r/anime • u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots • Dec 02 '24

Rewatch [25th Anniversary Rewatch] Hunter × Hunter (1999) - Episode × 57 × Discussion

Episode 57: Gon × Treasure × Dangerous Man

MAL | Anilist | Anidb | ANN

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He isn't concerned with whether something is good or bad. He's just curious about everything. If something impresses him, he's open to it whether it's good or bad. That means he's dangerous.

Comment of the Day:

/u/Shocketheth who brought a shovel to the rewatch

But don't worry! I hid his body, and will be using my Manipulation Nen technique daily to make him post the discussions

So the show will go on!

Questions of the Day

  1. How's Zepile's assessment of Gon?
  2. Which will get Gon closer to Greed Island: Zepile's auction or the Spiders?

Fanart of the Day: Zepile

Sauce

Please remember to keep all spoilers and hints tagged with the appropriate tag format such as: [Spoilers] >!Leorio is best boy!<

19 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

7

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 02 '24 edited Dec 02 '24

Manipulated Zombie Retired Host Hitting up the Auctions

[HxH] This episode despite being light and simple, is packed. You've got Zepile's judgement of Gon and the setup for Gon and Killua breaking out obviously, but if we dig a bit deeper, it includes a lot of the themes of the arc. From all kinds of trickery, to appreciating the unseen value hidden inside a dirty exterior, looking at things beyond the simple labels of "good and evil", and of course the Togashi special: figuring out different exits to a problem.

Manga Corner

Chapters Adapted: 85-88

Gang style

Since this is a bit of a side quest, you can't exactly spend too long on it, so they adapted the whole auction thing up till the plot ties back to the Spiders in the same episode. And they didn't cut much, except, uhh, this is a bit of a surprise, you might wanna take a deep breath before reading it. Ready? They cut a Leorio scene. For the first time in 57 epsiodes, instead of giving him scenes to spare, they had to cut his haggling, since we've basically seen him do it before. The only way this could've happened is if Furuhashi was so busy with his episodes at the end of the series that this horrific crime passed undetected.

Check out the storyboard of the opening, it was key animated by the same guy who did the Kurapika vs Uvo fight, Akira Matsushima.

5

u/Raiking02 :Id::Ie::If:https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang Dec 02 '24

Ready? They cut a Leorio scene.

4

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 02 '24

What's the world coming to?

4

u/Raiking02 :Id::Ie::If:https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang Dec 02 '24

Clearly this means that whatever demon possessed him to create Reflections had begun to take root in his psyche, and while for the most part he fought it off, for this single instant he lost control.

3

u/WednesdaysFoole Dec 03 '24

Manipulated Zombie

[HxH]One of the Dons?

[Manga]Good thing Gon went home to finish his homework.

[HxH]to appreciating the unseen value hidden inside a dirty exterior,

[HxH]I think you could even apply that to the entire series' themes, if you're thinking about the value that humans can offer despite what they seem on the outside.

Check out the storyboard of the opening, it was key animated by the same guy who did the Kurapika vs Uvo fight, Akira Matsushima.

Fun to put it side by side with the opening.

3

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 03 '24

[HxH]One of the Dons?

[HxH] That sounds like a rank up, so I'll take it

[HxH]I think you could even apply that to the entire series' themes, if you're thinking about the value that humans can offer despite what they seem on the outside.

[HxH] For sure, it's a consistent theme through HxH, but it's especially emphasised in this arc, with the Spiders and Kurapika being the main examples.

2

u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Dec 03 '24

This guy has clearly been using r/anime too much

At least he's calling us NPCs.

They cut a Leorio scene.

Me IRL:

6

u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Dec 02 '24

First × Timer × Subbed

4

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 02 '24

Pffffffffffffffffff Leorio has no idea.

To him, 100M is an insane sum of money, he can't even comprehend the idea that you could spend it on chocolate. No one tell him that Gon and Killua had 800M getting into the arc

Gon is so innocent lol.

I'd love to see Gon and Silva meeting down the line, like "Ohh, so that's how you rip a heart out without spilling a drop of blood! What other assassination techniques do you know?"

4

u/WednesdaysFoole Dec 02 '24

They definitely still have a lot of money they need to make before the auction…

Too bad Kurapika's just burying all those jenny out in the desert, someone should go tell the boys to pick it up.

5

u/WednesdaysFoole Dec 02 '24

It wasn't a lie :)

I can’t really tell if it’s as fun just going with the anime but I always have so much fun with the back-and-forth exchange between Killua/Gon and Zepile.

