Hunter x Hunter Movie 2: The Last Mission

Hunter x Hunter is a series that often defies expectations. It is almost as if Togashi weaves magic into his writing to make it unpredictable and Madhouse uses their magic to create a richly animated version that shows just as much heart. This magic is what creates the renowned television series today. But does Hunter x Hunter: The Last Mission have this same magic? Well, let’s see –

A plot that centers around revenge is not a new concept in Hunter x Hunter. Two of its main characters have had revenge as a motivation during at least one point in the original anime series. However, ... their revenge tales are interesting and even novel at times. Although the plot of The Last Mission is even reminiscent of Kurapika’s journey for vengeance, the execution of the three original character’s revenge is simple and predictable. It is so simple that it can even be described in one sentence. With no specific spoilers, the plot of The Last Mission is that everyone in Heaven’s Arena and Netero are taken hostage by four people; therefore, while the protagonists try to free the captives, they each encounter an enemy tailored for them to battle which they eventually defeat with some casualties, and that casualty is what causes Gon to fight against the final boss. Considering this setup, how do you suppose the final showdown will progress? Hint: if you have seen any other battle shounen movies such as Naruto, Bleach, or Inuyasha, just take one of their final battles and there you go, it’s almost exactly the same as The Last Mission’s.

Even with many characters making a return in The Last Mission, their presence is heavily muted because of the movie's attempt to develop its new characters. While trying to characterize new characters is important, the movie takes a typical route of giving them a brief, melancholy flashback and a protagonist that sympathizes with them in order to make their actions justifiable. This standard and lazy characterization creates little attachment and development to the characters, causing them to have a textbook feel and minimal depth. Even when returning characters were on-screen, their actions are warped in order to suit the plot’s need and there is little reminder that in the original television series, they actually have a personality and are properly characterized.

The art and animation of the movie is lackluster. Shading is often nonexistent, thus giving characters and backgrounds a flat look. The characters were also sloppy drawn with considerably less detail. Even the animation leaves much to be desired. Not much continuous and fluid motion is shown. While battles take place in interesting locations, the lack of fluid movement and the subpar art create battles with little impact or grandeur.

The Last Mission had the ingredients it needed in order to be compelling. However, Madhouse’s lack of fervor shows through the movie’s mediocre art and animation. And without Togashi as the writer, even the characters that the audience have become attached to cannot hold an uninspired plot and standard characters afloat.

Simply put, Hunter x Hunter: The Last Mission was not woven together with magic. Now whether magic is needed in order for you to enjoy the movie is up to you. But those who hope to be enticed by the magic that the television series was endowed with will be disappointed.

I can't believe I am giving such a poor score for one of my favorite shounen series, but this score will do justice to this film.

Like most anime movies based on a running TV series, the trailer and the first five minutes of the film is unfortunately better than the rest of the film.

A lot of your favorite characters and some current characters in the arc will make an appearance, but most importantly you hope the film will reveal some interesting information about the Hunter x Hunter universe that the TV show didn't get a chance to show.

Well if you were expecting ... for anything like that, then turn away fast because you will be very disappointed.

The story is about the return of the bitter cofounder of the Hunter association and "On" user Jed, who seeks to eradicate every Nen user in the world because he was defeated by Netero in the past.

So he comes back with three naive children with a poorly explored background story and a bunch of mindless prisoners he brainwashed to kidnap Netero.

The rest of the film follows Gon, Killua, and Kurapika fighting Jed's underlings with occasional cutscenes from the antagonists explaining why they hate the Hunter Association so much.

Apart from Gon, the main characters weren't acting like their usual self from the TV show.

Gon was still a peacekeeper who wants to protect everything in his sight. Killua was acting like Gon's bitch (literally), Kurapika was acting like an emo, and I honestly don't know why they listed Leorio as a main character in the film because I seriously felt like some of the supporting characters got more screentime than him.

As for Hisoka, I assume he was placed in the film so he could appear in the trailer to generate more revenue for the greedy producers. It was fun to see his spiderman skills, but really he does nothing in the film other than make some obvious remarks.

The animation was not very good. Some of the faces and body seem distorted sometimes, but the colors were sharp and you could see what is happening in the dark. This was good because a lot of the fights occur in the dark.

Most of the soundtracks (if not all) were borrowed the series, I didn't pay too much attention to the background music because of all the action going on.

I honestly think the story could have been a good arc in the anime provided they expanded on the characters and this "On" business.

Since the TV show is about to end, I do not recommend you watch this immediately because in all honestly you are going to feel like you just watched a Naruto movie. Wait a few months and when you feel you want to see some "refreshing" Hunter x Hunter material apart from the TV show, grab this, but lower your expectations.

It may be true that the two movies representing the TV show are far inferior to its parental installment, but I'm going to disagree on the fact that most people here are bashing this movie for being extremely clichéd and mundane.

To start off this review, I'll let you know that I am a huge fan of the series, but this movie was on the disappointing side. The plot is set around somewhere after the Greed Island arc and the beginning of the Chimera Ant arc after both our protagonists Gon and Killua have met up with Kite and take a detour from their journey ... to visit the Heaven's Arena to cheer on for their friend Zushi, who's taking part in the fight. Whilst they're on it 4 mysterious group of people enter the arena to fulfill their ulterior motive; The demise of all the Hunters with the use of "On" which is exactly the opposite side of "Nen" and which derives it powers from pure hatred.

