ʜᴜɴᴛᴇʀ x ʜᴜɴᴛᴇʀ Ep. 148 FINALE UNCUT REACTION! (Patreon)

https://vimeo.com/867988924/e0b91e7056?share=copy

Welp... Here it is.
Jesus, we needed this show. You guys have no idea. A year, almost to the dot, we recorded Lindsay's reaction to the first episode on Sept 13th 2022. While this wasn't our most popular series, I think if you go back to the first episode and follow through until now, you can see us change more than the history of our channel beforehand.
Last year we felt kind of aimless, and it had been a while since we had been invested in the naruto franchise (even though we were still doing boruto, it was shit and doesn't count lol). 2022 started strong, but due to a significant personal tragedy, it became the worst year of our life. The channel helped us through that time. And starting Hunter gave us a point of focus that we could return to over and over and get something new from each arc's unique flavour. It's the first show we have also done discussions for each arc (I know some are still missing, but they will be here soon enough, I promise).

I had a late start to adulthood, but once I finally started getting my shit together, I moved away from home into a tiny apartment and started university life in a new city. But although I was in a new place, living a different life than the malaise of part time retail work that I'd known at home, shopping for myself for the first time, interacting with new people, learning, growing, etc. Despite all these new developments, I was still the sad loner in a dark room watching anime, and this was the first series I watched in that apartment to help usher in my new life (along with Honey & Clover, which is funny because I was also a lonely art school student like the MC in that show).
I loved the show as a shonen, but I didn't think as much of it as I have grown to now. However as I look back, I think that it must have influenced me a lot at that time, because shortly after watching ʜᴜɴᴛᴇʀ x ʜᴜɴᴛᴇʀ, in the following semester, I walked into the first day of a writing class and sat next to a girl that looked like she got punched in the left eye. We eventually got to talking, I shot my shot, and we started dating. Which was very out of character for me. (to be fair I did miss my shot at first, and she gave me another chance, but that's a story for another day)

Even something this simple was a big deal. I was always averse to relationships in the past. I never pursued romance, because I always saw how miserable relationships made people. It seemed to me that the potential years of emotional trauma couldn't be worth it for some —likely — short-term companionship. What's the use in getting into a relationship with some random girl who will probably break up with me in three months? I'd always be thinking about what I'd lose or gain in the "transaction" of it all. But for some reason, after watching ʜᴜɴᴛᴇʀ x ʜᴜɴᴛᴇʀ — wihtout knowing why —  I instead thought; "Let's see what happens." I stopped thinking about what I'd gain or lose, and just tried to enjoy my time with this new person. I had no idea where it would go, and I was able to enjoy that.

I'll tell you this, if I had approached her with that same mindset that I always had, I think it would have ended up the same way things always had with girls in the past. With me alone, in a dark room.

Instead I chose to view my life as an unfolding opportunity rather than a race that I was placing last in. I chose to "enjoy those little detours".
Looking back, I wonder how different my life would be if I hadn't watched this show at that critical period. Would Lindsay and I have ever been together at all? Would I not have had the sense to drop out of that terribly expensive scam of a film school while before taking on more debt than I could pay? Would I have had the motivation to start doing YouTube if I weren't with Lindsay?
If I didn't try dating Lindsay, and I stayed in film school, and I didn't try to accomplish my dreams, then how many more nights could I have spent alone, in that dark room, with nothing to keep me company but my cold deterministic nihilism. . .

I never considered how much this show's philosophy changed the course of my life until this moment. And now, after another extremely difficult period of my life, I'm yet again finishing ʜᴜɴᴛᴇʀ x ʜᴜɴᴛᴇʀ. Perhaps this is fate at work. Perhaps it's time to re-learn that lesson. Perhaps this show isn't done changing my life.  And the best part is:
There's only one way for me to find out!


Thanks for watching, everyone. I hope you take Ging's words to heart like I am.
Make sure to enjoy those little detours,

and don't forget to hunt for your dream