Review? Hunter x Hunter
HUNTER X HUNTER
Yorkshin City arc. Stolen from Hunterpedia.
Reaction/Rant:
My newfound love. Haven't been this excited about a manga/anime after Attack on Titans (which actually wasn't that long ago, but still my manga/anime moods are so rare). Around 2 years ago I talked to someone about Air Gear and he recommended HxH to me. I did give the anime a try, but then I found out there were two versions, the older and the 2011 version and myself being me I wanted to watch everything and started watching both versions interchangeably. I know, stupid me. I lost interest in it (imagine watching the same thing over with only small detail changes in between). I supposed I promised I'd return to rewatch/read HxH again one day, but in my heart I knew I'd never; the list of things I promised to finish grows over the years. For some miraculous reason (thank goodness) I picked up the manga again. Boy! What a treat!
I've read up to chapter 388 and watched a few scenes from the HxH 2011 anime. I'm going to wait for the current arc to pick up some steam before I dive into the manga again. How long will that take? Years! Omfg... T__T It's worse to know that this mangaka goes on hiatus quite often. (I'm just wishing with all my heart he doesn't leave it unfinished or end on a note like "and these guys are still going on their adventures, but it ends here so you won't see it" like +Anima). I can't imagine the agony of the readers who waited forever for the longest ever Chimera Ant arc to end. I mean, I was the same age as Naruto when I started that anime and now I'm several counts over his age, lol. There are currently 30+ volumes out for the English version of HxH. That means I need to do some serious money saving to collect this series (even though I'm so behind on Skip Beat!, Dengeki Daisy, and etc).
<-- Character: Killua! My crush from HxH! I have a thing for cold character chibis, I swear.
My favorite arc has to be the last Hunter Chairman Election arc just because it also centered on Killua and his brother/sister Alluka and there was a lot of cute siblings moments! XD I always knew Killua was a sweetheart underneath his cool bratty demeanor and otherwise cold assassin side (I mean, the boy is practically the character who without complaint does the most things for his friends and upholds friendship to the tee than any other character in the series so far), but boy did this arc paint a new side of him.
I actually find it fascinating and ingenious to have the main character, Gon, out for most of the arc. I mean, Togashi has so many characters at his disposal and building on other characters is never a bad thing. Some may say that we've already had too much of Killua at this point, but really, really, Killua's battles and troubles have always been less than secondary to the story so far. Even in the Chimera Ant arc he was supposed to team up with Gon against Pitou but ended up only jumping here and there into other peoples' battles. As long as Gon is still relevant even if he doesn't receive some screen time I'm all okay with it.
Despite how mysterious Gin, Gon's dad, was throughout most of series, why is his character so...er, stale? Him foreseeing/predicting certain events and tactically using it to his advantage is supposed to be an amazing thing, but IDK-y it's not as awe inspiring, especially when we (readers) have got tons of chapters to look back to of previous characters doing the same thing in a life and death battle. I'm sure the current arc is mainly for him and the 12 Zodiacs' character development so I guess I'll leave it here. Oh, and it's for Leorio's development, too.
Seriously, I hated (seriously hated) the Chimera Ant arc for being so long and draggy and boring! I read comments that said the ending justified the agonizing longevity of the arc, but I doubted that and even considered skipping chapters while I was reading. Glad I didn't. Glad I suffered through all that. Because what those comments said was true. I cried buckets at the end of the arc.
Weaknesses:
There are SPOILERS! BE WARNED! Gon and Killua parted at the end of the last arc and Killua forgave Gon for his harsh words within, like, 3 frames. All Gon's dark character development in the Chimera Ant arc went poof! I think the mangaka's just totally bullshitting it. IDC that the drawings are bad (actually, I do, but I can forgive every few chapters) but the mangaka has got to get himself together.. Yea, I know Gon (the main character) is supposed to be a naive and kind-hearted, trusting boy, but he needs to be shown to be reflecting about his actions. I mean, the boy basically committed suicide fighting for a dead friend (Kaito) while literally pushing his currently alive best friend (Killua) away. I mean, his personality totally did a 180 or even 360 hating Pitou yet once he wakes up everything is supposed to be all good?
Just some other things other people have already pointed out. The overuse of narrations. I seriously hope Togashi's overuse of narrations from the Chimera Ant arc is going to tone down from now on. I don't think I mind talking and explaining. But the narrations totally was a shortcut to things the mangaka didn't want to draw. Or covered totally irrelevant things. And sometimes I wondered why he just didn't go the better route and show the characters thinking the thoughts or saying some things instead of having the narrator summarize it. While reading the Chimera Ant arc I started to skip the narrations in the middle and felt like I didn't miss a thing.
Like I said, I don't mind the crappy drawings every once in a while. I don't really know what's going on. There are rumors here and there about the mangaka's health. Won't say what because I don't know what's true. Anyway, I do miss seeing the neat drawings during hype moments though.
I'm sure there are other weaknesses within the manga, but these are my current peeves.
Strengths:
What can I say? This manga/anime is just awesomeness come to life. It's been a while since a manga/anime has touched me like this. I mean, I love AoT, but I ran on adrenaline for AoT. HxH is different in a different kind of way. There's a lot of character developments for one thing (well, AoT hasn't been running for as long as HxH yet and doesn't have that many chapters yet, so there's that there) and the mangaka is not afraid to touch on subjects or include things within the manga that isn't for kids. HxH is the most gorey shounen manga I've come across for one thing. In a comment someone said that HxH is for kids and Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece are ahead but I'll say it's the opposite. While Naruto especially is still blatantly spouting rainbowy nonsense about relationships, love, and etc HxH has the subtle underlying dark theme mashed with cheery fluffiness. That's what is also so appealing about HxH.
I don't know what else to say. It'll all just be praise and more praise. Everything else about HxH is great, basically. kekeke
I'm sure once I've actually stepped away from HxH for a while I'll find more strengths and weaknesses.
That's it. For now.