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

Iwasa, Naoki Producer

Reviews

Aug 29, 2025

ma1kawa11

Recommended

Battle Shonen is an extremely difficult genre to get right. It has become an extremely oversaturated market, and you hear of a new one being released almost every year. Hunter x Hunter however, proved that the genre still has an impact. I would argue, that this series, and its manga, is still innovating the genre today. I've rewatched this anime something like 5 times now over the years, and I've never gotten tired of it. The reason why is because, this series which is made in a genre that is generally aimed towards children and teens, actually has a very mature story.

Hunter x Hunter (Alongside ... One Piece), is one of the most well-known battle Shonen out there. It innovated on Dragon Ball's idea of an innate power system, and made it actually interesting. Because unlike Dragon Ball's rather simplistic linear power scaling based on 'levels', HxH popularized the concept of having a power system with complexities and counters, where the winner of a fight is not necessarily the 'strongest', but more who can use their power the most intelligently and effectively. This is what makes Nen such a strong system. Each fight is much more than just a punching match. It ties strategy and tactics intimately into the story. Characters need to think outside the box in order to win their fights, and none of their solutions ever feel like ass-pulls either.

Madhouse also truly did wonders with the art and animation. You just almost never get long-airing weekly shows with animation quality this consistent. I don't think I can name.... any episodes which had a noticeable drop in quality. The art is within the style of the manga, and though I do prefer the more gritty color pallet of the 90s adaptation, the color design is still quite good.

The soundtrack is an absolute Masterpiece. Yoshihisa Hirano, the composer, studied in Julliard. He absolutely perfectly is able to compose in just about any genre, from rock, orchestral, classical, atonal, and even dances such as tangos. There are many references to classical works in his music. Most notably, in OST 2 there is an adaptation of Lacrimosa by Mozart. In OST 3 there is a post-tonal composition based on a theme from Holst. Probably my favorite piece from the soundtrack is the Themes of Kage and Rasetsu. They were composed for the Hunter x Hunter movies but were also included in a particular favorite scene of mine that was in the TV series.

The characters were brilliantly written. Gon and Killua are one of the greatest character foils ever written. Gon, though you may miss this on your first watch through, is partially a tragic hero. Killua, has more of a redemption arc. They influence each other though, and throughout the series it is interesting to watch. Gon is a child, and he is engaging in an adult world that he does not understand. This series depicts his coming of age, and realization that morality is often not as black and white as he originally thought. Villains are always extremely well written. There are never any villains who are stereotypically evil. It is, in some cases, arguable that the antagonists of the story are less villainous than the protagonist and the hunter association. I do enjoy that kind of moral greyness in a story, because it requires more thought while viewing.

Togashi also very much fixed issues with his previous shonen, Yu Yu Hakusho. I think one of the best examples of this would be in regards to gender representation. The characters within this series are extremely gender diverse. You see women always placed in equal roles to men, or in positions of authority in the world. Often times in the series, woman are shown to be even more capable than a man in some situations and nen battles. There is also great LGBTQ+ representation in this series. Characters like Kurapika and neferpitou who are non-binary, Alluka who is transgender, and Kalluto who is gender nonconforming.

If you were to only watch one battle shonen, this would be the one to watch. There's not a lot of good out there. This one though, it's different. There's not really any that can match. It even overtakes the other big three (Dragon Ball, One Piece, Bleach, though I haven't seen Bleach yet at the time of review).

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Aug 19, 2025

ZeRainyMae

Mixed Feelings

TLDR; A fun show with a lot of potential, but held back by some serious flaws. It's a solid 6/10 for me.

The story itself is fun, the characters unique and refreshing, and if this story ever continues I'll most definitely watch it.

However, there are a lot of things left to be desired in the presentation of this anime. Its greatest downfall is its narration and pacing. There were points in the show I had to set the speed to 1.5 just to keep my attention; something keep in mind I rarely do. You have a narrator that spends half the anime practically reading you a ... bed time story, along with long moments of visuals that don't provide any information or interest to the viewer. Characters that you fall in love with, and ASSUME are main characters just fall off the planet, only to briefly appear for a few seconds 40 episodes later. It took me a lot longer to finish the anime not because of its robust length, but because I would burn out and need something more stimulating to grasp on to.

Though there were parts of this show that really gripped me, I'm looking at you Meruem and Komugi, I can't say confidently that this is worth the rating it seems to get. Maybe its nostalgic for some, or the fact that its run time makes it easier for people to grow a deep connection with the show, but I would expect more from an anime that has been frequently recommended to me for years now.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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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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	Poll: Hunter x Hunter (2011) Episode 70 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) FireBallsDJ - Mar 9, 2013	203 replies	by Specia »» Yesterday, 2:28 PM
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