While the premise of the movie is not put together to be quite a blockbuster ride, it does set up an intriguing following.

The characters are all and the same except for our new 4 antagonists who are trying to kill the Hunters once and for all. They are not worth remembering for a long time as well, like Omokage from the first Hunter x Hunter movie. The little girl from the 4 villains has no character development at all and we are left with absolutely nothing regarding to her past only besides that they all were refugees once who escaped from the Hunters who were trying to cleanse their Shadow Clan.

Considering the art, this was the most disappointing factor of the movie. While nowhere near being appalling, it was very, very bad compared to the TV series. You'd expect better with all the budget put into the franchise.

All in all the movie doesn't leave you satisfied a lot. If you had watched this after completing the series it makes it all the more displeasing. It does not have the charm and excitement as its series and it's just an average installment. But on the other side it does have some pros as well. It does well with the premise it's given and doesn't do anything reckless from its timeline and that doesn't have any effect on the original series at all, meaning you won't miss anything if you watch it after you finish the series.

To end it I'd say this was the least pleasing movie of the two and the franchise combined. But it's not completely horrible and still a lot of fun to watch if you're a Hunter x Hunter fan.

Hunter x Hunter, a series renowned for its unique and intelligent battles, is one of the best lengthy shounen/action series I've ever seen. However, this movie throws all of that out of the window of an extraordinarily tall tower and prefers to use more senseless, "beat-em-up with the power of friendship" tactics.

The story is pretty basic: A small group of refugees band together with a powerful rival of the Hunter Association in order to get revenge on them. The story takes place at Heaven's Arena, the tower where Gon and Killua fought while learning the basics of Nen. It brings back some characters from previous ... arcs who all gather in the Arena to watch a tournament which happens to be the target of the group of refugees-turned-terrorists. Their goal is to defeat the chairman, Netero, and spread On, a rage-based counterpart to Nen. The story seems good enough at first but eventually ends up being solely driven by the power of Killua and Gon's friendship and nothing else. Side events like what the Hunter Association is doing during the turmoil go absolutely nowhere, and most of the side characters are just there for people to enjoy seeing them again. Even Hisoka does nothing but add a little card-related symbolism into the mix and use his spidey-powers to transport Leorio to the fight.

As for the new characters (which are just the group of antagonists), the minor villains are fairly interesting. Their reason for fighting is believable and churns up some good emotions along with the battles. Mainly the guy with the mohawk stands out, as his battle with Gon and Killua is done pretty well and lasts the longest. However, the main villain is about as boring as you can get. Considering how excellent the main villains in the series are, he just has nothing to back him up aside from showing one moment of genuine compassion for his underlings.

The animation is surprisingly no better than that of the series, which is a letdown considering movie budgets usually allow for better animation than TV shows. The soundtrack is still the same good soundtrack from the show as well and even uses "Hyouriittai" once again for the ending theme.

While this film is certainly not as good as the show, it's still something worth checking out if you're a fan of the series and want more. Like most of HxH, it focuses mainly on Gon and Killua even though Kurapica and Leorio return for a bit. The movie takes place sometime around the very beginning of the Chimera Ant arc, so I would not recommend to this anyone who has not at least gotten that far.

Story - 5/10
Art - 8/10
Sound - 7/10
Character - 6/10
Enjoyment - 7/10
Overall - 7/10

Near the beginning of the movie, Gon says something along the lines of "this feels nostalgic" as he sees the towering Heaven's Arena. I actually think that was my general impression after watching the movie. The art and sound were good, but the story and characterization honestly was rather lacking(that's putting it lightly since the plot was probably as cliche as you could get). Yet, it was probably nostalgia (at least in my case) that made the movie still enjoyable to watch.

What kind of nostalgia am I talking about? I'm talking about that ... feeling you get when you see Zushi(OSU!! kid), Wing, and Biske(I miss Greed Island @_@) again at Heaven's Arena . It's that feeling you get when you see Leorio being the butt of the jokes once again (I think all the gloom and doom of the Chimera Ant arc made me forget how funny he can be sometimes). It's that feeling that you get when you see Gon use a fishing rod again (man that feels like such a long time ago).

To be fair, most of these moments are as brief and as inconsequential as Pariston's cameo in this movie. But for die hard Hunter X Hunter fans and even semi-casual fans like me I'm sure will be entertained enough by these moments to walk away from this movie with a positive feeling.

If you like Hunter X Hunter a lot, I'm sure you'll enjoy this movie.
Just don't come in here expecting the epic narrative of the Chimera Ant arc condensed into a nice one and a half hour movie.

*** IN-DEPTH REVIEW BUT WITH SLIGHT SPOILERS ***

Art - 8/10
I actually though the art and animation was a big plus in this movie. I liked the character designs of the villains (those eyes). I thought the animation of the new aura, On, accompanying these villains was rather nice too (especially that one scene where Jed destroys all those blimps. You have to admit that was pretty awesome). The battle animation, in my opinion, was nice and fluid (mostly referring to Gon & Killua vs. Gaki). Maybe I have low expectations and/or was more aware of it since it's a movie, but I felt the animation was great and definitely movie quality.

