Hunter X Hunter (1999/2011-?) [My #2 Anime] Review

[First things first; Spoiler Alert!]

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Hey Guys!

I'm back with another anime review, and today we'll be reviewing my 2nd most favorite anime - Hunter X Hunter (pronounced "Hunter Hunter")

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I first watched Hunter X Hunter(HxH) when I was little. It has two different adaptations of the manga, and the first one I watched was the 1999 anime adaptation. I rewatched it, this time the 2011 adaptation, in 2015 and it was my #1 anime for a long time, until I finally watched One Piece, which then took my #1 spot (I did a One Piece Review, you can check it out too).

Yoshihiro Togashi^[3]

Hunter X Hunter is popularly called Hiatus X Hiatus because of the many Hiatuses the anime has gone on due to the mangaka's (Yoshihiro Togashi) ill health (The Mangaka is the author of the manga).

Anyways, let's quickly get into the review!

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Hunter X Hunter starts with Gon Freecs, a 12 year old boy who lives with his Aunt, Mito Freecs and Abe, his great grandmother on Whale Island. Gon discovers that his Father (Ging Freecs), who left him in Mito's care at a young age, is a world-renowned Hunter.

Gon Freecs^[5]

Hunters are licensed professionals who travel around the world doing all sorts of dangerously amazing tasks and discovering new things like rare items and artefacts, weird creatures and monsters, different foods and uncharted territories.

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To become a hunter, one must undergo the Hunter Exam, a gruelling exam that is set up according to the separate examiners' tastes, after which the person is issued a license. Gon decides that he's going to become a Hunter, with his major goal being to find his father, so he undertakes the exam.

R-L: Gon, Killua, Kurapika, Leorio. At the Hunter Exam^[7]

During the course of the exam, he meets and befriends Killua Zoldyck, a young assassin (same age as him) who comes from a family of elite assassins; Kurapika Kurta, a teenager from the Kurta clan who intends to exact vengeance on The Phantom Troupe for the murder of his entire clan; and Leorio Paladiknight, a teenage (even though it's unbelievable at first) medical student with dreams of being a wealthy doctor; and they become his friends.

In the course of the exam, they also get to meet Hisoka, a weird magician, who turns out to be one of the major characters within the show as well. They all manage to pass the exam and the adventure carries on from there.

Gon with his Hunter license^[8]

The story is currently made up of 7 arcs: Hunter Exam arc; Zoldyck Family arc; Heaven's Arena arc; Yorknew City arc; Greed Island arc; (the infamous) Chimera Ant arc; and the Chairman Election arc.

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Hunter X Hunter is considered one of the GOATs of Shonen anime, and though it is not among the Big 3, if there is a Big 5, it would definitely be number 4.
The anime has an amazing plot, beautiful storytelling, fantastic worldbuilding, and is known to have one of the best, if not the very best, character development arcs (yup, that's the Chimera Ant arc) of all anime of all time.

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Hunter X Hunter is well-paced, it's characters are very well-written and the plot intertwines a variety of genres into one beautiful journey that is worth every second. (Yes! Every second!)

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Now, let's talk about 5 reasons why you want to drop everything you're watching right now and watch all 140+ episodes of Hunter X Hunter:

• Character Development: Yes, I had to start with that. Honestly, HxH has one of the best set of characters I've watched in anime. Each character is important, and many times, the protagonists are even somewhat sidelined to build on other relatively minor characters. Also, the characters are all highly interconnected and it keeps the story flowing in such a way that you can't help but develop some form of feeling for each character introduced. And, when you get to the Chimera Ant arc, you get to watch the beautiful development of the character that is Meruem, the King of the Ants.

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• Power System: Nen is undoubtedly one of the best, well-thought out, power scaling systems in all anime. With Nen, all people who can acquire it fit into any of 6 available classes and build their abilities around those classes. This power system makes battles in HxH somewhat unpredictable and very entertaining to watch. There is hardly another anime that comes close in terms of power scaling.

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• Emotional Range: Hunter X Hunter is an anime that is not afraid to challenge the darker sides of humanity. And it does so intelligently. We get to see different characters display different sets of emotions that are relatively consistent with reality, and the Mangaka has balanced it with just the right amount of humor to keep you laughing at just the right times.

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• Animation Quality: The 1999 version of the anime is excused because, well, that was a long time ago. The 2011 version, on the other hand had such great animation, that it completely outclassed it's counterparts of the same year and is still relevant till today. Madhouse, the animation studio, really did good work on it, and it was an amazing blend of colour and phenomenal artistry.

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• Worldbuilding: Now, this is a bit of a spoiler, but I warned already anyways. The known world of Hunter X Hunter is already amazing and has beautiful artistry, funny looking creatures and all sorts. However, there's more to the world of HxH as we get to see at the end of the Chairman Election arc.

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Well... I hope, after reading all these you're very excited and planning to drop everything else to watch Hunter X Hunter. You can stream on Crunchyroll. Trust me, it's going to be one of the best things you'll watch.

Don't forget to Like and Follow

Till next time... Ka o dị

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