Hunter x Hunter (2011) - Reviews

At first I was worried that I would find no one on this page that would think badly of this show, but I’m glad I found a select few that actually understand the crucial flaws to this show that made it reach a point where it just becomes unwatchable. I have to say that up until episode 70 or 75, that this show would have been one of the most entertaining Shounen shows I have seen in a very long time. And I have seen a fair amount of Shounen. And then I get to the bug arc…

That waste of time bug arc! It completely ruined the entire mood of the show. In this season there is no Kurapika, no Hisoka, which I believed were both very important side characters for the show. I’m not sure why they thought we didn’t need them, and you almost never see Leorio in this series so I don’t even know why he was even around since he didn’t do a lot, he did help but it was not big help to make him important to the team. Honestly I’m surprised I watched as much as I did with the bug arc, mostly because of my love for Killua to watch him own up his opponents but eventually that alone was not enough to keep me interested.

It was like I was watching a completely different show altogether. I completely forgot that the main plot was Gon wanting to find his father and that Kurapika needs to quench his thirst for revenge. But I guess I only have myself to blame since I did not do enough research to realize this series was incomplete. If I had that knowledge beforehand I would have never picked it up. If anyone wants to watch this show please just watch until you finish the greed island arc. The show is solid gold until they get to the bug arc, then it turns to dust. Youll reret watching this show if you are looking for constant entertainment cause it leaves you half full. Not saying it was a bad show, but it was very dissapointing after that. As for me I’m going back to watching fairy tail, it might not be as exiting and is very predictable, but at least it has its priorities straight. 

I feel as though I'm in the minority here as I didn't enjoy this series as much as others, to this day I dont understand why this anime has such an overwhelmingly positive reception, the vast majority of reviews giving this a 10. I dont know maybe its just me. But allow me to speak for the minority here.

Hunter x Hunter (hxh) follows the story of Gon as he tries to find his father by becoming a hunter in order to look for him. Hunters are these sort of people who 'hunt', that's the best way to put it, they hunt many things such a treasures, new lands, crime, doing odd jobs, that kind of thing. 

Rather han having a main story, the series is divided up into arcs and each arc gives Gon a clue as to where to search for his father next, sort of like a breadcrumb trail. And by breadcrumb trail I mean Ging set all of that up, cause apparantly he's Aizen and all is going well according to his 'master plan'.

The series consistss of 6 arcs, the hunter exam, heavens arena, phantom troupe, chimera ant and election. Here's the thing, I liked 5 out of the 6 arcs, but the one arc that I thought was just boring was the chimera ant arc, that doesn't sound like much but when you consider that's 61 episodes, that's where the problem begins, honestly the chimera ant arc feels like filler because it moves away from the hunters and focuses on these insects.

The chimera ants devour humans and gain their traits, this was supposed to be a reflection of what humanity is, on paper it sounds good, but the excution was piss poor. The pacing was horrid, some of the episodes felt like an eternity and you have the narrator constantly telling us what the characters and doing and thinking (especially at the end fights), just shut please, we know what's going on, there's no need to tell us. Not to mention some asspulls such as the rose bomb and Gon's power up. And you're telling me, that under a worldwide threat, the hunter association only managed to cough up 2 pro hunters and their students, the chairman and gon and killua to fight the chimera ants?

Here's some of the problems I had throughout the series: There's way too much training sessions, like every single arc has them, and these training sessions are so bloated and last for several episodes, not to mention so much plot conviences such as gon and killua happening to right the right instructors at the right time.....oh yeah, it was all according to Ging's master plan, even Aizen may have to come over  and give Ging a handshake for that master plan.

None of the arcs are properly concluded, there are always some loose ends but these carry over to the next arc, now this sounds like a good idea because its creates contunity, but its not, the arcs feel incomplete because of this.

There are so much characters that do terrible stuff and they just get away with it, the Bombers and Phantom troupe did mass killings and they were forgiven by Gon, yet when the chimera ants did that, he went apeshit on them.

Power escalation is present here, oh yeah it's here, but it does deescalate when necessary, for plot convenece obviously. I mean, during the whole greed island arc gon and killua spent so much time learning gyo, yet they convinently forget about it during the chimera ant arc. When the ants were introudced they were shown to be so powerful yet they got weaker, only the royal guards and meruem remained strong.

Lets talk about the villans because hxh has some great villans, but they follow a similar pattern, they are introduced as tyrants and as the arc goes on you get to see a more humane side of them, so you must sympathasize with them. I really couldn't care because the series did a shit job at that. Meruem in particular was a victim of that, I didn't feel a thing when he died.

I think that's enough complaining, so lets talk about some of the good stuff. The fights are well done, they reall get your blood pumping, all of the fights have some sort of strategy they use, which is pretty cool. And of course Madhouse always delivers with the animation, form episode 1 to 148 its always consistent, its really just such a good looking show.

The much as well is also top noych especially the ending songs and the ost, voice acting is also on point, but fuck the opening theme, its the same blood song 6 times! I really can't complain about the production values, its really well done.