Sound - 7/10
There were a LOT of recycled songs from the TV show all throughout the movie. The ending song of the movie was actually Hyouriittai (ending song for the Chimera Ant arc). Overall, the songs were appropriate though, and I was actually impressed by their orchestral arrangement of Hyouriittai. Besides the song sounding nice, they somehow made it fit both the joyful mood at the beginning of the movie and the bittersweet mood of the end. That was a big plus for me, but then again, I always thought that ending song was pretty catchy.

Story - 5/10
Pros of the movie in this department were probably...
1) They established the context of the movie early in the movie with a quick flashback (to see how poorly flashbacks can be utilized, go watch Road to Ninja, ughhh).
2) Pacing, for the most part, felt okay.
And...that's pretty much it.

Seriously, for an anime that has stories that often think outside of the shounen box or takes creative licenses, the plot for this movie was probably as bland/ cliche as it could get. I mean, just look at the name for the group of villains (the Shadow >_>). Not to mention the whole aura of hate and anger (On) vs. the power of friendship and compassion. The fact that you can sum up the plot of the movie with "a group of evil, vengeful guys attack Heaven's Arena and hold Netero hostage, leaving Gon and friends to save the day" is disappointing.

Characters - 6/10

For Gon, I really liked what they did to reinforce his character from the moment where he saves the balloon for the little girl at the beginning of the movie to the moment where he willingly uses On to save his friends (that is honestly such a Gon thing to do).

For the others, Killua was Killua as usual, shining the most during the elevator scene vs. Gaki where he comes up with a clever plan to trap Gaki. Leorio did not really have a big part in this movie, but he added some comic relief which I rather enjoyed.

Kurapika had an interesting dynamic with the villains since he's also in this hate-filled vengeful state as they are. Though they touched on this issue, I really felt like they could have explored it a bit more thoroughly, and I was disappointed with his role in this movie. (I think Kurapika using On vs. the others is definitely something they could have written in).

Hisoka, though, was probably the biggest disappointment in this movie as he pretty much does nothing in it besides add some interesting symbolism to the movie. There was that one scene where he tells Gon that to beat a royal flush (the villains) with a four of a kind(Gon + friends), you need a wild card. I thought that was Hisoka's way of making his brilliant entrance into the battle grounds but noooo. In the end, I'm guessing he was just referring to friendship as the wildcard -,-. The fact that he just sits out of all these fights is honestly out of character for him to begin with. I would have appreciated him not being in the movie at all then seeing him act this way.

The villains, sadly, were not as developed as I would've liked them to be. My favorite villain was actually the girl who I thought had a lot of potential from the moment she smiles at the kid who bumps into her. We all know how her character got butchered -,-". Overall, I just wish they delved more into how the schism between Jed and Netero developed. I felt like Netero's motivation for destroying the Shadow and the Hunter Association's reasoning for moving descendants of the Shadow into concentration camps was never fully explained. If they had at least spent a little more time explaining basic thing like those issues or how Jed even came back to life instead of scenes like the one where Gaki destroys all the tanks(what a waste of animation/time), I would have been happier with the characterization (and probably the story) overall.

Excuse my french , but this movie was total shit.
For me watching this movie was about as pleasant as having urine sprayed into your eyes, and about as funny.
Don't get me wrong, I love the original series but at moments where i was supposed to feel connected to the characters, i was laughing at how cheesy and half-assed the scenes were. The movie was filled with forced "nakama power" factor to the point it became really annoying, not to mention the fact that the story is filled with many loop holes. I'm not gonna spoil anything but my advice to all HxH fans: "Don't watch ... this"

I don't understand all the hatred for this movie... it was excellent. It was a perfect add-on to the main story. We got to know Netero better and many of our favorite characters were shown back such as Kurapika.
+
The artwork and the soundtrack were epic as always.
+
Lots of fighting and feelz.
=
9/10

I cried during the ending of the movie because it was so bad.



The movie introduces "On", which is basically a "darker" Nen form that basically stems from revenge. Three new characters get introduced as the villian's sidekicks, who sacrifice themselves and die when they fail to defeat a Hunter due to their vow with On. Netereo also gets pinned to the top of Heaven's Arena by On even though he is one of the strongest Hunters out there and does nothing for the entire movie except for the ending when he deals with the villian, while the entir scenario gets saved by the POWER OF ... FRIENDSHIP as Killua gives Gon a embrace which solves everything.

The movie was still alright due to the fact that we got to see the original 4 together.

Well, that was interesting.

The main problem I have with non-canon material is that it feels like it's a waste of time. That wasn't really the case in this movie, not for the most part. I felt like I had to watch the whole thing and I'm glad I did.

Saying that I felt the characters were very lacking, saying some pretty stupid lines and literally doing the same thing they did in the Chimera Ant arc in the anime (which I'm pretty sure is meant to happen after this movie).

The final confrontation was alright I guess, but it left me feeling ripped off. I didn't get ... into it or feel anything for the characters, though I didn't feel like I wanted it to be over already. They had something there, but not quite the something I was hoping for.

The music was pretty good. It sounded like remixes but left a lot to be desired and the soundtrack didn't seem to fix into what was happening in the story.

The animation was really good, if not a little bit basic. It reminded me a lot of the Chimera Ant arc from the anime at the end, but I can overlook that since the art was amazing.

Overall this gets a 7/10. I feel it was more than mediocre but not really anything more than just "good". It felt like it was lacking a lot of stuff but it was watchable nonetheless.

