Hunter x Hunter (2011)

Hunters devote themselves to accomplishing hazardous tasks, all from traversing the world's uncharted territories to locating rare items and monsters. Before becoming a Hunter, one must pass the Hunter Examination—a high-risk selection process in which most applicants end up handicapped or worse, deceased.

Ambitious participants who challenge the notorious exam carry their own reason. What drives 12-year-old Gon Freecss is finding Ging, his father and a Hunter himself. Believing that he will meet his father by becoming a Hunter, Gon takes the first step to walk the same path.

During the Hunter Examination, Gon befriends the medical student Leorio Paladiknight, the vindictive Kurapika, and ex-assassin Killua Zoldyck. While their motives vastly differ from each other, they band together for a common goal and begin to venture into a perilous world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Zoldyck, Killua Main

Ise, Mariya Japanese

Kurapika Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Freecss, Gon Main

Han, Megumi Japanese

Paladiknight, Leorio Main

Fujiwara, Keiji Japanese

Morow, Hisoka Supporting

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Meruem Supporting

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Lucilfer, Chrollo Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Netero, Isaac Supporting

Ginga, Banjou Japanese

Neferpitou Supporting

Fujimura, Ayumi Japanese

Portor, Feitan Supporting

Yamaguchi, Kappei Japanese

Maruyama, Masao Producer

Tamura, Manabu Producer, Planning

Nakatani, Toshio Producer

Mita, Keiji Producer

Reviews

Nov 20, 2024

MrSlamboni

Recommended

Hunter x Hunter 2011 (HxH) has its flaws, but it is overall the most enjoyable shounen out there. The music is very good and fitting for the scenes in the show. It has strong story arcs and moments, although 2 of the arcs are tedious. The characters are a bit shallow, but their actions and interactions are entertaining. The flaws of the show are a lot of the time buried in its strengths so they are inconsequential. Sometimes, however, you do notice them rear their ugly heads.

Most of the popular shounen have one thing that sets them apart from every other one. For example, ... for Naruto it was the final villains and their backstories. For HxH, its biggest strength is its flexibility when it comes to morality. A protagonist might have an evil or a good background. A good person can do evil and an evil person can do good. Everything happens within its context and every case is taken separately. One good example is an antagonist trying to develop a protagonist so he can savor killing him brutally when he's stronger.

HxH is not interested in moral grandstanding. It's not about Gon talking down to every villain and doing self-righteous monologues. Everyone has their goals and they work towards them. Gon is a very useful plot device in that regard. A kid raised in the countryside whose end goal is to become a Hunter and in the process, learn what motivated his father to become a Hunter. Gon is curious to see and experience everything in his journey. Consequently, he tends to view things with interest rather than being judgemental. If Gon sees a technique for killing, his first reaction would be amazement rather than give a lecture on why killing is bad.

Most of the show follows Gon and Kilwa. Gon is the curious, whimsical but dauntless child who wears his heart on his sleeve. In contrast, his friend Kilwa is careful and calculated. Leorio is comedic relief. Kurapika is my least favorite character because he is self-righteous and edgy. However, the show handles him really well especially after the first arc. At some point you don't really see Leorio and Kurapika that much because it doesn't make sense for them to always be together, plot-wise.

It is best to view the plot as episodical rather than a continuous journey towards a certain goal. The structure of the show is multiple subplots that usually relate to some bigger overarching plot for a character. For example, an arc might be centered around achieving a certain objective which progresses Gon's end goal of finding his father.

The biggest weakness of HxH is two very tedious arcs. The Greed Island arc felt like a filler arc, except for the very end of it where they just randomly throw you a conclusion that progresses the story. I personally view it as the author wanting to do a fantasy anime on a whim. Similarly, the Chimera Ant arc felt like it lasted an eternity. To add insult to injury, the climax had some really long scenes where time is frozen and they just narrate what everyone is thinking. It had a few strong moments, but I wish it wasn't so stretched out.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 11, 2024

Kauaz

Mixed Feelings

Funny

After the anime turned into a zoo it became impossible to watch.

It sure is an anime amongst anime, it influenced many works and is widely popular.
Until Greedo Island arc it was a 10, a masterpiece. Then there’s what could be the worst arc ever made, the ants arc.

I know that filler episodes exist. But now, a whole filler arc!?
A bunch of hideous creatures, a lot of new unimportant characters, whole episodes that focus in the same conversation between the same two characters, fights that last multiple episodes, slow motion important scenes with the narrator describing every detail…
Why the main characters Leorio, Kurapika and the ... phantom troupe are absent for roughly 60 episodes? What is it that Gon cares SO much for this Kite guy? Ugh.

This last impression destroyed the image of how good this anime was for me. Unfortunately. If I knew about it I would’ve skipped this whole arc.

For the last 10 episodes I was already fed up and didn’t care about the elections plot and focused only in the story between Killua and Alluka, which was good.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 20, 2023

Adam_Lilith

Not Recommended

Funny

"I can see people calling it a fun guilty pleasure, but one of the highest ranked anime of all time is a catastrophic crime"

Hunter X Hunter 2011 is one I have heard of for years. In fact I caught up to the manga many years ago during one of the many hiatuses. I remember thinking the manga was pretty good. Anyway my brother told me it was his favorite anime. He is not usually into anime so I thought it would be a great thing for us to bond over if I watched it again. And so I started.

At first things seemed good, ... Gon and Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio and the rest of the cast seemed interesting. The world intrigued me. The Hunter Exam was fun. The Zoldycks were cool and even the arena was kind of entertaining. Yorknew was fine. Greed island was fun though a little elementary. But more and more flaws started standing out to me. In the storytelling, the ability to utilize multiple characters at a time, to give a compelling story without insulting your audience or pulling bs. I stopped caring for any of the characters pretty early as they just didn't feel worthy of investment or all that compelling. I mean Leorio is maybe in 10 episodes and yet you can tell he's considered a main character. It felt like an anime for 10 year olds the way characters speak and act at times.

Every arc drags just a little more than the last one until the chimera ant just puts you to sleep with an asmr narrarator who needs to recap for 5 minutes what you just saw 2 minutes of in real time. I am sure people hear a lot of negatives about the chimera ant arc and think, "It's just one arc it can't sink the whole series". Unfortunately, Chimera ant is nearly 50% of the entire anime runtime. It is horrendously long and dragged out. It dragged more than the 4th great shinobi war, which had dozens of more characters to balance to flush out and was about 4 times longer.

Ultimately Id give the first few arcs a generous 6.5-7 but the Chimera ant arc should have been a 7 if it was 1/3 its length. Unfortunately for that I have to take off 3 points for 40 episodes that felt like someone put me in time-out. When nearly half of the anime is a 4/10 I can't really justify more than a 5.

All in all, Hunter x Hunter is the single most overhyped anime I've ever seen.

I fell asleep to it many times, which is very unusual and I had to force myself to start the next episode on multiple occasions just because I wanted to talk to my brother. It felt awful. It has it's moments but they are very far between and don't justify themselves when there is so much better out there.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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