Review of Hunter x Hunter

So I just finished watching the entire show today and I gotta say, this is probably my favorite shounen anime ever made. If you ask me this show is everything I want a shounen anime to be and more: likable characters in creative stories that subvert your expectations with a good emotional core. I like to see this show as a deconstruction of the shounen genre. It breaks down the most annoying tropes and clichés and makes something more compelling out of it, which for me is such a breath of fresh air. And it’s funny looking back because I didn’t expect to be sucha massive fan of this series as I am now. My anticipation for this show just wasn’t the highest going into it. I just thought it would be like every other shounen anime that I had seen at the time. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing because I do enjoy some shounen, but I wasn't exactly sure why this particular shounen had such a high rating on MAL. I mean I knew I would probably like it, and I had sort of heard of this show before, but I didn't really know any finer details or character names unlike Naruto or Dragon Ball. But goddamn was I proven wrong because I legit fell in love with this show from the first episode.

I know people say that the first half of this show is the most uninteresting part about it, and I can agree with that, but idk, this show just immediately clicked with me even from the start and I felt like I had a weird emotional connection to it, as if this was the anime that I had been waiting for this whole time. Mostly because of the lovable characters carrying everything.

People have probably already said this before, but Gon Freecss is the most adorable and wholesome kid I think I've ever seen. I don't know how you could hate this child, you would probably have to be totally heartless and a complete asshole to dislike him. Like whenever he was excited or fascinated about something I would just have this goofy smile on my face. Same with Killua although he's more of a badass than Gon is. And I also love how these two characters meet. There isn't some stupid rivalry or misunderstanding, they just meet and they're like: "Oh we're the same age? Ok we're friends now." And I know friendship is pretty cliche in anime, but I really believed their friendship here. I don't why I guess it felt kinda natural to me. And they don't just grow as friends, they really become brothers. Not actual brothers, but it's like a bromance. Like whenever they got close or were cute to one another my heart would warm up just a little bit more.

One of my favorite scenes in this whole show is where Gon and Killua were on Whale Island and they were near this campfire in the middle of the night having a heart to heart with one another. And Killua really loves it on Whale Island, and he doesn't have to say: "Oh gee whiz Gon I sure do love it here!" You can just tell that he's vibing and enjoying the moment. And they're not the only great characters, I pretty much loved every character. Especially Leorio and Kurapika, who are just awesome characters. There's also Hisoka who I'm pretty sure is homosexual but I think that's a topic for another day. There's also Biscuit, Meruem, Netero, Knuckle, Morel. And that's not even every character but you get the point, there's a lot of great characters.

And for a show that's over a 100 episodes long, you would think there would be like a filler arc to pass the time. I mean that's what I thought going into it. But NO, there is not a single filler arc in sight! There are only two filler episodes in the entire show and they're recap episodes so they don't even count. And this show doesn't really need to have filler episodes, because one great thing about this show is that whenever one arc ends, the next one immediately begins right after. It keeps you on your toes in anticipation of what's gonna happen next. It's also surprisingly consistent in quality, like I was pretty engaged for nearly every episode, which for a show that is this long is very impressive. And this is the only shounen anime that I have seen where after I watched over a 100 episodes, it left me wanting more instead of leaving me exhausted. Like with other shounen anime that's over a 100 episodes long I usually lose interest in what's happening and I kinda just wait for the arc that I'm on to be over already so I can move on to something else. This show doesn't really have that problem; it's pretty steady throughout.

Oh yeah and you know how in other shounen, whenever there is a fight, the two people will immediately stop their fighting just to talk to each other. And I know this is kind of a personal pet peeve but this is easily my least favorite trope in all of shounen anime. It just drags the scene down and realistically it makes no fucking sense why they would stop fighting. Now yeah, I guess when they do talk it's important to their characters but still I feel like there should be a more efficient way in giving us this information instead of briefly pausing the fight for no reason. Thankfully though, this show does something really simple but incredibly smart and I'm gonna try to explain what that is by giving an example of what I’m talking about. So after Killua's fight with Zushi at Heaven's Arena, he senses something strange about Zushi and he and Gon decide to talk to Zushi about it. They meet Zushi's mentor, Wing, who decides to teach them how to use Nen. And after their training, Gon has his first battle with Gido who is also a Nen user.

This is really important because:
a) We get a good understanding of how Nen operates before Gon's fight begins and we know what to expect from the upcoming fight and from their newfound powers.
b) All the exposition is placed before the fight even begins. If they were to give the exposition during the fight, that would be really fucking lame.

Discovering Nen is also really satisfying because we have a little bit of a mystery when Killua fights Zushi, then we get an explanation of Nen, and then Gon has his fight with Gido and they both use Nen, leading to payoff. And this is all just a great flow of information and development and I am just so horny for that! And this show is full of smart ideas like this. And it makes me pretty disappointed that more shounen anime don't have the same kind of flow that this show has. Seriously, why can't more shounen anime be as well paced as this?! Don't spoon feed me exposition of how someone's powers work during a fight because that shit pisses me off every time!! Ok that's enough of my rant on shounen anime fights, I'll move on.

