Review of Hunter x Hunter
If there's a single regret I have that stands out like a sore thumb, it's the fact I didn't watch this great show sooner. Everything from the story, to the animation, to the score, to the characters is done to near perfection in the extremely varied and creative shounen known as Hunter x Hunter. Story: Like I mentioned earlier, the show is extremely varied. Each individual story arc takes on a different tone so everyone is sure to find something to love in the show. Even when the current tone and overall atmosphere of HxH might not be your thing, that's no issue. HxH always provides aninteresting situation to the characters, whether it's on the battlefield or off of it. The show is all about tactics and evaluating the situation, so there's never a truly dull moment. And the thematic elements don't feel forced or pretentious. The themes in each arc are very clearly expressed and are effectively communicated to the viewer.
Almost every character in the show feels unique. Even when some characters feel like you've seen them a trillion times before Togashi makes them either visually or individually unique. most of the time he succeeds at both. Each character responds to situations in their own special way and has their own motivations. Sometimes these motivations intertwine. For example:
Gon: To find his father and ask him why he was abandoned.
Killua: To find a purpose for himself outside of being an assassin.
How they intertwine: Killua aids in Gon finding his father while Gon gives him a purpose through their friendship,
The animation, while not the greatest I've ever seen, is still silky smooth and is extremely pleasant to look at. Madhouse really did an amazing job with the visuals. The animation never felt inconsistent in the slightest, which is a damn near astronomical feat for a show of this length. The show is visually superb and borders on legendary status in some instances.
Once again I can say this show is superb in yet another category, boasting an incredible and varied score, fitting for a show with as much variety as Hunter x Hunter. Not only does the music make the combat scenes that much more intense, it makes the nonstop exposition fly by.
While not being really all that action based, it IS a shounen and action is one of the basic fundamentals of the genre. Surprise, surprise, it's got phenomenal action sequences. Not a single fight feels the same, all are unique in some way and don't last an eternity like most of the other shounens out there with their 35 minutes of muscular dickheads screaming. I can only think of 1 or 2 fights in HxH that are longer than 15 minutes. HxH also makes it clear that if the main characters are in battles with people a fair bit ahead of them they could die at any moment, leading to more tension than those shows where the main characters pull some op technique out of their anus.
The show as a whole is honestly a masterpiece. I couldn't really list off all of the things I found HxH accomplished extraordinarily well but this is a basic breakdown of the major parts of the show and how they were executed to near perfection. It deeply saddens me that HxH has only picked up with anime fans in the last few years, it deserves way more attention than it gets.