I found Nen to be so intresing, its a quite complicated system and it works so well in the fights, cause it always boils down to who could outsmart each other. I even found myself on the wiki sometimes reading up on it, cause its so creative, its kind of like chi when you manifest your own aura or life energy only there are a lot of rules that apply to it. But nen really is something great and intresting.

The characters all have so much conflicting emotions, you really feel for them. Gon in particular stands out, as he's an inncocent and kind hearted boy, but it tends to make him irrational and selfish at times, and this is done pretty well. The problem is with the slow pacing of some episodes, this tends kill off any kind of emotional connection you had with the characters.

There's a lot of underlying themes of morality and its not as fleshed out as it can be, but its there nevertheless.

I'll be frank, this show could have gotten an easy 9 if it wasn't for the chimera ant arc, that arc despite having great moments, was way too slow and bloated. That thing is 61 episodes, the hunter exam which is the second longest is only 26 episodes, at the end of the chimera ant I just felt so tired, it was not fun. It moved way too far from what the series is about, you know the hunters, and its slow pacing ruined it. The rest of arcs were really good.

I don't know why hxh is called the best shounen, maybe its just me, as I am in the minority here, but for me hxh is just above average.

Hunter x Hunter starts out with a fairly simple straight forward premise with compatible backstories overshadowing into the life of Gon.  As one of the characters described him, he never judges other peoples actions no matter if they are good or evil, yet he gets angry when someone is hurt or at least a friend or perhaps even a child.  So his character is quite perplexing and inconsistent.  Maybe his motives or his stance on right and wrong adapt to whatever situation he is in or who he is with.  The world he lives in seems to be no better and equally indifferent to life innocent, evil, good, or corrupted.  Frankly, it is difficult to get a firm grasp on.  Many of the story arcs and characters from the first 50 or so episodes often murder countless lives and wind up not answering to any kind of justice or law for it but befriending the main characters as if life itself were some sort of joke.  This wouldn't feel so awkward if Gon was consistently indifferent like a Joker character or dispassionate observer type to all life but oddly, he often gets mad for others being hurt like in the Greed Island arc when he got mad at Genthru, so his character is as inconsistant as the moral and ethical codes of the cultures found within the show.  They style is a bit quirky but still pretty fun to watch.  Characters are a virtual jigsaw puzzle mixed with a random die roll or the pull of a slot machine on how they behave regarding good or evil or legal or illegal activity. The reason some of this moral ethical ground work is so troubling, confusing, and inconsistent is at other times the very same characters or culture seems to frown on actions they seem to praise or not care about.  

***Potential Spoiler*** 

One of the most unbelieveable story arcs is the chimera 'mimic' rip off ants that adapt to humanlike shape and intellect by somehow eating humans as if that somehow transfers memory, data, personality, or souls.  These creatures clearly display an extinction level threat yet are later ignorantly forgiven and humans carelessly walk among them as if there had never been any threat?  LOL.  Is that a joke?  If so, it is not funny.  If a story portrays a threat of such magnitude they can not back track it so easily as they did in this story arc like all the human lives were no big deal or none of the disturbing scenes of children and entire familes being murdered and eaten or even some of the previous seasons most likeable characters meeting similar distasteful ends.  This arc kind of p*sses me off a bit by treating morals, ethics, important characters, and sentient lives even more lightly than the ridiculous murder fest hunter exam.  At least, the exam more or less fit the story and you did not see things like children or families outright murdered for food.  Are the writers, B horror movie scripter drop outs?  Besides that, these creatures are essentially cannibals, and I do not mean what the King did, by eating humans, they are cannibals because the ants already said they have human blood.  Though the idea by receiving genes through ingestion is a bit far fetched once they do that they now become cannibals and realize their actions are wrong but do it anyway.  They must have also from this same process of gaining knowledge understood what humans find right and wrong?  This makes them evil and criminals long before they start hunting humans for more than food.  The concept of such beasts seems a tad far fetched to fit within the story but I can accept it however, acting like it means nothing, becoming cannibals, knowing right and wrong but stll causing all that, and not eradicating them completely after expressing what a extinction to humanity level threat they are, I do not understand or accept.  The power Mureum gains after his fight with Netero is fleeting and inconsequential given the cost to his elite guard and the very short life span he had to pay to get it.  Comparing the ease with which Gon using an ultimate ability to skip time was able to take one down, you could make an argument that he, Netero, or one of the other 5 strongest elites, could have taken down even the powered up Mereum in their prime.  Mereum likely has quick learning skills because of his accelerated growth rate and therefore more likely than not, exceedingly short life span that even without the cost the fight with Netero gave him, would not have permitted a life far surpassing that cost anyway.  That is a theme often circulated within the story, the greatest powers a nen user has, comes at some great cost and risk to themselves.

*** Potential Spoiler end***

Characters other than Gon are equally confusing.  Child butlers tortured and as strong as hunters but treated like slaves or servents to some medieval king or tyrant as if they have no rights.  A woman who appears to be about 25 minum dating Gon who never had a girl friend yet or shown intrest seems a bit of a stretch.  

