Hunter x Hunter

First off, for the sake of simplicity I'm going to cover all four series (one TV series and three OVAs) in one review, since they actually form a single continuous story. Generally I approach shounen titles with care, since many of them strike me as a bit shallow and vacuous. Hunter X Hunter, however, sounded quite interesting. On the strength of one solitary review, I gave it a watch. I'll begin with a brief summary: Hunter X Hunter revolves around a ten-ish year old boy named Gon who discovers that his permanently absentee father, Ging, is, in fact, one of the most famous and respected Huntersin the world. Hunters hunt various things, from criminals to recipe ingredients, depending on their individual talents and preferences. It seems to Gon that the only way he is going to have access to the resources to find and finally meet his father is to become a Hunter himself - so he cheerfully sets off to take the Hunter Exam. The four Hunter X Hunter series document Gon's attempts to become a Hunter and find Ging, punctuated by various distractions that result from the myriad troubles of the friends he makes along the way. After two or three episodes, it seemed pleasant enough but uninspiring. By episode seven or so, when the Hunter Exam starts in earnest, it begins to become more interesting. Before long, I was completely absorbed. Unlike many shounen series I've glimpsed, Hunter X Hunter doesn't rely too much on fighting (except for the Celestial Tower arc - the weakest of the lot, but necessary to everything that follows it) and actually has engaging characters who I ended up sincerely caring about. That's a rarity for me in any form of TV/film, but particularly in anime, and very particularly in shounen. In this case, I actually almost wept a single sorrowful tear when the final episode of the final OVA ended, so attached had I become to the central group of characters. One of the great things about Gon as a 'hero' in a shounen title is he isn't the most powerful character, nor does he want to be. He wants to be good enough to qualify as a Hunter and find his father, but that's all - and he often fails to triumph in difficult situations, whether in combat or a battle of wits or a game. He is surrounded by stronger, faster, cleverer characters; in particular, the mysterious and repellent Hisoka is leagues ahead of anyone else in the series in sheer power and skill. Again, though, combat is not as prominent as one might expect in Hunter X Hunter. It does occur, but it slots smoothly and naturally into the flow of events rather than feeling crowbarred in, as is so often the case in anime of this type. One of the strongest points of the whole thing is the interaction between the core characters. It's hugely enjoyable simply watching them together, seeing their friendships develop, shift emphasis, come apart, and take on new dimensions. And every single one of the characters has more depth than I thought was possible in shounen. Now to the negatives. They are few, but worth mentioning. The first thing to mention is this series does take some time to get going. The first half a dozen episodes meander along quite sedately as though they're little more than a travelogue. After that, everything is fine up until the Second Test of the Hunter Exam, which really irritated me. I'm not going to say why, since I want to avoid spoilers, but quite how none of the characters stabbed anyone in a fit of rage is a mystery. The first major low point, though, arrives during the second arc, when some of the characters undertake a stupidly DBZ-like weight-training regime. I nearly took my head in my hands in despair. Fortunately, it was over fairly quickly. The most sustained of the poorer points of the series is the aforementioned Celestial Tower arc. Fighting tournaments do little for me unless I'm participating (I mean Mortal Kombat etc, not actual, real fighting. Good grief, what do you take me for?). The major developments of this arc are pivotal to later events, but it was still a bit of a chore to sit through the duels - except the all-too-brief outings for Killua, who is always entertaing to watch in confrontations. One of the things that unsettled me about Hunter X Hunter as I went along was the change in tech. The first plot arc is all sailing ships, bows and occasional scraps of near-ruined modern technology (with the notable exception of a motorbike in Gon's photo of Ging), but each arc increases the tech level until, by the time we reach the York Shin arc, cars, automatic weapons and the internet are commonplace. This is somewhat jarring at first, but the more time is spent in York Shin, the less noticable it becomes. One more thing I'd like to mention is the music. The reviews I've read of the several Hunter X Hunter series all claim that the music improves as the series progress. While I concede that some of the music in G.I. Final is good, I actually preferred the early music. In particular, I rapidly grew to pine for the melody I think of as 'Gon's Theme', which is rarely heard outside the first story arc. I'll end my poorly-structured rambling there (listening to this month's Terrorizer cover CD isn't conducive to coherent writing) with a high recommendation. Hunter X Hunter is among my top three anime. Fans of harem anime or fan service may want to avoid; fans of good character, interesting plot and colourful action with the odd touch of the strange and sinister should watch at the next opportune moment.

