Hunter x Hunter (Anime Review)

All right, so, I'm getting back into doing anime series review on here. I've done two series before, one of them was done last year, but now, I'm making a third series on here doing review for more anime I've watched. I've actually started watching a lot more anime ever since I finished the last series and I'm hoping to talk about, maybe not all of them, but a good amount. And, starting us off is the second manga series created by Yoshihiro Togahsi, Hunter x Hunter. I've wanted to talk about this series for a while because I love this series. I'm obviously gonna be reviewing the 2011 anime and I'm gonna be talking about the series arc by arc and giving my thoughts as I'm talking about it. So, this isn't the first time I've spoken about Hunter x Hunter on here. I've done different things talking about it like talking about my favourite characters and doing paintings of some of the characters as well as recently doing a review of a collectible of a character from it, and there's a good reason. This show is absolutely incredible and this is easily one of my favourite anime series of all time. This was actually voted as the greatest anime of the 2010's and I completely agree. What got me into it originally was that I was hearing about it a few times on YouTube and I had seen some clips, so, in 2019, I started watching the first 10 or so episodes but I stopped until December that year where I watched more episodes but then I stopped again until around July last year where I watched a lot more episodes and I made it up to about episode 111 and the website I was using didn't have anymore dubbed episodes after that. But, shortly after that, they revealed they were gonna be releasing the series here on Blu-Ray. So, ever since November last year, I've been collecting the Blu-Rays as they've been released. And I'm so glad I did because I've had an amazing time with this series. So, the story is set in a fantasied version of Earth where there are these people called Hunters who are basically people capable of doing various dangerous things like exploring mystical places and finding dangerous treasures, among other things. And, on an island called Whale Island, there lives a twelve year old boy named Gon Freecss who is curious about his dad named Ging who apparently left him there when he was a baby in the care of his aunt named Mito. And, after encountering a man named Kite, Gon decides he wants to become a Hunter to try to find his dad. The only way to become one is by taking the Hunter Exam. He then takes part and meets new friends and foes along the way. The friends he meets are Leorio, Kurapika and especially, Killua. And the main enemy he meets there is a magician like character named Hisoka. After completing the exam, he sets out with Killua trying to find Ging. So, in the beginning, I will admit, the first arc of this series, that being the Hunter Exam, is, in my opinion, the most Shonen-like arc of the series. Meaning it acts like a lot of other Shonen properties and follows some familiar beats. But that doesn't make it bad, not one little bit. It's still paced well for the most part. Yeah, there are some things that go on for too long in my opinion, but this arc does still have a lot of great moments. First, I like how the series is set up with how it introduces all these characters. Gon is pretty cool protagonist and he gets some great moments in this. And the others are great too, like I said before, Killua is by far my favourite character in the series and, while his best moments aren't here in my opinion, there are some cool moments with him here, in particular one moment where he kills a guy by literally ripping his heart out. And Leorio and Kurapika are great too. Leorio is really funny and acts as like a brother figure to all of them and Kurapika is pretty cool too and the backstory with him is pretty tragic with being the sole survivor of his family and now he wants revenge on a group called the Phantom Troupe and to recover the eyes of his family. And some of the other character's pasts are tragic too like Leorio who lost his friend to a disease and now wants to become a doctor to help anyone else like that. Plus, not only them, but the villains are great too. Like I said, I also really love Hisoka and he's so much fun to watch despite technically being a terrible murderer. But, as for this arc on its own with its contents, it's mostly pretty good. I really enjoy how the Hunter exam is mostly like a bunch of games. I really enjoy that kinda thing in an anime and manga series, and it's really fun to watch here. Like I said though, there are some times where it can feel a little bit like a drag like when Gon and the others have to spend some time in a room alone for a few hours and we spend some time with them in there and that can be pretty boring sometimes. The main thing I enjoyed while watching it was the friendships develop, especially Gon and Killua's. Like I said before, Gon and Killua's friendship is my favourite friendship in all of anime and the two of them together made those scenes really fun. And then at the end when we see them have a tournament like thing where Gon is fighting Hanzo and Hanzo is just destroying him is pretty tough to watch but it does have a pretty funny ending. But the end of the arc is kinda tragic when we see Killua's brother make him quit the Exam and fail