Someone has stolen Kurapika’s eyes and another survivor from his clan whose members were massacred for their Scarlet Eyes! Gon and Killua begin investigating on his behalf, but shortly after they’ve begun, the Phantom Troupe. The true identity of the one with the No.4 spider tattoo is about to be unveiled.
Review
The film itself was released in 2013, but Viz media just recently licensed it for North American home video in 2018. The story is part canon, part side story and takes place before the Greed Island Arc. In this film we get to learn more about Kurapika’s childhood and clan. Someone pretending to be a member of his tribe has been going around town looking for survivors. This leads to Kurapika running into his childhood friend, who steals his eyes. The real story is much more cruel. It’s a nen puppet recreation of his childhood friend. He has all the memories of Piro.
It turns out the real #4 member of the phantom troupe is behind his friends return, but not his real friend, a nen puppet. This member is the person that Hisoka thought he killed and replaced on the spiders team in order to go after their leader. Turns out what he killed was a puppet copy. Gon and Killua are called in along with Leorio to help Kurapika get his eyes back.
Overall its a fun side story that brings a bit more background to light on Kurapika which once the greed island arc begins, gets very little screen time. The story is part of a previously unpublished story by the creator on Kurapika thus the part-canon tag on the film. Still as someone who just recently finished marathoning Hunter x Hunter, it was a nice revisit to the series. I really do hope they do another season of the anime to complete the story. The manga has had MANY breaks and has not gotten very far over the past few years.
The film had everything I loved about Hunter x Hunter in it, though it didn’t progress anything plot wise. It is a fun side story to the series that is worth watching just for the extra Kurapika back story. You can pickup a copy of Phantom Rouge on DVD and Blu-ray at Amazon.com
