Hunter x Hunter (2011) - Reviews

Honestly, my biggest regret is that I watched as far as I did.

STORY - 3/10

My issues with the story and writing of Hunter x Hunter can be broken down into two main points, which play into each other.

• Flippant Treatment of Tragedy/Lack of Consequences

Millions of innocent people are killed in this anime, rape is referred to/takes place off-screen, and in quite literally the second episode, we are told of a genocide being carried out by a group of theives with satanist iconography for the purpose of organ harvesting. Incredibly dark, but the fact that these things happen isn’t the issue. It’s how they are treated. The satanic cult that committed literal genocide for financial gain? Never prosecuted or even pursued. The only person that even considers punishing them is Kurapika, the sole survivor of the massacre. Hundreds upon hundreds of murders are excused because the villain had a cookie-cutter backstory of “I had a rough childhood in the slums.” A weapon of mass-destruction that had previously claimed the lives of 5 million people is introduced after 126 episodes, and then neither it nor the 5,211,000 people it had killed are ever mentioned again. Hisoka, an actual pedophile clown who targets the pre-pubescent protagonist Gon (as well as getting horny for him on-screen, no shame at all) and who has killed many, also never faces justice for his several counts of sexual harrassment, murder, indecent exposure, and assault. Time and time again, tragedy strikes, but justice is never served. Now, this is often the reality of life. Had HxH introduced itself as a gritty sort of show from the outset, it wouldn’t seem quite so out of place. But instead, HxH brands itself as a show about optimism in the face of adversity. But rather than actually acknowledge the full gravity of the adversity, the show either ignores it or excuses it, treating characters who actually want justice to be served as crazy or too extreme, and those who just let the fact that Genthru blew up hundreds of people slide as the reasonable ones. Forgiveness for what one has done to you is one thing, but who are you to forgive a person on behalf of someone else? Whose place is it to say that a crime has been atoned for? Should it really be the deluded twelve-year-old who excuses the mountains of neglect and child endangerment heaped upon him by his father as a completely acceptable form of 'training?' This is where an authority figure, the law, or some sort of rules would come in, which leads into my next point:

• Failure to Set and Maintain Rules

Consequences in general are either inconsistently applied or entirely absent. This is a reoccuring problem in Hunter x Hunter. It often fails to properly define the limits and rules of the societies, abilities, and threats encountered in the story, retcons or outright breaks the few rules it does set for itself, stymies justice at every turn, and excuses horrific atrocities. The concept of Nen, for instance, is rather interesting. But the rules it sets for itself, such as the idea of Nen 'bankrupcy,' per Knuckle Bine's ability, or having to make a sort of tradeoff in order to increase one's power, such as Kurapika's ability, are ill-defined and somewhat vaguely explained. To whom is the tradeoff made? Where does this owed Aura go, when a Nen user goes fully bankrupt, since it was previously stated that when you run out Aura, you die? What is the source of Aura? If Aura is generated solely by its User, how can one run out of it, without ageing themselves significantly, as with Gon during the fight with Neferpitou? Why was his transformation temporary, if he had managed to expend several years of his lifespan in his overproduction of Aura? If a surplus of Aura can cause a shortened lifespan, how is it that Chairman Netero lived for so long? How can the 'spell' Angel's Breath exist, one that can completely restore a missing arm, if not without requiring the undivided focus of a supremely powerful Nen User, such as Pitou's ability Doctor Blythe did? More importantly, what are the rules of the Hunters? They can travel anywhere in the world, and are able to kill or steal anything they'd like and don't have to abide by any morality at all...and yet they are treated as the great peacekeepers of the world. In order to be a Hunter, you must be strong enough and willing to murder, lie, and die for what you desire, but you aren't allowed to kill their opponents during the exam? What purpose do they serve? What benefit do they bring to society? They enforce no rules, have no shared morality, but are to be allowed into your country without question? What's more, for a show supposedly about the Hunters, they really don't explain what it means to be a Hunter outside of a few cryptic one-liners such as "Good Hunters are loved by animals." How about international law? Assassins are hardly outlaws, an entire country is dissolved and turned into a nature preserve by the order of the Hunters, who, mind you, are supposed to be unaffiliated with nations, and the existence of a world-wide criminal underworld doesn't seem to bother anyone. Such a corrupt and twisted world, and it's only mentioned off-handedly, each and every tragedy hardly given any consideration at all, with zero lasting effects outside of the information directly given by the narrator.

• Other Issues

Narrator constantly used as scapegoat; whenever the mangaka doesn't bother to develop or build up to a certain plot point, the narrator comes in with a five-minute droning speech to infodump on us the information that should have been more naturally revealed through the world and plot itself, not by an outside omnipotent force.

The fact that there are not one, but two pedophilic psychopaths who hit on Gon and never face even the slightest bit of skepticism outside of Killua is honestly ridiculous and rather disquieting. There also seemed to be a rather strange undercurrent of sexuality throughout the entire show, which was rather discomforting, but certainly not as much as the existence of Hisoka and Palm.

After treating death so flippantly throughout the series, by the time the Chimera Ant Arc rolled around and we're expected to really feel the stakes, it's hard to do so since up until that point all of the deaths had been given about 3 minutes of credence then discarded. How am I supposed to feel emotionally impacted by a character's death in this Arc if I quite literally expecting them to either pop up and be perfectly fine thanks to the previous lack of consequences or to be forgotten entirely after the next episode?

ANIMATION - 6/10

Character design ranges from charming and memorable to raunchy and ugly. Animation is choppy and/or clearly just a reroll of the same frames from only seconds before in some places and smooth and well-rendered in others. The Chimera Ant Arc had very nice animation overall, while the Greed Island Arc before it was littered with shots of characters with distorted proportions. The animation often takes on a more simplistic, rounded and 'chibi' form to relieve the heaviness of more serious situations or generally to create a more cheerful and comedic scene, but this works better in some places than others. 

