If you have not seen this anime yet you should definitely give it a shot. I promise it will not disappoint.

For the best experience, begin the show from the 1999 version. It has a much better start than the 2011 version. You should pick up the 2011 version at episode 53 and continue till the end of the anime. All of the following things I am about to say could easily be fixed by starting out with this version and moving on to the 2011 version. Most changes from the 1999 version to the 2011 version were for the worse. I think the producers felt like neglecting the initial episodes of the anime as they were already covered in the 1999 version.

• The show had a very slow start. The starting group of characters have a very nice introduction in the 1999 version. This is skipped in the 2011 version.

• There was no introduction of Kite in the beginning episodes in the 2011 version. Later on in the Chimera Ant arc Kite was introduced suddenly and then all of the backstory was dropped quickly. But all that was supposed to be shown in the initial episodes.

SPOILERS AHEAD

CRITICISM:

• The worst thing about this show is that it is not finished. If the author wanted this show could have had a perfect ending where the anime had finished, but right when it was about to get a perfect conclusion the world gets infinitely bigger and at this point the chances that this show will get any more episodes is very low. This will leave you feeling unsatisfied, as only if the ending was better it would have easily surpassed even Attack On Titan.

• The Greed Island arc is probably the only arc that was not so great. It was quite a big jump to go from a "crime thriller" focused arc to "magical card powers inside a game" arc. Gon luckily was able to magically heal himself with the power of the cards after his fight with Genthru where he lost an arm. There were no consequences. This felt a bit generic where the main character can recover from any fight no matter how reckless he got. I would have liked maybe a less critical injury than losing an arm, but that injury persisting in Gon afterwards reminding the viewers of the time in the Greed Island arc. Otherwise the whole thing becomes pointless filler. This was not an issue in the other arcs though.

• Chimera Ant arc felt slightly slow to start, it would have been ideal if it would have been wrapped up in 50 episodes than 60 episodes maybe, nothing major though.

• Although the show gives some reasons but I was completely against Knuckle's decision to remove the Bankruptcy from Youpi. I personally hated that moment and as a result Knuckle's character. Also I did not particularly like how Meruem was brought back to life using the "essence" of the royal guards after Netero's fight. Though how he died in the end was very well done.

That's all that I can find in the 148 episodes of the show. Everything other than these was brilliant. Amazing art, music and character development and once you will start watching you will find it hard to stop. I watched the whole thing in 3 days during my vacation. Just to list a few amazing aspects of this show amongst the many would be:

• The friendship of Gon and Killua. I would definitely say that it is one of the best friendships in anime.

One of the cutest moments of the show according to me was during the Hunter exam arc where they were going to stay in an island for a week. They had to defend their badge and also get badges from others to make a total of 6 points. After everyone were given their badges, all did the smart thing and hid their badges so no one can easily figure out who their target is. It was during this time that Gon and Killua were asking each other about their badge numbers where each was a little bit reluctant to tell the other about their number at first. They had just been friends for only a few days after all. After a while though they decided to share their numbers anyways. That moment was so cute and cool. It was butchered in the 2011 version, but the 1999 version did it very well.

• Amazing character development of Meruem. Many people say that this is not the first time some evil character has turned to the good side and give examples from FMAB Naruto etc. I agree. But this is not about turning to the good side from evil. This is about how the process happened and HxH's Meruem is the best in it.

The scene where Meruem was starting to respect human beings, starting to realize that there are other aspects to appreciate in life other than absolute power (brute strength) from Komugi. But then he was swayed back to the dark side by his Royal Guards. After that he decides to go and kill Komugi, but as he enters he sees that an eagle is hurting her. The realization that even if he did nothing Komugi will die. Killing Komugi is not some amazing achievement. And finally to the conclusion that it is the duty of the strong to protect the weak after realizing which he kills the eagle. That scene was SO AMAZING! It alone could make this anime separate itself from any other out there.