Review of Hunter x Hunter
After years of everyone from personal friends to random internet commentators imploring me to watch Madhouse’s 2011 adaptation of Hunter x Hunter, I finally got around to it. I was told that this was the best long-form battle shounen out there, avoiding all the sins of mediocrity other Shonen Jump titles like Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach commit. I was told Hunter x Hunter did not constantly try to implausibly escalate the stakes of each battle, didn’t rely on boring cliché motivations of characters just wanting to get stronger for no reason, did not draw out its battle sequences for outrageous lengths of time, didnot include random unnecessary filler. When I looked more into it I saw that its animation was far superior to anything I’d seen of a similar length and that it was in the all-time top 5 on MAL. I came into it with somewhat high expectations. I was not expecting a masterpiece, but at least a competently written and directed series that would outpace the mediocrity I’ve come to expect of this genre.
It turns out, I must not be in on some elaborate inside joke or meme. After sitting through 148 episodes of this I do not see how anybody over the age of twelve could impartially think this series is anything special. The bottom line is this is one of the most completely incoherent, unevenly paced, poorly thought out, and generic series I’ve ever seen.
I suppose I’ll start with my positive notes about the series. First, the animation is noticeably better than just about any series of this length. It got a little slipshod for moments around episodes 100-120 with ill-fitting CGI thrown in now and then, but started and ended strong and was never unnervingly bad. My biggest complaint about the artstyle, which has way more to do with the source material than Madhouse’s animation quality, is that the character designs are not coherent with each other. With a few exceptions (eg., Hisoka, Biscuit, and Palm) they look fine, but it looks like they were all ripped out of completely different series. However, I suppose that’s a sign of things to come as the plot is also an incoherent mess that feels like several different series randomly crammed together. Another positive note is that the soundtrack is actually rather exceptional, almost ill-fittingly so considering how weak the series itself is. However, various tracks were over-used and ran somewhat hollow towards the end. Overall, the soundtrack might have been the best point of the series. The voice acting is mostly adequate, with Mariya Ise’s performance of Killua really standing out. I would recommend avoiding the English dub for the most part (I watched about half of the series dubbed) as some side characters have really shoddy and obnoxious actors.
There are also redeeming aspects of character development and plot progression. For the most part, all that stuff I was told about it avoiding the sins most other shounen commit was true for the first sixty or so episodes. The first few “fight” scenes actually felt like refreshing deconstructions of what is so annoying about most shounen fight sequences. For an example, a character would start up some annoying cliched banter about how powerful he was and how he couldn’t be beaten like most scenes from Naruto only to be shut up by a punch in the face. It felt refreshingly well-paced in the first three or so arcs, the main cast of characters were rather endearing, and there was little in the way of boring filler.
However, even in the early episodes, it never felt like anything special. I was enjoying it well enough and could see why some people really liked it, but it was somewhat generic and far from a masterpiece. The first arc was a fairly typical exam-style arc, very similar, for example, to the chunin exams in Naruto. It revolves around our main character Gon trying to get a Hunter license through an extremely difficult exam involving a wide variety of off-the-wall, unrelated tasks. The main point of this arc was to acquaint viewers with the main cast of characters and introduce the notion of what a “hunter” is.
There’s Gon, a rather endearingly naïve and ambitious 12-year-old trying to earn a Hunter’s license so he can meet his father who abandoned him as a child; a clichéd lead for a shounen, but adequate. Kurapika, a somewhat ill-tempered but driven character bent on getting revenge for the murder of his people. Leorio, a stock comedic relief character with a somewhat compelling backstory hinted at early on but never explored. Easily the best character of the series is Killua, a 12-year-old former assassin who becomes best friends with Gon early on who is trying to escape his family’s will to turn him into an assassin. Killua and Gon’s friendship (that, at times, arguably verges into canon romance, at least from Killua’s perspective) is really the highlight of the series. Killua’s dark and brooding demeanor, as well as his high skill-level, acts as a perfect counterbalance to the charming but comedically stupid naivety and innocence of Gon. The way Killua is constantly trying to prove to himself that he’s good enough for Gon was the only consistently good character dynamic that kept me watching through this series’ most painful moments. The last notable and memorable character from this early sequence is Hisoka, a wildly underdeveloped possibly pedophilic clown who seems only motivated to someday fight Gon because he wants a challenge (we’re already getting into boring shonen clichés) and acts as the series' only consistent antagonist, even when he helps the main protagonist. But at least he’s somewhat entertaining with how off-the-wall he is.