I'll keep this short.

The story of this movie isn't exactly one of the best since... it was pretty cliche with the "destroy evil with the POWER OF FRIENDSHIPPP!!" and, at the end, it seemed somewhat rushed. There wasn't much character development either.

As always, the art is great and the animation is top-notch and the music was very fitting for the particular scenes that they were used in. But all of this is just part of the norm for Hunter x Hunter.

What made this movie so enjoyable was the fact that it had many of the aspects that people look for in a movie that accompanies ... their favorite anime series.

A main factor of the enjoyment of this movie was the nostalgia. They brought back everyone's favorite quartet of all time and Gon's fishing pole :). They also reintroduced many of the characters that had not appeared for a long time in the main anime series such as Hisoka, Bisky, Wing-san, and Zuchi.

With the humor and teamwork of the characters, Madhouse really brought fans back to the old adventurous times, when the quartet would constantly work together.
The movie kept me at the edge of my seat, anticipating what would happen next.

I really enjoyed what this movie had to offer. 9/10

Hunter X Hunter is known for its amazing set pieces and story when it comes to the anime adaptation based on the manga. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the movies that are first off not written by the original author and second don’t follow the pacing that most arcs do in Hunter X Hunter.

As far as the plot goes; to begin with, it’s much better when compared to the first movie. This time a group of underground assassins known as “The Shadows” are the antagonists who want to take revenge on the Hunter association (specifically on Netero) for annihilating them. This story is ... about “Nen” Vs “On” in which “On” being the ability of the enemy which is explained in the movie. The movie mainly focuses on Netero, Gon, Killua, Kurapika, Leorio, Hisoka and the 4 members of the Shadows. This story is simple. It doesn’t have too much depth to it nor is it complex to understand like some of the arcs in Hunter X Hunter anime, which some people might come to not like but then again, not every writer has the same skill or vision of what he/she wants to make. This isn’t telling much but if I mention any more it would just spoil the movie.

The soundtracks and animation: Since movies tend to have a bigger budget and taking into consideration of how amazing Madhouse’s regular animation is, this animation is top notch and amazingly done, so much so that I recommend watching the BD version of the movie on 1080p. As for the soundtracks, a lot of them come from the anime and they are perfect fit for the type of movie this is so you won’t be disappointed there.

From a pure HxH fan’s perspective who loves everything about Hunter X Hunter, I was kind of disappointed about how the movie turned out to be. Even though it wasn’t AMAZING, it was definitely good and was satisfying to watch as I was fully indulged in it and was not pausing every now and then. Also I really appreciated the end of the movie. It was nostalgic to see the gang back at the Heavens arena. I always wanted to see the Battle Olympia in action and this fulfilled my request. It was sad in terms of real life as we know that the previous voice actor of Netero (Nagai, Ichiro) passed away after he finished his work on this movie which gave a nice closure to his role of Netero in the HxH universe as well as in the real world. All in all, its a good movie which should be given a shot if you are bored and want some more HxH action.

Final score: 8/10

This movie was so bad that it actually made me took the time to write this (spoiler-free) review.

Even tho I am a huge fan of Hunter x Hunter, I knew I shouldn't put too much expectation onto this film. Having seen the Phantom Rouge one, I figured this movie would be disappointing as well, but I could have never imagined it could reach this level of just plain badness.

The story itself is already an overly used plot, but the way it progressed only made it dumber. Hunter x Hunter is known to have revenge-focused storylines - all of them very well paced, packed with lots ... of action, emotion and character development. The Last Mission does no justice to this at all: it not only builds a very boring story around a new (and also boring) villain but forces it to some very lacking fights and underwhelming speeches that turned out to be just outright cliché.

Even when the plot is already enough to make this film a forgettable one, it also presents us with VERY poorly written characters - not only the new ones but also the ones we love so much -, most of them being part of the movie just for the sake of the fans who want to see them and not serving to the plot AT ALL.

Now it isn't all negative points with The Last Mission: the sound, the music and the animation were correctly used, although the character design and the color palette were much more simplified and a little bit off in comparison to the anime series.

Overall, all of these things somehow merged and came to be the incredibly boring movie I'm reviewing now. Feel free to watch it and see that for yourselves.

This is the second of the two films based on the 2011 Hunter × Hunter anime, and by all accounts this is the one I should hate the most. Phantom Rouge, which I reviewed a few days ago, tried to emulate what the series did and failed in a non-spectacular, but still jarring way. The Last Mission clearly isn't trying to do what the series did with the shounen genre, but that I think that's why I like it more than I did Phantom Rouge.

The Last Mission comes across like a fun B movie to me. The admittedly ridiculous story seems to mostly be an ... excuse to spend time with some of our favorite characteres from the series. It helps that with the smaller scope on the personal drama, the writer is more easily able to keep the characters recognizable as he doesn't feel obligated to try to add any huge dramatic moments that potentially derail the characters, like having Killua attempt suicide. The writing is generally tighter, and none of the characters have any out-of-character moments. Gon and Killua are still fun to watch and both are actually portrayed as competent this time. Kurapika has a bit of an inner conflict about whether or not he's letting his lust for revenge consume him, which ties into both his characterization from the series and the themes of the movie. Leorio is slightly useful again, even if they decide to pretend he wasn't in the ending. The writer was also smart enough to have Hisoka hang around, but not get too involved in what was going on, which fits his character much better than what happened in Phantom Rouge, and he's way too overpowered to take a side anyways. Some other recognizable faces are also added. We get to meet Zushi again, now clearly more experienced and more beefed up. Despite the connection that they have, I think this is also the only time we've seen Wing and Biscuit together.