Hunter x Hunter is your typical Shounen, Action, Adventure anime with the usual plot-devices but with a pretty unique concept of “hunting”. This series may not adrenaline filled action sequences but it is still highly enjoyable, with plenty of tension. HxH start of about skilled individuals trying to become professional hunters for their own individual reasons. The story follows a young boy (Gon Freaks) on his quest to become hunter, in order to find his hunter dad. The beginning is just about candidates undergoing treacherous tasks and challenges, whilst forming bonds during the long hunter exam. Some, including me, may be bored by the lackluster beginningbut sometime into the hunter exam arc the series picks up and become very interesting and captivating to watch. The following arcs manage to up the level, bringing so much to the unique story but it’s a shame that it never finishes within the TV series. The characters of HxH are the usual batch of protagonist and antagonist found in shounen anime and each of them manages to fit the bill. They all are interesting and unique in their own way. They develop so much throughout the show, even though most of the time it revolves around Gon. Gon himself is what you’d call a typical protagonist and even though his ideals are somewhat annoying, he can do astonishing things that will surprise anyone. Not to mention the other main characters: Killua, Kurapika and Leorio who all manage to bring something astounding to the show. The first thing that may come to your mind with the animation, is how dated it looks however when you put that aside you can easily take the animation for its merits. The art style is great and there are plenty of fluid fights but they can be a little fast paced. The music is pretty good, as it can help build up the tension and can just as easily release the tension with some upbeat tunes. Nonetheless the music itself feels more dated than the animation. Overall HxH is a very entertaining Shounen, Action, Adventure but with an intricate plot and concept, which develops as the story goes on. There’s plenty of stupid comedy to enjoy, plus a lot of major developments and intense combat. The series may not focus entirely on fighting but the methods of fighting actually evolves later on in the series, into something more diverse and complex (Nen). It’s a shame that the TV series doesn’t resolve anything and the OVAs don’t provide much resolution either. Other than that this is definitely a shounen anime series worth watching, if you're in this kind of thing. ^_^

The basic premise of the story is Gon, a young boy living on Whale Island, one day meets an apprentice of his father. This hunter tells him about his long lost father, Ging, and awakens in Gon the desire to become a hunter in order to find his father. Along the way to the Professional Hunter Exams, Gon meets and befriends Killua (from an assassin family), Kurapica (last survivor of a tribe murdered by the Ryodan) and Leorio (who wants to be a doctor). At 62 episodes long, one might think what on earth could be so interesting about people who hunt things. Well, this isone of the best storylines ever! It starts slow, but as soon as they got into the hunter exam the pace picked up (literally) and the viewer becomes engrossed. There is also a good background philosophy on the fighting styles and abilities of Nen users. I can\'t stress enough how good the plot twists are, the character development is perfect and the story is so well fleshed out that there is potential for a spin off with any of the main and half the side characters, Killua and Hisoka especially. Now that is depth! Hisoka himself is one of the best anime villians ever written. Bravo to the writer for creating this world and characters. The art was nothing fantastic, it\'s very bright and cheerful which fits in with the main protagonist\'s age of 12. It serves its purpose but won\'t make you go \"aaaah, this could be a picture\". Action scenes are very well done. Overall, I really enjoyed this whole series and it left me wanting more. By the end of the series I was mumbling to myself that 62 episodes just weren\'t enough even though Hunter x Hunter arc was \"finished\". Luckily there are 3 other OVAs after that to deal with the offshoot unanswered questions.

I cannot recommend this anime for anything but comparison since the 2011 anime came out. While there may be a bias on my part having seen the 2011 adaptation first, if I had seen this version first I likely would have never stuck with the series to become a part of the fandom. There are a couple of things this series has over the later adaptation: the first episode actually introduces a certain character, even though it never makes it to the famously large arc for that decision to pay off. 1999 also has the original take on Phase 2 of the Hunter's Exam, changed inthat I suppose the mangaka now realizes that foreigners know what sushi is, therefore a plot point is rendered a little ridiculous but the examiner's motivations and testing material remain in a consistent thread of logic. However, detracting from that is pretty much everything else. All of the filler added to the first arc or so of the series. The pacing slowed down to the speed of a snail. The tone is needlessly more somber. The art is, of course, rather old and doesn't feel nearly as sharp as the 2011 adaptation. Even the sound of the fighting feels like it has less impact. Every day I pushed myself to watch this so I know I've seen all there was to Hunter x Hunter, each time it felt like a chore, which Hunter x Hunter should NEVER feel like. There are a couple reasons to watch select episodes and clips. Some ongoing gags that are exclusive to this adaptation, seeing how your favorite scenes played out differently, those couple moments from the manga adapted here that the 2011 anime didn't touch. But I must say, going through all of this didn't feel worth it. I'm still planning to push ahead through all of the OVA episodes, which continues this series through what I believe to be the conclusion of the Greed Island arc in roughly another 30 episodes. Seeing as how the latest of those OVAs was back in 2004, that's at least a good few years for some techniques to improve, but I don't see the majority of my opinion of the series overall changing very much. I admit much of my criticism is cosmetic, but that's because the source material is wonderful no matter how you slice it. The way that it was animated here was just too boring.