Hunter X Hunter is without a doubt, the best battle shounen I have ever watched and one of my favourite shows of all time. You’ve probably heard this before. Super cliché, right? I’ll back it up with a few paragraphs in a bit.
While watching this well-paced, thrilling anime, all I could think about is when I could watch the next episode. Togashi decides when the audience is ready for ground-breaking new information and delivers it like a champ.
This anime contains what some believe to be the best anime arc to be ever created. Although the Chimera ant arc’s beginning is definitely one of the dullest parts of the anime, it is essential to finish it to fully understand and enjoy the best part of it, which is around 40 episodes in (Yeah, it’s pretty long). I like to think of it as similar to the relationship between Clannad and Clannad: Afterstory.
The fights are unique for the genre in the sense that the audience gets lots of background information (this sometimes does come as redundant narration) behind each of a character’s actions, rather than just a flurry of attacks being engaged between combatants, which is definitely more aesthetically pleasing, though.
The last part of this TL;DR is to tell how lovable the main characters are in this show. Simply, they are just presented in a way where it is hard to not like them. The bonds between many of the characters, even side characters, are extremely interesting to see. However, like most, I wish we could have seen more of Kurapika and Leorio. (◞‸◟)
Arcs:
Hunter Exam (9/10) – we are immediately introduced to many characters we would end up seeing regularly through the show and get a small amount of information about this Hunter world. It also shows a variety of different characters and abilities and although many of them die or are never seen again throughout the show, we see a starting power level being set through them.
Zoldyc Family (7/10) – a very short arc in which we get to see a lot into the mysterious family of Killua Zoldyc. A very interesting thing we see is a huge power difference between Killua and the rest of the main cast. Regardless of its pros, the arc was pretty uneventful.
Heavens Arena (8/10) – The most important part of this arc is probably the introduction to the Hunter world’s superpower system, Nen. It is the best superpower system I have seen due to its very clear-cut rules and it’s very evident that quite a lot of thought went into it. We also see the main characters grow stronger and there are a few interesting fights as well.
Yorknew City (10/10) – this arc introduces a very cool villain group, the Phantom Troupe. From their personalities to their abilities, everything about them is amazing. This arc is focused mostly on Kurapika. Meanwhile, the other 3 try to provide Kurapika with support but he doesn’t need help. ‘Cause he’s OP. Just for this arc, though.
Greed Island (6/10) – 2 of the main characters are once again more prominent in this arc. My main problem with this arc is probably that most of the side characters are really lack-lustre and boring and are literally never seen again after they served their purpose of delivering a few lines.
Chimera Ant (9/10) – A weird species called Chimera Ant get really strong with the help of human DNA and pose a huge threat to humanity. I really want to give it a 10 but I can’t ignore that first part of it. Although, the ending was amazing, those first episodes left me quite unsettled with the whole experience.
Chairman Election (7/10) – Despite the name, this arc isn’t completely focused on the election. We do see a lot of Hunters, that are apparently really strong, introduced but their abilities aren’t showcased.
Scores:
Story (8/10) - The anime had a great ending, even though it wasn’t the ending to the series. It was very satisfactory and it will be interesting if the next arc can top the ones before it.
Art/Animation (9/10) - The art was pretty standard but the animation was really good; it was extremely smooth and when required it was very useful to convey the mood and intensity of the situation.
Sound (9/10) - I don't really care that the same 3 songs (that had the same tune) were reused throughout the series for the opening. The song itself was pretty catchy and sounded cheery, this was especially interesting in the CA arc, where things got pretty dark. The ending, however, was always changed very arc, and I really liked all of them. Some episodes, within the arc would also have a different ending to match the tone of the ending of the episode, which you gotta applaud.
Characters (10/10) – Once again, the characters are really lovable in this show, villains or MCs. (Except for the half a dozen Chimera Ants that got too much screen time but we don’t talk about them.) You'll probably end up having a few favourites among the side characters by the time the show ends because there are LOTS of worthy candidates.
Enjoyment (10/10) - Every arc ended up venturing through a different subject, entirely from survival to tournament to the mafia. I loved the various twists and turns, loved the intense music that would only play occasionally, so you knew that when it did, shit was about to go down. And I'll say it once more in this interview, I loved the characters.
Overall (10/10) - Looking back, objectively, this anime does have some flaws but when I finished this anime, I looked back and wondered, would I ever have this much fun watching a show ever again? And the answer is yes because I'll just re-watch it next year.
P.S.: I've watched a few shows where I got that exact feeling and I find something great in another 1-2 months so I figured that I don't need to worry too much.
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