The one big problem in this regard, however, is that a lot of the characters are put on a bench for ridiculously huge amounts of time. Wing and and Biscuit remain trapped for the majority of the film, poor little Zushi is unconscious for most of it after having been manhandled by a particularly mean henchman and Leorio gets thrown into the sewers very early on and doesn't come back until an hour later. Kurapika also has a fight with a henchman that happens almost entirely offscreen. I really wanted to see some of them do a bit more, but I suspect there's a very specific reason why they don't, and that's so that the film can glorify Gon more, which is something I'll get back to later.

There are some neat ideas that do fit into the universe decently well. On, the counterpart to Nen used by the villains is a bit interesting as it allows its users to use powers from all of Nen's six types, but with much more severe conditions. Since giving your abilities strict conditions is something that makes them stronger in the series, this is thematically fitting. However, I do find the possibility of learning all Nen types questionable, since it requires very long and focused training just to learn one. It's been said it's very unlikely you'll ever be able be as good with a second type, so six seems a bit unrealistic, even with higher restrictions. But for a non-canon movie not made by the original creator, it's a bit clever. At least more so than anything from Phantom Rouge.

The animation is really good, especially in the action scenes. The fight Gon and Killua has with Gaki, (the particularly mean henchman who manhandled Zushi,) is worth the price of admition alone. The animation is smooth and fast-paced, with a lot Nen abilities being used, and it takes place in an elevator shaft with two moving elevators. It's creative and fun. I think the movie could have benefited from a more interesting setting than the Heaven's Arena, which seems to mostly consist of corridors and tight rooms. The film does make the most out of it, though, as it tries to show as many different rooms as possible, as well as have one fight scene take place on the roof, both the series and even Phantom Rouge had much more interesting environments.

Where the film fails is still in the story, however. It's not that there aren't some good ideas. The fact the Hunter association had a division that did the more questionable things they didn't want the public to know about, and that this division went so far that they had to banish it sounds about right for the Hunter association, which is already of rather questionable morality. This also shows us that the chairman Netero isn't as unquestionably good as you might initially believe, something that was also explored in the Chimera Ant arc in the series. The final flashback showing Netero and the main villain, Jed, as friends is also touching. But not much is really done with these themes.

One of the things that made Hunter × Hunter so brilliant, was the way it resolved conflicts. Very rarely was a story arc's conflict resolved through violence, despite the amount of fighting it had as a shounen series. Conflicts are usually resolved through compromises and the characters having to think outside the box. Despite the amount of action, you can't say Hunter × Hunter is just about the fighting, Yoshihiro Togashi almost always puts the story first. In The Last Mission, they have clearly tried to humanize the antagonists, much like the series did. But there still has to be a clear hero and villain, while the series was good at blurring the lines somewhat. The heroes were capable of terrible things, and the antagonists, despite the fact that they did horrible things, still managed to be understandable and human. I can that with the The Last Mission's main villain's henchmen, and their backstory is very sad, but they're just not much of a focus. Jed is, and Jed is not very interesting. He mostly just stands around monologuing.

The story structure in itself just isn't very interesting either. Most of the film is just different characters fighting their way through different parts of the building. I'm not going to say it's just about the action, as a lot of the fighting happens offscreen, but this structure just doesn't allow for a lot of interesting things to happen. The film goes into quite a bit of detail when it comes to the backstory, but it everything that happens in the present is just the usual shounen affair. Bad guys attack, good guys have to figure out a way to stop them, then there's a big fight towards the end, and the film doesn't present an interesting twist on any of these elements.

I mentioned earlier that this film really wants to glorify Gon as much as it can, and you really get a big disgusting taste of that in the climax. At first it looks like Netero is going to be the one to fight Jed and solve the film's conflict, which makes sense since this is essentially his fault to begin with, and it gives us an excuse to see his ridiculously awesome Nen abilities again, but then Gon interrupts solve the problem completely on his own. Even him making a pact with On right before doesn't have any consequences, and is easily undone through the power of friendship. This is jarring especially because the series made it clear that glorifying someone like Gon is not only ill-advised, but can also be very dangerous. I like Gon as a character, but in my opinion he's not a hero, and he doesn't save the day. In this film he's a hero and he saves the day, which doesn't feel right. It's the context of the story that made him interesting in the series, as he himself is very simple, and that's probably why he doesn't work in this film's very simple story. I don't think the film does itself any favors by throwing its much more complex characters to the sidelines either.

All in all, this film was good fun with great animation and entertaining characters, but it's still very jarring that both of the two films based on a series praised for deconstructing and playing around with the shounen genre and a lot of its archetypes just ends up playing well-known clichés straight. I'm not saying the series didn't play any clichés straight at all, but what it did with the shounen genre is truly unique, and these two films fail to represent that. I enjoyed The Last Mission quite a bit, and on its own, it's an alright movie, but I can't defend it as a good Hunter × Hunter film.

Review contain spoilers

I went to the movie with high expectations being HxH a beloved series and popular enough to warrant a reboot.

