May 3rd, 2022
Hunter x Hunter
Anime Relations: Hunter x Hunter (2011)
* This review contains spoilers for chapters 1, 2, and 185 of the Hunter X Hunter manga, episode 1 of the 1999 Hunter X Hunter anime, and the entirety of the 2011 Hunter X Hunter anime. *
Annoyances:
To begin most broadly, the world that Hunter x Hunter takes place in is inadequately explained and the very nature of this planet is rewritten with every arc. The Hunter Exam Arc established a highly dangerous world overrun by mythical creatures however, this is then immediately contrasted by the Heavens Arena Arc which takes place in a major metropolitan city with modern technology and no hints of the supernatural threat. This issue of the underexplained world is also evident in the series’ lackluster world map as many well-known locations aren't even identified on it including Whale Island, Meteor City, or even the Lukso Province, the ancestral home of the Kurta Clan. Furthermore, the Hunter Association headquarters, Heaven’s Arena, and Yorknew City are all metropolises that are only differentiated by one central building and feel like they are culturally, ethnically, and atmospherically the same place, and yet they are canonically three separate cities on three separate continents. Having a realistic and intelligible world map is such an important aspect of world building and immersion for a work of fiction that Hunter x Hunter misses out on almost entirely.
Hunter x Hunter also has a problem where it will often set up entire plot points just to throw them away and move on to a new thing abandoning the set up completely, resulting in the show having entire subplots and storylines that feel like random filler that does nothing to further the story. Nearly every arc in the series ends jarringly and not thoroughly explored. A few examples of this being the Greed Island Arc which sees its end in the form of a previously unestablished cumulative exam, the Zoldyck family Arc which ends with Killua casually leaving the estate without resistance, and the Heavens Arena Arc which introduces floor masters and Battle Olympia only to have our main characters completely ignore them. There is a lot of time and energy invested into plotlines that ultimately fizzle out without contributing to the narrative.
Another example of the series being not fully fleshed out can be seen in the writing of one of the most beloved characters in all of anime, Hunter x Hunter’s Kurapika of the Kurta Clan. The character in question is victim to what is perhaps one of the most lazily written backstories I have ever experienced. Unlike his main counterpart Leorio, who’s backstory is a tragic critique on capitalism, corporate greed, and privatized healthcare, Kurapika is revealed to be the last surviving member of his clan because his entire people were genocided for their eyes which are one of the seven most beautiful colors. Favorite-color-based genocide is undoubtably the single stupidest and most unbelievable reason for genocide in the history of all fiction. It is downright upsetting how little respect and thought went into the writing of such a serious topic.
Speaking of character, Hunter x Hunter has what is perhaps the least appealing character design I have ever seen in an anime, this ranging from ultimately just mildly displeasing, to downright off-putting. Whether it be Hunters, Assassins, or Chimera Ants, nearly every character in the series lacks any kind of cohesion with one another, which robs the show of a distinguishable visual language besides colorful, seemingly random, and obnoxious. The extremes of this issue can be seen probably most memorably in Komugi whose two disgusting green heaps of snot ever hanging from her nose never fail to make me sick to my stomach, and probably most problematically in Lin Koshi and Podungo Lapoy, two members of Kite’s crew. Podungo is a Black girl with cartoonishly big circular lips, a button nose, and eyes with only dark black pupils in the center, resembling racist historical portrayals of Black people in cartoons more than the established art style that all other characters in the show are drawn in. If you feel compelled to excuse this overt act of racism as simple ignorance of how to properly draw Black people, let it be known that, Canary, a previously establish young Black girl in the show, is drawn with accurate natural Black hair, full realistic lips, and eyes in the same style as everyone else, exemplifying that Podungo exists intentionally to be a racists caricature. If you are still unconvinced, consider that Podungo is introduced standing next to Lin, who has squinty little eyes, massive round glasses, bucked teeth, and a tiny frame culminating in an obvious racist caricature of Chinese people.
Moving on, the story of Hunter x Hunter is victim to unbearably slow pacing. This is noticeable throughout the show starting as soon as the almost everlasting tower section of the Hunter Exam but no more evident than in the Chimera Ant Arc, which is by far the longest in the series thanks to what should be fast paced action-packed fight scenes being depicted as multiple episode-long, glorified PowerPoint presentations, riddled with limited animation, internal monologuing, seemingly never-ending exposition dumping through narration, and many fights literally being depicted in slow motion. This phenomenon was at its most egregious when in S5E39, after roughly two and a half minutes straight of all that was mentioned above, a character explicitly states that only ten seconds have passed in universe, meaning the anime is quantifiably paced up to fifteen times slower than the script states it should be. The evidentiary nature of the story’s snail speed is further exacerbated by an overfocus on countless forgettable minor stories between countless forgettable minor chimera ant characters, making these B-plots feel like long detours that you as an audience member just have to endure so as to return to the main story.
Plot Holes and Inconsistencies:
Hunter x Hunter is bursting at the seams with inconsistencies, one very noticeable example of this being underexplored and full-on disappearing characters. Every new arc introduces a large cast of names who are for the most part never to be seen again after the conclusion of that arc. The most obvious example of this of course being Leorio who was certainly intended to be a series mainstay but is instead absent for the vast majority of the show, which is an especially disappointing inconsistency as he was one of the most relatable and flushed out characters from the first arc.
Beyond vanishing characters, Hunter x Hunter is obviously a “make it up as you go” type show and as such, it is ripe with numerous distracting plot holes, some more detrimental than others. Undoubtedly the largest plot hole in the series comes from the knowledge of Nen in that it, as a power system, was obviously not originally intended to exist in Hunter x Hunter. This leads to the creation of many plot holes such as the existence of Killua’s abilities that do not fit into the Nen system of which he has on display only in the Hunter Exam Arc such his ability to turn his fingernails into sharpened claws and his Rhythm Echo Technique. Additionally, the existence of Nen is meant to be this incredibly well-kept secret that the Hunter Association formulated their entire exams as a means to determine who is worthy of learning such, but at the same time, countless characters who have never passed the Hunter Exam know of and can use Nen. Genthru possesses advanced in-depth knowledge about Nen, specifically the framework taught by the Shingen-Ryu School of Kung Fu. The same can be said for the Phantom Troupe who must have become nen users on their own and yet they practice Nen with the exact same techniques and terminology as someone who learned nen from a member of the Hunter Association. However, that’s not all as even some residents of Meteor City, and even one seemingly random Republic of East Gorteau soldier are shown using Nen. Another example of this inconsistency occurs during the commencement of the palace invasion, where Zeno invokes his Dragon Dive Technique, it is explained that Killua, as the only one who understood what was happening, froze on the spot because the shock for the others being ignorant was so great and he then proclaims that this is his grandfather's Dragon Dive ability. The big issue with this is that Killua, who had no concept of Nen prior to the Heavens Arena Arc and who has spent all his time after learning about Nen on screen and not with his family, would have never had an opportunity to actually learn of this ability. Not to mention that very soon after the secretive nature of the existence of Nen is established, we are then shown that the Heaven's Arena contestants publicly showcase their Nen abilities on a regular basis. Although it is established that their abilities are invisible to the world watching them, the effects of their abilities are not. The audience is just expected to believe that no one has ever questioned the superhuman feats on display in the arena such as Kastro making a full-on Nen clone of himself that was not even invisible because of the established nature of Nen-conjuring. Nen is on full display in the world and is apparently acquirable by anyone who studies it including those who have no ties to the Hunter Association and yet we are expected to accept that the reason our protagonists had no knowledge of Nen prior to passing the Hunter Exam is that the existence of Nen is unknown to the world at large.
More broadly, the society Hunter x Hunter takes place in is weird and doesn't make sense, on the one hand, it’s a developed, fully functional society, with laws, nations, smart phones, and the internet, but on the other, the entire society places literally no value on human life. People pay to watch gladiatorial death matches and anyone, including literal children can participate in a deadly exam to basically get a license to do whatever they want, including murder, an entire people were senselessly genocided so their eyes could be bought and sold to be used as decoration, and Greed Island is revealed to just be real place where people volunteer to kill and be killed for fun. Furthermore, the cards on the island work on and off the island meaning that items exist in universe that give anyone in possession of them the ability to heal all physical ailments, even regenerate limbs, but also teleport, store objects in what must be a pocket dimension, and much more. These abilities are only ever used in the context of the Greed Island game when they could literally be used (throughout the rest of the story including to heal Gon, but also to) solve seemingly every major world problem including but not limited to all disease, homelessness, and hunger, but instead of doing that, Ging and his buddies lock this world saving technology in a fake video game on a secluded island, only accessible by society’s most wealthy and elite, for them to be used for sport. Also, the world’s most notable celebrity family are career assassins and have been for generations to the point that multiple people recognize them on site or by name meaning that the entire world venerates the most efficient killers for hire like some kind of royal dynasty. All this obviously is majorly detrimental to the Chimera Ant Arc wherein a major theme has to do with debating the morality of killing ants and humans. However, the question is ultimately meaningless in a world which not only allows needless human death but literally celebrates its killers, yet in the arc the audience is expected to understand that human life has value even though it has never been shown in the series up to that point.
Another major inconsistency in Hunter x Hunter can be seen in the treatment of a particular category of Nen ability, that being vows and limitations. In the Yorknew City Arc, Kurapika, a masterful prodigy of Nen, explains to Gon that it required hours of training involving touching, drawing and dreaming of chains before he could ever conjure his own. Additionally, he then explains that he only unlocks his ability as a specialist when he uses the scarlet eyes which allow him to use all forms of Nen with an otherwise impossible level of efficiency and as the price for this immense power, every second spent in this state causes him to lose an hour of his lifespan. On top of that, he set a limitation making his chains unbreakable by vowing to only use them against the Phantom Troupe members, or else he will face immediate death. But that’s not all as when he uses his Nen abilities and the scarlet eyes at the same time, his mind and body are left incapacitated for days at a time thereafter. All of these restrictions provide necessary limitations on Kurapika that prevent him from feeling overpowered. The same cannot be said about Gon, who is able to use the same vow and limitations technique after only being made aware of the existence of the technique by briefly hearing about it from Kurapika the one time, and yet, he is able to use it with no training, saving himself from what was likely an otherwise unbeatable enemy. The boundaries of the vow are never clearly explained outside of one vague and cryptic statement from Gon, and he never engaged in any training to learn the technique prior to its use.
Failure to Deconstruct the Shonen-Battle Protagonist and Genre:
When characters who lack complexity do not grow or change, not only are they unrelatable but also stale, predictable, and ultimately boring. Gon Freecss begins his character arc as a young boy who grows up in a forest without his father and is raised by his aunt Mito. He is one with nature as is emphasized through his animalistic characteristics and physical abilities such as his heightened senses of smell, sight, and hearing as well as his instinctual, emotional, and impulsive personality, being, strong willed, prideful, and quick to anger and recklessly violent retaliation. His character remains largely unchanged for the entire series. For example, during the Hunter Exam Arc, Gon is obviously outclassed by Hanzo, yet in spite of this and of the multiple warnings against it from the people around him, Gon recklessly chooses to do battle with Hanzo who easily overpowers him resulting in Gon’s broken arm. During the Heavens Arena Arc, Hisoka is undoubtedly much stronger than Gon which of course hurts his pride. This offense to Gon’s ego culminates in a fight between the two where Gon is desperately attempting to prove himself as capable of beating Hisoka, even going so far as to argue with an officiator over the scoring, which ultimately leads to his defeat. During the Greed Island Arc, the team formulates their plan to beat Genthru getting him to use his Hatsu ability but when he doesn't use it, Gon once again lets his emotions take over and deviates from the plan resulting in him getting his whole hand blown off. Ultimately, during the Chimera Ant Arc, when Gon, Kite, and Killua find themselves dangerously close to the chimera ant nest, and Neferpitou attacks Kite resulting in him losing an arm, Kite yells to the boys urging them to retreat as he saw no way they could win that fight, but as always, Gon throws caution to the wind and begins powering up, requiring Killua to knock him out so as to save him from his own recklessness. It is then revealed to the audience but not to Gon that Kite was effectively killed and, in their ignorance, Gon and Killua train to prepare for an eventual rescue mission, upon the initiation of which they eventually run into Neferpitou as she is healing Komugi. Upon seeing this, Gon allows himself to get overwhelmed with rage at the one to blame for what happened to Kite, healing someone, and he begins screaming at her, crying, and violently pounding his fists into the ground, before being reminded that he needs to keep her alive if she is going to heal Kite. When Gon learns that Kite has been killed, he uses in Nen-vow ability which leaves him on the brink of death and unable to use Nen for the rest of his life in an act of vengeance.
The main defense for Gon’s unending predictability and failure to grow and change is that Hunter x Hunter is a deconstruction of the shonen-battle genre and Gon by extension is a deconstruction of the shonen-battle protagonist. A deconstruction at its simplest being a work of fiction that seeks to take apart the components of a genre so as to expose the difference between how the genre’s tropes normally appear in fiction and how they would appear in a setting that is harshly grounded in reality, as a means of critiquing the genre it deconstructs. Unfortunately, this defense of Gon is inadequate as Hunter x Hunter falls short of examining the genre through a real-world lens. This shortcoming is no more apparent than in Hunter x Hunter’s failure to faithfully deconstruct the shonen-battle protagonist. Gon’s character is certainly a more realistic representation of a young boy than the standard shonen-battle protagonist. Even when given amazing and destructive powers, he still behaves just as immaturely, emotionally, and impulsively as you would expect any young boy to when confronted with things that any young boy would have trouble handling. Therefore, Hunter x Hunter’s failure to faithfully deconstruct the shonen-battle protagonist and by extension the genre as a whole, does not lie on the surface in the show’s ability to effectively depict the actions of a more realistic shonen-battle protagonist, rather, it is in the series’ complete elimination of any consequences for those more realistic actions. When Gon rashly deviates from the plan and loses his hand to Genthru, he faces no consequences because on Greed Island anyone can easily use the Angel’s Breath card to undo his injury; when Gon’s vengeful temper tantrum results in the transformation that should have left his body completely destroyed, all but killing him, he's conveniently resurrected by Killua’s deus ex machina of a little sister; and when Gon is left to cope with the trauma of Kite’s death and his guilt surrounding it, Kite is resurrected as a chimera ant through yet another deus ex machina in the form of a poorly defined and unestablished Nen ability.
Time and again Gon is safeguarded from any real consequences for his actions making him a shallow and ultimately failed attempt at writing a shonen-battle protagonist deconstruction. This problem is further accentuated by the apparent lack of growth with Gon’s character as he is ostensibly unaffected by all his experiences over the course of the series.
The Kite Problem:
When initially watching Hunter x Hunter my enjoyment of the show was hindered a great deal by what I at the time articulated as its lack of foundation. Because I had never heard anything but praise for the series, I wondered if anyone else made note of this flaw and scoured the internet, consuming as many reviews for the show as I could in hopes of finding some critical reviewers who felt similarly. One faithful day after much searching, I came across a subsection of the online Hunter x Hunter fandom that was debating how harmful of an impact, what they called “The Kite Problem” had on Hunter x Hunter and my answer was found. The problem in question is as follows: The Hunter x Hunter manga begins as per the 2011 anime with gone catching The Master of the Swamp and expressing his desire to take the hunter exam as per his deal with Mito. HOWEVER, shortly after this, Gon encounters a fox-bear who is removed from this portion of the 2011 anime, and we then enter a flashback of when Gon first met Kite (an event which doesn’t take place in the anime until episode seventy-six and only as a short montage rather than actually playing out the whole scene). In the manga, Kite saves Gon from the mother fox-bear and then he eventually discovers that Gon is the son of Ging. Kite then sits with Gon and tells him all about Ging before he goes on with his travels, leaving behind Ging’s hunter license on the ground to be discovered by Gon, effectively issuing him his challenge to become a hunter himself and find his father that he’s now heard so much about. We then flash forward to the modern day, Gon is saying his goodbyes and we’re on a boat beginning our journey all in a single chapter that lays out everything we need to start the story. The 2011 anime of course removed the Kite flashback entirely from the first episode. Instead opting to show Gon capture The Master of the Swamp, say goodbye to Mito, and then go to the boat where the manga’s second chapter is then adapted for the rest of the episode. If you haven’t caught on yet, this decision was a massive mistake and is the source of what is the largest problem with the entire adaptation. This change from the source material was probably made in an attempt to launch the viewers into the action ASAP. Because there had already been not only a manga story but also the 1999 anime adaptation (which both covered the scene properly), the scene was likely cut without a second thought in a cheap attempt to hook people on the show early, opting instead to spend the first episode introducing the audience to Kurapika and Leorio, two members of the main cast of the series’ first arc. The short-term benefit of this decision however is greatly outweighed by how it negatively affects both the Chimera Ant Arc, as well as how it gives the whole story it's terrible foundation.
So as to start at the beginning, the removal of the Kite flashback removes the call to adventure for Gon which is of course the thing that the entire series is based on. Meeting Kite and receiving Ging’s hunter’s license is the catalyst for this whole adventure and in the 2011 anime there is simply no groundwork laid in this regard. We are instead met with Gon, a generic anime boy we know nothing about, going on a journey to the hunter exam, somewhere we know nothing about, to become a hunter, a profession we know nothing about, to find his dad, a character we know nothing about, in a world we know nothing about. This lack of foundation was something I and many others found extremely apparent and distracting when watching the first few arcs of the series. I complained constantly about how while entire arcs into the series, I had absolutely no idea what a hunter was, why Gon wanted to be one so damn badly, and what benefit hunters could possibly bring to this, apparently fully functional society, that would cause every country to collectively agree to allow people to simply take a test which guarantees them all the amazing benefits that come along with being a hunter like immense riches and the ability to live outside of the law. I would question why these basic foundational aspects of the show weren’t covered in the very first episode as you would expect them to be in any competently written work. Little did I know at the time of course that the reason why I was so confused and annoyed by the lack of foundation was that all those questions should have been covered in that all-so important Kite flashback. In it, we are shown at the very beginning of the series, what a hunter is in the form of Kite. Hunters like him are established as powerful and knowledgeable people that keep others safe from the dangerous wildlife that inhabits this world, something to look up to and aspire towards but without that moment the audience is left to assume hunters are nothing more than generic fantasy mercenaries and gladiators. Beyond that, the fact that this already aspirational and admirable figure actively looks up to Gon’s own father explains why Gon would actually want to find him in the first place despite there being no sign that Ging even wants to be found. As an audience, we understand the desire to find Ging because of how Kite conveyed him to Gon. None of this is present in the 2011 anime adaptation, reducing Ging to at worst a dead-beat dad who abandoned his son and at best just another unknown in a show ripe with unknowns. Gon's motivation is empty and confusing in comparison to his manga counterpart, because the 2011 anime cover’s what should’ve been a foundational aspect of the character far too late. Kite is meant to be our shining example of what a hunter is and provide the driving force to delve into this journey to find Ging but in the anime Gon just decided to leave his Island for no adequately explored reason.
Naturally, this also has a very detrimental effect on the character of Kite, who as a result of the manga events was a key figure. When Gon encounters Kite for the first time in the anime, he doesn't even recognize the face of the man, who has had the most profound effect on his entire life. Seventy-six episodes into the series and all of a sudden there is a character of paramount importance being wedged into the story through a short montage and it feels incredibly wrong and out of nowhere. It all comes together after reading the manga in an attempt to make sense of what is wrong with Hunter x Hunter, but without doing that Kite feels like some sort of poorly implemented retcon. Whereas when you look at this event in the manga, Kite and Gon meet in the opening act of the Chimera Ant Arc and they both recognize each other instantly as if the bond that they formed way back in that first chapter by talking about Ging and being a hunter was as strong as ever, and as a reader, Gon being reintroduced to the character who started the story causes much excitement around the idea of rekindling that connection and finally getting to explore Kite.
Removing this flashback destroys the relationship between Gon and Kite which is the key to the Chimera Ant Arc and Gon’s climax in the entirety of Hunter x Hunter. Because their history was erased it’s confusing as to why Gon cares so much about Kite as there was just no reason to. By this point in the series Gon hasn’t formed major attachments to any of his other mentors, if Wing or Bisky had been killed it would’ve had an emotional effect on him, but he certainly wouldn’t have become so angry as to make such a suicidal Nen-vow for nothing more than revenge. Gon does so for Kite because he was far more than just another simple mentor figure. If anything, Kite serves as far more of an actual father figure to Gon than Ging could ever be. He taught Gon an incredibly important life lesson and sparked his passion for the future and when they did finally reunite, Kite continued his fatherly nature. With that context in mind, Gon's transformation makes so much more sense because in many ways he feels responsible for killing one of the most important figures in his life and the closest person that he had ever had to a father and the 2011 anime is missing this. Gon being very suddenly pushed into this place of pure darkness was just unbelievable. The climax of anime-Gon’s entire character arc is unearned, that’s not the response that would come from meeting a nice guy who was so unimportant to you that you completely forgot about him as a child. That relationship is hugely important in Hunter x Hunter. It is the catalyst for why, and foundation upon which the series begins, as well as the reason why Gon's story ends.
The series could’ve avoided all these major issues surrounding the series’ foundation, Gon’s character, Kite’s character, and the relationship between the two, if it had simply stuck to the source material rather than skipping over the most important moment in the protagonist’s life.
Conclusions:
Hunter X Hunter is a deeply flawed anime, whose seemingly universal praise is nothing short of bewildering. I can only recommend watching it to the most hardcore and forgiving of shonen-battle fans.
3/10: Worst anime ever made.
Annoyances:
To begin most broadly, the world that Hunter x Hunter takes place in is inadequately explained and the very nature of this planet is rewritten with every arc. The Hunter Exam Arc established a highly dangerous world overrun by mythical creatures however, this is then immediately contrasted by the Heavens Arena Arc which takes place in a major metropolitan city with modern technology and no hints of the supernatural threat. This issue of the underexplained world is also evident in the series’ lackluster world map as many well-known locations aren't even identified on it including Whale Island, Meteor City, or even the Lukso Province, the ancestral home of the Kurta Clan. Furthermore, the Hunter Association headquarters, Heaven’s Arena, and Yorknew City are all metropolises that are only differentiated by one central building and feel like they are culturally, ethnically, and atmospherically the same place, and yet they are canonically three separate cities on three separate continents. Having a realistic and intelligible world map is such an important aspect of world building and immersion for a work of fiction that Hunter x Hunter misses out on almost entirely.
Hunter x Hunter also has a problem where it will often set up entire plot points just to throw them away and move on to a new thing abandoning the set up completely, resulting in the show having entire subplots and storylines that feel like random filler that does nothing to further the story. Nearly every arc in the series ends jarringly and not thoroughly explored. A few examples of this being the Greed Island Arc which sees its end in the form of a previously unestablished cumulative exam, the Zoldyck family Arc which ends with Killua casually leaving the estate without resistance, and the Heavens Arena Arc which introduces floor masters and Battle Olympia only to have our main characters completely ignore them. There is a lot of time and energy invested into plotlines that ultimately fizzle out without contributing to the narrative.
Another example of the series being not fully fleshed out can be seen in the writing of one of the most beloved characters in all of anime, Hunter x Hunter’s Kurapika of the Kurta Clan. The character in question is victim to what is perhaps one of the most lazily written backstories I have ever experienced. Unlike his main counterpart Leorio, who’s backstory is a tragic critique on capitalism, corporate greed, and privatized healthcare, Kurapika is revealed to be the last surviving member of his clan because his entire people were genocided for their eyes which are one of the seven most beautiful colors. Favorite-color-based genocide is undoubtably the single stupidest and most unbelievable reason for genocide in the history of all fiction. It is downright upsetting how little respect and thought went into the writing of such a serious topic.
Speaking of character, Hunter x Hunter has what is perhaps the least appealing character design I have ever seen in an anime, this ranging from ultimately just mildly displeasing, to downright off-putting. Whether it be Hunters, Assassins, or Chimera Ants, nearly every character in the series lacks any kind of cohesion with one another, which robs the show of a distinguishable visual language besides colorful, seemingly random, and obnoxious. The extremes of this issue can be seen probably most memorably in Komugi whose two disgusting green heaps of snot ever hanging from her nose never fail to make me sick to my stomach, and probably most problematically in Lin Koshi and Podungo Lapoy, two members of Kite’s crew. Podungo is a Black girl with cartoonishly big circular lips, a button nose, and eyes with only dark black pupils in the center, resembling racist historical portrayals of Black people in cartoons more than the established art style that all other characters in the show are drawn in. If you feel compelled to excuse this overt act of racism as simple ignorance of how to properly draw Black people, let it be known that, Canary, a previously establish young Black girl in the show, is drawn with accurate natural Black hair, full realistic lips, and eyes in the same style as everyone else, exemplifying that Podungo exists intentionally to be a racists caricature. If you are still unconvinced, consider that Podungo is introduced standing next to Lin, who has squinty little eyes, massive round glasses, bucked teeth, and a tiny frame culminating in an obvious racist caricature of Chinese people.
Moving on, the story of Hunter x Hunter is victim to unbearably slow pacing. This is noticeable throughout the show starting as soon as the almost everlasting tower section of the Hunter Exam but no more evident than in the Chimera Ant Arc, which is by far the longest in the series thanks to what should be fast paced action-packed fight scenes being depicted as multiple episode-long, glorified PowerPoint presentations, riddled with limited animation, internal monologuing, seemingly never-ending exposition dumping through narration, and many fights literally being depicted in slow motion. This phenomenon was at its most egregious when in S5E39, after roughly two and a half minutes straight of all that was mentioned above, a character explicitly states that only ten seconds have passed in universe, meaning the anime is quantifiably paced up to fifteen times slower than the script states it should be. The evidentiary nature of the story’s snail speed is further exacerbated by an overfocus on countless forgettable minor stories between countless forgettable minor chimera ant characters, making these B-plots feel like long detours that you as an audience member just have to endure so as to return to the main story.
Plot Holes and Inconsistencies:
Hunter x Hunter is bursting at the seams with inconsistencies, one very noticeable example of this being underexplored and full-on disappearing characters. Every new arc introduces a large cast of names who are for the most part never to be seen again after the conclusion of that arc. The most obvious example of this of course being Leorio who was certainly intended to be a series mainstay but is instead absent for the vast majority of the show, which is an especially disappointing inconsistency as he was one of the most relatable and flushed out characters from the first arc.
Beyond vanishing characters, Hunter x Hunter is obviously a “make it up as you go” type show and as such, it is ripe with numerous distracting plot holes, some more detrimental than others. Undoubtedly the largest plot hole in the series comes from the knowledge of Nen in that it, as a power system, was obviously not originally intended to exist in Hunter x Hunter. This leads to the creation of many plot holes such as the existence of Killua’s abilities that do not fit into the Nen system of which he has on display only in the Hunter Exam Arc such his ability to turn his fingernails into sharpened claws and his Rhythm Echo Technique. Additionally, the existence of Nen is meant to be this incredibly well-kept secret that the Hunter Association formulated their entire exams as a means to determine who is worthy of learning such, but at the same time, countless characters who have never passed the Hunter Exam know of and can use Nen. Genthru possesses advanced in-depth knowledge about Nen, specifically the framework taught by the Shingen-Ryu School of Kung Fu. The same can be said for the Phantom Troupe who must have become nen users on their own and yet they practice Nen with the exact same techniques and terminology as someone who learned nen from a member of the Hunter Association. However, that’s not all as even some residents of Meteor City, and even one seemingly random Republic of East Gorteau soldier are shown using Nen. Another example of this inconsistency occurs during the commencement of the palace invasion, where Zeno invokes his Dragon Dive Technique, it is explained that Killua, as the only one who understood what was happening, froze on the spot because the shock for the others being ignorant was so great and he then proclaims that this is his grandfather's Dragon Dive ability. The big issue with this is that Killua, who had no concept of Nen prior to the Heavens Arena Arc and who has spent all his time after learning about Nen on screen and not with his family, would have never had an opportunity to actually learn of this ability. Not to mention that very soon after the secretive nature of the existence of Nen is established, we are then shown that the Heaven's Arena contestants publicly showcase their Nen abilities on a regular basis. Although it is established that their abilities are invisible to the world watching them, the effects of their abilities are not. The audience is just expected to believe that no one has ever questioned the superhuman feats on display in the arena such as Kastro making a full-on Nen clone of himself that was not even invisible because of the established nature of Nen-conjuring. Nen is on full display in the world and is apparently acquirable by anyone who studies it including those who have no ties to the Hunter Association and yet we are expected to accept that the reason our protagonists had no knowledge of Nen prior to passing the Hunter Exam is that the existence of Nen is unknown to the world at large.
More broadly, the society Hunter x Hunter takes place in is weird and doesn't make sense, on the one hand, it’s a developed, fully functional society, with laws, nations, smart phones, and the internet, but on the other, the entire society places literally no value on human life. People pay to watch gladiatorial death matches and anyone, including literal children can participate in a deadly exam to basically get a license to do whatever they want, including murder, an entire people were senselessly genocided so their eyes could be bought and sold to be used as decoration, and Greed Island is revealed to just be real place where people volunteer to kill and be killed for fun. Furthermore, the cards on the island work on and off the island meaning that items exist in universe that give anyone in possession of them the ability to heal all physical ailments, even regenerate limbs, but also teleport, store objects in what must be a pocket dimension, and much more. These abilities are only ever used in the context of the Greed Island game when they could literally be used (throughout the rest of the story including to heal Gon, but also to) solve seemingly every major world problem including but not limited to all disease, homelessness, and hunger, but instead of doing that, Ging and his buddies lock this world saving technology in a fake video game on a secluded island, only accessible by society’s most wealthy and elite, for them to be used for sport. Also, the world’s most notable celebrity family are career assassins and have been for generations to the point that multiple people recognize them on site or by name meaning that the entire world venerates the most efficient killers for hire like some kind of royal dynasty. All this obviously is majorly detrimental to the Chimera Ant Arc wherein a major theme has to do with debating the morality of killing ants and humans. However, the question is ultimately meaningless in a world which not only allows needless human death but literally celebrates its killers, yet in the arc the audience is expected to understand that human life has value even though it has never been shown in the series up to that point.
Another major inconsistency in Hunter x Hunter can be seen in the treatment of a particular category of Nen ability, that being vows and limitations. In the Yorknew City Arc, Kurapika, a masterful prodigy of Nen, explains to Gon that it required hours of training involving touching, drawing and dreaming of chains before he could ever conjure his own. Additionally, he then explains that he only unlocks his ability as a specialist when he uses the scarlet eyes which allow him to use all forms of Nen with an otherwise impossible level of efficiency and as the price for this immense power, every second spent in this state causes him to lose an hour of his lifespan. On top of that, he set a limitation making his chains unbreakable by vowing to only use them against the Phantom Troupe members, or else he will face immediate death. But that’s not all as when he uses his Nen abilities and the scarlet eyes at the same time, his mind and body are left incapacitated for days at a time thereafter. All of these restrictions provide necessary limitations on Kurapika that prevent him from feeling overpowered. The same cannot be said about Gon, who is able to use the same vow and limitations technique after only being made aware of the existence of the technique by briefly hearing about it from Kurapika the one time, and yet, he is able to use it with no training, saving himself from what was likely an otherwise unbeatable enemy. The boundaries of the vow are never clearly explained outside of one vague and cryptic statement from Gon, and he never engaged in any training to learn the technique prior to its use.
Failure to Deconstruct the Shonen-Battle Protagonist and Genre:
When characters who lack complexity do not grow or change, not only are they unrelatable but also stale, predictable, and ultimately boring. Gon Freecss begins his character arc as a young boy who grows up in a forest without his father and is raised by his aunt Mito. He is one with nature as is emphasized through his animalistic characteristics and physical abilities such as his heightened senses of smell, sight, and hearing as well as his instinctual, emotional, and impulsive personality, being, strong willed, prideful, and quick to anger and recklessly violent retaliation. His character remains largely unchanged for the entire series. For example, during the Hunter Exam Arc, Gon is obviously outclassed by Hanzo, yet in spite of this and of the multiple warnings against it from the people around him, Gon recklessly chooses to do battle with Hanzo who easily overpowers him resulting in Gon’s broken arm. During the Heavens Arena Arc, Hisoka is undoubtedly much stronger than Gon which of course hurts his pride. This offense to Gon’s ego culminates in a fight between the two where Gon is desperately attempting to prove himself as capable of beating Hisoka, even going so far as to argue with an officiator over the scoring, which ultimately leads to his defeat. During the Greed Island Arc, the team formulates their plan to beat Genthru getting him to use his Hatsu ability but when he doesn't use it, Gon once again lets his emotions take over and deviates from the plan resulting in him getting his whole hand blown off. Ultimately, during the Chimera Ant Arc, when Gon, Kite, and Killua find themselves dangerously close to the chimera ant nest, and Neferpitou attacks Kite resulting in him losing an arm, Kite yells to the boys urging them to retreat as he saw no way they could win that fight, but as always, Gon throws caution to the wind and begins powering up, requiring Killua to knock him out so as to save him from his own recklessness. It is then revealed to the audience but not to Gon that Kite was effectively killed and, in their ignorance, Gon and Killua train to prepare for an eventual rescue mission, upon the initiation of which they eventually run into Neferpitou as she is healing Komugi. Upon seeing this, Gon allows himself to get overwhelmed with rage at the one to blame for what happened to Kite, healing someone, and he begins screaming at her, crying, and violently pounding his fists into the ground, before being reminded that he needs to keep her alive if she is going to heal Kite. When Gon learns that Kite has been killed, he uses in Nen-vow ability which leaves him on the brink of death and unable to use Nen for the rest of his life in an act of vengeance.
The main defense for Gon’s unending predictability and failure to grow and change is that Hunter x Hunter is a deconstruction of the shonen-battle genre and Gon by extension is a deconstruction of the shonen-battle protagonist. A deconstruction at its simplest being a work of fiction that seeks to take apart the components of a genre so as to expose the difference between how the genre’s tropes normally appear in fiction and how they would appear in a setting that is harshly grounded in reality, as a means of critiquing the genre it deconstructs. Unfortunately, this defense of Gon is inadequate as Hunter x Hunter falls short of examining the genre through a real-world lens. This shortcoming is no more apparent than in Hunter x Hunter’s failure to faithfully deconstruct the shonen-battle protagonist. Gon’s character is certainly a more realistic representation of a young boy than the standard shonen-battle protagonist. Even when given amazing and destructive powers, he still behaves just as immaturely, emotionally, and impulsively as you would expect any young boy to when confronted with things that any young boy would have trouble handling. Therefore, Hunter x Hunter’s failure to faithfully deconstruct the shonen-battle protagonist and by extension the genre as a whole, does not lie on the surface in the show’s ability to effectively depict the actions of a more realistic shonen-battle protagonist, rather, it is in the series’ complete elimination of any consequences for those more realistic actions. When Gon rashly deviates from the plan and loses his hand to Genthru, he faces no consequences because on Greed Island anyone can easily use the Angel’s Breath card to undo his injury; when Gon’s vengeful temper tantrum results in the transformation that should have left his body completely destroyed, all but killing him, he's conveniently resurrected by Killua’s deus ex machina of a little sister; and when Gon is left to cope with the trauma of Kite’s death and his guilt surrounding it, Kite is resurrected as a chimera ant through yet another deus ex machina in the form of a poorly defined and unestablished Nen ability.
Time and again Gon is safeguarded from any real consequences for his actions making him a shallow and ultimately failed attempt at writing a shonen-battle protagonist deconstruction. This problem is further accentuated by the apparent lack of growth with Gon’s character as he is ostensibly unaffected by all his experiences over the course of the series.
The Kite Problem:
When initially watching Hunter x Hunter my enjoyment of the show was hindered a great deal by what I at the time articulated as its lack of foundation. Because I had never heard anything but praise for the series, I wondered if anyone else made note of this flaw and scoured the internet, consuming as many reviews for the show as I could in hopes of finding some critical reviewers who felt similarly. One faithful day after much searching, I came across a subsection of the online Hunter x Hunter fandom that was debating how harmful of an impact, what they called “The Kite Problem” had on Hunter x Hunter and my answer was found. The problem in question is as follows: The Hunter x Hunter manga begins as per the 2011 anime with gone catching The Master of the Swamp and expressing his desire to take the hunter exam as per his deal with Mito. HOWEVER, shortly after this, Gon encounters a fox-bear who is removed from this portion of the 2011 anime, and we then enter a flashback of when Gon first met Kite (an event which doesn’t take place in the anime until episode seventy-six and only as a short montage rather than actually playing out the whole scene). In the manga, Kite saves Gon from the mother fox-bear and then he eventually discovers that Gon is the son of Ging. Kite then sits with Gon and tells him all about Ging before he goes on with his travels, leaving behind Ging’s hunter license on the ground to be discovered by Gon, effectively issuing him his challenge to become a hunter himself and find his father that he’s now heard so much about. We then flash forward to the modern day, Gon is saying his goodbyes and we’re on a boat beginning our journey all in a single chapter that lays out everything we need to start the story. The 2011 anime of course removed the Kite flashback entirely from the first episode. Instead opting to show Gon capture The Master of the Swamp, say goodbye to Mito, and then go to the boat where the manga’s second chapter is then adapted for the rest of the episode. If you haven’t caught on yet, this decision was a massive mistake and is the source of what is the largest problem with the entire adaptation. This change from the source material was probably made in an attempt to launch the viewers into the action ASAP. Because there had already been not only a manga story but also the 1999 anime adaptation (which both covered the scene properly), the scene was likely cut without a second thought in a cheap attempt to hook people on the show early, opting instead to spend the first episode introducing the audience to Kurapika and Leorio, two members of the main cast of the series’ first arc. The short-term benefit of this decision however is greatly outweighed by how it negatively affects both the Chimera Ant Arc, as well as how it gives the whole story it's terrible foundation.