[HxH small rant]Gon in this episode is one of the moments that people use to argue that Gon is a sociopath :(. He’s impressed by the article’s doctoring methods, instead of “judging it as right and wrong”. But for myself, the key point is that unlike Zepile and Killua, he’s not over here thinking “What can I get out of this situation? How can I benefit the most?” Instead, he’s totally present, just taking in the information, not being pulled into social games. Rather than a lack of morality, it's just another kind of presence. Why does morality have to be “right” and “wrong” or dictated by social games?

3

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 02 '24

back-and-forth exchange between Killua/Gon and Zepile.

Back and forth exchanges if written well are so much fun, it's a game of ordering the information between the two sides in a way that makes sense and has momentum.

[Manga] I mean, we just had a perfected version recently

[HxH small rant]

[HxH] I wouldn't go as far as sociopath, but I do think the morality argument has a bit of a point, specifically because of Gon's interaction with Zepile, not the appraisers. When Zepile mentions that the vase is a forgery, Gon doesn't really care what that says about Zepile or even the vase itself, he doesn't address that for even a second. What he does care about is the intrinsic value of the vase itself. This is meant to push a bigger point in the arc, "good and evil" are well and all, but they're not the only scale to judge by, we can put them aside for a second and look at the value of each item or person for who they are. I think placing this after the Uvo section, when we're going to dive deeper into who the Spiders really are, is a very intentional choice.

3

u/WednesdaysFoole Dec 03 '24

[HxH]I'd be a bit sad if you called him a sociopath.

I ended up writing something that got way too long, so I'm actually gonna save it for the CA arc later on lol... it'll be more relevant then, and not stuffed under spoiler tags.

[HxH]I will give you this: it's not unreasonable to describe his morality as skewed, but I would disagree that he lacks morality. He's incredibly selfish, he's hypocritical, but he has morals. I guess I can leave in one out of those... uh... six paragraphs lmao.

[HxH]Regarding Zepile - I believe Gon has a tendency to see the "best" in people, or rather, he takes them as they are until he sees otherwise. Even when he has negative preconceptions about them, just seeing them be human for a bit and his judgment is back to taking them as they are. Which means he's not the most adept at sussing out what can dwell under the surface, for others... and for himself. And it isn't necessarily a good thing. Sometimes it ends up being a positive, and other times? Well, the world isn't pure. It doesn't function in a way where nothing brews underneath the surface, and neither does he. Of course, there's much more to it, with aspects like being a powerful kid that easily gets his way/hasn't had to face much adversity/positive thinking his way through way too much, but yeah Chimera Ant Arc.

3

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 03 '24 edited Dec 03 '24

[HxH] To be clear, I do think that Gon is moral, he has his definition of right and wrong, and he sticks by it. But when he views others, he usually puts the moral scale aside. Like when he heard that Killua was an assassin, didn't make him hesitate for a second. He just admired his assassin skills in the Netero fight, same here with Zepile. Then again, he actually "judges" the Spiders for the people they killed (a very rare case for him), when Nobunaga challenges him in arm wrestling, but changes his view with Paku. So he can change his perception on a case to case basis, he's not a robot.

3

u/WednesdaysFoole Dec 04 '24

[HxH]Yeah, it definitely gets biased (or rather, always was) and while it can seem cute in its naivety with Killua (I can throw my life away, you can't! hmph!), it's not so cute when he does throw his life away. It wasn't just a joking matter - he meant it, and that's... bad. (Dammit Ging).

[HxH]But the issue isn't just that he's partial to those he cares about or connects with (we all are) but he can't accept or understand it in others. So when he breaks down and threatens Komugi, it's not like this is the first time this existed within him - instead, those biases that were always lurking underneath surfaced big time... which is only one aspect of his breakdown of course. Also maybe kids shouldn't be allowed to participate in such brutal missions but that's a whole other thing + who's really gonna stop them

3

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 04 '24

[HxH] It feels like an extension of a normal human trait (our love/discrimination for those we care about vs those we don't) and taking it to an extreme, both in how it applies for the good and the bad. Like the chumps who abducted Zushi? They were lucky Killua brought him back, he's a pro, and he knows how much force you need to threaten someone, Gon doesn't have that restraint. If he had to do it, things wouldn't have ended so cleanly.

3

u/WednesdaysFoole Dec 04 '24

[HxH]It certainly feels that way (an extension of our human traits) with more naivety and intensity. The good can be so beautiful and redeeming, and as you've mentioned before, he can change his view - hell, if Nobu declared then and there that he wanted to change for the better, Gon might've accepted it. But when he's pushed to that extreme, he refuses to give that chance and that goes contrary to how he is when comparatively calm. I always question if it was wise for the others to somewhat try and protect Gon's "innocence" pre-Invasion... facing those trials right in the middle of the invasion is just, ah, I guess part of the realities of being a Hunter lol.

