Review of Hunter x Hunter

-Summary- Story: 8 Art: 10 Sound: 9 Character: 10 Enjoyment/Overall: 10 This show is everything I want in an anime. Stunning visuals, awesome/catchy soundtrack, great story, and some of the most likable and interesting characters to ever appear in anime. Please, Japan, make more shows like this one.-Details-

Story: 8
Genres: Action, Adventure, Shonen, Superpower
Themes: Friendship, Aloof/Badass/Mysterious father, Coming-of-Age, Individualism (Natsume Soseki) vs serving the group first, Human nature, Good vs evil

The basic premise of this show is not too different than other shonen fighters. The main character, Gon Freecss, was abandoned by his father who wanted to pursue his own adventures as a hunter rather than raise a kid. Now Gon wants to become a hunter in order to understand why being a hunter is apparently so great (that one would even abandon their kid) and also so that he can become strong enough to find his dad.
Thus the story unfolds. Gon takes the hunter exam, gets stronger, and makes plenty of friends along the way. Standard shonen stuff. Now that I think about it, there isn't much more to the actual story than this. Every arc before the chimera ant arc is directly related to finding Gon's dad. The chimera ant arc is a bit of an aside, though it does take up about half the story at this point due to its length. So, as a story, it's pretty simple. I'd say the main reason why the story seems so good is because pretty much every other aspect of this anime is amazing, and so those aspects help turn a simple, somewhat unconventional, story into something truly worth remembering.
There is no filler. However, the aforementioned chimera ant arc is rather long and is probably stretched a bit too much. Other than that, the pacing is very good. After the chimera ant arc there is one more arc, and then the show basically stops without really ending. Many people would probably find this frustrating. It's possible that one day Madhouse will add another season or 2 of this show but that depends on the manga actually getting somewhere, which many people despairingly think will not happen for a while. Thus, don't come into this show expecting complete resolution. You get some of that since it stops between story arcs, but it's still clear the story isn't done.
The most prominent story telling technique is the action earlier on, and later it becomes a combination of action and drama. The story starts out rather light-hearted with fun fights and such, but starting with the Greed Island arc the story starts to show where it's going. Darker themes begin to emerge with eviler villains, and more graphic violence is shown on-screen. One of the best parts of the show later on is the drama pulled from character development, intense fights, and some episodes which actually feature pretty decent philosophical discussions. One of the more apparent themes the show discusses is whether individualism or a group oriented disposition is more conducive to individual growth and group growth. So, it takes a little while before this becomes apparent, but this is definitely a show that both entertains with action but also gives you something to think about.

Art: 10
Studio: Madhouse

Madhouse does not fail to impress. Earlier on the art features bright, fun colors and is very clean. The animation is generally good and only becomes great during action scenes. But later on, in the chimera ant arc, Madhouse shifted into another gear and made the visuals really amazing and stylized. The source of the superpowers in this show, "Nen," is the perfect excuse to start making scenes look really awesome. Nen is one's life force, which one can focus into a useful offensive or defensive force. Nen can manifest visually, thus when someone is angry their nen can look darker and more intimidating. Madhouse portrays this phenomenon by adding swirling black currents of whispy air/gas substances around a character, for example. This looks really cool during some of the more dramatic scenes and is the kind of stylization that can really only be done with anime. And personally, when I find an anime that makes use of the fact that it is an anime and does something only this medium can do, I love it.
Another thing I like is the CG is used sparingly, and when it is used, you hardly notice it. It is mostly used for things like cars or planes, which I find is probably the best way to use CG in anime. All of the action sequences are done with beautiful, stylized traditional animation, and I love Madhouse for that. I've re-watched episodes just for the visuals.
Various character designs are updated and improved from the 1999 version of the anime. Overall I'd say that the visuals are of this version are superior to the 1999 version in pretty much every way. The opening and ending themes all look great too, especially opening themes #5 and #6.

Sound: 9

I'm never very good at judging a soundtrack, but even I know this one is good. The opening and ending themes fit very, very well with this show. The biggest gripe I see with this though is that the opening theme is basically the same each season (only a few lines of lyrics are ever changed--basically, the opening theme doesn't ever change, though the visuals do). But this isn't much of a problem for me since I love the opening theme and it really does fit the show well. As far as I can tell, every track is great and fits with both the combat scenes and the down-time. Later on, there are some classical pieces added to the soundtrack, which are always awesome, and there are some darker tracks that really enhance the intense scenes you get later on in this show. I can't sit here and describe them because spoilers.
Sound effects and voice acting are also very good. One voice I especially love is Hisoka's. His creepy, perverted, blood-knight personality is captured perfectly by the voice actor. Gon's adorable childishness but also his anger at various points in the story are also done very well. Really, I have no complaints. This simply is high quality stuff all-around.

Character: 10

The characters are all amazing. Hands down. Gon may seem to be another Goku clone--young, innocent, with prodigious fighting talent, but he really is his own unique character. The development he gets later on, especially in the chimera ant arc, is amazing and actually quite surprising. At this point in the show, he practically seems like a different person when compared with his initial appearance. Killua and his family of assassins are all very interesting. One of the things I liked the most early on was the friendship between Gon and Killua. They are actually shown doing things that two 12-year-old boys would do, like messing around, having pillow fights, running around and exploring islands and their surroundings, etc. The compatibility of their personalities and the strength of their friendship is something that is very touching at points, and I would go as far as to say that it is an ideal friendship.
Another thing that is so great about this show is the sheer number of good, interesting characters with interesting character designs, as well as the complexity of their personalities. It is hard to say there are any straight-up good or evil characters--things aren't that simple in this universe. A character you start out hating, you might end up loving by the time their story is through, and vice-versa. The power system in this show is highly personalized and so it is always fun to see a new character's powers; there are still some that haven't been revealed, and guessing what they might be is also fun.
If you like shows with a large, fun, and diverse cast of interesting characters with an aesthetically pleasing set of character designs, then look no further.

Enjoyment/Overall: 10

This show is just plain fun. It's fun to see the characters grow; it's fun to see them develop their powers and guess in what ways they will grow; it's fun to accompany Gon and Killua on their big adventure, etc., etc. It is hard to find faults with this show. The art is beautiful, the soundtrack is awesome and catchy, the characters are highly memorable, the story is solid and interesting. Only one arc--the chimera ant arc--could be said to be longer than it needs to be, but it is also the most well-written, interesting, and visually stunning story arc so far. I have already watched all of the episodes twice so far, and I already want to watch it all again. This show is a classic.
The only reason I can think of why you might not like this show is simply if you don't like fun adventures for the sake of being fun. Note that this is not a criticism--everyone's tastes are different. I have a friend at school who tends to only like literature that is more academic in nature--stories by the likes of Dostoevsky and such. Sure, this show isn't a novel and it isn't going to appear in your literature class at university. But it doesn't need to. Chances are that if you watch anime, you don't care about a show's value as literature or a novel story in the first place. Very few do. I only bother to bring this up for the 0.01% of you who actually care about this, like my friend.
One last point: I do believe that relative newbies to anime could enjoy this too. There is almost no fan-service and a relatively low amount of anime weirdness. If I had my way, I'd make everyone watch this.