*** Potential Spoiler *** Killua's sibling appearing to be stronger than him and taking over one of the slots of a certain group later on, while his family were acting as if he were somehow special and more powerful than any? Umm huh?  *** end ***.  

Character wise and to some extent story and plot wise there are too many contradictions that they are hard to keep up with this provides some mega plot hole possibilities.

The brutality of the violence and extreme and graphic nature senses shown or implied or so vulgar at times that I can not recommend it for anyone less than 18 years old.  Watching children mutilated, beheaded, and/or eaten in front of parents or watching parents brutally murdered and eaten in front of children are not things you can take lightly regarding children who should not be watching this.  Take note of this observation, although I am not partial go gor or gross violent scenes, it takes alot to make me even twitch during such things, but the graphic gore shown in this series especially the chimera arc, even made me at times a little hesitant to watch, though that was actually slightly more do to the contradictary nature and story writing rule violations than the actual gore but the kind of gore can make even hardy movie gore watchers shudder.

As someone who has watched both the Hunter X Hunter adaptations and read the entirety of the manga currently released I have to say that the 2011 version is the single most well done anime adaptation of any manga I have ever had the pleasure of watching. Through out the entire 148 episodes they followed the manga to the dot. Through the entire anime they managed to keep a super good pace of combat, training, and relaxed life for the characters. No matter which arc you're watching they manage to have character to impress and woo you into favoring the anime even more, and even in the cases that the character who captured your heart dies you thirst for more because of how well done every even halfheartedly significant death is. The animation was in my opinion flawless from start to finish, captivating the feelings and powers of every single special attack and unique power that was conveyed through the manga. The way they animated every character and the presence of each character was also flawlessly well done catching each and every chill the characters delivered through the manga. They managed to go through this entire story until the most current arc of the manga without ever having to resort to fillers and has set a perfect example of an anime can be perfect without fillers & excessive ecchi. What could make it even more impressive? Instead of bullshitting the story until they could continue it they choose to put it on hold until they have more to work with. I look forward to the next adaptation of HxH because it will be yet another work of art. My only unsatisfied portion of this entire anime was their music choice and even that came to catch onto me as time went on. Hunter X Hunter(2011) is in my opinion one of the single most well balanced animes ever created and the easily one of the most perfectly well done shows I have seen. In my heart HxH is a 10/10 forever, only losing that .25 in review purely due to opening and ending music choices. Despite my lack of taste in chosen intro/closing music I feel the sound used to express this anime is only a hairs breath away from being the absolute best it could have been. Through the entire anime I never found any problems with how the sound was portrayed as it was perfectly placed and the voice actors chosen for everyone fitting their role in the story to the T. I have to thank the developers for bringing this gem of an anime to life for those of us who love HxH!

Hunter x Hunter is absolutely AMAZING. 

Going in, I wasn't expecting much, just your typical anime with shounen archetypes... I could not have been any more wrong.

To give you an idea of how far this anime surpassed my ideals, I usually don't like shounen anime, I tend to go for dark fantasy animes (ex. Tokyo Ghoul, Deadman Wonderland, etc), so for me to praise a work like Hunter x Hunter so highly is an anomaly. In other words, I'm saying that this anime is abso-fucking-lutely amazing.

In my personal opinion, the first arc (Hunter Exam), the third arc (Phantom Troupe), and the fifth arc (Chimera Ant) are the most well crafted ones. The events aren't too slow nor too fast paced. Everything builds, giving the viewer just enough time to recover before the next bomb is dropped. The character development is probably the best in the fifth and sixth arcs, Chimera Ant and Election, although Gon's and Killua's development is definitely present from arc 1 to the very last episode of arc 6 (the development is arguably strongest in arc 5-6).

Episode 131 of HxH will forever stand as my favorite episode not only in all of HxH, but probably out of all the animes I've ever watched.

Yes, it really struck me that hard.

I will, however, admit that episode 148, the final one episode, struck me right in the heart as well.

*attempts to hold tears back*

Now... for all the people saying that Gon (and Killua) are "overpowered"...

I-

Hello?

Did we watch the same anime?

Because Gon loses MORE fights than he wins. And the fights that Killua does win, it's because his brother trained him to stay when victory was almost ensured, otherwise, Killua would have ran away from the fight (fuck you, Illumi. I honestly despise you). Gon was beaten down too many times. By now, the average person's spirit would have been reduced to nothing--completely destroyed--but Gon isn't your average person. His willpower is insane, he perseveres until the ends of the earth, and he holds unstoppable determination and resolve. Those human qualities make him the way he is, not some crazy power such as having extremely skilled nen abilities (manyyy still have him beat in that category... more than many).

In the end, Gon doesn't win because he is "overpowered".

Gon wins because of his incredible determination: his inability to give up, and because he has friends like Killua and many others who would do more than die for him.

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- Xen

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P.S. please go watch HxH NOW. Thank you.

P.P.S. a character that deserves almost as much hate as I hold for Illumi is probably Ging. World's Worst Father Award goes to!!! *drum roll* Ging Freecss! Yay!