Review of Hunter x Hunter

Presentation/Animation: 7/10. Despite a 148 episode length, a surprising amount of care can clearly be seen throughout the various arcs to give a competent and different feel on some of the technical aspects. The generally upbeat and atmospheric music makes it easy to stay attentive and while the artwork isn't the strongest it utilizes hype very well to keep exposition-filled episodes interesting and un-repulsive. Something noteworthy are the openings, the fifth especially, being absolutely fantastic alongside every ED (minus the first and fourth) keeping every episode ending on a good note. While the effects work were generally forgettable for me (especially the Nen effects -below Dragon Ball tier there!), during the "Ant Arc" there are awesome moments where emotion is actually shown through the Nen effects combined with effective voice acting and appropriate coloring. I'm not even entirely sure why I'm surprised at the overall quality, seeing as "bad shounen anime" is really only from super long adaptations burning out the staff over several years or decades.

Characters/Plot: 8/10. The anime adapts 7 arcs, catching up completely to the manga. Each of them are good in their own ways with the exception of one arc. Out of everything, there's only one arc I would label as a black sheep: the Yorkshin Arc. The characters, abilities, fight scenes, and plotline here totally bomb the arc into blunt stupidity and almost pretentiousness with how the community reacts to it. Other than that, aspects of Chimera Ant, Eating contest Arc, Gon's dad, and Nen itself detract somewhat from an otherwise very competent overall story. I'm not very happy about many of the characters in Chimera Ant, but the fantastic Palace Invasion sub-arc makes this almost irrelevant in retrospect. Greed Island is probably the best adapted arc. The world building is really weird and weak, how does nobody supposedly know about Nen if competitions with it are held constantly? Something unfortunate about the first 60 episodes is that they are totally outclassed by the 1999 adaptation, since this version decided to cut out what the manga author story-boarded into the 1999 version. This was a poor choice as it revealed how the mangaka correctly added in things that made the early arcs even better. And no, I'm not just saying that because "it's older." It legitimately outclasses the first 60 on basically every level, and yes, including animation and music. On a positive note I'm pleased to say that 2011 adapts Greed Island, which is far superior to the somewhat shoddy 2003 version.