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DISCLAIMER: this OVA contains a few scenes of nudity and sex, and while not graphic and admittedly somewhat goofy, they are there, so if that is not your thing, skip out on this one.

well then, this was certainly an experience. its a 1 hour OVA with surprisingly decent animation for its time (although sometimes inconsistent), has a decent but flawed plot and decent action scenes. overall, i thought it was okay. it definitely would have worked better as a 90 minute film or a 3 30 minute episode OVA. instead we get an overly ambitious plot crammed into a simple hour, which results in lack ... of context and plot points coming out of nowhere; often there is minimum to no build up leading to a confusing and somewhat lackluster experience of a plot that could have been competent if given more time to develop. the characters are pretty 1 note, not really worth mentioning; i mean they're not really a focal point of the OVA so its not a huge deal but I would have liked to see more effort and care put into developing them (especially Mizuho, who is the stock damsel in distress archetype). the story takes place primarily in China, with plot points based on a more fantastical version of Chinese history which I thought was cool. overall, its not a super long time, it has good points to it and I didn't think it was all that bad, especially with the added inclusion of some admittedly surface level, but still cool political messaging about China. I would recommend it if you are up for watching a weird, somewhat disjointed 90s OVA and are prepared for some lackluster points.

NOTE: this is an incomplete review. I will come back and finish it some time in the future

This is my my favourite piece of fiction ever made BY FAR. It's better than any show (I've seen Breaking Bad, don't @ me), movie or video game, easily. The writing is top notch, the action is the best I've seen, and the sound track has not a single even mediocre song.

MUSIC
It would be remiss of me not to mention the incredible music; the opening 'departure!' and its 6 ending songs are some of my favourite pieces of music ever, with its first ending "Just Awake" being possibly ... my favourite song ever. Additionally, the sound track composed by Yoshihisa Hirano is beautiful and perfectly encompasses the emotion of the scene. I have over 60 Hunter x Hunter OST tracks in my spotify playlist, and I'm not removing a single one. You can't fucking make me.

ACTION
The action in Hunter x Hunter is perfect for several reasons. First of all, Togashi makes sure not to throw some in just to keep the viewer's attention; each fight plays a role in the story and has proper build up, giving it emotional weight. Additionally, each fight is perfectly made; it's never just the characters throwing attacks at each other. The characters think analytically about the fight and their opponent's abilities; Togashi also makes sure to include each character's different personalities and styles of fighting into each fight to keep them more interesting. The fights always include some thought out strategy to beat the opponent, much like JoJo. This again keeps the fights from getting stale. Lastly, the fights are more grounded than other battle manga/anime, meaning ordinary human weaknesses like being stunned from a single blow to the head apply here. This leaves room for much more creativity in the fights as opposed to Naruto, which slowly devolved into attacks being thrown at the opponent as the power levels increased to that of gods.

STORY