I miss Hunter x Hunter. A lot. The anime and the manga. So instead of watching the '99 series I decided to do this instead. Togashi made me do this.
Hunter x Hunter The Movie - Phantom Rouge
Phantom Rouge is the first kind-of almost canon movie for Hunter x Hunter. I say it's kind of canon because this was a scrapped story arc and the scenes with Kurapika and Pairo's backstory are in the manga, technically as a side story for the movie itself, but in the manga nonetheless. So think of it kind of like the Hell Movie for Bleach or Film Z/Strong World for One Piece. I think Film Z is the better example here, as the events surrounding the movie and the characters in it are canon, but the way that it was resolved, Luffy beating Z or Gon and Friends beating Omakage is not. But I would actually say Film Z is a good movie. This, however, I'm not content with.
The movie opens with a scene about Killua in his days as an Assassin doing a job with Illumi watching him. After that some kids kick a soccer ball to Killua and ask them to pass it back. Illumi shows up and tells Killua friends are stupid then murders the kids, confirming Hunter x Hunter is a series about child violence. This scene has pretty much nothing to do with the main plot, and is only there so it makes it less confusing when Killua acts counter to his character, like acting like a dick to Gon and Retz. Seriously what was up with that scene? I don't remember Killua ever acting like that. There's also the scene of Killua and Gon fighting Uvogin, who is far stronger then both of them. Killua gets discouraged by mental images of Illumi - and correct me if I'm wrong here - I don't really remember him having huge issues with, especially since this takes place after Yorknew and the needles have been removed. Sure, I could buy Killua would retreat from an enemy too strong for him, but he wouldn't get the shivers and stare, doing nothing. I really wonder who the main character of this is supposed to be, Killua or Kurapika? You would think Kurapika since this is a movie about the Phantom Troupe, but Killua seems to get the most attention, to the point where there is a scene where Killua and Gon meet a puppet version of Illumi, who Killua seems scared shitless of. Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think by this point Killua was over his fear of Illumi, and I rather doubt Illumi would ever encourage Killua to take rather cowardly actions, coming from the prestigious assassin family.
And yes, I did just say "fighting Uvogin" and "after Yorknew" in the same paragraph. This is because Uvogin was revived by the bad guy, and Pakunoda as well (who gets one shot by Nobunaga in about 5 second so I dunno why she was even there) in a kind of Naruto Edo Tensei way, which I have major hangups on. I did not like how that stuff was handled, at all. The main plot is about the #4 member of the Spiders who Hisoka replaced years prior. You would think with a movie largely about the Phantom Troupe, Kurapika would obviously play a large part. But he doesn't, he sits in a hospital bed because the main villain stole his eyes for the majority of the movie.
Omakage, the main villain of the movie is a pretty weak one. He has the ability to make puppets, with confusing at best explanations on how. Maybe I missed something but there seemed to be little rhyme or reason to how the puppets work or are created, odd in a serious such as HxH that usually goes to ridiculous lengths to lay down the rules. He can make puppets of dead people like Uvogin and Pakunoda, but also make puppets of Illumi or Pairo, who I'm not sure he even met. The puppets vary wildly in strength, with Uvogin being about as strong as he was in the series, and Chrollo and Feitan being weak enough that Hisoka easily defeats them by himself, which is laughable considering Feitan and Chrollo are two of the strongest Troupe members. So Omakage makes puppets of half the Spiders (for some reason only half) + Chrollo. And they have their full Nen powers, which he can absorb and use on his own. That ability on it's own is some bullshit. Chrollo has a similar ability, but it is superbly complicated to activate, which is typical of stronger conjuring Nen abilities. Omakage seems to be able to do whatever he wants. Imagine if he was able to gain the Nen abilities of Netero, or above all, of Mereum. It kinda destroys the balance.
Omakage is not interesting and his motives are nil. At most you can gather that he was in the Troupe to make his puppets and that was all. How he actually does that is again, rather poorly explained. They try to substitute his lack of character by linking him with the Phantom Troupe, great villains that the audience is already familiar with but it just comes off as lame seeing him using Franklin's Nen ability.
The ending also bothers me on a continuity level. The four leave on good terms, but we know later on that Kurapika becomes obsessed with revenge to the point he ignores Leorio's calls about Gon being in critical condition in the hospital because it has nothing to do with the Phantom Troupe. Also during the ending song, it shows Bique, Kite and Ging...despite them having nothing to do with the movie. There's also the fact that the entire Phantom Troupe shows up to kill Omakage, sees Hisoka and Kurapika and just walk off again after about two minutes, which bothered me immensely. Look, I can understand why they would not kill Kurapika because of the Nen needle on Chrollo's heart, but Kurapika kind of just takes it and watches them leave. But Hisoka, I dunno why they would let him go. It comes off as the Spiders going "WE'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME, CHAIN USER! AND YOUR LITTLE CLOWN FRIEND TOO" and I question why the scene was even there to begin with. Oh wait, I know the answer - to connect it to the Troupe again because Omokage is a weak villain.
As for how the movie looks, it honestly looks about as good as the TV series, which isn't really a slight since the TV series was consistently a good looking show. There is some rather bad CGI spliced into the movie, used sparingly.
Even as a huge HxH fan I wouldn't go as far as to say Phantom Rouge was a bad movie, but I don't really think it's worth watching. Pretty messy, unclear who the focus is supposed to be on, Killua or Kurapika, lame villain who is an insult to the group he is hailing from...hopefully Last Mission is better.
Also I thought it was Phantom Rogue the whole time and not Phantom Rouge before I actually watched it.
