HUNTER X HUNTER -- Chairman Election Arc Review

You just don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone…

Sure, I stopped watching HxH episode-to-episode (episode X episode?) with the ‘Chimera
Ant’ arc , but I still couldn't help but check in periodically to see what Gon
and Killua were up to. There was no sense of urgency, because the show was
obviously going to be running forever. When I caught Episode #148, I just
assumed it was the conclusion of this ‘Chairman Election arc,’ teasing the start
of the next arc - - one where Gon and Ging would start their real monster hunting.

Little did I know… that
would actually be the last episode. Tears in the rain, and all that. So, in
the name of completism, I figured I ought to go back and watch the episodes I’d
missed in this arc…

My feelings on the show haven’t changed substantially from
what I expressed in my last rant. I suppose I’d phrased them a little more
complimentarily now, though (even while I
still had the hardest time staying awake during the episode that’s entirely
focused on the Hunters' executive board debating the specifics of their voting
process). == TEASER ==

HxH’s popularity with shonen fans seems to come down to the
fact that it’s almost comprehensively constructed for viewers burnt
out from watching hundreds-unto-thousands hours of shonen. I discussed how that applied to the treatment of
villains in today’s Vice Pit, and here, it can be
seen in the screen time lavished on the electoral process.

And I get it, now -
- I’ve had the same experience with other pulp traditions. Read/watch/consume
enough heroic adventures and, after a while, your interest in the good vs. evil
struggle actually wanes, and you start wondering about the minutia that’s
normally skipped over in the name of pacing. If you’ve watched so much
YU YU HAKUSHO, then you’d really rather learn more about the bureaucracy of the
Spirit World than see another
new bad guy come along whom Yusuke’s going to have another prolonged battle with. I can understand that.

So, it’s sort-of like Togashi designed Gon and Killua to be
so immediately recognizable as archetypal shonen heroes, expecting his audience
to implicitly understand that they’d been on hundreds of adventures as hunters
without actually needing to show those adventures. With that out of the way, he
can focus on matters like this election, which get along on that sort of familiarity. And so, seeing that, it makes a lot of sense for me as to why the show’s most
fervent supporters are typically fans whose tally of NARUTO, DRAGON BALL, BLEACH, FAIRY TAIL and ONE PIECE episodes is up in the quadruple digits. I’ve
enjoyed comics that do the same thing for superhero fans, and I can recognize it here, even if I don’t
have the same sort of ‘log time’ that allows me to enjoy it at all times.

Anyway, these are my thoughts on number #137-141. Stay tuned
for my take on the second half soon.