This review will contain spoilers
When I first watched this anime, I honestly thought "damn, this is like any other shounen I've seen," however after a deep analysis on Hunter x Hunter, especially the Chimera Ant arc, I've come to realise that Hunter x Hunter is one of the greatest shows out there. Now you may argue that there is no reason to go that deep into an anime and to just enjoy it, but I think that judging an anime from its surface level is in fact very ignorant. Yoshihiro Togashi spent countless hours and many years to create this art form and it is foolish to ignore the ingenious details and clever thinking that was put into this story.

From the normal's point of view, the story line of the anime is that Gon Freecs is on a journey to find his father who left Gon to pursue his career of being a hunter. Thinking that this is all Hunter x Hunter is the same as saying "FMAB was just 2 brothers tryna get their bodies back," or "AoT is just the MC tryna get revenge on a different species." Hunter x Hunter is more than just Gon trying to find his father and this was mainly portrayed within the main characters of the show. Hunter x Hunter also cleverly shifts from a light-hearted theme to a very dark themed story. The anime starts off with the hunter exam, introducing Gon, the carefree, outgoing and kind boy and Killua, the tortured, depressed and shut in assassin. The huge difference between Gon and Killua is also illustrated from their character design, Gon has spiky hair, large eyes, always smiling and wearing a bright green outfit whereas Killua has his hair down, slanted and cold eyes, rarely smiling and wears a constant dark coloured outfit. Gon is seen as the light in the anime where Killua is seen as the darkness and its been represented many times that Gon was the light to Killua's darkness and it saved Killua multiple times throughout the story. This also solidifies Killua's amazing character development throughout the anime, from being a shut-in assassin who is controlled by his family to becoming a friendly and outgoing character who can think for himself. One may argue that Gon had no character development throughout the series even though he is the MC. These types of characters are called 'static characters' that don't change themselves but change the people around them this was successfully done with Killua. The anime proceeds to embody the friendship between Gon and Killua through the next few arcs until we get to the Chimera Ant arc.

The Chimera Ant arc, by far one of the best and well thought out arcs in the history of anime, gives Hunter x Hunter the greatness it deserves. The chimera ants are a species that develop a taste for humans to sustain their race and for the healthy birth of the Ant King, Meruem. The main aspect to take from this arc is that Meruem is the mirrored version of the protagonist, Gon. Meruem is first introduced as a ruthless villain who immediately takes the life of his mother after birth. He cares for no one except himself and he will only devour hunters for food. His character then takes a huge turn after he meets the fragile and timid Komugi, a blind professional Gungi player. Her timid nature allowed Meruem to believe that maybe the ants and humans can live together in peace, a conclusion that none of the humans would've thought would happen. This gives Meruem a sense of humanity as he continues on his journey to find what it means to be human. He is later then confronted by Netero, the 13th Chairman of the Hunter Association where a battle breaks out. While the nameless Meruem tries to negotiate with Netero, Netero declines his offer and identifies him as non-human. The theme portrayed during this battle was that humans are selfish creatures and it is okay when they are at the top but as soon as another creature tries to get above or on the same level as them, they are simply shut down and recognised as weak. Netero believed that humans are superior than any other any other creatures, and at one point Meruem tried to take over humans which Netero disapproved of, however after meeting Komugi, he realised how wrong he was and that he wanted to live in peace. This made Netero a hypocrite and honestly the villain in this battle. Another aspect to take into account is Netero's backstory and how he trained his whole life to find the peace of mind but he quickly threw that away to protect the humanity he loved but in doing so, he tried to kill someone of lower rank and to stop natural change , hence his demon like appearance before his death. On the other hand, Gon met Kite and was quick to befriend him when he found out he was Ging's disciple in the past. Kite was a strong and independent hunter who worked as a researcher to find out more about the Chimera Ants. In a sudden meeting between, Pitou, one of the royal guards of the king, and Kite, Gon and Killua, Pitou showed tremendous and terrifying Nen power, allowing Killua and Gon to escape while leaving everything to Kite. The result of the battle was shown by creating a scene where Pitou keeps Kite's beheaded head on her lap while she looks away with a smile on her face. However, Gon immediately thought that Kite wouldn't have lost and is still alive. After finding the dead body of Kite that is being controlled by Pitou, Gon thinks that he is still alive and focuses on becoming stronger to save Kite. In the 2nd meeting between Gon and Pitou, Gon is infuriated by her appearance and goes on to make death threats to Komugi, the person that Pitou was healing at the time and asked her to save Kite. Upon hearing that Kite is actually dead, Gon goes onto a mental breakdown where he starts to blame himself but as rage takes over him, he soon creates one of the best transformations in history. The setting of the place was very dark where only a couple of candles lit up the place. This transformation required Gon to throw away around 20 years of his life, transforming into an adult, essentially throwing away his humanity and becoming a cold person that was taken in by revenge. The once kind hearted Gon soon turned into a monster saying things such as: "I don't care if this is the end. I'll use everything, to kill you Pitou." The Chimera Ant arc was truly a masterpiece and it shows the parallel worlds between Gon and Meruem, where Meruem who once wanted to take over humanity slowly finds his way to become a human and Gon, the kind hearted child who threw away his humanity for revenge. There are also many small details in this arc that make it even better such as Killua befriending Ikalgo, a chimera ant, protrays Killua's character development from becoming someone who had no intention to have friends to becoming someone who managed to make a bunch of friends. There is also how Pitou and Youpi developed greatly by offering their lives to save the King but Pouf on the other hand had little no character development. This is because Pouf was already born as a butterfly and there is no need for a butterfly to develop any further. There are many other aspects that make the Chimera Ant arc a masterpiece which I do not wish to talk about on this review.

One may argue that the chimera ant arc is the only good arc in the show and it doesn't make the whole anime good however I feel like the arcs that were in between the Hunter Exams and the Chimera Ant arc successfully developed the relationship between Gon and Killua. I also can't forget Kurapika's amazing Yorknew City arc and in my opinion was probably the best revenge arc I've seen in an anime. Hunter x Hunter also had many amazing fights such as Gon vs Hisoka and Kurapika vs Uvogin.

The ending of Hunter x Hunter was also very well done and the very last quote really stands out as it truly explains the whole anime in one sentence:

"You should enjoy the little detours to the fullest. Because that's where you'll find the things more important than what you want."

Overall, Hunter x Hunter was an enjoyable anime from start to finish and it created one of the best arcs in anime history, the Chimera Ant arc. Hunter x Hunter does have its flaws though such as too much narrating or some average moments in the show but putting that aside, Hunter x Hunter is a masterpiece in the making.