Hunter x Hunter is about a kid named Gon Freecs that becomes a Hunter and wants to find his dad someday. This is the worst story I've ever seen in a Shounen anime. I'll be explaining why I say this later on in this review
Hunter x Hunter has one thing going for it, the Yorknew Arc. Every other arc in this show was complete and utter garbage and I'll explain why. First we have the Hunter Exam arc. This was just a pathetic version of the Chunin Exams. It just feels way too slow and boring. This was the first arc in the series and it just failed to get me attached to any of the characters. There was just no reason to like any of these characters at all. Gon was the typical generic shounen protagonist. Killua was the typical edgy kid. Kurapika was the cliche revenge character. The only character that was interesting was Leorio. All of the trials in this arc were boring to watch and that's pretty much it. The mini tournament was also uninteresting/boring
Next we have the Zoldyck Family arc. Ahh what a waste of time. I actually thought something big would happen in this arc, but this unfortunately wasn't the case. They just go into the mansion and then get Killua and then leave. This arc should've been longer and actually gave more depth to Killua's family, but it didn't! In the end I didn't give a single shit about his family and any other character involved in this arc. And as usual, we get that stupid friendship/nakama bullshit in this arc. This is why I say that Hunter x Hunter is nothing different from the typical shounen, because it still has that nakama bullshit.
Heaven's Arena was just so boring it nearly made me fall asleep multiple times. Togashi actually made an interesting concept for an arc, but then completely ruins it. He ruins it by making the whole arc a damn training arc. This just doesn't make sense to me. This arc was way too focused on training instead of the actual fucking Heavens Arena. This is one of my biggest problems with Hunter x Hunter in general. This series just has way too much training and less story to it. None of the villains were interesting at all. They were just the typical cliche villains you'd see in any Shounen. The fights were complete and utter garbage. It's funny how they spend so much time training yet when Gon finally fights Hisoka it's nothing but hand to hand combat for the most part. So much training yet he doesn't even know how to use real techniques. Infact he doesn't even know how to use real techniques until like fucking 60 episodes!
Next is the Yorknew arc. a very good arc. Almost everything about this arc was actually phenomenal, but there are some problems. Firstly, the main two characters are so fucking annoying I just couldn't stand it. Uvogin was a very generic character and just not interesting to me. The rest of the phantom troupe all lacked any depth to them so I just didn't find them to be good villains. The best thing about this arc was Kurapika and his character development. Kurapika is the only character in Hunter x Hunter with good development. The rest of the main characters are complete and utter garbage with no redeeming qualities. Also the fight between Uvogin and Kurapika was pretty cool.
Greed Island is one of the most pointless and boring arcs I've seen in a Shounen. Once again this arc is filled with boring training that nobody gives a shit about. Togashi made an interesting concept for an arc just to ruin it by making it a training arc. He just doesn't know how to balance things out and this arc is the perfect example. Them collecting cards was painfully boring to watch. The card system wasn't explained in detail so that was boring. We don't know what any of these cards are or do, so I got bored with all the card collecting bullshit. The main villain has got to be the one of the worst villains I've seen in a Shounen series. No depth whatsoever. He's just the typical one dimensional villain that's evil just for the sake of being evil. See it's funny how Hunter x Hunter fans talk about how well written this anime is, but I just don't see it! Characters like Genthru clearly contradict that statmement, and there's no debating about this. The fights in this arc were really bad. Gon vs Genthru was filled with plot armor it was just laughable. He should've easily lost that fight, but he just wins because of 100% plot armor. Greed Island could've been a good arc but it was ruined by many things. Bad villains, boring training, and barely any explanation to the card system. The world of Greed Island had 0 detail, none whatsoever. This just feels like a filler arc overall. One of the worst arcs in Shounen.
The Chimera Ant arc has got to be the most overrated Shounen arc I've ever seen. This is the most boring arc I've ever watched in an anime. The first 20 episodes of it were extremely slow paced and dragged on WAY too long. There was just far too much underdeveloped characters getting screen time so it was just ridiculous. The narration was the worst part about this arc. It completely ruined this arc in many ways. Firstly, the narration happened in some of the most important parts in the arc. When they where raiding the palace I just completely lost interest because of the fucking narration. This man was narrating for almost the entire episode it was just ridiculous. The fact that there needs to be narration in order to have people understand what's happening is just stupid. Firstly, it's an insult to the viewers. It's like they think the viewers are too stupid to understand what's going on, so there needs to be narration all the time. That's the impression I'm getting from this. Secondly, there's a lot of Shounen out there that don't need narration to tell a good story.