Towards the end of this arc, though, you realize that it accomplishes almost nothing in the way of interesting world-building. You realize about fifteen episodes in, with some dismay, that “Hunter” is just a term for a generic action-hero mercenary. It mostly turns out this exam is little more than a disconnected variety game show. But, hey, at least the characters are somewhat compelling, if a little bland, and the games are somewhat interesting. At this point, I was still optimistic and thought if they flesh out these main characters other than Killua a bit more this could get good.
As you get into the second arc, the series begins to go a little stale and it becomes really clear just how lazy and bland the supposed worldbuilding for this fictional setting is. After a few episodes of rallying Killua back from his family, which served for some interesting character building, the main four characters split up. Killua and Gon participate in another shonen cliché of a battle tournament to get money, as well as pawning some antiques on the side, to obtain a video game that somehow has some hint as to how to find Gon’s dad. The main point of this section is to engage in some worldbuilding around the use of aura and nen—the main fighting mechanic of this series. It renders the first arc mostly useless since it turns out obtaining the Hunters license didn’t mean anything, meaning the notion there is not any unnecessary filler here was a lie. The fighting mechanics are overexplained at times and is a rather typical plot device for a shonen, but it gets the job done. This is one of the more boring and forgettable sections of the series, and that is saying something considering the tedium to come.
More interestingly, Kurapika begins to try to enact his revenge plot against a gang called the Phantom Spiders and we get some interesting development of his character. Eventually, the two subplots of Gon and Killua training and Kurapika getting revenge dovetail as they try to stop the antagonists from robbing. The video game angle is forgotten for about twenty episodes, just one of many times a key plot point will be randomly dropped. Oh, and now Leorio is mostly forgotten, a sign of stupidity to come as he and Kurapika—two of the only compelling main characters—are about to be completely forgotten for nearly 80 episodes.
When Gon and Killua finally obtain their video game, the “Greed Island” arc starts. Here, it becomes clear that this is far from what I was promised. Greed Island is easily the worst arc I’ve ever seen in any shounen anime. The basic premise of this is basically the bastard child of Yu-Gi-Oh and Sword Art Online but somehow manages to be worse than both. Almost everything that happened in the first few arcs is completely forgotten, Gon again gets completely distracted from the goal of finding his father and gets sidetracked with the game and another random unnecessary training sequence. Killua acts completely out of character throughout this arc and is almost as naïve as Gon suddenly. Almost every other character from earlier in the series is entirely absent, and an entirely new cast of characters is introduced as well as an overexplained, convoluted new plot device of a stupid card game. The phantom troop from Kurapika’s arc shows up for a minute for no good reason and is then promptly forgotten and Hisoka plays a big role but acts way out of his previously established character.
The early part of this arc is a bunch of boring exposition spoon-fed to the viewer through badly written explanatory dialogue that needed to be done because the arc had nothing to do with anything before it. This really points to the problem of having such a completely incoherent, unrelated set of arcs: the viewers’ time is wasted with a bunch more exposition when nobody really wants tedious explanation 60+ episodes into the series. It is really reminiscent of how dreary the filler arc at the end of the original Naruto was. But at least those filler serials made some sense, most of the time, this arc was as convoluted and nonsensical as it was dull. The worst thing is during one of the most outrageously stupid moments in the history of shonen, a battle revolving around (of all things) dodgeball, all the worst clichés of mediocre shonen I was told Hunter x Hunter avoided were on full, proud display. The basic rules of dodgeball are boringly overexplained through narration eight times, the fight scene drags on for far too long, an emotionally-driven power-up by Gon is what ultimately won it, and the antagonist for the fight was built up using boring tropes (such as defeating other characters previous built-up as strong instantly to build up a new character's perceived powerfulness). The main antagonists for the arc were completely boring, unpredictable, and underdeveloped. I barely made it through this arc and almost dropped the series altogether, but was told the next arc was better.