What i found instead was a sock puppet show. Yes they are the same characters, behaving the exact same way as you would expect, but it felt like they were trapped in a weird limbo state. Let me explain. When movies try too hard to fit into the canon of the story they know they can't overstep their place in the timeline... And oh boy, this movie suffers greatly from it

For starters this is my own fault for watching an old movie in 2021, ... but obviously the power system and scaling felt absolutely outdated from having completed the series (and reading the manga), but don't worry that didn't affect my score one bit.

The movie started and i tried grasping at every frame to define where did it fit in the timeline and i have to admit the movie did a pretty good, albeit a bit try-hardy, job into setting exactly one of the only entry points left by the series. IMHO the continuity and pacing and stakes of HxH are both their biggest strengths and weaknesses when you are trying to make a side quest.

In HxH things don't just happen, they happen for a reason. Our characters are always on a timer, but having them removed from the action, from the usual stakes is way too much to ask for the viewer with constant questions racing through your haed like...where is Kite!? and how about the Chimaera ant leg they found? it's Okay for them to be losing time like this when Kite was REALLY worried..., but yeah you have to disconnect your brain if you don't want to spoil yourself of the little fun you will have with the movie

Battle Olympia for starters is a joke... There is no way you could be invested in something you feel it's like Hercule from DBZ was hosting a tournament... You see Zushi and a bunch of characters you haven't heard (and that's alright) What it's not, is the contant feeling in the back of your head that says "Gon and Killua would mop the floor with these guys"and that's a turn off. This event is broadcasted like the biggest event in martial arts and yet you know it's a mockery as participants have Yamcha's power level. They even show Hisoka (which is a floormaster yet no one seems to remember that fact) So yeah, there is no way your brain can leap over these inconsistencies. Then as the movie goes on you start noticing the "Superman problem"

I can almost see them screenwriting this thing and runing into walls left and right.
Oh shit! Netero is in this thing and Hisoka is on this thing!? O-Okay, don't worry we will just pin Netero down for the whole movie, but what about Hisoka sir???
Oh shit, you are right... Ahm he would just not care! that's it!

They had to remove or stall the more powerful forces. They threw Gon and Killua off the building, get Kurapika to walk towards his destination, pin netero down, nevermind Hisoka out of existance... Plus the Superman syndrome doesn't just extend to our main characters. They had also to nerf established canon. They got rid of the Zodiacs, but kept Pariston which is a dumb move if you are setting on a timeline where we haven't introduced him yet, but OH shit! if that made no sense? Now that the Zodiacs are introduced, they should be gearing up to save the chairman with all the man power of the big 12!, but nope don't worry guys nothing is gonna happen to Netero.

So dumb movie doing dumb things while trying too hard to string your nostalgia chords.

Story is a 4 at best, with a story filled with revenge and friendship as a typical 10yo shounen

Art is pretty on par with the show, but sadly i have to agree here. There are many movies that get the triple AAA treatment and in the process lose their original appeal and here they stuck with it, BUT! and this is a big but... They completely and utterely destroyed how nen looked and made it a trivial power. Only leorio showed KO at one point and that's it. No KEN, No perpetual state of TEN (and yes from the get go i told myself "Dude, they haven't trained with Biske yet so there will be no 30min KEN battles, settle your expectation down!" and so i did, but i wasn't expecting this amount of disrespect to what it is an awesome power system like nen.

Sound it's pretty good and they really leaned in that "let's keep things exactly as the show" theme. That's my best score by far

Character: They were painfully on point, nerfed Kurapika down to grunt status, Killua and Gon were the best by far in how they would normally act. Leorio was just a third unnecesary wheel, Hisoka was obnoxious as always, Netero also suffered his share of nerfing down, and they sprinkled a lot of power ranger level grunts as if this were some kind of old school beat em up with baddies spawning left and right

Enjoyment: a solid 3. I couldn't get past all the bads to really get into the movie
The Gaki fight was confusing as FFFFFFFFF with fireballs coming left and right and at first they were on a shaft, but then they were on the floor, but one second later there is a fireball from the side and you go like WHAT!? but they are on a FREAKING ELEVATOR SHAFT!? so yeah maybe i'm dumb but the choreography and continuity was awful

I'd like to give 3 examples of Dumb movie doing Dumb things...
1) Grunts holding at gunpoint Biske and Wing. On the next scene Biske and Wing are taking care of Zushi like WTF!? they would have shot them! OH NEVERMIND BRAIN you are just being too pessimistic
2) Biske speaking with Gaki about the Shadows and my brain was on Dopamine like OHH SHIT we are going to get a Biske Fight with this guy... Cut to Gaki stomping some tanks -- dafuq!!!
3)Gaki asking what everyone in the audience was thinking "Are You guys Floor masters?" Nah dawg, those chumps aren't even worth our time we are here to bet on the losers

I will end this on a possitive note tho'. When i heard Hyouriittai and realized it fit the movie plot to a T, my jaw dropped hard and it cushioned a bit of my anger from the rest of this lackluster experience

Don't watch this if you love HxH. This is like watching someone butcher your favorite series. It's all the HxH characters with NONE of the flavor. The story is basic as fuck, and extremely predictable and boring. The reason why HxH was so gripping was because it deviated from this and had a fun spin. Even down to the very art. The same animation was used twice. It was a put off because it shows how little went into this. The way they drew Killua and Gon is remarkably different. You can tell the quality is thrown out the window. The sound design pales greatly ... in comparison as well. While a few main tracks from the original anime were used, the rest of the sound tracks were basic as fuck. No lacrimosa, no epic battle music. It doesn't make you feel excited or any emotion at all for that matter. It's painfully slow as well.

