LogFAQs > #901845441

Episodes 51-53

Recap: The Phantom Troupe launches a punitive war on the mafia, who hire assassins to take out the Troupe. Chrollo abducts Neon, learns about her powers, and steals them. He has a brief sparring match with the Koldyck Clan and then decides to take the auction's loot but to fake defeat while exiting. The auction proceeds with counterfeits.

So, I really enjoyed seeing Silva out in the wild. It's extremely disappointing that their fight was entirely inconsequential, though. Not a big fan of the "let's test ourselves" fights, even when the action is good, and especially when the parties aren't necessarily going all out - Goku vs Majin Vegeta in DBZ jumps to mind.

It's also not very interesting to watch this much massacre. The mafia is composed of regular non-Nen-users, whom we've established several episodes ago are no match. The non-Koldyck assassins are just more schmucks. We get endless footage of carnage, but... who cares? We've moved far beyond the point where any conflict between Muggles and Nen-users is of even remote interest. It's a cool image briefly during the time that Chrollo obsesses over his fortune, but there's just too much.

Also, there's a 100% chance that if a character goes into the bathroom, that they're either escaping captivity or about to be kidnapped. Ugh. It's exactly what was expected, but disappointing to see Neon reduced to this cliche.

Okay, so now that my complaints are out of the way - Chrollo is fantastic. He's soft-spoken and youthful and polite, and he seems legitimately bothered by the death of Uvo. He reads a lot, which we discover is both part of his power and perhaps a hint that he's obsessed with prophecy and the future. Also, he looks considerably less like a creep out in public, which is something I always appreciate.

The other cool thing that happens here is that Kurapika might have to face an existential crisis with the apparent deaths of the Phantom Troupe. It would be even cooler if it were true, but this is one way to make his character compelling. Love the emptiness in Kurapika's eyes - I hope that he finds some sort of meaning in his life and mends his bridges before he rediscovers that the Troupe is still alive. But I won't get my hopes up.

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* The Phantom Troupe members have some neat abilities, but it's a little rankling that some of them are largely gimmicky and seemingly useless/very niche/hard-to-write in general combat. Mind-control-dude and counterfeit-man are the biggest issues. These are very cool abilities in a group, but seem a lot dumber in a 1v1 fight (which is how I have decided to evaluate all enemies).

* The fortune that Neon writes Chrollo is really fucking great and poetic.

* Light Nostrade is actually really likable. He's just a solid guy for a crime boss - but we'll see his true colors when he finds out that he no longer has a revenue source...

* Killua and Kurapika have friction over Kurapika's refusal to accept help. Gon will obviously be the mediator when they cross paths if they have issues with one another, but consider me #TeamKillua.

* Melody and Basho's disguises, as they try to take care of Neon, are amazing.

* The assassin crew winds up being a bunch of pointless redshirts, but I do like that at least some of them point out it would be useful to coordinate efforts. Of course the Zoldycks and Kurapika are among those who shoot down the idea since it's too hard to write more competent assassins.
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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