Sep 25, 2019
I created a MyAnimeList account to review this anime, though I will probably end up reviewing more.
HunterXHunter is a good, but flawed, anime. I'm going to start off by being blunt on how I truly feel: it does not belong to be the #3 anime here, nor even in the top 10. This review will contain some light spoilers, but I will not completely ruin it for you.
I'll start with what is amazing:
The art is 10/10. The drawing is amazing, there's no cheap CGI, the character designs (while heavily influenced by Dragonball, which the manga is as well but I mean, what modern shonen's
...
aren't?), the world. Everything is on point. The monsters look sleek and cool, from downright badass to horrifying wtfness. While the heroes have good designs, especially the members of the Hunters Guild, the series really shines with its villains. Again, the monsters look cool. But the villainous Hunters look even coolor. Hisoka, while I think is inspired by the Joker, is probably my favorite.
The sound is 10/10. The character themes are memorable, especially Hisoka's. I watched both the sub and dub for the first few episodes to decide which to watch. The dub was ok but sub was better, though I also went with it because when I watched this series the dub was incomplete. The music in this show is very good, and so is the voice acting.
Now, to what I think causes me to give this show only a 7 and why it should not be in the top 10.
Story: 7
Character: 6
These would actually be an 8 or higher if not for two things: the latter half of the Chimera Ant Arc and some of what happens in the Hunter Election Arc. I'll try not to spoil too much here. I won't really name too many names. See, up until the Chimera Ant Arc the story, to me, is very gripping. The main characters are discovering what there is out in the world. Hunters, while being loved for hunting monsters, are not all good guys. Some are down right evil mercenaries. There's politics in the Hunter Guild, and it ain't all pretty. After the Greed Island Arc, the quality starts slipping.
Then, the Chirmera Ant Arc. This is when it becomes annoying. The first half of the arc starts out with a lot of promise....and then, well, what may as well be Cell's stunt double shows up. Look, I understand Yoshihiro Togashi was probably very influenced by Dragonball. And to be fair tp the character, he has character development that isn't just "ARGGH I'M AN EVIL WORLD ENDING VILLAIN". The allusions to North Korea are pretty neat too. See, the part where the show starts suffering is that it's in the latter part of this arc where the pacing becomes atrocious. They spend something like 30 EPISODES of having a narrator basically spell out a battle scene, because apparently, you, the viewer, are incapable of understanding what is going on in front of you?!
Then, it's back to Hunter politics. Part of that is really awesome, but I feel they butchered certain characters completely. From what I know of the manga, the character motives are explained better there. There's also something really bad, in some attempt to bring back who I guess turned into a fan favorite. It cheapened what happened before. All of this stuff seems rushed, it felt like after they finished the Chimera Arc this part they were like "oh...we have to adapt this too. It's complex, but we'll do it in 10 episodes lol".
And then, the show ends on a gigantic cliffhanger. Now, this is nobodies fault but the anime creators. I understand Hunter X Hunter the manga is not yet finished. Yoshihiro Togashi has been battling illnesses. That's completely reasonable. The show though, imo, should have wrapped things up somewhat without the cliffhanger. It wasn't needed. Especially since there seem to be no plans to adapt the current arc in the manga (understandable as it is not finished yet). They could have wrapped it up in a way that in the future they could come back and adapt more, if they wanted to. It seems like with the last episode they stopped caring.
Edit: Just a quick edit. While I have my grievances of the latter two Arcs, the Chimera Ant Arc does manage to have a VERY GOOD ending. It's just fuzzled by the pacing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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