Review of Hunter x Hunter

I normally am not very negative and find it very easy to enjoy shows, but this show was a rare exception. To start off, I want to acknowledge that it is a unique show and the praise that it gets is justified, but I still feel that my experience differed vastly and it felt like a waste of time overall. For me, the show starts off strong with introducing a clear story and cool characters, but it loses me around the third arc. I felt that it lacked any sort of excitement or action and kept leading to anticlimactic moments for the sake of suspensethat didn't really lead anywhere. I'm trying not to spoil anything, but there's an episode around the 90's that relates to this arc and essentially contains everything that I thought this arc should've been: filled with action and character background/development. Beyond that, the following arc is irrelevant and serves mostly as a transition to the next arc which I felt could've been executed more appropriately instead of adding some throwaway story. The next arc after that drags on for way too long which is sort of excusable since the later half is quite honestly incredible. The biggest downsides that ruin it for me though are the bad character decisions, the random narration that's added which kills the mood, and plot armor in a sense (can't specify without spoiling). Ironically enough, the characters that were the most interesting and I connected with were 2 weak side characters who were introduced in the later half of that arc and don't show up after this arc which is slightly annoying. All these lead to a very disappointing feeling for me. The final arc, however, did restore some hope for me as it was brilliantly done. As I said, I don't really care for perfection or anything, but those three arcs in the middle of the series that spans a good near 75 episodes were very off putting and makes me not even want to continue onto the manga to know what happens next. A good majority of people seem to love this show, but I just think there are a lot of flaws that made it not enjoyable and made me regret pouring time into it.

Pros: Great characters, interesting settings, and plot-lines with a lot of potential
Cons: Poor story direction and decision making at points, retconned/irrelevant details in the story, bad pacing, soundtrack wasn't really memorable, and questionable power differences