Review of Hunter x Hunter

- “You should enjoy the little detours. To the fullest. Because that’s where you’ll find the things more important than what you want” This message falls apart when you consider that the "little detour" also known as the Chimera Ant Arc took up half the series and was generally miserable for everyone involved. Togashi has a way of hammering in one theme, then pretending that the real theme was something else, without actually earning it. ---- Plot: None. This series is a training arc disguised as an actual story. I wish that was an exaggeration. So many episodes are dedicated to the convolutions of Nen, the stories power system,which for some godawful reason cannot be explained in less than five paragraphs. Especially when the whole system is ignored to give characters whatever random power the author wants. Again, not exaggerating.

Outside that, so many side plots just drop off halfway through the story and are never addressed again. The world-building feels like it was made up on the spot. The Chimera Ant arc, apparently the greatest arc of all time to some people, is so far removed from the rest of the story that I think I could cut it entirely and then publish it as a standalone series and only improve everything.

Art: Good. I don't put much store in art.

Characters: This series has great characters. To be more precise, those characters are Killua and Meruem. *Maybe* Hisoka. Outside those three, you might as well be watching interchangable cardboard cutouts. Nobody stays in the plot long enough to actually feel like they matter. Characters die left and right, so it's hard to get interested in the latest in a long line of wacky personalities, no matter what they do. It's even harder when you realise that nobody save the main duo actually stays around for two consecutive arcs.

Enjoyment: This series did not live up to my expectations, and I didn't have very high expectations in the first place.