Anime movies based around popular shonen series aren’t weird per sé, but just the fact they made Hunter X Hunter anime films feels somehow off to me.
Yes i know Hunter X Hunter has been a big Shonen Jump series…. but it’s not quite your typical shonen manga series, not quite ready-made for the “non-canon original story anime film” pipeline.
Just reading the synopsis i got the feeling this was just a way to extend HXH presence as an anime after the 2011 series ended (and was never continued)…but nope, this was released in Japanese theathers in 2013, in the final stretched of Greed Island arc.
Yet, even so, my gut was somehow correct, this is indeed what it sounded like, something ordered upon from a committee more than anything else, to fatten the suits wallets with cinema money, with a “double hit”, since later the same year Madhouse also released in theathers HXH: Last Mission.
What’s worse is that Phantom Rouge’s story, on paper, could have made for a very good film, even if its an original story that wouldn’t have affected the canon whatsoever.
Based on an unpublished story written by Togashi himself 10 years before this film released, the premise of Phantom Rouge sees the gang reunite, with Gon and Killua meeting Leorio and Kurapika, as the two were investigating rumors of a surviving member of Kurapika’s clan.
This turns out to be Kurapika’s dead childhood friend, Pairo, whom then steal Kurapika’s eyes, now blinded but having strange vision about a man bearing the mark of the Phantom Brigade……
Like said before, while non-canon, the plot would be taking place somewhere between the Yorknew City Arc and Greed Island, i will not elaborate further on this to avoid accidental spoilers.
The idea would be a nice fit, explaining also whom Hisoka defeated to enter the Phantom Troupe, and tying into Kurapika’s tragic past even further…it would be, if it was actually written by someone that maybe read or saw more than a single episode of HXH.
Or so i would say, be the screenwriter, Shoiji Yonemura, obviously did, and he isn’t some rando with no portfolio, he has an extensive career, writing for everything from Lupin III, Pokemon, Precure, Death Note, Fairy Tail, modern One Piece, even the first Berserk anime adaptation, alonsgide a fuckton of Kamen Rider series and films… and also wrote for the 2011 HXH anime too.
I assume this is him not giving a single shit, because aside from obvious “uncanonical” nature of the plot, this feels it could have been written for almost any, more generic shonen series, it’s so unfitting of Hunter X Hunter and it really doesn’t factor in anything of the unique power system the series has, nor the writing seems to consider what makes HXH peculiar even in battles, and it’s simply noticeably very below the quality the regular series sports constantly.
Just a very lazy script, going for every low hanging fruits possible, badly handling some concepts and just doing most of the more egregious battle shonen manga sins, regardless if they fit, like how it overdoses the “power of friendship” between Gon and Killua, makes them do uncharateristic stupid shit just for that sake, here with a new original girl character, Retz, which exists just to make Killua even more possessive and then sacrifice herself at the end.
I don’t consider that a spoiler because it’s so cliche you could have blindly guessed such, so trite it is, and speaking of which, Phantom Rouge even does the old ass clichè of the supporting new girl character masquerading as a boy, it’s so stock and old hat.
Again, since we’re speaking of overdone and generic, the plot involves the villain, Omokage, the ex-N°4 of the Phantom Troupe, using puppets of (mostly) dead characters to do his bidding.
The villain is pretty shit, even aside the generic “evil puppet master” trope there’s really no big motivation or explanation of why is he’s back now, his goal is not interesting, his characterization or backstory also boring stock stuff, plus his powers are frankly confusing in how they actually work, as we’re told he needs the eyes of people to infuse dolls with them and give them souls… yeah, he needs actual eyes and then he doesn’t, he needs to metaphorically do so, by looking them in the eyes and stealing their sight, i guess because the “eyes are a window to the soul”. Or some crap like that.
Don’t try to apply the way the Nen is used in the show to try and make sense of it, it doesn’t fit anything, and again, makes you feel this could have been any generic battle shonen anime movie, nor that it matters, the villain’s ability exists just as a plot device to make fanservice fights happen.
One that seems to be the main attraction of the film overall, just to to the “clones/dead characters resurrected” flamenco, just a series of cheap attempts at making fans happy-sad by bringing back dead characters, or getting the gang together for funsies, even most of the Phantom Troupe that does appear here exists to be just cameos, which is to be expected of anime based on popular shonen mangas, but i expect better from HXH in general, better than this anyway.
The “excuse” of the idea based on an unpublished story (which i haven’t looked into at the time of writing) makes is just a way to deflect the blame and hide how desperate they were to spin as legit what feels instead like rummaging through Togashi’s scrapbin, not that it changes how badly the film is written, with the script is the bad kind of “ass”.
What prevents it from being utterly irredemeable shit is that the action scenes are entertaining and flashy (even if incredibly dumbed down by the series’ own standards), it’s well produced and animated, overall it looks good but not that good, nor there is much to make it “cinematic”, plus pacing is also ass, just slow and plodding, not good for a 90 minutes runtime.
It’s just very weak, generic and frankly not up to snuff considering the series it’s based on…. but then again it barely feels Hunter X Hunter, like this is a rejected-canned script written for some other battle shonen series they exhumed and slightly repurposed for the occasion.
Very disappointing, pretty subpar in general and frankly an academic example of how low the bar is for this kind of “non-canon films based on shonen manga series”, as Phantom Rouge hits all the expected low hanging fruits, cheap fan pleasing bullet points and does the bare minimum to…. basically con fans, reeling them in with a strong start and a potentially interesting story ruined by a sloppy (at the very best), generic, unfitting script.
It’s so very telling the best scenes in this original anime film are flashbacks of Kurapika’s past, taken wholesale from the manga, which makes extra ironic since this movie doesn’t really do justice or conveys the strenghts of the show in any way, quite the opposite.
Even if you go into this to see some cool fights and enjoy at least some fan pandering, action scenes are brief, and not really that good or “cinematic”to overlook the other issues.
I saw it on Netflix, and most likely is also on other streaming sites, but it feels like a waste of time.
Because it is. And dogshit, that’s also what it is.
Apparently HXH Last Mission is even worse, so i’m morbidly looking forward to review that.