it. But it was nice with Gon, Leorio and Kurapika went to Killua's house to help him and get him back. After that, Gon and Killua say goodbye to Leorio and Kurapika and go to Heaven's Arena to train. Now Heaven's Arena is where I think the series really gets going. Yes, the Hunter Exam is a great start to the series, but I don't think it really gets going until this arc. And it's a really fascinating arc. First off, I love the introduction to Wing and Zushi. They're both extremely likeable characters and they're so much fun. And then we introduced to the concept of Nen, which is this series power system like Ki or Chakra or Spirit Energy. And the idea of it is genius. Nen is often hailed as the best power system in all of anime and , while I'm not absolutely sure if I'd agree to that, I can at least say I understand and it's close to being my favourite at least. And I like how there's different types and people can be different types like how Gon is an Enhancer and Killua is a Transmuter. And this greatly helps with the future fights of the series because it helps make the fights more unique since all the characters are different types of Nen user. And I love how there are more and different types of properties of Nen, it helps make the concept more unique. And everything else that happens in Heaven's Arena is cool too like all the fights that happen there. That's something I haven't mentioned yet, the fights in this series are incredible. Maybe my favourite fights in all of anime. This series was done by Madhouse Studio and the way they animate fight scenes are mind blowing. I love in a show where you can feel the impacts of attacks and the tremors and every fight in this series has that, I love it. And the fight in Heaven's Arena that my favourite is Gon vs. Hisoka, which I've even mentioned before as one of my favourite anime tournament fights ever, even if Gon does lose, plus it does also have some funny moments. And I like how Gon and Killua leave Zushi and Wing after this because it makes it nice when they reappear later on. Anyway, after that, there's a small part where Gon and Killua go back to Whale Island and Killua meets Gon's aunt Mito. I like this because it gives them more character when they're talking about what to do next and it's a cool set up for the next part of the series. And I'm talking about how it sets up the next arc which is YorkNew City arc. And, I'm not gonna lie, this might be my least favourite part of the series. I know some people say this is their favourite arc in the series and it definitely has some fantastic moments that I love, but there are some things in this I don't like like there are some things in this that can be kinda boring and go on for too long and don't really go anywhere. I know for some of these, that's kinda intentional, but I don't think that really helps. However, like I said, there are some great moments in this like the introduction to the Phantom Troupe, who are generally regarded as one of the best villain groups in anime and there's good reason for that. Unlike other villain groups in anime, these guys are completely unique and it's cool that you actually grow to like these guys despite the terrible things they do. It's great to see a villain group in this that isn't super generic like other ones. It was also cool to see Kurapika be a focus for this because we see him join a group to protect someone to help find and kill the troupe. And he does get a lot of great moments in this like when he fights Uvogin from the troupe and kills him. Also this show is so brutal. Like, honestly, there are some really brutal things in this series that I'm surprised some of this was allowed in a Shonen Jump manga. I know Shonen mangas can get brutal, but it's hard to imagine some of the gruesome things in this was allowed at all. But it's still cool. However, again, I do feel like some things in this arc go on for too long, like these a large portion of this dedicated to talking about auctions because Gon and Killua are trying to get a copy of a game called Greed Island because Ging left a memory card for Gon to find and play it. And Gon is doing this as a way to help him find him. Anyway, yeah, some of that auction stuff I feel goes on for too long and it all doesn't amount to much since they kinda abandon it to get the game another way and so it felt like a waste of time in my opinion. But, again, the arc did have a lot of great things in it, especially just seeing Gon, Killua, Leorio and Kurapika back together again. But then they go their separate ways again once Gon and Killua are able to play Greed Island and the way it work is that they use their Nen to teleport themselves inside the game itself. And then we start the Greed Island arc, which, like I said before, is honestly a pretty underrated anime arc in my opinion. I love this part of the story. For one, I really like when we meet Bisky. I really, really like Bisky. She's really like able and really funny. And the whole idea of Greed Island is extremely fun with it being a game you literally interact with because for the game you have to collect 100 specific cards and Gon and Killua do this while also learning more about Nen from Bisky. So, most of this arc feels like it's a training session for the two of them. And since the Nen system is so well thought, it's mostly really interesting stuff. Some things are more interesting than