They took HxH, and threw out everything that made the show lovable.
I actively cringed at the shit Gon. Why they gotta do my man dirty "with the power of friendship"

Story-4
The story is nothing to write home about. It's pretty obvious Togashi wasn't involved in this movie because of how flat the plot is. There's nothing particularly surprising or really emotional about this movie. The movie tries really hard to get you to sympathize with the villains but it's very sloppily done. More on that down below.

Art-9
The art style felt slightly different in this movie compared to the rest of HxH, but I can't put my finger on how. Overall, the art just felt a lot sharper and fresher than Phantom Rouge, to the point where I was amazed the two movies came out in ... the same year. The movie just looks *glorious.* While the first half hour or so of the movie off-screened most of the fights, the later half 100% made up for it. I loved all of the flashy particle effects, both CG and hand-drawn. There's a lot of effort put into details like hair movement and facial expressions, a lot of use of foreshortening and camera movement in action shots that adds to the energy of fight scenes, and a real sense of speed and motion that you don't see in most anime. Every punch or attack really looks like it packs force and impact.

If there's one problem I had with the art, it's that it made the characters seem to be way stronger than they are in the anime. Due to the animators' glee for using up this movie's clearly titanic budget, there's tons of explosions and flashy effects for every attack. One important aspect of Hunter x Hunter was how grounded it generally is: Gon has no right to be punching hard enough to bust human-sized holes through 10 inch-thick concrete walls and make dust clouds the size of small buildings.
Because of this flashiness, the fights just felt like generic shonen, with everyone jumping around spamming lasers and energy blasts at each other like something out of Dragon Ball, instead of Hunter x Hunter's usual style of more mentally and psychologically intense battles.
Another minor issue is how far the movie's original characters stray from Togashi's art style. All of the antagonists look like generic anime villains.

Sound-6
I'm not an expert on SFX or anything but they didn't sound too weird. The OSTs were all taken from the anime.

Character-5
Gon and Killua don't develop in any way in this movie. It tries to develop the villains more instead, but it was really poorly thrown together- a few flashbacks of their "sad" backstories didn't make me feel anything at all for them. How on Earth does the movie expect us to sympathize with sociopathic murderers who slaughtered hundreds of people without mercy?

Enjoyment- 6
The flashy fight scenes made up for the shoddy plot to a certain degree. In any case, it was great just to see Gon and Killua on-screen again.

So, here we are, talking about 'HunterxHunter the Last Mission'!

I was pleasantly surprised by the series HunterxHunter (2011); it has an interesting and a not-childish story, great characters, nice soundtracks and great animation. And I wish I could say the same about 'the Last Mission', but it's quite the opposite; I am unpleasantly 'surprised' with this movie

Well, let's start with what's good about 'the Last Mission':
- we get more HunterxHunter
- the soundtrack is nice (though not really outstanding)
- we get to know the concept of 'On' (something like a dark Nen)
- we get to see some 'long-forgotten' (supporting) characters again, like Zushi, Wing-san, ... Melody, Neon and Kurapika (seriously, we never saw that dude after the phantom-troupe arc again)

but the last point is also the problem; we get to SEE all the characters, but these characters don't get to ACT or show any personality whatsoever. Let's take for example Hisoka (my personal favourite). In 'the Last Mission' he's just there to shuffle cards and make some unnecessary and obvious remarks; we even never get to see him fight! Saying that that's disappointing would be an understatement. Leorio is even worse; he's just there to yell for two minutes and that's kinda it. And then there's Netero, who to be fair has more lines than Hisoka and Leorio combined, but who doesn't do anything either besides hanging in the air...

the story of 'the Last Mission' is way more childish than the main series' story. Its main message, that 'the power of friendship can overcome everything', makes 'the Last Mission' boring and way inferior to the main series. The main villain is generic with unoriginal motivations. The other 'villains' don't really qualify as such. Furthermore the plot also felt a bit rushed...

The animation wasn't anything special - not that different from the main series, which is disappointing cuz usually movies have a bigger budget and therefore more quality. I think I even like the animation from the main series more (it's a bit more detailed and there at least Killua and Gon don't look 3 years younger than they really are)

'The Last Mission' has a lot of negative points to it. But to be honest with you, it's not like I completely didn't enjoy this movie. I got to see more HunterxHunter! And that's enough reason to watch it. It's definitely not a movie I'll watch again though

That was disappointing. After I watched the first Hxh movie I was like alright that's not too bad and decided to watch the second one right after.

Story was alright and pacing was ok but was pretty predictable. This movie isn't even considered even in the canon in the first place but I decided to give it a shot since the Hxh series was pretty good. The art was awful but the animation and effects weren't that bad such as the fighting scenes and Killau's electricity. The characters were the same from the series except for couple of new introduced characters which were all ... meh. This movie had too many flaws and the dialogue was just so cliche.

Overall an ok movie I wouldn't watch it again though.

Disclaimer: minor movie spoilers; major Hunter x Hunter spoilers for the Chimera Ant arc.

