Hunter x Hunter has been on my list for a while as an anime considered one of the greatest of all time. Watching these "greatest of all time" animes have been 50-50. Berserk & Evangelion I just didn't vibe with completely while Fullmetal Alchemist & Code Geass were just perfection. Hunter x Hunter turned out to be a positive experience for me, though later I'll tell you why I should've watched the remake instead of the original. But yeah, Hunter x Hunter was solid & I really enjoyed.
All the characters were interesting. That's it. That's all any story needs to anchor my attention. There's really not too much to say about Gon and that's only because if you watch the show, literally every other character has at least 2 inner monologues per episode about how special he is. They're right of course. Gon is just insanely likeable and I love the way he looks at the world and solves problems. He really is unique amongst everyone else in the show. Kurapika..... I wanna know more about him. I'll get into it later, but Kurapika is extremely clever and when him and Gon put their minds together, they're unstoppable. Leorio is actually interesting because he really got through the Exam through sheer dumb luck. But it's fun to have a charismatic guy like him around acting like the dad of the group. I would've loved to see him grow stronger as he had potential to go from underdog to beast. Killua was by far the most interesting character out of the main 4. His arc and development were so dimensional given his background. I really loved that moment when he wanted to kill the injured cub. That was a huge turning point in his character as a child who was raised to be a killing machine being taught that there's more to life than just death.
When it comes to Antagonists, no question Hisoka was the GOAT. With his abilities he just seemed untouchable, and that made him scary. Not to mention his psychopathic aura and creepy smile. He's definitely one of those characters that's not on one side or the other, just his own. So I can totally imagine him killing his allies for fun, or helping our protagonists to benefit him.
Going into the story, The Hunter exam took about half the series to complete. And it was an interesting concept for sure. Trick Tower and the Hunger Games portions were the most fun to watch. The Hunter Exam also emphasized the tone of story, which is quite polarizing. In my mind I compare hunter x hunter to last airbender when it comes to tone but it's more PG-13 than last airbender given the level of gore. People die, sometimes brutally. But Gon is there to make it feel like we're still in a kid's show.
I was obsessed with the Zuldac Family arc. Assassins are just my thing. The whole family and their property and their employees had a distinct culture within the land's walls and it was fun to learn about. This was followed by Gon and Killua's Heaven's Arena experience. This is when we learned about Nen and auras and stuff. This concept helped explain Hisoka's abilities a bit more. It also helped Gon level up as well, which he already did when he trained to open the Zoldac door. The whole arc was a training montage just drawn out and slow burned through many episodes, but it was all good fun. There was also a moment in Gon's arc when he became obsessed with training and it made the teacher believe he was creating a monster out of Gon, given that he was gaining a lot of power really fast. I don't know, I think beast mode Gon would be fun to watch.
Heaven's Arena also played the part as filler build up to the York New City auction, which... unfortunately the original anime ends on. Now the whole auction arc was intense. We finally see the Spiders in action, even seeing Killua's father and grandfather on the job because of it. All really epic, but then it just ended.... and I was disappointed. So many arcs were left incomplete. Gon's dad & Kurapika's scarlet eyes quest were not even close to being complete. It's like how I felt at the end of Evangelion and Berserk. I enjoyed all 3 animes every second completely engulfed and mesmerized up until the final moments or episodes. However, from my understanding, the remake goes further than the original, at least twice as long, so I'm already making plans to watch it. I'm actually excited to watch the remake. Hunter x Hunter has already proven itself to be a great story with wonderful characters and the original left me craving more.
All the characters were interesting. That's it. That's all any story needs to anchor my attention. There's really not too much to say about Gon and that's only because if you watch the show, literally every other character has at least 2 inner monologues per episode about how special he is. They're right of course. Gon is just insanely likeable and I love the way he looks at the world and solves problems. He really is unique amongst everyone else in the show. Kurapika..... I wanna know more about him. I'll get into it later, but Kurapika is extremely clever and when him and Gon put their minds together, they're unstoppable. Leorio is actually interesting because he really got through the Exam through sheer dumb luck. But it's fun to have a charismatic guy like him around acting like the dad of the group. I would've loved to see him grow stronger as he had potential to go from underdog to beast. Killua was by far the most interesting character out of the main 4. His arc and development were so dimensional given his background. I really loved that moment when he wanted to kill the injured cub. That was a huge turning point in his character as a child who was raised to be a killing machine being taught that there's more to life than just death.
When it comes to Antagonists, no question Hisoka was the GOAT. With his abilities he just seemed untouchable, and that made him scary. Not to mention his psychopathic aura and creepy smile. He's definitely one of those characters that's not on one side or the other, just his own. So I can totally imagine him killing his allies for fun, or helping our protagonists to benefit him.
Going into the story, The Hunter exam took about half the series to complete. And it was an interesting concept for sure. Trick Tower and the Hunger Games portions were the most fun to watch. The Hunter Exam also emphasized the tone of story, which is quite polarizing. In my mind I compare hunter x hunter to last airbender when it comes to tone but it's more PG-13 than last airbender given the level of gore. People die, sometimes brutally. But Gon is there to make it feel like we're still in a kid's show.
I was obsessed with the Zuldac Family arc. Assassins are just my thing. The whole family and their property and their employees had a distinct culture within the land's walls and it was fun to learn about. This was followed by Gon and Killua's Heaven's Arena experience. This is when we learned about Nen and auras and stuff. This concept helped explain Hisoka's abilities a bit more. It also helped Gon level up as well, which he already did when he trained to open the Zoldac door. The whole arc was a training montage just drawn out and slow burned through many episodes, but it was all good fun. There was also a moment in Gon's arc when he became obsessed with training and it made the teacher believe he was creating a monster out of Gon, given that he was gaining a lot of power really fast. I don't know, I think beast mode Gon would be fun to watch.
Heaven's Arena also played the part as filler build up to the York New City auction, which... unfortunately the original anime ends on. Now the whole auction arc was intense. We finally see the Spiders in action, even seeing Killua's father and grandfather on the job because of it. All really epic, but then it just ended.... and I was disappointed. So many arcs were left incomplete. Gon's dad & Kurapika's scarlet eyes quest were not even close to being complete. It's like how I felt at the end of Evangelion and Berserk. I enjoyed all 3 animes every second completely engulfed and mesmerized up until the final moments or episodes. However, from my understanding, the remake goes further than the original, at least twice as long, so I'm already making plans to watch it. I'm actually excited to watch the remake. Hunter x Hunter has already proven itself to be a great story with wonderful characters and the original left me craving more.