Hunter x Hunter Volume 5: A Volume That Leads The Way To A New Arc Amazingly

Starting off, we see Killua and his brother Illumi have a talk about Killua’s wanting to be Gon’s friend and it is a strong moment, but one slightly weakened by its cringe-worthy execution. It’s too bluntly in its attempt to have a more silent character break their cool attitude to do something unexpected, but instead of handling that precisely, Togashi falls into Killua, becoming a bit too emotional to a point where it feels like Togashi is using his characters for the purpose of eye-rolling, cringe-worthy melodrama rather than for powerful affect. Killua simply feels far too overused. Comparable here to when an author sees the fan favorite character is the one with less screen time than others and thinks that means making them have more attention rather than being precise with their choices to keep that readability. It all feels too much and too soon, thanks primarily to, as said before, its execution. Togashi could’ve handled this, like in 2011, where it felt faster and as if Killua was rushing his emotions, but in the manga, it feels too slow and dull in its pacing. Though, regardless of my issues here, there is much to adore. Illumi’s design change is wicked and well designed, and his powers, from little that we cleverly see, are scary and present a level of horror with just one victim of his we see him hurt. There are also some nice examinations of the characters friendships, with each of them (except Killua) defending Gon when Illumi wanted to kill him, showing why they are friends in a way. A true representation of friendship.

The worst area of this volume is probably the mind-controlled thingy. We find out Killua was mind-controlled by Illumi to commit that act of murder, but that totally ruins the whole point. What I hate about this decision is the scapegoat area of it. Instead of having one of our protagonists do a bad thing and kill someone or not help their quote-on-quote best friend, we are hit with the “he wouldn’t have if he wasn’t mind controlled” thing that just ruins everything. It’s like if a character did a bad thing, but it turns out it wasn’t their fault and they actually had some random thing that caused them to do something so they are excused and now this whole plot was pointless. Comparable to watching filler arcs unironically. Togashi, at his worst, falls into tropes that feel like subversions of subversions of subversions to a subversion of subversion where Togashi becomes overly consumed by his subject rather than humbly taking simple subversions in his writing. It’s the overthinking that hurts the series, but it’s also what brings it life. Without this decision, I believe this arc wouldn’t have caused so much interest in me. This decision is a bold one that I greatly enjoy and respect, regardless of my issues.

The high point here is the artwork and continual strong writing choices. In other words, Togashi nails imagining his world and pinning some brilliant consistency. As expressed throughout, there are choices I am not a fan of, but those are moments. Simple and short. Mostly, the narrative here is just strong to the point where it’s hard to describe its greatness other than saying it’s the same old good Hunter x Hunter. Togashi maintains his more joyful and fun style, with his characters feeling real and the world feeling even more lived in, but now Togashi must attempt narrative cuts. Narrative cuts are a term that I use to refer to points in a narrative where the author must almost break their characters seeming personalities to show something new. And it’s really hard. Firstly, to show and break your character down, you must do it appropriately and realistically to your universe standards. Not realistically to reality, as that is simply not realistic if I had to use my witty humor.

The issue with Killua in that one short scene in this volume, to me, is that, writing wise, Togashi tries his best to show Killua’s care for Gon and how far he will go and won’t go, and you can see the effort. Togashi, here, feels more than any volume so far like he is past his boundaries as an author. He is no longer showing us a world, but he is struggling to condense his world to shonen standards and stereotypes. While an embracement of shonen is fine, if done well and in good taste, here, it feels like a writer out of his league and trying to hold up. While I deeply respect the effort and the writing choices, which are, without a doubt, smarter than your average shonen with how he presents Illumi as an enemy and his showing of Illumi’s upfront, certainly unique, and very disturbing personality, it can all feel slightly overdone. I used melodrama a bit before to describe it, and I stand by that. It feels over the top to a comical degree and has some brilliance sadly concealed behind that. 2011 was able to avoid this through, what I call, a situation of a medium greatly benefiting the affected. Though I do not think this scene is terrible, I don’t even think it’s okay; I think it’s solid, as I see a degree of care that sparks harder than before. And, if I had to compare Illumi’s character here to the derivative Itachi from Naruto, a manga and anime that borrows, in my opinion, more than it should from Hunter x Hunter, Illumi is simply a far better character since he doesn’t feel written by a fanboy who overwrites every character to have the most overdone and randomly revealed backstory known to mankind. Simply put, Illumi knows he is the bad guy to our protagonists and loves it, hearts it, and owns it every second he is here. Itachi, on the other hand, feels like a mashed-up trashcan that feels made by the belief that making someone have a 68- or something-Shakespeare level boring backstory makes them utterly perfect rather than giving a single thought to anything. Even worse, Itachi reads like trashy, young adult, immature, somehow boringly angst-driven, diary-putrid fanfiction. And not the good kind of trashy, young adult, immature, angst-driven, diary-putrid fanfiction. Yes, I repeated myself. (I felt it was needed.)

This volume mainly gets to ending the Hunter Exam Arc, saving Killua, and starting the Heavens Arena Arc, and it is all done mostly well. The ending of the Hunter Exam Arc has some pitfalls but mostly rises to the occasion with well-written dialogue and awesome panels and designs to help some less than utterly genius writing choices. Our team rushing to save Killua is well done, and we met some interesting and standout characters along the way that helped bring life to the writing and world that was slightly missing from previous chapters while also giving some fantastic panels to have on your phone. The starting of the Heavens Arena Arc is short enough to not say more than its awesome to not spoil the discussion about it later, but get ready.