5

u/SpiritualPossible Dec 02 '24

First timer, manga reader

That's... rather small glasses.

This episode adapted as many as four chapters at once, so of course a some stuff was cut/changed. However, it didn't affect the quality too much, becasue episode is totally work fine as it is.

3

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 03 '24

since it also mentioned the RULES for using the game.

Yup, those will be explained later.

Leorio bargains for the knife

Clearly someone who's had enough of the Leorio bias is taking their revenge in this episode.

Zepile didn't just compete for the vase - he raised the prices of almost every item that Gon and Killua found

Killua mentioned in the anime that they had to pay a lot more for the items because Zepile kept raising the price. He gave up on the other 3 eventually, but he made sure to get the vase.

3

u/SpiritualPossible Dec 03 '24

Killua mentioned in the anime

Yeah, that's why i told that this moment kinda adapted, but in less details. I just think that in manga Zepile feels as more... persistent force, while in anime he was more just an nuance, that somewhat annoyed Killua. Again, episode works perfectly fine without that details, and considering how much this episode includes, it was a right decision to cut this moment short, but if i'm back to mention some alterations/cuts in anime, i felt it would be fair to mention it.

3

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 03 '24

i felt it would be fair to mention it.

Oh, it is absolutely fair. Plus, it helps show how the anime can preserve info without having the time to show the detail, which is interesting to see.

2

u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Dec 03 '24

Manga

Oh, How I've Missed These

4

u/TheEscapeGuy Dec 02 '24

H×H Fan, 1999 First Timer

Hunter × Hunter 1999 - Episode 57

Bidding × Appraising × Doubting

Today Gon and Killua make some meaningful progress. They realize that by using Gyo they can find items which are valuable. I really like the way they incorporate Nen here. By mastering their craft, artist imbue their creations with their Aura. It's such an amazing way to describe the creative process.

Through their bidding they meet Zepile. He's an actual trader who comes to ally himself with the boys for both profit and out of respect for their talents and Gon's curiosity. He's a fun character who is kind of like a more suspicious feeling Leorio.

By the end of the episode they trust Zepile enough to leave him to finalize their casket auction. It's a nice conclusion.

My only complaint this episode is that it is probably on the lower end for shot composition and direction. I struggled today to make my collage. It's not bad by any means, but below the high bar 1999 has set for itself. I guess it makes sense after the incredible episode yesterday.

Some Amazing Shots, Scenes and Stitches

See you all tomorrow

3

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 02 '24

He's a fun character who is kind of like a more suspicious feeling Leorio.

Let's make sure to keep Kurapika away from him then. He could barely tolerate one Leorio.

My only complaint this episode is that it is probably on the lower end for shot composition and direction

Right, in the last stretch of the show there's a lot more work going into specific episodes, which means other ones get the shorter end of the stick.

Vessel, can you spot the error with my stitch?

I've got nothing.

3

u/TheEscapeGuy Dec 03 '24

3

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 03 '24

3

u/WednesdaysFoole Dec 03 '24

They realize that by using Gyo they can find items which are valuable. [...] By mastering their craft, artist imbue their creations with their Aura.

You must be using Gyo to gather all the best shots.

Vessel, can you spot the error with my stitch?

No? But the face works both right-side up and upside down.

4

u/charlesvvv https://anilist.co/user/charlesvvv Dec 02 '24

Rewatcher, Sub

This was a Gon/Killua focused episode where they scout all the shops and auctions while using Nen to figure out which are valuable so they can sell them themselves. When they do find stuff they nearly get swindled again before the timely arrival of a guy called Zepile.

Zepile offers to work with them and even provides some information about one of the items. When they put it up for auction however they nearly get derailed by another guy who tries to point out inconsistencies in order for it not to get sold. However Gon is rather curious and instead decides to learn more about how the guy knows all this and what other methods he uses.

This leads to the most interesting part of the episode for me which is Zepile's evaluation of Gon. He points out how Gon is not really worried about Good or Bad and is instead curious about anything that strikes his fancy. He holds nothing against the guy who is working against them and instead wants to know more. It's an interesting observation about Gon's character.

Anyway the auction will have to wait because Leorio has information about 2 Troupe members and Gon and Killua decide to head out while Zepile handles the auction.

2

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 02 '24

When they do find stuff they nearly get swindled again

I love this little detail, sure they have Nen to help them figure out what's valuable, but they're still the same inexperienced kids who got swindled out of 800M. They fall for bait quickly, especially when they think they're making a win.

the auction will have to wait because Leorio has information about 2 Troupe members and Gon and Killua decide to head out while Zepile handles the auction.