After the mild let down that was the first movie; a let down in a sense of expecting way too much after experiencing the marvelous Anime series, tackling the second movie was approached with a careful gaze, no expectations built up for this one, a harsh lesson I learned in after watching the previous movie indeed.

Story (7/10):
Let me start by stating the turn-off. For the better or the worst. I'm a very picky individual when it comes to judging a story. And I try doing that as much as I can, sometimes ... even after several rewatches to try to grasp the topics discussed better in order to formulate a conclusive, open-minded idea on it. This movie straight up said no to that, I don't deserve it, carry on with your review-disguised rant.
Going into side stories for a bigger series you're following always calls for their canon relevance, the exact timeline in the story and the bordering events that make sense of telling the story in the first place. I had no words for this one, completely a random shameless way to milk bloody fan money. And please, don't take me for the aggressive bigot that this vocabulary advocate, but rather, open u to what I'm saying.
“WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CHIMERA ANT ARC?“ I can't stress this one enough, about to start pulling off my hair while typing this, for a big of a plot changer that arc was, it was the big wall from letting whatever this attempt was into relating properly to the TV show. And I'm not even mad at it for it for the reasons you might think I am.

According to what THE MOVIE suggests, it takes place after the Chimera Ant arc, in a weird timeline where the Chimera Ant outbreak never happened. Kite never died and Gon never went through his infamous breakdown. And of course, Netero lived to fight a movie villain instead.
Batting an eye for the weak approach of properly lining up with the canon story, it lives on top of an interesting tale of revenge between Netero and an old rival, Jed, while also being a call back for the Heaven's Arena days where the events of the movie take place at.

Art (8.4/10):
I would say this movie featured some of the best Sakuga in Hunter x Hunter. Definitely levels above that of the first movie, up there with the best choreographically intense eye candy from the TV series.
The animation is superfluid when its called for. The use of bland colors helped preserve the signature Hunter x Hunter feel on the visual level, and the character design for the movie-original cast was a critical hit on the nail. Borderland style.

Sound (7.5/10):
I'm not going to sit here and pretend it was just another day in Lazytown, but if your ear could speak, it would want to honor the voice actors. The main cast has and is always performing amazingly. What hit defiantly was the OST's, again, with the popular songs from the TV series, remixed into piano abstracts that filled the backgrounds helped greatly to sell the desperate presentation of Jed and his underlings as villains to the main characters, but heroes to their cause.

Characters (7.6/10):
I mean, going by the same rule as the first movie's review. Talking about the key characters, that's a guaranteed 10/10 if not more, however, for the sake of focusing on the movie specifically, let's shed some light on the movie's original characters, whom are represented by the cast of villains.
Jet, the main head to take down was not that much for an eye-catcher for me personally, felt like a shallow character, created to simply act his role and carry on the revenge plot, however, his trio underlings whom the names of I can't remember had more personality than Jed's entire screen time, which is still minimal. I'd hate to go on the tangent I said I won't, but come on, seeing characters like Biscuit, Hisoka, and Zushi is always welcomed.

Enjoyment (9/10):
Aside from the weird timeline which I don't know why I can't drop that already; seeing the loveable familiar faces lightened up the heart quite a bit. Despite not conveying what Hunter Hunter really is about, the movie doesn't fall short of implementing some of Hunter x Hunter's best properties like the character interactions and wholesome yet life-challenging rivalry between your well-known characters, and of course, the weird Nen trickery that introduced the concept of On.

Overall (7.9/10):
The movie was definitely a step in the right decision. Although still not emitting enough Hunter x Hunter vibes, it covers an interesting original self-contained story, one that is better off recited as a one-shot, rather than trying to make sense of in the canon timeline of the story, because it went completely the other way around

Ok so after reading and watching all of Hunter X Hunter, I decided to watch the Hunter X Hunter movies, I enjoyed Phantome Rouge who was not as good as the source material but still try to make a good story and respect a little the characters, and then i watch this SHIT!

While Hunter X Hunter is most well known for it's impeccable system of power that show us that being a "good" or a "bad" guy doesn't influence your mastery of nen, the on came, at first it could have been a great idea, showing a system of power that is different could have ... been good, and then they assimilate this to "the power of darkess" and the nen by the power of goofd (not especially said in the movie but HEAVILLY implied) it's the beggining of shit.

For characters, ALL OF THEM are just the stereotype of the original characters and even some fanfiction fantasm, Killua is Gon b****, like litterraly, Kurapika is as intelligent as a emo Justin Bieber, Leolio... why is he here? Hisoka, is just doing some... cards thing, we see side characters that are here only for fanservice.

Villains have understandable motives, but are as plain as Neon character devlopement except Gaki who is pretty likeable and that offer us a pretty good fight with both Gon and Killua.

The fights are... well it seems more like a dragon ball movie than a hunter x hunter movie, the only fight with a little bit of strategy is with Gaki, otherwise it's just random fights, and the final battle is the moment that made me ragequit, because it conclude on fucking friendship power.

FRIENDSHIP POWER IN HUNTER X HUNTER???!!!!

Special mention to the seiyuu that did a great job, with line as shitty as these one

The art is not bad but below the first movie and the two anime adaptations

I will never recommand this movie to anyone wich frustrated me because Hunter X Hunter is my all time favorite manga/anime/ work of fiction, so i won't rage more about this and just try to forget this.