LogFAQs > #900218764

Episode 3

Recap: The shapeshifter leads our heroes to the test site, where they become the last three prospects to enter. We're introduced via "ROOKIE KILLER TONPA" to some of the named candidates, most notably the clown-looking magician who appears in the OP and ED. The exam begins with: walking.

The least episodic and therefore least complete-feeling episode yet. Tonpa, drawn ugly and stated to be incompetent, fits the pattern of shittily designed pushover villains meant to prop up the heroes. Other than Leorio and Kurapika briefly butting heads about the PHILOSOPHY OF BEING A HUNTER and Gon sniffing out laxative by accident, our heroes have practically zero agency this episode.

Alas, there's a lot about the candidate situation early on that demands us "don't think too much about it." Gon and co. do an excellent job with the pre-trial tasks - so why are they dead last, period? How long have these people just been standing around doing nothing except possibly drinking laxatives? Why are we dealing with a computer nerd character and treating him as if his hair-stroking character design is worth spending more than five minutes on? What the fuck is going on with the randomly flamboyant test proctor???

The OP/ED do seem to indicate that we've got a fourth party member that we were introduced to this episode. He seemed more fun asking for poisoned drinks before he revealed that he knew what was in them. "I've trained. Poisons won't affect me." Oh.

In any case, the exam is at least proceeding, so no need to dwell on this stuff!

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* ED1 >>> OP1.

* I wanted the steak dinner, too.

* My favorite scene might actually have been the very beginning - when everyone enters the city's marketplace. Lots of colorful snippets going on, while most of the characters treat it as a nuisance or full of "shady people," Gon quietly looks absolutely fascinated.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness