Story
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The first 25 episodes of the show are NOT a good representation as the show as a whole. This is because with each different arc there is almost like a shift in the shows genre or style. The first arc is definitely the most lighthearted of all the arcs in the show and with each arc it seems to get just darker and darker to the point you’ll think to yourself “Holy shit, how did the show come to this? This is royally fucked”. This is one of the first of many things that separate from your average Shounen Jump series. Although the premise for the story is Gons embarking on this journey to become a hunter and finding out what’s so special about the profession that his father left him for. There are six story arcs, the first of which is hunter exams (which inspired the chunin exams in the original Naruto). The following is one of your classic battle shounen fighting tournament arcs nothing too special about it. Then you’ve got a crime thriller esque art, virtual reality game setting, and even a war. I want to reiterate the point that with almost every arc there feels like a shift in the genre, and the shifts are so drastic in my opinion that for me at some points I even forgot this show was supposed to be a battle shounen .This show is 148 episodes and I consider it to be a slow burn and if by the 60th episode mark if you’ve made it that far and you still aren’t enjoying it, I don’t think you ever will. The pace of the show is generally fast paced till the Chimera arc where is slows down quite a lot, for me this didn’t really take away anything from the show since that is by far my favorite arc of the series but I’ve had discussions with people who’ve thought it dragged on too long. I think there’s only two recap episodes in the span of the 148 episodes and there is no filler, I REPEAT A BATTLE SHOUNEN LONGER THAN 100 EPISODES THAT HAS NO FILLER. YESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of my main problems with series like Naruto, Bleach, Fairy Tail and One Piece are the amount of fillers that usually bore me half to death. Also Hunter x Hunter was a big influence on other series, specifically Naruto which drew elements from the Hunter Exams, Phantom Troupe and Kurapika’s eyes and back story directly from the manga. If you don’t believe me look for the dual-interview that Kishimoto and Togashi did a while back where Togashi said that Kishimoto came to him for a lot of advice on Naruto when he started writing it, and in my opinion the best parts of Naruto are the parts where you can tell Togashi was a big influence.
OK, I finally want to take the chance to talk about what sets this apart from the rest of battle shounen and battle anime in general. Bullshit power-ups are very rare and you’ll constantly find our main cast being overwhelmed and not being able to typically overcome their enemies when they are overwhelmed. Gon, the main protagonist of the serious is rarely the main focus of the arcs and will often be sidelined to a more supporting role and most people wouldn’t think it works but it definitely works for this series. I’ll reiterate this point later but it gives us a chance to focus on a lot of the supporting characters that are probably this series biggest strength and something that I believe this series does better than any other. If you aren’t a big fan of watching the main characters be the underdog most of the time then you might not like this series, but for what it’s worth I’d still give it a shot. Also the form the actual fights and battle in this series are much different than your typical fights and battle in shounens. Usually the characters will look at the battle from a strategic angel and try to use their abilities and knowledge to defeat their opponents with their smarts unlike the usual shounen trope defeating them by having more power. Also Nen is probably one of the most interesting and diverse powers that I’ve seen used in a shounen; each character who can use Nen develops their own unique Nen abilities and it’s really interesting to see how they orient that into combat or deceiving others.
Art
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Probably one of the things that people find as the biggest turnoff for this series is our main characters look. As you can tell originally I too had an issue with Gon’s design and would call him such words as “Gay” and “Stupid” because of his design to rationalize my not watching the series. I find that most people before watching the show suffer through the same ignorance that I once did but I eventually got past this and it saddens me a bit that people won’t partake in something I consider such a masterpiece now because the main character looks “Gay” and “Stupid”. But for those people who are being very superficial about this masterfully created world should just give it a shot and not take a book by its cover. Other than Gon’s character designs a lot of the characters look pretty original and are refreshing from your typical Battle Shounen character design. In some of the characters designs you can see a nod to the author of the Hunter x Hunter manga previous work another very famous manga/anime series Yu-Yu Hakusho . With this series the art style certainly grows on you and maybe like me once you’re finished with the series you will be in love with the art style just like me. It’s a very simple art style and I can see how some would find this a turnoff.
On the subject of animation, the animation for this series is surprisingly amazing. You can’t usually say that for long running battle shounen series but Hunter x Hunter actually seems to get better animation as series progresses. The action seems look really good and the visuals will never disappoint.
Sound
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Overall I think HxH (2011) has a pretty good soundtrack with some amazing songs but definitely during the start it suffers from a misuse of OST that I think can be a little off-putting sometimes. I thought the voice acting was really excellent, a couple of really minor characters bad obnoxious voices too. But I think if you’ve seen the anime you’d agree they the voices fit very well with almost all of the characters
Characters
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The characters are probably what this series does best. Togashi intentionally made Gon a pretty generic and bland main character so you can focus on all of the amazing side characters he’s created. In my opinion the antagonists aka the villains in this show are some of the best villains ever created in an anime. Meruem? Hisoka? The Phantom Troupe? Need I say more? Sometimes you’ll be sympathizing for the antagonists and rooting for them to win. Togashi’s writing is so genius that one of the antagonists I had been completely appalled and disgusted by him in one episode and in another I was bawling in empathy for him. Also something Hunter x Hunter seems to do differently than any other battle shounen is instill a sense of fear of loss in us for the characters, we know very well that Togashi is brutal and though so far no main characters have died they’ve been very close. Togashi even once stated in an article when asked what would happen in the end to Kurapika and the Phantom Troupe that…… Spoiler alert…… They will all die! Really hope he was just joking around there and if he isn’t :(.
Overall
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I’m definitely a Hunter x Hunter fanboy, haven’t been one for too long but in 2012 I fell in love with the series. I have no problem calling it my favorite series and the biggest complaint for people is the first three episodes or rather the first arc which can be sort of a slow start and a poor representation of the series as a whole. Then there’s the slight misuse of OST at some points. I don’t consider this a negative but also there is the change of pace into a much slower one throughout the Chimera Ant Arc which I believe most fans of the series actually rather enjoyed like myself but I’ve seen some people complain about it. Other than rather small negatives I think what sets it apart from other battle shounen is its use of strategy and skill, ability to actually make most characters including the main cast to feel endangered, superb villains which almost seem to get more development than the main cast, animation quality that actually gets better opposed to worse over the span of a long running series, and a story that with every arc is new and refreshing and could be considered a change of genre. These are so masterfully executed in Hunter x Hunter that I really don’t have a problem calling it a masterpiece. So that’s how I justify giving it a 10/10, while no series is perfect this seems to be the one closest too it in my opinion.
MERRY CHRISTMASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
