Welcome back for another episode of My Taste is Better Than Yours! Back to Hunter X Hunter we go, but for the last time in a long while it seems. It’s the “Succession Contest” arc – for all its massive scope (very) theoretically just the prequel to the “Dark Continent” arc. It’s unique among HxH arcs in many ways – including in our respective takes on it. As always, thanks for watching and listening.
Podcast links:
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September 14, 2025 at 2:29 pmReally enjoying this discussion… I still remember the Hunter x Hunter podcast you did with Samu back on RandomC, what, 10 years ago?
I agree that the hiatuses make it harder to follow, but I’m mostly with Samu in that, intellectually, I’m on the edge of my seat every time a new chapter comes out. But I also agree with you that a narrative spine is missing — I don’t think we should understate the absence of Gon and Killua, and also, the Kakin royal family are basically the main characters here, but they were never really built up or even mentioned in the previous arcs.
I think the Heavens Arena fight showed us that Chrollo is exceptionally skilled and can scheme around Hisoka, but my prediction is that if Hisoka takes out the rest of the Troupe, Chrollo will be so blinded by grief and rage that he will lose the rematch with Hisoka. And to build on your discussion about the Chrollo/Kurapika parallels, I think Kurapika will have to make a choice, and he will choose to abandon his revenge to protect Woble.
Guardian Enzo
September 14, 2025 at 4:16 pmThat’s possible with Kurapika. I don’t see it ending well for him but I think he goes out with grace, if anything.
Lack of narrative spine is a good way of putting it. It’s a jumble of interesting concepts and (mostly) interesting characters without a raison d’être tying it all together.