Sleeping your way through an exam and passing = boss status. 

——

Episode 20 is something that may divide audiences in how they feel towards this series as a shounen title. In a twist, the final phase of the exam is brought about to a close right as the episode begins, which is something you don’t see at all in a tournament style fight for a shounen series. For audiences expecting more action out of this series, they will be disappointed, but from a character perspective this was a great episode as it delves a little more into the back ground of Killua.

During Satotsu’s recollection of the past day’s events we’re given the revelation of Gittaraku’s ture identity: Illumi, Killua’s older brother. He’s quite the eccentric character as he is anything but normal, but then again this series has proven that there is no such thing as any ordinary person—with the possible exception of Leorio whose only odd trait is looking older than his actual age. Much to Illumi’s background as a member of a family of assassins, he truly is an emotionless killing machine. He gives no second thought to killing Gon to perfect Killua as an emotionless assassin. 

As things progress through the episode it’s clear that Killua fears his older brother more than anything in the world right now, which motivated him to flunk himself out of the exam and return home. With the exam virtually over we’re left with Gon confronting Illumi. We’re also going to be treated to a conflict between Gon and the Zoldyck family as Gon, Leorio and Kurapika embark on another journey to take back Killua from his family soon. The Hunter Exam arc is coming to a close on a pretty good note setting up the next arc in the story. Hunter X Hunter has had its ups and downs, but overall the first arc has been interesting.

GO Rating: 3.5/5