SOUND - 4/10

The OP, Departure, is brilliant. Triumphant and energetic, it leaves a lasting impact, but very often feels out of place in more serious episodes (or, in the Chimera Ant Arc's case, during 90% of the arc). The theme of the Zoldycks is omnious and foreboding, while also being pleasant to listen to. Hisoka's theme, while nice-sounding, doesn't seem to suit him as a character very well, and seems to serve as a way of making the audience more partial towards him, despite his utterly despicable personality. The more cheerful songs of the earlier arcs are a welcome sound and help cement the group as a cohesive, friendly unit. So why am I ranking it so low? The constant use of Chrollo's theme during the York New City Arc was bad enough, but to hear the incessant, ear-splitting, grandiose viola solo of Shaiapouf's theme made me actually despise having ears. I already hated him to begin with; the theme only increased that feeling.

CHARACTERS - 5/10

The best characters are likely the original main four. Gon, Killua, Kurapika both undergo so much hardship, but have recognizable, impactful character arcs and personalities that kept me invested. Leorio is very likeable, but was honestly ruined in the first arc by making him grope a mass murderer (she didn't even have a lot of curves to boast of, but that's neither here nor there). Hisoka, Illumi, and Chrollo are the scum of the earth but are excused for their murder and pedophilia, murder and torture of children, and satanism and genocide, respectively, for being physically attractive (honestly don't see it; but I'm told that they're very sexy). Female characters range from ditsy and sexually-charged to deranged and sexually-charged, the only exception being a few young children and Biscuit Krueger. Biscuit, like Leorio, is a great character, but also for some reason slobbered over Hisoka's exposed crotch (which thankfully was not seen). The Chimera Ants are cannibalistic mass-murderers, but we're supposed to like Meruem because he became attached to a simpleton human girl that he only cared about because she was essentially a plaything? She was little more than his favorite toy, and we are told to see this selfishness as "true love."

One of the best anime that i've seen in my lifetime. Real friendship, not the classic "power of friendship" many anime show. Hunter x Hunter explores a vast world full of magical creatures, and at the same time the life of a young upcoming hunter in search of his father. If adventure, excitement and honestly tons of crying close to the ending of the anime is what you seek you'll get it.

Idc about others but h×h is my life line

One of the best Anime I've ever seen, it just makes you want to watch more and more. The story is of a boy who wants to become a hunter to know why his dad left him. Man I love this anime. I rewatched it because I loved it so much. This will remain my most fav anime of all time.

(will try not to spoil, no promises! O and Merry Christmas! :D)

So a friend of mine finally managed to convince me to watch this anime. And many years ago I saw scenes on youtube, so curiosity finally got the better of me and I decided to give it a shot, this popular anime who I see as one of the "mainstream" anime. So I watched it, I bingewatched it and 1,5 week I finished it. Wew!

He warned me of a boring first couple of episodes, but they were honestly not that bad, I really enjoyed the first one actually.  He also told me of amazing scenes and touching scenes, and that there were going to be some 'real life' parts in there, 'disturbing' scenes, said it can turn dark and that this anime isn't all jolly for these more serious parts. So that reeled me in pretty much.

The anime is mainly about Gon, a boy trying to find his father who left his family behind to become a hunter. So Gon wants to become a hunter too, to search for his father. On the way he meets other characters like Leorio, Kurapika and Killua. This third one grows really close to Gon and they become very close friends. From then on the story will be about the both of them. 

You see both their motives, their stories, their approaches, their struggles. You see them improve and train together, I love it. Character development. Also they are like the main characters in the shows, but they get their ass handed to them. Plot armor doesn't make them invincible like some shows would have them.But you see them struggle together and work hard to try and beat the next obstacle.

There are a few things that bored me a little, and when I think about what these things are, I'm like, yep that's THREE things in 148 episodes, which isn't that bad :) of course it's subjective! One of them is...politics. Those who watched will understand.

And the good scenes? Yeah there are a lot of awesome memorable scenes in there. Some of the fights/Challenges or just simple word exchanges that left me satisfied, shaking or holding my breath. 

My favorite ARC: The...CHIMERA ARC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *dramatic music*

I think it'll be the favorite one for many people, there are just so many episodes and scenes that got me hunger for the next episode. Hell, I watched 148 episodes over the course of 1 week and a half, I was hooked, I threw away an already crappy sleeping schedule and averaged 4 AM, especially during this ARC.

That arc had me hold my breath, shake, ... oh and cry. Yep I cried, a few times. Friend warned me about certain episodes. He didn't spoil it, he just mentioned the episode number. I was like "I'll be the judge of that"...and after the episode I was like "yeah u right" LOL sorry, this happened a few times. After that episode he put up another episode number, and I broke down again despite feeling 'prepared', but I was so wrong.

One episode that really had me filled with several emotions like Anger, Sadness, Pity, Fear and Admiration. I'm talking about that infamous episode 116.

The Animation in there...The Sounds...And my GOD the Voice Acting was...sublime. Episodes like that had me immersed, hooked, and it's this rollercoaster of feelings that I'm after when it comes to watching anime, if you can give me that, I can only say 'thank you', 'waw', 'I tip my hat to you'. It's art.

I recommend it, I really do, give it a shot! Just don't sacrifice your sleeping schedule over it. I just finished it today, discussed with a friend and as I'm writing this we have just reached 5 AM. I'm off to bed now, tired, but happy that I watched it, and sad that it's over....on to the next anime I suppose! :3

Cheers!