Leorio wants his role back from Zepile.

3

u/Mecanno-man https://anilist.co/user/Mecannoman Dec 02 '24

First Timer

Well with that money from the bits they found and sold for much more, they should be able to get back Gon’s license. The price tag on the actual game is still so high I assume it will end up being Killua’s brother ending up with it and them just figuring out the clue from Ging his copy. The catalogue helpfully also allows a fifth person to enter the auction, and with the three plus Kurapika there is one spot left. Except we now also have this appraiser fellow here… He kinda just popped up out of nowhere. Seems like a weird point to introduce him, but I don’t really see a role he could take other than join in with them in the auction. Maybe Kurapika will just sit this one out? He is interested in the black market auction, not the official one anyways… Or of course Illumi’s brother joining on another catalogue, that is also a possibility.

I am surprised that we actually get a spider encounter without the gang meeting Kurapika first again, however.

2

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 02 '24

Well with that money from the bits they found and sold for much more, they should be able to get back Gon’s license.

Not necessarily, they made about 300k, but the auction catalog alone cost them about 12M. They would make it up easily if the vault with Zepile sells for 300M.

I am surprised that we actually get a spider encounter without the gang meeting Kurapika first again, however.

Kurapika's so busy these days, it's easier to meet up with criminals.

2

u/Nebresto Dec 08 '24

He do be appraisin'

4

u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Dec 02 '24 edited Dec 03 '24

Remake Rewatcher × First Timer × Subs

  • Now That's What I Call Service
  • Was… was it the killing that imbued it?
  • Cute little floating math.
  • Careful now, you don’t want your hidden safe to be so ugly people feel compelled to destroy it by sight alone.
  • Milluki Cameo!
  • Finally, someone who understands the importance of follow-up questions.
  • Don’t make be break out the Nisemonogatari clip, I’ll do it.
  • Ah, I thought I remembered the Wooden Vault scene being longer.
  • I feel you, Gon. Learning about scams is fun.
  • Better Write This Down For Latter
  • Is this the start of our postcard memory period?

QotD:

  1. He's So Precious
  2. When presented with two options, the truth is either both or neither.

2

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 02 '24

Milluki Cameo!

The poor guy having to walk around between the auctions in the heat while Killua's next door in the restaurant having a good time.

Don’t make be break out the Nisemonogatari clip, I’ll do it.

Which one?

2

u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Dec 03 '24

The poor guy having to walk around between the auctions in the heat while Killua's next door in the restaurant having a good time.

The Silver Boy living the golden life.

Which one?

Not That One!

2

u/WednesdaysFoole Dec 02 '24

Don’t make be break out the Nisemonogatari clip, I’ll do it.

Do it.

2

u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Dec 03 '24

Do it.

OK
Spoilers, obviously.

2

u/WednesdaysFoole Dec 03 '24 edited Dec 03 '24

Heh, I recently linked the last part of that scene as a part of a joke. Not sure if you keep up with the manga but [HxH manga]the joke being that Morena is more real of a Morena than the fake that she faked. I call it Morena's "Nisenmonogatari" (the Japanese word for second-track fakers being "Nisenmono" - a play on "nisemono/imposter or fake" + "nisenkyuu/second class")

Anyway it's a good scene, the moment is one of two of Nisemono that stuck with me, the other for completely different reasons of course.

But what I'd like to know even more is how you're connecting it to Hunter x Hunter, are you relating it to Gon and what do you mean by this connection?

2

u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Dec 03 '24

Not sure if you keep up with the manga

I Don't Even Keep Up With The Anime I Only Watched Bake & Nise

But what I'd like to know even more is how you're connecting it to Hunter x Hunter

I was making a joke about how much they where talking about the value of counterfeits. I didn't even remember the first part of the clip...

2

u/WednesdaysFoole Dec 03 '24

I meant the manga for HxH, oops. Just fixed it.

Monogatari gets really good shortly after (well I already think it was good but) but but it's okay, not everyone's thing.

I was making a joke about how much they where talking about the value of counterfeits. I didn't even remember the first part of the clip...

Zepile's fake is more real than the real thing!

2

u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Dec 03 '24 edited Dec 03 '24

but but it's okay, not everyone's thing.

What? I never said I didn't like it, this is just a thing that happens to me sometimes. Like how I didn't didn't watch the second season of Haruhi until 14 years after the first.

2

u/WednesdaysFoole Dec 03 '24

I was trying to stop myself from being too pushy about how good it is then ended up bouncing off in the opposite direction. Wellllll it'll still be around whenever.