others, but it's still great to watch. And the main thing I love about this arc is the dodgeball segment where Gon, Killua and Bisky team up with Hisoka and some other people like Goreinu to go up against Razor. That whole dodgeball segment is incredible and one of the absolute best parts of the whole series. It also makes Hisoka even more likeable. He was already a likeable character but this made him even better. And everything to do with that was so much fun. However, this arc does have some problems. For one, again, some things do go on for bit too long like some of the training can maybe go on too long and there's the whole thing of trying to explain how the card system works. And the biggest problem is with the main villain of this arc, Genthru. In a series with really fantastic villains who aren't generic at all, Genthru comes off as the one exception because he's just a guy who kills people just... because. And he's just kinda boring. But, the rest of the arc is still really fun and I do think it's an underrated anime story arc. But then, after that we reach the pinnacle of the entire series, the Chimera Ant Arc. This story is as close to perfect that an anime story arc can get. Yoshihiro Togashi put this story together fantastically. I like how it starts with Gon and Killua meeting Kite again and we learn more about him as a character. And we learn that he's investigating a spices called Chimera Ants, who can kinda evolve in a way. We then see Gon and Killua going with Kite to try to help him investigate it. And, along the way, the Chimera Ants ae trying to help their queen eat people to eventually give birth to the king. And this is another part that's pretty gruesome because we see innocent people, including children, get eaten by this thing and it's pretty unsettling. Anyway, the queen also gives birth to the royal guards, Pitou, Youpi and Pouf. And Pitou even manages to kill Kite which triggers an anger in Gon so he and Killua go back to try to train to fight them. And I really like when we see them training with Knuckle and Shoot while Netero goes with Morel and Knov to try to kill the ants. Though, again, some of those scenes can feel like they go on a bit too long. But, eventually, the queen gives birth to the king himself, Meruem. I've already mentioned Meruem a lot on here and everything I've said about him before is still true. Like how he's my favourite villain of the series and one of my favourite characters in the series as well. I also still believe he's Yoshihiro Togashi's best villain ever too. He's just so interesting and so well written. And, it's kinda weird with him too because he's a character who does so many terrible things and kills so many innocent people and kids but he never comes across as unlikeable and he's completely sympathetic. But, anyway, back onto the series, I like a lot of what happens after this with Morel and Knov interacting and trying to fight some of the ants and Gon and Killua still training with Bisky again. However, again, like some of these other arcs, there are some problems I have with this like there's a big portion dedicated to Gon and Killua being separated and they have to fight some ants themselves and, while there are some cool moments, I feel like it goes on for too long and some of the fights seem kinda pointless. But the time dedicated to that does also go to Meruem as well and it's great to see more of him because of how fantastic of a character he is. But, even if some of those fight scene were kinda pointless, it was all made up for during the palace invasion where Gon, Killua, Knuckle, Shoot, Morel, Ikalgo and Meleron all team up to try to invade the palace that Meruem and the guards have taken over to try to kill them. And this entire part of the series is by far my favourite because there's so many amazing moments. We see the majority of them fighting Youpi and Pouf while Gon and Killua are trying to find Pitou because Gon wants him to heal Kite thinking he's still alive and that Pitou can heal him. And this is where we see more of what Gon really is. He may appear as a happy young boy for most of the series, but there's a lot of instances where he does something pretty dark or selfish throughout, and this is the pinnacle of that. There's so many instances in this arc where he acts like a monster and does something that a villain would do like he threatens to kill Komugi, who's this little girl that Meruem has been trying to beat at a game of Gungi, which is this board game Togashi created for the series. And Komugi has helped Meruem grow and change but in the palace invasion, she gets injured and Meruem has Pitou try to heal her and so he does but Gon, because he's so angry and full of it, he threatens to kill her just to make Pitou do what he wants. And it's pretty surprising to see a Shonen protagonist do something like this. And so, throughout the palace invasion, there's just so many standout moments, but one of the biggest is the Netero vs. Meruem fight. That entire sequence is so incredibly animated and insane. But another great moment is the Gon vs. Pitou fight when Pitou eventually reveals that Kite is dead and there's nothing he can do. So, in this moment, Gon becomes consumed with so much sadness and despair that he makes a vow with his Nen to transform him into an adult version of himself with all the power he would ever have just to kill him.