Like the theme song I was now growing weary of told me, “there definitely is a good reason to persevere,” so persevere I did. Turns out, just like my friends did when they told me this was the best shonen ever, that was mostly a lie. The Chimera Ant arc—which takes up about 40% of the series—was better from the start, but wound up being so horribly executed that it was really frustrating to watch. Killua’s character got some important development with his relationship to Gon. A new rival for Gon’s attention acted as a good foil to Killua. A little bit of somewhat interesting world building is accomplished, but I was now really noticing how horridly lazy the worldbuilding was. Apparently, the world map is just a flipped version of a real-world mercatus projection. But, hey, it’s something.
Again, this arc has almost nothing to do with anything that came before it, an entirely new cast of characters are introduced, and we’re exposed to even more exposition. But at least the exposition is somewhat enjoyable this time around. The premise of this arc is that a bunch of humanoid ants are killing everyone in one country to try to give birth to a new king, and Gon and Killua join some old friends of Gon’s father to stop it. The antagonists this time around are by far the most interesting and dynamic of the whole series and provide interesting external commentary on human societies. The premise is interesting, it was paced slower but felt well-executed, it was thematically interesting. Around episode 95 I was thinking this series might redeem itself.
Then, the main battle sequence starts and the so-far passable Chimera Ant arc completely jumps the shark. A whole bunch of characters we only got vague backstories on twenty to thirty episodes earlier are suddenly super important so it's hard to keep track of what’s going on. The battle sequence is now so drawn-out it makes Dragon Ball battles seem snappy. Seriously, a good twenty episodes into the big important climatic attack on the antagonist, the narrator announces only three minutes have passed.
Speaking of the narrator, that’s the worst part about this arc. Almost every damn moment of episodes 100-120 is taken up by horribly written, contrived narration. Every move in the battle, every psychological state of every character is just spoon-fed by the narrator. It’s not like the directors were incapable of subtlety, most of the narration was completely unnecessary since Madhouse actually did a decent job at subtley portraying battle techniques and emotional dispositions (although the animation through this arc was the worst of the series). The moment you almost get into the atmosphere of a scene during the battle, the narrator’s there to break the fourth wall and ruin everything, destroying any emotional depth that could be salvaged. The whole point of a visual medium like a television series is to show us characters’ dispositions, motivations, and beliefs, or even the basic events of the plot, not just tell it to us. Otherwise, we might as well forego every single film adaptation of novels and stick to audiobooks. For the most part, this sub-arc felt more like an audiobook than an anime.
Worse yet, the events at the climax of the battle are as implausible as they are ridiculous. Gon’s happy and naïve character fantastically changes way too quickly into a bloodthirsty sadist during another revenge arc (because Kurapika’s been forgotten for about 80 episodes) as he seeks vengeance for another minor side character we’ve barely gotten to know. The battle hilariously escalates into ridiculousness. Character designs become downright stupid (at one point the antagonists turn into chibis and Gon looks like handsome Squidward with impossibly long hair), fights between minor side-characters we do not really care that much about are drawn out into three episode sequences, and things escalate beyond credulity.
When all the dust is settled, eight or so episodes are spent on the resolution to this arc. There are flashes of brilliance here and there, and you’re thankful the narrator has finally shut the hell up. The most notable moment is the finale for the main antagonist of this arc, Mereum, which was probably the best-directed scene of the series. It was so high-quality it felt out of place since the animation quality dipped during the battle. Other than that, there were a bunch of scenes that were supposed to be emotionally charged, but so many characters were introduced 30 or so episodes ago with little development in between, the viewer is mostly spent struggling to remember who was who and wondering why she should care.
It’s a shame, this arc had a lot of potentials, but it was wasted on fantastically dumb battle sequences and contrived narration to shoehorn in as many new characters as possible rather than actually focus in on the few compelling characters and events in the arc. The most notable half-delivered promise of this arc was the rather rushed development of the main antagonist Mereum which was incredibly compelling before the battle. It’s amazing how the most drawn-out section of this anime managed to rush even the most important parts, like Gon’s dynamic change in his quest for revenge or Mereum’s battle between being an ant and a human. But hey, at least they didn’t just randomly forget key characters and plot elements from this arc like they did everywhere else.