So as to start at the beginning, the removal of the Kite flashback removes the call to adventure for Gon which is of course the thing that the entire series is based on. Meeting Kite and receiving Ging’s hunter’s license is the catalyst for this whole adventure and in the 2011 anime there is simply no groundwork laid in this regard. We are instead met with Gon, a generic anime boy we know nothing about, going on a journey to the hunter exam, somewhere we know nothing about, to become a hunter, a profession we know nothing about, to find his dad, a character we know nothing about, in a world we know nothing about. This lack of foundation was something I and many others found extremely apparent and distracting when watching the first few arcs of the series. I complained constantly about how while entire arcs into the series, I had absolutely no idea what a hunter was, why Gon wanted to be one so damn badly, and what benefit hunters could possibly bring to this, apparently fully functional society, that would cause every country to collectively agree to allow people to simply take a test which guarantees them all the amazing benefits that come along with being a hunter like immense riches and the ability to live outside of the law. I would question why these basic foundational aspects of the show weren’t covered in the very first episode as you would expect them to be in any competently written work. Little did I know at the time of course that the reason why I was so confused and annoyed by the lack of foundation was that all those questions should have been covered in that all-so important Kite flashback. In it, we are shown at the very beginning of the series, what a hunter is in the form of Kite. Hunters like him are established as powerful and knowledgeable people that keep others safe from the dangerous wildlife that inhabits this world, something to look up to and aspire towards but without that moment the audience is left to assume hunters are nothing more than generic fantasy mercenaries and gladiators. Beyond that, the fact that this already aspirational and admirable figure actively looks up to Gon’s own father explains why Gon would actually want to find him in the first place despite there being no sign that Ging even wants to be found. As an audience, we understand the desire to find Ging because of how Kite conveyed him to Gon. None of this is present in the 2011 anime adaptation, reducing Ging to at worst a dead-beat dad who abandoned his son and at best just another unknown in a show ripe with unknowns. Gon's motivation is empty and confusing in comparison to his manga counterpart, because the 2011 anime cover’s what should’ve been a foundational aspect of the character far too late. Kite is meant to be our shining example of what a hunter is and provide the driving force to delve into this journey to find Ging but in the anime Gon just decided to leave his Island for no adequately explored reason.
Naturally, this also has a very detrimental effect on the character of Kite, who as a result of the manga events was a key figure. When Gon encounters Kite for the first time in the anime, he doesn't even recognize the face of the man, who has had the most profound effect on his entire life. Seventy-six episodes into the series and all of a sudden there is a character of paramount importance being wedged into the story through a short montage and it feels incredibly wrong and out of nowhere. It all comes together after reading the manga in an attempt to make sense of what is wrong with Hunter x Hunter, but without doing that Kite feels like some sort of poorly implemented retcon. Whereas when you look at this event in the manga, Kite and Gon meet in the opening act of the Chimera Ant Arc and they both recognize each other instantly as if the bond that they formed way back in that first chapter by talking about Ging and being a hunter was as strong as ever, and as a reader, Gon being reintroduced to the character who started the story causes much excitement around the idea of rekindling that connection and finally getting to explore Kite.
Removing this flashback destroys the relationship between Gon and Kite which is the key to the Chimera Ant Arc and Gon’s climax in the entirety of Hunter x Hunter. Because their history was erased it’s confusing as to why Gon cares so much about Kite as there was just no reason to. By this point in the series Gon hasn’t formed major attachments to any of his other mentors, if Wing or Bisky had been killed it would’ve had an emotional effect on him, but he certainly wouldn’t have become so angry as to make such a suicidal Nen-vow for nothing more than revenge. Gon does so for Kite because he was far more than just another simple mentor figure. If anything, Kite serves as far more of an actual father figure to Gon than Ging could ever be. He taught Gon an incredibly important life lesson and sparked his passion for the future and when they did finally reunite, Kite continued his fatherly nature. With that context in mind, Gon's transformation makes so much more sense because in many ways he feels responsible for killing one of the most important figures in his life and the closest person that he had ever had to a father and the 2011 anime is missing this. Gon being very suddenly pushed into this place of pure darkness was just unbelievable. The climax of anime-Gon’s entire character arc is unearned, that’s not the response that would come from meeting a nice guy who was so unimportant to you that you completely forgot about him as a child. That relationship is hugely important in Hunter x Hunter. It is the catalyst for why, and foundation upon which the series begins, as well as the reason why Gon's story ends.
The series could’ve avoided all these major issues surrounding the series’ foundation, Gon’s character, Kite’s character, and the relationship between the two, if it had simply stuck to the source material rather than skipping over the most important moment in the protagonist’s life.
Conclusions:
Hunter X Hunter is a deeply flawed anime, whose seemingly universal praise is nothing short of bewildering. I can only recommend watching it to the most hardcore and forgiving of shonen-battle fans.
3/10: Worst anime ever made.
Posted by NickLib | May 3, 2022 2:43 PM | 0 comments