The Shrine

This is the only series where characters can lose a limb, get punched in the face repeatedly, wet their pants from pure fear, and other similar things and you'd still hear that character's fans explain that as if the character was a combination of Aizen and Itachi, i.e. the fact your favorite character just wet his pants and lost both his limbs means his enemy have fallen for an elaborate trap with no hope of escaping. Yes, fanboyism may know no bounds, but usually most people stop when your favorite character wet his pants from fear. In this weeks' chapter, Leorio came out of from nowhere and punched Gin in the face while sticking his middle finger at him, and already people are saying this is an elbaorate plan by Gin to let his enemy underestimate his strength, even though he's only one of the five most powerful characters in the HXH universe. What's more bizarre is that although Leorio has been MIA for the last 10 real life years, he's still almost certainly more popular than Gin, who practically nobody liked. You'd literally see argument like, "Although I want Gin to die-in-a-fire, I'm sure the fact he wet his pants is just a ploy in his master plan to defeat Pariston." And no, these aren't the fake naysayers, because so far I haven't met anyone who actually liked Gin.

I'm noticing my lack of enjoyment from HXH is more from the community of fans that follow it rather than the material itself. Even at the worst time HXH is certainly no worse than 99% of the stuff out there, but it's fanbase is like one of those cult games that nobody has ever played (e.g. Panzer Dragoon Saga) except those guys obviously failed to notice HXH is on track to pass up Naruto in popularity in Japan to claim the #2 spot. That is, while someone who plays PDS might indeed have a lot of nerd cred, a HXH fan is, from the perpsective of its origin, the 2nd or 3rd most common type of fan out there.

Part 325 has a lot of face-melting goodness as Leorio returned from 10 year real-life absence. Predictably enough most Western fans felt the need to point out this is destryoing what makes HXH awesome because it features one of the character with some kind of Super Saiyan transformation, ignoring that:

1. Leorio had 0 experience prior to the Hunter's Exam and yet was competitive with guys who spent their life honing their body into the perfect killing machine.

2. He opened the second door on the gate of trials when the other 2 major characters who are your generic 'super duper potential' guy can only open the first one.

3. He's arguably the goodiest good guy in the story and the only main character who shouldn't be locked up in an insane asylum (Killua is okay too but the whole quasi incest thing with Alluka is getting really creepy).

I guess most people expected him to be a guy that takes a hit for Gon or Killua and die as a catalyst for their super saiyan transformation. Instead Leorio returned and basically punched every jerk in the story so far because that's what he does, and instantly rallied the jaded Hunters into a force that may be strong enough to fight against Pariston. I know people are probably expecting something like Gin made a Squall-like speech talking about hotdogs and other nonsense so people should believe in him even though he has no respect for the weak whatsoever. Gin has 8 votes in Hunter election, and Leorio went from 0 votes to 55 votes just because he punched Gin in the face on national TV.

Frankly, the punch is not only meaningful in the fictional world but also in real life. There are a lot of fans would rather Pariston, described as some kind of unimaginable evil, to win the election if it means Gin will die, but of course Pariston would not risk such acts against a trivial opponent. Well, now the supreme evil of HXH finally has the worthy opponent he's been waiting for. Part 325 is saying that just because you're interested in saving the world doesn't mean everyone will put up with you being a jerk. Gin only felt like saving the world if it was risky, but not too inconvenient or time consuming. Rather than elevating him to some sort of messiah, Leorio's shows this is how you're supposed to save the world.

In the world of HXH, Gin is definitely a traditionalist (keep status quo, elite rules all). Pariston is a progressive (he seems to prefer puppets over elites). Leorio would be a radical. I don't think the Zodiac organization survives as an entity if Leorio wins the election. Superficially the Zodiac versus Pariston is a battle of good (Zodiac) and evil (Pariston). But honestly the Zodiac is just as bad as the evil they sought to defeat. Pariston once asked the Zodiac that if they believe they are the true saviors of the organization, then why is it so many refuse to stand by them? After all, it is well established Pariston has a ridiculous case of 'not worth killing'. Well, part 325 reveals that those who are opposed to Pariston also opposes the Zodiac too, and now they're rallying behind Leorio for their cause.

I think the people thinking Leorio will team up with the Zodiac has it all wrong. If Pariston wins, the Zodiac should still exist in name. They might even exist quite well since Pariston loves people plotting behind his back. But no way HXH's equivalent of the Illuminati survives if you got a guy who runs on a platform of empowerment to the common manga guy. No, they won't die, but they'd definitely become irrelevent which is why they're afraid of Pariston in the first place (he is more than capable of supplanting the Zodiac with his own guys).