Review of Hunter x Hunter: The Last Mission
Disclaimer: minor movie spoilers; major Hunter x Hunter spoilers for the Chimera Ant arc. After the mild let down that was the first movie; a let down in a sense of expecting way too much after experiencing the marvelous Anime series, tackling the second movie was approached with a careful gaze, no expectations built up for this one, a harsh lesson I learned in after watching the previous movie indeed. Story (7/10): Let me start by stating the turn-off. For the better or the worst. I'm a very picky individual when it comes to judging a story. And I try doing that as much as I can, sometimeseven after several rewatches to try to grasp the topics discussed better in order to formulate a conclusive, open-minded idea on it. This movie straight up said no to that, I don't deserve it, carry on with your review-disguised rant.
Going into side stories for a bigger series you're following always calls for their canon relevance, the exact timeline in the story and the bordering events that make sense of telling the story in the first place. I had no words for this one, completely a random shameless way to milk bloody fan money. And please, don't take me for the aggressive bigot that this vocabulary advocate, but rather, open u to what I'm saying.
“WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CHIMERA ANT ARC?“ I can't stress this one enough, about to start pulling off my hair while typing this, for a big of a plot changer that arc was, it was the big wall from letting whatever this attempt was into relating properly to the TV show. And I'm not even mad at it for it for the reasons you might think I am.
According to what THE MOVIE suggests, it takes place after the Chimera Ant arc, in a weird timeline where the Chimera Ant outbreak never happened. Kite never died and Gon never went through his infamous breakdown. And of course, Netero lived to fight a movie villain instead.
Batting an eye for the weak approach of properly lining up with the canon story, it lives on top of an interesting tale of revenge between Netero and an old rival, Jed, while also being a call back for the Heaven's Arena days where the events of the movie take place at.
Art (8.4/10):
I would say this movie featured some of the best Sakuga in Hunter x Hunter. Definitely levels above that of the first movie, up there with the best choreographically intense eye candy from the TV series.
The animation is superfluid when its called for. The use of bland colors helped preserve the signature Hunter x Hunter feel on the visual level, and the character design for the movie-original cast was a critical hit on the nail. Borderland style.
Sound (7.5/10):
I'm not going to sit here and pretend it was just another day in Lazytown, but if your ear could speak, it would want to honor the voice actors. The main cast has and is always performing amazingly. What hit defiantly was the OST's, again, with the popular songs from the TV series, remixed into piano abstracts that filled the backgrounds helped greatly to sell the desperate presentation of Jed and his underlings as villains to the main characters, but heroes to their cause.
Characters (7.6/10):
I mean, going by the same rule as the first movie's review. Talking about the key characters, that's a guaranteed 10/10 if not more, however, for the sake of focusing on the movie specifically, let's shed some light on the movie's original characters, whom are represented by the cast of villains.
Jet, the main head to take down was not that much for an eye-catcher for me personally, felt like a shallow character, created to simply act his role and carry on the revenge plot, however, his trio underlings whom the names of I can't remember had more personality than Jed's entire screen time, which is still minimal. I'd hate to go on the tangent I said I won't, but come on, seeing characters like Biscuit, Hisoka, and Zushi is always welcomed.
Enjoyment (9/10):
Aside from the weird timeline which I don't know why I can't drop that already; seeing the loveable familiar faces lightened up the heart quite a bit. Despite not conveying what Hunter Hunter really is about, the movie doesn't fall short of implementing some of Hunter x Hunter's best properties like the character interactions and wholesome yet life-challenging rivalry between your well-known characters, and of course, the weird Nen trickery that introduced the concept of On.
Overall (7.9/10):
The movie was definitely a step in the right decision. Although still not emitting enough Hunter x Hunter vibes, it covers an interesting original self-contained story, one that is better off recited as a one-shot, rather than trying to make sense of in the canon timeline of the story, because it went completely the other way around