Review of Hunter x Hunter

Like many other highly popular anime, HxH has an insanely good start, but somewhere down the road there is an exchange of quality for accommodation of the spectator. While not being as popular as other big franchises or overhyped anime from this decade, HxH manages to kick off to one of the strongest starts I've ever seen in an anime or series and never loses steam, in fact steam is built up. The Hunter Exam Arc has it all, those were probably the best 21 episodes of shounen anime I'll watch - good protagonists who never cease to impress us, great side characters, clever andwitty fights that are completely unforgettable, and so much more. It is only normal that the Zoldyck arc calms down things a little bit, but the Heaven's Arena arc picks all the steam up again, allowing the viewer to breathe for a little while, wondering where the story will take them.

However, this is the shortcoming of HxH. All the steam that was initially built up is just steam and never quite materializes to a well structured and logical story, with each arc after the Heaven's Arena being just a side entertainment for what we were promised from the beginning. This could be a good or even great thing, had it been done right. That is not the case though, as the Yorknew City arc leads up to a completely useless ending, that doesn't impact the story at all. This becomes a clear issue in the series, as the plot is mainly a character device to allow Gon and Killua to grow. This becomes even more evident on the Greed Island arc, which again feels like a good side story that could have been excluded from the anime - pointless villains, pointless videogame and a pointless card system which the viewer is somehow expected to know and learn like it is something important, when absolutely don't need to because in the end only a handful of cards really mattered. If only a handful of cards matter why create an entire collection of 100+ cards? Later on, exactly the same problem happens with Gungi, where you are expected to know how the game works without any detailed explanation. Unfortunately, you have to buy the manga or research online about some pointless anime boardgame to truly enjoy the symbolism that is meant to be brought by it. You'll watch the same two characters play this game where you have no clue of what's happening, except of one technique called kokoriko that carries the most symbolism, apparently.

Transitioning into the worst arc, where Gon was finally meant to focus on finding his father, we get a bunch of flesh eating ants that end up being a mix of Cell and Buu from DBZ without any logical explanation. There is a lot of irrationality involved, including beings that are born wearing clothes and having a fully evolved conscience without any learning, nurturing or explanation. These Chimera Ants are just there and they can be some kawaii neko bullshit that you have probably seen or heard in 100 other anime (nyaaaaaa), some excentric flamboyant guy whose personality replaces Hisoka's for the entirety of the arc and many other secondary characters who just exist for fanservice purposes, be it sexual or not. Also, two of the most important characters go on a complete hiatus for 70 episodes. Gon's attitude makes 0 sense the entire arc, all the wit, guts and instinct that he had before is magically lost.
Another tragedy of the Chimera Ant arc is the fact the the main portion of the arc is set on 30 minutes of plot time. The Captain Tsubasa antics are completely offrails and 1 episode set in this main portion of the arc is translated to a minute or less of plot action. Many people complain about other shounen for doing this and actually praise HxH for not doing it, when HxH is actually one of the biggest offenders I've ever seen. +40 episodes that cover only 1 hour of action is something that has completely no reason or even need to exist. The narrator is annoying, every single move, be it the motion of someone raising a fist or the loss of a hairstring has to be explained in a OCD ritual that sometimes lasts the entire half of an episode. One of the biggest problems here is that Gon and Killua, who took months or even years to learn new things, only take 10 minutes to learn twice as much as they learned in the past years. Oh, did I mention the same applies to EVERY OTHER CHARACTER? Half of the plot is only there as a device to develop characters or even to describe absolutely worthless and unimpactful characters like Gyro, who gets an entire episode dedicated to him, or like the many characters who have to have an absolutely fleshed out story only to die or be completely neglected the next episode. Does HxH do it good, though? Yes. Is the anime still very enjoyable? No doubt. Is there the need to fill an otherwise great anime with all this vague content? Absolutely not. I would rather know how Kurapika and Leorio were doing, instead of having all these random characters (that will fade into the background) get all the attention via a circumstantial life story.
Another detail is that Meruem is not the amazing and super great villain that people say he is. He is a mainly immature dude (literally), who is as evil as they come, but cares for the ones who are on the same intelectual dimension as him (Komugi). The most redeemable part of this arc is the ending, which was actually really good compared to the weaker endings of the previous arcs and the secondary characters who regularly had screen time throught the entire arc.

The last arc is builds up a little bit of steam again, but there are many issues again. It becomes increasingly evident that a lot of the characters in this anime are part of a shock value agenda. For some reason, every member of Killua's family has to be a special snowflake that has either genderbending characteristics or homoerotic tendencies. This is an obsession throughout the entire story which is filled with characters like this for no reason other than to shock or confuse viewers: Kurapika, Bisky, Neferpitou, Alluka and Karuto are some of the more notable examples. There is absolutely no explanation given as to why many characters have to be like this and it becomes annoying to the point where it looks like the anime is trying to spread some edgy propaganda to its viewers. Otherwise it can just be assumed as some top quality fanservice to please every little portion of the fanbase.

The end of this last arc feels premature as HxH ends in a pretty good and memorable spot and leaves fans wondering how long will it take for another season. With its ups and downs, HxH ends up being an extremely enjoyable anime overall and one of the best shounens out there in terms of raw quality and potential to continue on and on.

Soundtrack - 8
Animation - 8
Story - 6.5
Characters - 6.5
Enjoyment - 9.5

Overall: 7.7