Review of Hunter x Hunter

I was initially very turned off by Hunter x Hunter. Long-running anime intimidates me and there's a lot I hate about shounen anime. A lot of my friends started talking about it, so I decided to give it a go because I knew next to nothing about it and wanted to know what the hell was going on and why everyone liked it. I was expecting some stupid "power of friendship" bullshit like Fairy Tail, but I was so wrong. I thought I'd watch the first arc then drop it, but Hunter x Hunter is now one of my favorite anime of all time. Somethings I'vehated about most shounen is the meaningless battles that drag on way too long, tons of half-baked characters that you're somehow expected to care about, 'power of friendship', and boobs everywhere. For Hunter x Hunter, these issues are either way less prevalent, or nonexistent. This review will contain some minor spoilers, but nothing ridiculously major.

Starting off with the art and sound. The art and animation are great, especially since art in long-running series tends to get lower quality as the show goes on. The art style, while not anything super unique, is still unique enough to be recognizable among lots of anime with painfully generic art styles. Many of the character designs are iconic, and most of them I think look very nice. (I'm sorry, I love Gon, but I think he and some other characters just look goofy. That's just my personal opinion.) For the voice acting, the sub is great, while the dub is kinda hit or miss. I absolutely hated the opening when I first started the show for some reason, but it really grew on me. They keep the same opening the whole show, just different visuals and alternating between two versions of the song. I didn't like the second version, simply because it wasn't the first version. I liked most of the endings, except for the fourth one (ew). I occasionally watched the endings because I liked the songs and visuals, and I watched the first one every time because I'm partial to screamo music. Also, the character songs and character themes and the soundtrack overall is amazing, and I listen to it often.

The story of Hunter x Hunter completely reverted my expectations. I expected some optimistic adventure anime, but over time I feel like it almost turned into a seinen. The later arcs, like Yorknew and Chimera Ants, had extremely dark themes and plot points, but it wasn't super sudden. There were signs in the earlier arcs that the show isn't all sunshine and rainbows, like the main character's backstories, and the anime-exclusive Zoldyck Family arc, which shows how abusive and toxic the family is. I'm not a fan of super happy stories, so I loved it when it took a darker turn.

As for the individual arcs, I loved all of them. The Hunter Exam was a great first arc and I loved seeing the main four together. It was great at introducing the characters and even the dark themes early on. The Zoldyck Family arc, besides being barely long enough to be considered an arc, was still very enjoyable and I liked learning more about the Zoldycks. Heaven's Arena was also very enjoyable and very important since it's when they found out about Nen. I loved seeing Gon and Killua's interactions, and Wing and Zushi were great supporting characters. Yorknew was my favorite arc. It was when the show started really getting dark and focused on my favorite character, Kurapika. The Phantom Troupe were great villains. Normally I find shounen villains boring and forgettable, but HxH's villains overall are great, and some of my favorite characters are the villains. My favorite episode in the show, episode 47, is part of this arc. I hate isekai anime, but I loved Greed Island despite it literally being an isekai arc. The villain was disappointing, but I still loved watching the boys train with Bisky, and Bisky became one of my favorite characters in the show. I have a real love-hate relationship with Chimera Ants. The first half was so slow-paced and just boring to me, but I understand that slow build-up was necessary for the second half, which I love, to pay off. It's very clever and well-written, but God did I struggle to get through the part, though it was totally worth it. I also loved the Election arc. It's only 12-episodes but still my second favorite arc. It made me so emotional, I loved seeing Leorio again, I loved the new characters, I loved pretty much everything about this arc.

I love the arcs all individually, and the story as a whole. My biggest qualm about the show is that they created a great friendship dynamic with the main four, Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio, then split them up really early on. Splitting them up eventually was great for character development and story-telling, and to make the watcher more emotionally invested, but I still believe having them together in the first arc (well, technically first two arcs) splitting them up, only for them to meet once more and then never again, was a dumb move. I wish we could've gotten more interactions with them and the fact that they were together for such a short amount of time makes me pretty upset.

Now onto the characters. There's very few that I hate, I even love a lot of the side characters and villains. I love the main four. They all go through great character development over time. I instantly loved Kurapika and Killua, but also grew to love Gon and Leorio over time. Leorio came off as a douchebag in the first arc (thanks a lot, stupid English translation), and I thought Gon was generic, happy protag, but they showed that Leorio is truly a good person who cares about his friends, and Gon is far more than an optimistic protag. Kurapika is one of my favorite anime characters of all time. He is so well-written. besides the main four there's still so many other great characters, such as Bisky, Hisoka, Illumi, Alluka, Chrollo, etc.

I binged this show in 11 days (probably would've been faster had it not been for the first half of Chimera Ants), and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I made a bunch of my friends watch it. I also tried to get my brother to watch it but he said no. I liked it enough that I'm watching the 1999 anime and reading the manga and am pretty involved in the fandom, and I usually avoid fandoms. I got into Hunter x Hunter many years late, but I regret not getting into it earlier. It was an anime I didn't expect to like but I ended up loving it.