Heavens Arena: The Start of Killua and Gon’s Enduring Friendship

Calling all Hunter X Hunter fans! After over a year of watching I am proud to announce that I have completed Hunter x Hunter (2011 Version) After only hearing positive things and it being one of the highest-rated anime, I was excited to see if it lived up to the expectations. If you have read my past blogs you should know I need help watching long anime. I stick with anime between the 12–26 range because I have a short attention span and enjoy the fast-paced storylines of short anime. Hunter X Hunter is only 148 episodes which might not be long for One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, or Naruto fans, but for me taking on Hunter X Hunter has been a challenge and it is the first long anime I have completed.

Since this is a long anime that I have a lot of thoughts on I will be breaking up this review into 7 parts with this blog being the third part. I know it’s a lot but I don’t want to write a novel so make sure to subscribe to not miss a part.

If you haven’t read part one yet, make sure to check it out.

Episodes 27–38: Heavens Arena arc

For me this arc was forgettable. I mean I literally could not remember it at all when I started to write this series. All of the other arcs I can explain and have a conversation about. I am not sure why this arc didn’t stick in my brain, it was an important part of the story. I ended up having to watch some YouTube videos to explain what I couldn’t remember. Just being honest but Let’s talk about it.

This is the beginning of Killua and Gon’s friendship. They became instant friends in the Hunters exam, however, we also met Kurapika and Leorio. I thought they would become a group and travel together, but after the hunter exam, they went their separate ways. Showing us the main two Killua and Gon.

Gon is Killua’s first real friend. Even though he is much further along with experience he holds back and waits for Gon to regain his strength before they begin to train again. Going back to my thoughts about Killua’s reverse character development, We see him put his strength aside to support a friend. I don’t believe Killua ever imagined himself in a place of putting others before himself, and we see the beginning of their friendship being learned.

We also see the flaws in Gon. We see him as a happy-go-lucky main character through the first arc, however, in Heaven’s area, we see Gon be impulsive and selfish. We see him ignore his teacher and put his life at risk. Even though this isn’t the most noticeable thing, for me, it did set Gon apart from other basic Shōnen characters.

The tournament style to me has been done a lot in anime. It is entertaining to watch but a basic format to me.

I do think one of the reasons I don’t remember this arc well is its confusing explanation of Nen. From my understanding, nen in itself is a tough concept to understand and I felt as if the explanations were long. As the show went on and they started to use Nen in more fights I had a much better understanding of how it worked. I felt as if Heavens Arena was the tutorial of a game, it tried to explain how to play the game but most of us skipped the introduction and learned by just playing the game. Which again I think is why I didn’t remember much of this arc.

Hisoka’s and Gon’s fight was the most memorable part of this arc. I thought it showed Hisoka’s true power while showing Gon’s resourcefulness and impulsiveness. The motivation behind the fight left Gon with an inner battle that we see throughout their fight. Even though Gon ends up losing the match, the fact that he was able to accomplish his mission of punching Hisoka in the face I think makes Gon the true winner.

Overall I thought this arc was important to the story. It wasn’t my favorite but it was critical to know the information learned in this arc to follow along with the rest of the story. It showed a more selfish side to Gon and a more vulnerable side to Killua. As well as set up Nen giving both Gon and Killua something to work towards.

If you want to watch along with me, check out the episode guide I posted.

What are your thoughts on Hunter X Hunter exam arc?

Thanks for reading!!

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Bye for now!!