Hunter x Hunter is the Platonic ideal of a great Shönen anime. It's got the same thrilling superhuman action as Dragon Ball Z, the same sense of fun and adventure as Naruto, the same gripping drama as Fullmetal Alchemist, the same existential despair as Evangelion, and the same over-the-top humor as JoJo's. It combines everything about what makes anime great into one cohesive whole, and the worst thing I can really say about it is that it ends.
At first glance, though, it seems like just another Shonen. Gon Freecss is a 12-year-old boy who wants to join the Hunter Association, a kind of martial arts superhero agency with license to go pretty much anywhere in the world, so he can meet his long lost father. He quickly teams up with his three new best friends: Killua, a child runaway from a family of assassins, Kurapika, the sole survivor of a clan wiped out by a gang of villains, and Leorio, a loud-mouthed doofus who just wants to strike it rich. It seems like a fairly standard set-up for this type of anime, but what really makes the series stand out is its unique and captivating cast of characters, its incredible variety, and its refusal to ever play it safe or settle for cliches.
The bedrock of this series is the ride or die relationship between Gon and Killua. Gon is the archetypical Shonen hero – strong, optimistic, kind-hearted, a bit playful and mischevous – but also hotheaded and quick to run into dangerous situations without thinking. Killua is a cautious antihero longing for redemption. The two complement each other brilliantly – they bicker and argue, as friends of their age often do, but they have a genuine bond that makes them stronger together than they are apart. Gon inspires Killua to fight courageously for the sake of his friends, and Killua reigns in Gon’s more self-destructive impulses. And they both have some truly great moments together as they grow, become stronger, and learn how to survive in the dog-eat-dog world they live in without losing their humanity.
But the world of Hunter x Hunter is huge, and there are many other fascinating characters who get the spotlight. The side characters are often as well developed and interesting as the main cast, and often get their own spotlight episodes where the focus is taken off the main cast entirely. The villains are some of the best in anime: they all have unique backgrounds and motivations, and often team up or fight each other to pursue their own goals. Unfortunately, Hunter x Hunter does suffer the typical Shönen issue of giving its female characters less screen time and occasionally making them wear skimpy outfits for fanservice, but all of them are well-written and usually get their own cool fights and abilities. Also, having gender-diverse characters like Killua's trans sister Alluka or the androgynous Pitou is really awesome, and ended up being some of my favorites in the entire anime.
The art in this series is great, and only gets better as it goes on. The character designs are all memorable and can range from cutesy to goofy to terrifying. The animation really helps sell the most exciting and emotional beats of the story, and also accentuates a lot of the humor. Often, the art style will get incredibly stylized and detailed, helping the viewer feel every moment that much more viscerally. The opening and ending animation sequences are all excellent, and even though they use the same opening song for the entire series, the animation changes enough to make it still feel fresh and exciting.
Studio Madhouse (Death Note, One Punch Man) really knocked this one out of the park, and also brought home an incredible voice cast and musical score. I prefer to watch it in Japanese, as some of the performances towards the end are among the best you'll see in anime, but the English dub is also pretty good if you prefer dubs. The music is also great, and while certain parts of the soundtrack are a bit overused (there's this one bass track that they play in like every episode of the first arc), they eventually sub these tracks out for some fantastic orchestral melodies in the later arcs.
The story of Hunter x Hunter features a ton of great moments, unpredictable plot twists, and phenomenal character moments. It's definitely a slow burn, with 148 episodes in total. But that actually works to the show's benefit, as it allows Hunter x Hunter to tell a wide variety of stories in an ever-expanding world. Every major story arc is different from the last, with drastic changes in setting, characters, style, and tone. My favorite arcs are the Yorknew Arc, in which best boy Kurapika joins the Mafia to get revenge on an elite murder gang, and the Chimera Ant Arc, a 60-episode epic in which humanity must fight monstrous insect creatures for their own survival.
The thing that surprised me the most about this anime is how deceptively dark it is. While it seems very lighthearted at first, with cutesy character designs and swashbuckling background music, the later arcs of Hunter x Hunter are filled with dramatic stakes, moral ambiguity, and existential dread. The series tackles many heady themes – betrayal, revenge, war, genocide, even a fictional version of North Korea – not simply for plot advancement or shock value, but to illustrate how truly evil humans are capable of being, and how hard we must all strive to overcome those dark impulses. The most heartbreaking part is that, despite their superhuman strength and larger-than-life personas, the heroes of Hunter x Hunter are still just children, who sometimes have to overcome obstacles no child should ever have to deal with.
But despite all the convoluted plots and dark moments, Hunter x Hunter is still pure Shonen, and at the end of the day, it has a very Shonen worldview. All the stuff that makes series like My Hero Academia or Demon Slayer great is here too: it’s got tournament arcs and over the top action, but also a belief in perseverance, fighting spirit, and overcoming any obstacles the world may throw at you. In spite of the emotional gut punches this anime throws at the viewer, it still has a largely positive outlook on the world. Even the most terrible monsters are capable of redemption. Even when all hope seems lost, there is a way to succeed and thrive. I found watching Hunter x Hunter to be inspiring, and when that last episode ended, I couldn’t help but get a little misty-eyed as the final notes of “Departure” rang out from my laptop speakers.
There’s still so much I could go on about what makes Hunter x Hunter so amazing, but there is one caveat to this series. It ends. Sort of. The anime series is finished, but the manga is still ongoing. Unfortunately, mangaka Yoshihiro Togashi often has had to put Hunter x Hunter on hiatus due to health issues, which has meant that the famous Dark Continent Arc may never get a full anime adaptation. And while I think the anime ending is a good enough point to wrap up Gon's story, it leaves a ton of plot threads left dangling and character arcs left unresolved. Still, it's pretty amazing to think that after 148 episodes, my biggest complaint about Hunter x Hunter is that there's not more of it for me to watch.
If you haven’t seen Hunter x Hunter yet and you have even a passing interest in anime or animation as a whole, it’s worth it to check out. The first few episodes are fairly slow-paced, but the series just gets better and better the more you watch it. It’s full of action, adventure, great characters, and a lot of heart. I'm not sure if it's my favorite anime ever, but it's definitely in the top five. I've even been reading the manga so I can catch up to the latest arc, so maybe I'll write a review for that when I finish it in 10 years.
