THIS RANT/REVIEW IS SPECIFICALLY FOR THE CHIMERA ANT ARC NOT THE ENTIRE SERIES

SPOILERS FOR HXH CHIMERA ANT ARC (and some minor for Heavens Arena Arc)

Before you start to get up in arms about how the Chimera Ant Arc is the greatest shounen anime arc of all time, let me start out by saying that I'm no hater. I definitely understand where the love comes from. Super interesting and mature themes, a God-tier OST, and Gon literally going Super Saiyan were true spectacles to behold. However, I think there are some pretty major faults within the arc that keep it from reaching a true competitor for Best of All Time.

1. The Pacing

Do I even need to say much about this? The pacing is pretty bad. I don't think saying that the pacing is good is an easy argument to make. I'm not saying that the setup for the arc wasn't necessary, but when you have an insanely large arc (61 episodes) and about 40 of them are dedicated towards the build-up for the END of the arc...it gets boring fast. We've seen Gon and Killua go through the same training multiple times before, we've seen them get motivated for similar reasons, and we for sure don't need to see an entire episode dedicated to Killua turning around in a hallway. Now, HxH is a shounen. Tropes are expected, but the setup is so similar to the setups from the other arcs. What I'm saying is that I understand why the writers took time explaining the Chimera Ants and felt the need to establish new characters, but mannnnn did they take their sweet time.

1. Plot Holes, Inconsistencies, and Conveniences

Where do I even begin? In pretty much all anime, you’ll find plot holes. But they never really bother me as long as they don’t compromise the integrity of the story. In the Chimera Ant Arc, however, some of the story elements are so far removed from the ALREADY ESTABLISHED world of HxH that I couldn’t help but feel taken out of the story. For example, the arc basically takes a sht on the entire power system of nen and everything that was established about it during the Heavens Arena arc. Heavens Arena takes its time to establish that the power level difference between nen users and non-nen users was so great that even the weakest nen users could defeat the strongest non-nen users. So how did the Chimera Ants discover nen? Rammot (that rabbit ant) just kind of “discovered” nen on a whim and although you might say that it was discovered because the chimera ants ate nen users, how did they defeat them in the first place? The arc disregards a lot of things that have been established in previous arcs and it feels sort of lazy writing-wise. There’s A LOT of stuff like this throughout the arc where events or problems pop up super conveniently that just feel plastic. This is supposed to be one of the most well-written arcs of all time...but is it really?

1. Narration

The writers made the interesting choice to rely heavily on narration throughout the entire arc. HxH has always had bits of narration, but the amount that is in this season is ridiculous. Constantly being told what happened in the episode before is totally unnecessary and does not do any favors for the pacing. For being what is supposed to be one of the best written anime arcs, this arc sure does use a LOT of time on exposition dumps. And my main complaint with this is that there are a lot of moments throughout Chimera that can be understood or inferred by the audience, but the writers still narrate these parts heavily. They spoon feed the audience as if the writers don't trust watchers to understand what's going on without being treated like a 6-year-old. It can get tiresome and it generally isn’t necessary.

1. Weak Character Motivation

I know I know. “Meruem is the greatest shounen antagonist of all time and you can’t tell me differently!” Like yes, Meruem is a great antagonist. But the best? I feel as though his writing is severely overrated and for multiple reasons. One of the larger reasons is his motivation for being an “antagonist.” (I say antagonist because I don’t think of him as a true “villain” and I think the writers intended that as well). When Meruem’s character is first introduced, he wants to kill humans and gain power simply for the sake of eating. It’s the definition of an antagonist being bad for the sake of being bad. Pretty one-dimensional until his motivations shift over to world domination simply because he believes that chimera ants are the superior species and should therefore rule. Now, Meruem’s change of heart near the end of the arc is what makes him such a well-written character in a lot of people's eyes, but again, the first 70% of the arc is dedicated to building this antagonist with weak motivation which makes it hard for me to buy into him being as powerful as he is. I could also go on a tangent about how I thought that the death of Kite was essentially used solely as a plot device and therefore felt cheap. And also how because it was cheap, the fact that Gon became what he became solely because of Kite’s death felt sort of stale even if it was really cool to see. But I don’t want to ramble on too much so….

In the end, these are all MY opinions. I’ve tried to approach my criticisms of this arc as objectively as possible and honestly feel as though there are too many flaws to call this one of the most well-written arcs in shounen anime history. That being said, I do understand the love this arc gets and it really does have some incredible highs. Thanks for reading.

EDIT: I want it to be clear that I LIKE the Chimera Ant Arc. I think it has some incredible scenes throughout its runtime and has some great character development. I just PERSONALLY don't think it is one of the best Shounen anime arcs of all time for the reasons stated above.