And that whole segment is also disturbing. Just seeing a person throw their lives away just to kill some other living creature like that. And, at this point, Netero poisoned Meruem which means he's going to die. And so, we see Youpi and Pouf both get killed from the poison too and then Meruem decides he wants to spends his last few hours playing Gungi with Komugi. And, yeah, I mentioned this before, but this entire sequence is heart-breaking. Just seeing the two of them playing and then just dying after Meruem had been through so much development and then to see him die is honestly gut-wrenching. I've watched other people's reactions to this on YouTube and they all get devastated during this scene too. And, it's not just Meruem, but because of how likeable Komugi was, it's tragic to see her die too because she also gets a bit of that poison too from being near Meruem. But the last part of the anime is great too with Gon in hospital almost dead with Killua trying to save him deciding to use the power of his sister named Alluka to save Gon. Alluka has another personality inside her named Nanika who can grant wishes after you do different requests for her and Killua uses that to save Gon. But, during this segment, we finding meet Gon's dad, Ging, properly and he's dismissive of visiting Gon and so Leorio is angry at him for that and we get this awesome scene where he confronts him.

But then, after Gon is saved, he goes to see Ging and it's really sad when we see him and Killua part ways. They don't know when they'll ever see each other again, and so it's sad to see them say goodbye to each other like this. But this leads to Gon finally meeting Ging and having a nice conversation and Ging mostly telling telling Gon about the bigger world out there and the last few minutes of the last episode are spent seeing a lot of characters where they're left off and mostly being in a good spot. And, it's kinda different in the manga. And I say that because the Hunter x Hunter manga is a lot like Berserk in the sense that it's constantly on hiatus and the anime only finished at that point even though the manga is still going. And that's pretty disappointing because I love this series so much that and I would love to see more material for it. But, as for the anime itself, it's fantastic. I love this series and the plotting for it is incredible. The animation is, in my opinion, feature film levels and is gorgeous. Both this and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood are both animes with the best anime animation I've ever seen. The dubbing is also fantastic. I already mentioned before that I think Erica Mendez and Christina Vee are both fantastic as Gon and Killua, but the rest are great too like Erika Harlacher as Kurapika and Matt Mercer as Leorio and especially Keith Silverstein as Hisoka. And the rest if the characters are great too. There's so many likeable ones throughout the entire story, especially during the Chimera Ant arc. And, like I said, the action scenes are just amazing. These are honestly the best anime fights I've ever seen next to the fights from Naruto. I could watch these fights forever because they're just that good. And the thing I said before about the villains is true. The villains in this are so brilliantly written for the most part that it helps make every character that much more likeable. The show's also really funny. There's a lot of funny moments and I like the journey that a lot of these characters take. Especially Killua. We follow him and Gon through most of this series and he's the character I like the most and there's so many incredible moments with him. I especially love how he's mostly being manipulated by his brother Illumi to be scared of anyone who would be stronger than him by a needle in his brain but during the Chimera Ant arc, he's able to rip it out and act on his own completely. I just love Killua so much in this series and I believe the series would not be what it is or be as good as it is without him. So, really, yeah, this series is fantastic and I absolutely love it. I would love in the future if we ever got more volumes and if Togashi is able to finish the story that they continued with the anime as well. So, yeah, if you've never seen it before, I would highly recommend you do because it's so good. And, so, everyone, that's my review of Hunter x Hunter. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.