The final mini-arc is when this series just got extremely tedious, boring, and entirely unenjoyable—even more tedious than the drawn-out battle sequence. Gon is injured from the big fight, Killua needs to go retrieve his sister who has some special power to heal him—who at this point we’ve never met and have no clue why Killua cares so much for her if he’s never mentioned her, but I guess expecting basic narrative coherence was out of the question at this point. This would be fine, except it keeps getting sidetracked with this tedious political drama about the Hunter organization trying to run an election which is mostly extremely dull bureaucratic dialogue with a bunch of crudely designed characters we’ve never met before who are introduced in a rushed fashion. Remember that infamous scene from the Phantom Menace where they sit in the Galactic Senate talking for too long? Imagine that for about six episodes worth of content. It’s miserable to watch.
It ends on a higher note. The stupid election bureaucracy fizzles out and it turns out to have mattered even less than we thought it did. Gon gets reunited with his father, which is nice enough. There’s a lack of satisfying resolve in Gon and Killua’s friendship, but after the 90 episodes of garbage, the last 3 or so were stronger. I suppose Madhouse deserves some credit for wrapping up an unfinished manga with a plausibly fulfilling ending.
Honestly, I do not really know why anyone takes this series all that seriously. This only deserves a small fraction of the hype and critical acclaim it gets. Maybe people are so desperate for a competently animated long-form shounen that is less than 500 episodes they’re willing to overlook the deep flaws in this show? It feels like a completely incoherent Dungeons and Dragons campaign run by a bunch of ADHD 11-year-olds on crack. Maybe you like the off-the-wall style of storytelling and the way it constantly and implausibly ups the ante on your willful suspension of disbelief. But even if so, it is downright frustrating when key characters and plot points are completely forgotten, when you have to sit through exposition after exposition, or when battles get as drawn out and cliché as they do in this series. The only reason it’s not getting a lower score is because Killua is a uniquely memorable and well-developed character, the first 50 or so episodes were at least enjoyable, and it does deserve some credit for being much more visually polished than most of its peers.
Consider how Hunter x Hunter compares with other long-form battle shounen that are notable for their mediocrity even during its most successful arcs . Compare it to, for example, Naruto or Shingeki no Kyojin. What keeps me hooked on a series like Naruto or SnK despite how deeply flawed they are is that they have coherent, well-defined and interesting worlds into which I can get somewhat immersed. If I’m investing more than 100 episodes in to a series, I want to get lost in the world. I can tolerate implausibly high-stakes battle sequences where the main character is just screaming like in SnK if the setting is interesting and the premise is compelling. I can sit through bland exposition of a new larger cast of characters 200 episodes into Naruto Shippuden if I get a sense of how they fit into the larger narrative in world.
Sure, when Hunter x Hunter is at its best in the first third of the series it avoids some of the most glaring flaws of those shows with ridiculously drawn-out battle sequences, spoon-fed explanations, and constant escalation issues. However, it has no sense of immersion or coherent world-building at all since the setting and premise is so generic and never fully fleshed out. When there’s an attempt to give a sense of setting, the elements are randomly pulled out of someone’s ass on the spot with contrived narration and it usually contradicts whatever came before it. Even the city names are generic, lazy knock-offs like Yorknewcity or Pajing. Gon’s main attack is based off rock, paper, scissors, for Christ's sake. The result is when the few interesting main characters are absent and I’m forced to sit through more exposition of new characters and battle techniques or when it begins to fall into those bad shonen battle clichés during the Chimera Ant and Greed Island arcs, I just lose all sense of interest and watching the series becomes a dull exercise in perseverance. Ultimately, that lazy world-building and lack of coherence makes Hunter x Hunter even worse than most of the mediocre shounen to which it is favorably compared. Paired with the way key points are just dropped and forgotten for good and the cast of characters becomes so large and rushed, the whole series becomes downright frustrating.
At its best, Hunter x Hunter is a rather unremarkable battle shounen with a handful of memorable characters. At its worst, it’s a completely incoherent, tedious, barely watchable mess. At any given moment, it could be anything between those two extremes. Even though there are a lot of enjoyable moments and some good characters to salvage from the series, I have a hard time recommending this to all but the most hardcore of shounen fans.
Story: 1/10
Art: 6/10
Sound: 7/10
Character: 3/10
Enjoyment: 3/10
Overall 4/10