Review of Hunter x Hunter

HunterxHunter is a massive breakaway from traditional shonun anime. I haven't seen many of those, but somehow, the cliches are still properly etched in my mind, and HxH breaks away from every one of those. At the start of the series, its basically a Shonun, except that this isn't a hardcore fight for your life, its just about a boy. This is where I began to get bored. Im a big fan of the cliches of normal shonun, the massive power-levels and 10 episode fights. I love hype. But HxH just didnt give me any of that at the start. But I did start tonotice some odd things that piqued my interest instead.
First thing I noticed was the amount of character development for side-characters. People we just met were talking about their backstory, so I assumed we would see them often as main, or main side characters. Nope. All that incredible detail and character-work was just lost when basically all of them never made it through a second episode. This was interesting... Why waste so much potential on side characters? Now, in anime this is just unheard of, but as someone who reads a lot of fantasy novels, this is exactly what you see there. This anime turned out to not just be an anime, but novel. A written piece of work, something that always touches more layers of humanity than animed or film work ever could.
The main characters being introduced were OK I guess. I had no issues with them (Except for how I thought Kurapika was a girl for like, 3 arcs) except for how they were developed just as much as the side-characters.
Something we are very used to seeing is a very steep learning curve for the character, one that takes maybe 10-20 minutes to fully flesh out the character before adding on bits and pieces later one. For HunterxHunter it is the opposite. The learning curves for the characters are astronomically low. To the point where its almost a linear line. You are always learning more about the characters, at the start where they seem very basic, to the end of the Chimera Ant arc, which is remarkably higher. By doing this, HxH leaves so much room to grow, without making the greatest characters the world has ever seen. It sets the story up to make the mcs the best ever, but does not do so hastily. This is an important distinction because this is what makes HxH so easily accessible to non-anime viewers. Its extremely easy to ease into the characters.
And before I go into plot structure, I wanna mention another awesome thing.Often Anime make it so the protagonists know what the watcher knows. Nothing more, nothing less. But in HxH, people only know what they would realistically know. There are SO many plot points that are instigated due to incorrect or out of date information, and it just adds another whole layer of realism to the mix. Its so noticeable later, and at some points you wanna pull your hair out but its so logical and realistic that I cant help but understand that is the point. Just small things like this make it such an awesome experience.
Ok ill jump into the plot now ;-)
There are 7/8 arcs
Hunter Exam arc, Zoldyck arc, Heavens Arena, York New, Greedo Islando, Chimera Ant, And the Election Arc.
Everyone says the Zoldyck family arc is trash, and I dont even agree it is an arc, so well just skip it.
The Hunter Exam arc is just delightful if you know youre going to stick through it. Its just plain fun, but seems to lack any depth at all. It introduces Hisoka, which was baller, but other than that, this is mostly forgettable.
The Heavens Arena arc is also pretty hated. Its essentially a really weirdly formatted tournament arc that also doubles as our intro to Nen, the pretty interesting magic system. I enjoyed it because of the awesome fights, but very little meaning is gained here to. It really developed Hisoka a lot tho.
York New is a fan favorite, and I agree. Its basically a noir, with the best villains in the series. Its dark and so suspenseful. It just didn't hit me with any emotions, which is why Im not the biggest fan, but its obviously one of the best done.
Greedo Islando was awesome imo. This one is semi hated due to the absolute 0 amount of value it adds to the overall story, but because of how this rides so well off of Gon's previous character, and how the format is just so simple and easy to follow, I quite enjoyed this one.
Then the Chimera Ant arc. Best arc ever? Maybe. The story here can only be described as epic. So many 3D characters, amazing emotion, and character arcs that are beyond my comprehension. Keep in mind, the pacing here is almost trash. Like, 4 episodes go by and they're like "oh yes, 10 seconds have passed" which isn't much on its own, but with how much the narrator talks, basically nothing happens. Still, overall the amount of conflicts going on has floored me. This arc would probably be a 10/10. Except for the narrator, who just wouldn't shut up about obvious things, and also talked about not obvious things that the story should have *shown* us instead. This man is just annoying, but people like him for some reason. The Chimera Ant Arc just loses so much steam with him imo. Still, this arc has the most emotion, making me cry so hard at some points.
Election Arc. I enjoyed this one more than any other. It was so funny, I legit laughed out loud so many times. Its so believable too. The comedy here is sooooo top tier. Not just that tho, we get a look at the Zodiacs, which are my favorite team in HxH. The most powerful hunters in a single room. This is one of those concepts that just makes me more hyped than anything, but that might just be me. This one just ticked all the boxes. Fast moving, fun, hype, and has an awesome new character revealed ;-)
Overall the ending was mad amazing too. Perfectly concluded, despite the manga actually not even being close to done. I dare say, the ending just made me feel so warm, it might even say it changed my life.
OK TIME FOR THE ART
Art lags at the start. Basic but consistent. Nothing too fancy.
Until the Chimera Ant Arc. Man! The amount of times they just took a still frame of the animation and painted it to the likes of an actual work of art... I saved so many of these. Basically all of them could be my wallpaper. I cannot express the beauty in the Chimera Ant Arc.
Sound was something else too. Basically same story as the art.Chimera ant arc killed it. The beauty in those tracks essentially carried the plot. It was so intense yet beautiful. Not something you could put on a playlist, but something you might hear in a theater. Its amazing. One complaint. I noticed this in the chimera ant arc and then election arc, but sometimes random circus music starts playing for like 2-4 seconds and just drops. I have no clue why this is. Maybe a Japanese thing. It just started to annoy me when I couldn't understand it at all.

Overall awesome villains, incredible plots, soundtrack and arc are jawdropping if you wait long enough, and emotions are high. Awesome series. If not for the pacing in the Chimera ant arc, the annoying narrator and the weird clown noises this would be a 10. This is prolly the highest 9 ive given tho.