Review of Hunter x Hunter

This is my favorite anime so far. I would definitely recommend this anime to anyone. Although, for the best experience I would advice to begin the show from the original (1999) version. It has a much better start than this version. You may pick up this version at episode 53 and continue till the end of the anime. **MINOR SPOILERS NOTHING MAJOR** CRITICISM: Most of the points I will say here can be avoided by starting with the 1999 version of this show. Most changes from the 1999 version to the 2011 version were for the worse. Honestly, I think the producers felt like neglecting the initialepisodes of the anime as they were already covered in the 1999 version.

-> The show has a very poor and seemingly boring start to it. Gon actually meets Leorio in an island and they board the ship together, but all this is skipped in the 2011 anime.

-> There was no introduction to Kite in the beginning episodes in the 2011 version. Later on in the Chimera Ant arc Kite was introduced suddenly and then all of the backstory was dropped quickly. But all that was supposed to be shown in the initial episodes.

-> The Greed Island arc felt a little bit pointless. It was quite a bug jump to go from a "crime thriller" focused arc to "magical card powers inside a game" arc.

-> Gon luckily was able to magically heal himself with the power of the cards after his fight with Genthru where he lost an arm. There were no consequences. This felt a bit like a typical shounen thing. I would have liked maybe a less critical injury than losing an arm, but that injury persisting in Gon afterwards reminding the veiwers of the time in the Greed Island arc. I liked how later in the Chimera Ant arc Gon was able to heal but still could not use Nen. I would have really liked it if something like that were to happen for the Genthru fight as well.

->Chimera Ant arc felt slightly slow to start, it would have been ideal if it would have been wrapped up in 50 episodes than 60 episodes maybe, nothing major though.

-> Though reasons were there but I was completely against Knuckle's decision to remove the Bankrupcy from Youpi. I personally hated that moment and as a result Knuckle's charater. Also I did not particularly like how Meruem was brought back to life using the "essence" of the royal guards after Netero's fight.

Thats all that I can find in the 148 episodes of the show. Everything other than these was brilliant. Amazing art, music and character development and once you will start watching you will find it hard to stop. I watched the whole thing in 3 days during my vacation. Just to mention a few amazing moments from this show amongst the many would be:

-> The friendship of Gon and Killua. I would definitely say that it is one of the best friendships in anime I have ever seen.
One of the cutest moments of the show according to me was during the Hunter exam arc where they were going to stay in an island for a week where they had to defend their badge and also get badges from others to make a total of 6 points. After everyone were given their badges, all did the smart thing and hid their badges so no one can easily figure out who their target is. It was during this time that Gon and Killua were asking each other about their badge numbers where each was a little bit reluctant to tell the other about their number. They had just been friends for only a few days after all. After that they decided to share their numbers after all. That moment was so cute and cool. It was butchered in the 2011 version, but the 1999 version did it very well.

-> Very unique and enjoyable characters of Hisoka, Netero, Ging Freecs just to name a few!!

-> Amazing character development of Meruem. Many people say that this is not the first time some evil character has turned to the good side and give examples from FMAB Naruto etc. I agree. But this is not about turning to the good side from evil. This is about how the process happened and HxH's Meruem is the best in it.
The scene where Meruem was starting to respect human beings, starting to realize that there are other aspects to appreciate in life other than absolute power (brute strength) from Komugi. But then he was swayed again to the dark side by his Royal Guards. After that he decides to go and kill Komugi, but as he enters he sees that an eagle is hurting her. The realization that even if he did nothing Komugi will die. Killing Komugi is nothing to be proud of. And finally to the conclusion that it is the duty of the strong to protect the weak after realizing which he kills the eagle. That scene was SO AMAZING! It alone made this anime separate itself from any other shounen there is.