Review of Hunter x Hunter

Hunter x Hunter (2011) is one of those unique gems of a Shounen in my opinion. It has the traditional features of the genre but at the same time is very deep in many ways and does a really good job of hitting both sides of the spectrum. I'll expand on that in the following At first glance its very straight forward with Gon wanting to become a hunter to find his father, which remains the general goal throughout. As the story moves along we get introduced to new characters and they themselves end up having a back story as to what made them the waythey are and goals they have. Some more-so than others of course but all the while never really truly drifting from Gon. Through this these characters really grow into stand alone "mains" in their own way. Most obvious would be Kurapika and his ties with the Phantom Troupe. I've seen things like Yuu Yuu Hakusho where the main quartet has some depth but this show took it to a new level. I would be all for a few OVA's or short series. One for each "mini story" thats in the show and while I doubt that will happen I think that's a defining quality of the show.

Character story is not the only thing this show does a notch or two above the rest. Development is also well done here. Most notably here would be Gon and Killua. There is no doubt that those two have grown exponentially throughout the show in all aspects but the watcher is subtlety reminded that they are still indeed kids between 10 and 13 with the occasional reversion into child-like behavior or humor between the two. Which happen to be some of the best comedy in the show for me. Supporting characters are also not exactly left out here and most of the more frequent characters do get more polish. Good example of this would be Wing, you might forget his name but youll always remember he was at Celestial Tower.

As if all that wasn't enough the system of Nen itself is extremely complex. Definitely not like anything I experienced before in this sort of genre and the fact that there are the specializations where people fall into based on the type of person they were and that in itself gave them insight to their strengths and weaknesses was like icing on the cake for me. I really appreciate the depth here.

Lastly I'll touch on what I meant by spectrum in the beginning. I know the Phantom Troupe has done some not so cool things. I also know most of the Ants are not the best individuals but you know.... We get to see a small glimpse of the other side of the spectrum to a degree that's rarely seen in my opinion.

Sure there's plenty of instances like Danzo's or Madara from Naruto where the evil kind of subsides for a minute and you see some good intent behind their morphed way of doing things but for me this show took it to a whole different level. We get to see that pretty much all of the Phantom Troupe that spent more than fifteen minutes on screen was a decent person somewhere in their hearts and not just by some "Goodbye world" speech. Whether it was something like Nobunaga lashing out at Feitan individually or whether it was one portion of the Phantom Troupe going against another portion because they were split on viewpoints and how to handle a situation.

All around, Hunter x Hunter (2011) is really one of those gems that you don't see very often no matter the genre. If you have time, and haven't seen it yet, please sit through this show. I promise you won't regret it.

That does it for this review. This one is extremely long but there's reasons for that. I hope it was an enjoyable read for whoever made it through.

P.S.
If you are wondering if you should watch the original Hunter x Hunter before this... Let me say that by all means you can do that but really, the 2011 version has everything the 1999 version has and so, so much more. If you just want to watch for the story you can safely pass on the original and the Greed Island OVAs. If you are one of those who really pay attention to the animation, sound or voice and want to watch to see the difference in the decade that passed from the two airings than by all means watch both.