Now when it comes to fights, this arc had some of the most overrated fights I've ever seen. First we have Gon vs Neferpitou. Gon gets a random asspull powerup and beats the shit out of her. It was really fucking stupid to see Gon so mad about what happened to Kite anyways. He barely even fucking knew him yet he's crying like a bitch when he dies. This just made no sense whatsoever, and this was just bad writing at its finest. He only knew him for two weeks and he went ape shit when he found out what happened to him. This was just pathetic writing. Next overrated fight, Meruem vs Netero. Imagine hyping up a villain for 50 episodes just for him to have no cool techniques or anything. His fight with Netero was so boring. He just gets smacked away and flies right back at him. The only good thing about this fight was the animation. Everything else was complete and utter garbage as expected.
It's funny to me how this anime tried to have strategic battles in its early stages. Later on it just becames the typical battle shounen with power levels. Gon vs Hisoka and Gon vs Genthru had some strategy, but Meruem vs Netero was a terrible fight and was just about who has the higher power level. There's no good reason why Meruem is that strong either. He has no techniques or anything. That's why that fight was complete trash.
Now lets talk about the battle system in Hunter x Hunter. The battle system is actually pretty good. Togashi puts so much detail into the battle system, but there is a problem here. The problem is that a shit ton of fights in which the battle system doesn't even fucking matter! Like why put so much detail into the power system when the fights just end up being the typical shounen fights! Meruem vs Netero is the perfect example of this. This fight was just another typical DBZ type of fight you see in anime. All I'm saying is, if you're going to spend so much time putting detail into the power system, at least make it important in every fight.
Rememeber how I said Hunter x Hunter had the worst story I've ever seen in a Shounen? I'll explain why I said that right now. Gons goal was finding his dad right? SPOILER: After the death of Netero, everyone Hunter has to attend the election. This is when Gon meets his dad....This is the most garbage thing I have ever seen. After all those arcs trying to find clues to know his dads whereabouts, this is how they meet. What was the point in Yorknew? What was the point in Greed Island? This was the most unsatisfying thing I've ever seen in an anime. After all that hard work, Gon ends up meeting Gnig in the stupidest fucking way possible.
Speaking about the Election arc, this arc was complete trash. The only interesting thing about it was Leorio and what he said about Ging. Everything else was bad. Alluka was a terrible character. She was just a living plot device and that's all there was to this character. Nothing about this arc was good and that's all there is to it.
Now lets talk about the characters. There's only one good character in Hunter x Hunter, and that would be Kurapika. He's the only character with interesting character development. Gons character development was complete trash, specifically talking about when (spoiler) kite died. THat was just awful development. Killua had some development, but I disliked him due to his constant change in personalities. One second he's the typical 12 year old, the next second he's edgy as hell. His character development is very basic aswell. Leorio could've been a good character, but unfortunately he was neglected for like 90% of the anime. It pisses me off how the only decent characters barely got any screen time at all. Meruem is incredibly overrated. He's just the typical "I want to rule the world" type of villain. His character development was very basic and nothing special at all. His development is pretty much him becoming more of a good guy due to Komugis influence. Oh wow, a villain that becomes a good guy... wow that's such great writing isn't it.... -_- I've seen character development like his in a lot of anime, so I don't get why people suck him off so hard. Overall, Hunter x Hunter has bad characters.
Hunter x Hunter has terrible art. Not only in the manga, but in the anime aswell. This anime has some of the most ugly character designs I've seen in a shounen. There's just way too many ugly looking characters it just looks so childish. There's nothing interesting about the music or animation either. The music was very unmemorable to me, and the animation isn't anything special.
Overall this anime was horrible. The only enjoyable arc in this anime was the Yorknew arc and that's it. Everything else about this anime was boring and painful to watch. I don't recommend watching this anime. There's just so much other anime to watch that are much better. If you're looking for a badass shounen with awesome fights and great characters, go watch Yu Yu Hakusho. They were both written by the same mangaka, but at least Yu Yu Hakusho is enjoyable to watch. The Dark Tournament and Chapter Black arc are both better than anything I've seen in Hunter x Hunter.
