Screw defeating every henchmen before you can get to the main boss! This is a show that has a plan, and if you can get a chance to crush the boss, you should by all means take that chance. Kurapika in this episode was AWESOME and I love how well thought out the plans that he made are. He put the one person who could get in his way (Pakunoda, who knew everything) in a bind, captured Chrollo and used him as a hostage for negotiations. Imagine if they’d do this in other shounen series.
And yes, my favorite part has started. Remember how in the past few months I’ve kept saying how awesome the spider troupe is? Well, this episode takes that even further: it forces the member to make an incredibly difficult decision: sacrifice the boss, or potentially threaten to kill off half its members. One simple mistake could cost so many lives. That’s one of the reasons why this became one of my favorite shounen series: how many other shounen series put so much focus on the importance of life and death? Most other shounen ruin this effect by having characters who survive against way too many odds (oh hello, Naruto, Bleach…).
I also actually cracked up a few times during this episode. I almost forgot that Togashi also put a few very effective jokes here. I loved how Chrollo kept taunting Kurapika, finding out at the same time that Kurapika would not sacrifice his friends. I also loved that one scene in which the yellow-haired guy took over negotiations and made a few stupid comments. That was just brilliant.
Also, it’s a small detail, but showing the spider troupe members in their past outfits before they started to dress so creatively. That was really worth it. It shows that in the end they’re all just humans.
Rating: 6.5/8 (Amazing)
Too good to comment.