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.
== TEASER ==
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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