It’s penalty time for Gon and the others as that have fifty hours to kill.

What They Say:
The five group members take different approaches to their fifty hour penalty. Once they’re allowed to return to the test, they must overcome many more obstacles. Eventually, they arrive before two doors with one hour left. One door leads to a long and difficult path that allows five people to pass. The other door leads to a short and easy path that only allows three people to pass. How will the five members vote on this decision…?

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Ah, the fun of the penalty box. With fifty hours sacrificed where they basically have to kill time, we get to see other applicants making their way down in short order after Hisoka and a couple of others, adding some interesting characters to the mix that have survived the hurdles. While Gon and his group idle out, the rest idle down there since they can’t exit the Trick Tower until it’s all done. The place is a pretty good part of the test for getting rid of a lot of applicants that are still holding on at this point and the penalty will definitely make things much more difficult for them. Of course, spending all that time with Tonpa could be a real issue as well since he’s so precisely critical about how events went down so far that someone, like Leorio, will likely beat the snot out of him given the ridge nudge.

Spending all that time together is definitely a challenge, but we get to see some good, solid personality ideas about who they are. Leorio has a hard time staying idle and gets frustrated easily. Kurapika spends a lot of his time relaxing and reading and Tonps just kills time as best as he can while sowing seeds of dissent along the way of Leorio. The cuteness come sin watching how Gon and Killua handle everything since they’re the youngest there and basically just play a whole lot while also training in small ways and having fun with things. There’s even some good teaching moments when it comes to the two as Gon gives him a few pointers on fishing and the like. The more time those two spend together, the more easily you see the very accessible and solid bond the two have shared since first meeting, cuteness and all.

When everyone does get underway, the situation turns pretty complex when they’re offered a choice of paths where one will take too long but the other will get them there in just a few minutes. The problem is that they have to sacrifice a few members in order to do it. With the seeding of guilt and anger that Tonpa put in over the penalty time, it’s one that plays out with a lot of tension as everyone stakes out their positions clearly. Getting through this particular challenge is definitely unlike the others and it’s one that actually plays out in short order, which feels off of spending so much time in the penalty room. It’s like it’s rushed, but it’s not really as it just pushes through the final challenge.

In Summary:
Hunter x Hunter has a lot of fun with all the down time that occurs here and normally these kinds of sequences can be pretty rough to get through as shows don’t like writing quiet time like this into events. Giving us a chance to see the characters in another light here while idling is definitely welcome as it adds just a bit more to them to make them interesting and fun to watch. The core of the story is of course on Gon and his crew, but we also get the resolution of the Trick Tower which looks like it has some very interesting results when you look at who actually survived it to this stage. As with past episodes, it really comes down to whether you like this crew or not. I continue to find all the members of it, Tonpa excepted, to be a lot of fun and enjoy watching the way they interact with each other. This episode is no exception and is just a lot of fun.

Grade: B+

Readers Rating: [ratings]

Streamed By: Crunchyroll

Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.