I got my start watching anime, like many, by watching out-of-context fight scenes on Youtube. For a while, the exciting choreography and interesting strategies were, as far as 12 year old me was concerned, the only reason to watch anime. It’s not hard to imagine why, given the fact that a fight scene is the only conflict between 2 characters that you don’t need to know the reasons for the conflict to enjoy watching. Even though I didn’t have access to the full episodes, I found plenty of entertainment in things like the punches, kicks, powers, characters finding new uses for their powers, characters discovering their opponents weaknesses, and in ultimately finding out who wins the fight.
The interesting part is, while there is clearly an art to crafting a good fight scene on its own, the best fight scenes aren’t fight scenes at all. They are simply a moment of storytelling. Whether it be special powers, fight choreography, the environment, differences in the characters strength, their mental state; all of the things that the characters use to defeat each other can be simultaneously used by the author to make that particular episode interesting in the short-term, as well as the add to the series’ themes and overarching story. Watching the synergy that occurs when the small details of a fight add to every element of the story is a truly magical experience. Those are the fights that I will always remember. One of the best examples of this magic is a fight I loved out of context and would later become one of my favorite fights of all time when I got to it’s episode in the anime, Hunter X Hunter’s Gon vs Hisoka.
The biggest difference when watching this fight in context was obviously knowledge of Hisoka’s challenge to Gon. After humiliating Gon in the Hunter Exams, Hisoka challenged him to land a full-force punch to Hisoka’s face. So even though Gon is fighting an adult man, his pride isn’t riding on completely defeating him, just on a successful hit. On top of that Gon is just coming out of a training arc where he learned about the previously unknown Nen power system, and has gotten much stronger in the time since Hisoka last saw him. So, in theory, a single punch shouldn’t be out of reach for him if he tries hard enough.
That’s what the situation looks like to both us and Gon as the fights about to start, but the exchange that takes place during the first minute of the fight changes all of that. See, the last time Gon was able to secure some kind of victory over Hisoka, he was waiting out of his line of sight and took advantage of an opening that presented itself. In the small open stage they are fighting on now, Gon has no choice but to attack him directly and we discover that Hisoka can react to every quick hit Gon throws at him. Not only that, but if Gon commits to a heavy punch, Hisoka counters him. Hard.
In addition to Hisoka’s seemingly impenetrable defense, the fact that he isn’t only going to defend means that Gon has a limited amount of time to find a way to overcome all this. Even when Gon tries to dodge Hisoka’s next counter Hisoka keeps attacking and mixes in a feint to land a solid punch that knocks Gon across the stage. The referee announcing it as a “clean hit” means that the objective of his official match and Hisoka’s challenge line up. Everything Gon wants is right in front of him, and yet he simply isn’t strong enough to get it.
The sense of hopelessness that’s so firmly set in by fight choreography of this initial exchange makes the entire episode much more entertaining. After all the build up to this fight we’re smacked in the face with the overwhelming difficulty of Gon’s task. It sets the expectation that Gon is going spend the whole fight trying to land this punch, while also layering in the hints necessary for Gon’s turnaround victory. It’s Hisoka’s successful use of a feint and refusal to move that gives Gon the idea to use the broken stage floor as a dozen simultaneous fients and land the hardest punch possible, a punch that felt impossible just 30 seconds ago.
All that being said, the magic of this fight doesn’t come from it’s short term storytelling. See, it’s made abundantly clear that Gon is not a good enough fighter to land a punch on Hisoka. He doesn’t have strength, speed, or fighting technique to get the job done. But this anime isn’t named Fighter X Fighter. The circumstances of Hisoka’s initial challenge create the assumption that Gon is going to have to find a time when Hisoka doesn’t know he’s there and use a surprise attack, but that isn’t the only way to hunt. Gon analyzes his prey’s physical ability and temperament, and forces him into a situation where Gon is out of Hisoka’s line of sight. Gon sets a trap, and successfully captures a punch to Hisoka’s face.
The timing of Gon and Hisoka’s hunt is not at all accidental either. At episode 35 we are just getting out of the Killua and Gon’s discovery of the wide world of Hunter X Hunter and they have just scratched the surface of the Nen system. They were both forcibly reminded of how weak and ignorant they truly are and in the process of fixing that, the core theme of hunting could very easily be lost and forgotten. The purpose of this fight is to make it clear that this show is always going to be about the nature of hunting prey. Things like Nen and martial arts are simply some of the tools, along with the landscape and their prey’s behavior, that our protagonist uses. Gon ultimately redeems himself from the humiliation he received from Hisoka, not as a fighter, but as a Hunter.