Speaking of fights, I also like how that's not always used to resolve a conflict between two characters. I mean when there is a fight it's cool and exciting, (Just watch the Gon and Hisoka fight which is my personal favorite fight in the whole show. The Netero and Meruem fight is great as well) but sometimes the characters have to solve a puzzle or use their wits to win. Sometimes they play a sport like dodgeball. It keeps the show interesting, gives it variety and makes each scenario creative. And I really need to emphasize that creativity and variety are really the two main things that I'm looking for in a shounen and it's what puts this show above other shounen anime to me. There's not like three tournament arcs that happen close to one another. I mean there is the tournament arc at Heaven's Arena as I explained before but it's interesting enough and it doesn't overstay its welcome.

And I also thought this show was surprisingly funny. Yeah, I shit you not, this show nailed the humor for me which is usually NEVER the case when I'm watching any other shounen anime. Like the humor in this show is very over the top. It's the kind of anime humor where the faces become over exaggerated and stretched out. Which isn't really my cup of tea because it feels like the show is trying too hard to be funny, like it's telling you: "Alright it's goofy funny time! You're supposed to be laughing now!" But I think it works here really well because it's used at appropriate times, not in the middle of a serious moment because that would just take the tension out of the entire scene. As a matter of fact I think the tone of the whole show is balanced incredibly well. This show can be very cute and innocent but it can also get really dark and depressing at times, and it never felt out of place whenever it did switch the mood which is a huge plus for me. There’s just so many things that I love about this show that I could get into detail about but I don’t want this review to be too long.

Like Meruem’s character arc and how he starts as this emotionless badass who just wants to take over the world but gradually turns into something more than that. Or the Phantom Troupe and how they’re not totally evil and not focused on the main characters because they have their own issues to deal with. Or Gon and Killua’s roles in the different arcs and how they are usually just a small part of a larger story. Or the world of HxH itself and how detailed and lived in it all feels. There’s even aspects I didn’t even know I would love until I saw them in execution.

But on the other hand I guess I could nitpick a few things. Like I don't know, I think the narration during the Chimera Ant Arc became a little too overwhelming for me. Like before, the narration was used pretty sparingly. It was used during moments when the audience might need some explanation of what's happening or what an object is or who this person is. But when the main characters were attacking the palace, it just became way too much. Like the narrator would start to explain the most obvious shit, like what the character was feeling or what just literally happened in the scene. It felt less like I was watching a shounen anime and more like a nature documentary narrated by David Attenborough. I think the narrator really held my hand too much and they really should've cut down on that to let the visuals tell the story. I mean this show is animated after all, it's supposed to be visual. I'm not listening to an audiobook here.

Speaking of the Chimera Ant Arc I feel like it wasn't that interesting at the beginning. Out of all the arcs in this show, this one really stands out for being a slow burn. Which I do appreciate but the thing is the pacing in this show was pretty unwavering before, so I guess I was expecting it to be a lot quicker. That being said I still gave it a chance since I was already becoming a huge fan of this show before this arc, and it definitely began to win me over the more it went along, especially during the climax where I became pretty emotionally invested. And I would be lying if I said that the end of the arc didn't pull on my heartstrings at least a little bit.

I also kind of wish the main group were around each other more often, like Gon, Killua, Leorio and Kurapika. I mean after the Phantom Troupe arc it basically becomes the Gon and Killua show. Which isn't that bothersome to me, but it's just that the four of them together had this brotherly connection to one another that was just so infectious to watch and I kind of wanted to see more of that. And I also wanted to learn a little more about Kurapika and especially Leorio. I feel like I didn't get enough of him. And I guess the explanations for how Nen worked or how the card game worked were a little confusing to me. Maybe I'm just stupid or my reptile brain activated during those moments, like I felt like Gon when he was confused about something. Maybe they should've explained those a little more simply? Please don't take this specific complaint seriously.

But all that stuff is pretty small and it doesn't really ruin the show for me. Personally this is kind of a hard show to complain about, mostly because everything else is just really solid. It's just a solid as hell show and I can definitely see why it's popular. I just love it so much and I'm glad I became such a huge fan and supporter of it. Even when shounen fans are arguing about dumb shit most people can agree that this show is great. And after finishing it, Imma be honest, I was pretty bummed out. Because like I said before, this is the only shounen anime that I've seen that left me wanting more. I do think this show ends in a pretty satisfying way while still leaving the possibilities for more stories to be told, but it's a damn shame that we'll never get a continuation of this show.

I've heard some people say: "Oh don't worry, it'll come back soon!" But I'm sorry HxH enthusiast, I don't think that's the case. I've read into it and I just don't think it's gonna work out. The only way it could work out is if someone made some miraculous finessing or convincing in the anime industry, then maybe it'll happen aka it won't happen. If it actually does happen, then I'll be very pleasantly surprised and excited just like everyone else, but I really doubt it. But you know what, with 148 episodes, I'll take what I have. This is also the only shounen where I actually started reading the manga afterwards because I just wanted to continue the story and see what more creative things would happen next.

I even have this Hunter x Hunter Guide Book that tells you all you need to know about the world of Hunter x Hunter, how Nen works and who certain characters are. It's really useful but my only complaint with it is that it's all in Japanese. There's no English version of this Guide Book from what I could find so whenever I wanna read it, I have to use an English translator since I can't read Japanese. It's kind of a hassle but it works. Alright I'll stop meat riding and end this review. If you wanna see how to do a shounen anime right, look no further. I think it's a must watch and even though I'm pretty sad that it's over (for now), I enjoyed the ride and had a fun time while it lasted.

ORIGINALLY REVIEWED ON 05/19/2023