing
that another part of Togashi’s M.O. is still about softening the blow of these
dark turns by filling the cast with ridiculous looking characters.
Gon can
crush an enemy to death with his bare hands, but it’s OK, because he’s a
kid!
One bad guy can be a cannibalistic psychopath, but it’s OK, because
he’s a bunny in a thong with feather arms!
Watch "The
× Fight × Begins" and "Kite × And
× Slots" and "Inspiration × To ×
Evolve" and "A × Fated ×
Awakening" and "Light × And ×
Darkness" and decide for yourself, then read
my comments on the previous episode.
About the Author
 | Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk |
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