Review of Hunter x Hunter

Hunter x Hunter is one of the most popular Shonen anime and one I slept on my watchlist. After seeing so many post relating to Hunter x Hunter and several recommendations I cannot help but hop up the train. Since the manga is still on-going, I keep my expectations low and savour the story served for 148 episodes. I thought the first arc was a good introduction to the characters; I can relate to each characters and feel for them, there is a clear motivation to where our main character, Gon, is reaching towards. There are setups and character moments that builds to interesting plotpoints particularly on later arcs. Despite its slow start, I still enjoy the little introductory to the detour.

The second arc, personally, is my favourite, it focuses more on how the power of the show and the world building work. There is pay-off that remained very satisfying, emotionally charged between two characters I really liked. I wished the emotional drive of the story had.

The third arc is one of the strongest, this is the turning point of the tone of the series, I really like Kurapika as a character and this is the arc where he shines and an introduction to a group called the 'Phantom Troupe' some would label this arc by that name. There is that emotional pay-off and nuances for the characters that I crave and the new characters introduced were enjoyable and memorable though some of the auction stuff add the ambiguity of the underworld of HxH but some episodes for it deters the momentum of the story. Served as a breather after an intense storm. Talking about this arc more began to grew on me.

The fourth arc felt like the breather of the series but I still found certain moments entertaining. Since it is set in a video game, there is a characters introduced who will remain recurring on the later seasons, some are thrown away just for the sake of being a stepping stone to the story. What I found a bit disappointing was that they underplayed an important character from the previous arc, the significance of him just gets thrown under a bus, I just wished the author could've expanded more especially with the appearance of the jester character in the arc. The antagonist of this arc feels like a toxic player in a video game, not many layers to him and would probably remain forgettable.

The fifth arc is a mixed bag for me, I find it as an interesting take on alien invasion reminded me of Invasions of the body snatcher (1978), though the pacing is what really bogged down the story and brought bad juju to my experience, maybe because I binged most of the episodes so the majority of the episode starts off with the summary of the previous episode and there were attempts of characterisation of potential minor villains, even though they worked but it deterred and meandered away from the main focus of the arc. What worked for me was the juxtaposition of character development between the protagonist, Gon and the antagonist of this arc 'the King'. There were a couple of episodes in which narration just entered the story like it's the play of the game, it takes me away from the story, just a bunch of spoon-feeding of details that we as the audience can put two and two together. Despite all the pacing issues and underdeveloped characters there were really good emotional moments and character interactions.

The epilogue of the series is serviceable, there were entertaining moments between characters and family drama at play. It was a good transition from an emotionally draining arc and a good teaser for the future of the series, which we will probably see in 2030.

Arc Personal Ranking:
1). Heavens Arena
2). Yorknew City x Phantom Troupe
3). Election Arc (Epilogue)
4). Greed Island
5). Hunter Exam
6). Chimera Ant

*The order may change after multiple viewings / reads.