Interesting perspective... I gave up after episode 38 of the anime. The main force that kept me watching was the motivation of "Gon wants to be a Hunter!" And when that happened, it became "Okay he's a hunter, but he's not a TRUE Hunter until he learns this secret power!" And when that happened, I couldn't find anything else I really cared about.
Opinions aside, is there a reason you wrote two (very similar) reviews, one of which lacks a title? It's kind of confusing. You should probably clear one and leave a note for the moderators to delete it or something.
@Ninja But Gon\'s motivation is to find his father, not to be a hunter. Being a hunter is just a stepping stone to that goal. Tanjiro\'s motivation is to kill Muzan and return his sister to normal, not become a demon slayer; Al\'s motivation is to return his and his brother\'s bodies to normal, not become a state alchemist.
@marcellX I know about that; I just didn't care for his dad and never came to, as I said in my review.
Considering the series is literally named after the so-called "Hunters," the occupation should have some appeal in and of itself. For example, Naruto was, on the one hand, a story about a kid who wants to become the ninja-chief because it will get him the love and respect he's been starved of. On the other, it's also about ninjas doing awesome ninja stuff. My Hero Academia is about a kid who finally gets a chance to live out his dream of being a hero, but naturally, it's also about a world of superheroes.
I could see someone else enjoying the "Hunter" thing, but I didn't particularly.
@Ninja Er...I get what you\'re saying but I would use another example other than Naruto and ninjas
@marcellX Oh, why is that? Is it because they're Highly Visible Ninjas? Or because you don't like Naruto?
Highly Visible Ninja which may be cool but at some point it was like pretending the sailor scouts are actual sailors
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Good Luck Hunting For Meaning in This Dreck
Hunter X Hunter is one of the messiest manga I have ever seen. Its a dark fantasy of Dragonball, however its world-building is often lacking and its persistence in deconstructing Dragonball can be rather obsessive. More then anything this, the Togashi seems to make things up as he goes along. This is a common among most Shonen authors, but for Togashi, this is far more apparent then his peers.
Characters in Hunter x Hunter are initially interesting but become more bland as the story progresses. Gon functions as a provocateur, acting heroic in some typical situations, but other times acting immature or acting upon a hardline logic that only he sees as correct, such as refusing to hear about his biological mother, because he considers his aunt his mom, and he "only needs one". This is supposed to be deconstruction of Goku, however, while Goku plays these lapses in logic for comedy, Gon's Blue-and-Orange Morality is played for drama. Unfortunately. Hx H lacks a centralized cast, so except for a few odd reactions, Gon's behavior has very little impact on character dynamics or relationships. The other major character, Killua, is kind of a pushover, especially when it comes to Gon. He spends alot of time angsting about Gon not wanting to be his friend or worrying about being a coward. Most of the time, he is stuck in Gon's shadow. Thus Killua does what Gon tells him to and as a result, there is very little drama in their interactions. There are other characters, but they have tendency to drop out the story dozens, possibly hundreds of chapters, meaning it is hard for the main characters and even audience to get attached to them.
Its hard to say Hunter x Hunter has a plot. The storyline revolves around Gon's search for father which is done defiance of his father's wishes as he tells Gon he doesn't want to see him. Now this could be a story that discusses legacy and familial ties with a focus on Gon's understanding what it is he truly wants, but instead there's alot of focus on dungeons and obstacles to the main character's journey. This is where Togashi excels, as when he is creating dungeons they all have different rules and requirements. Most of the chapters focus on the main duo getting past an obstacles However, it leads to a single-minded focus toward the particular obstacle. The Phantom Troupe are introduced as a Greater-Scope Villain early in the series, yet the author struggled to introduce them in later arcs due to not fitting in his dungeons.
Hx H is dark, but its a shallow form of being edgy. What draws me to dark stories is the aftermath as much as the actual material. Promised Neverland has children see there surrogate mother sell their companions to monsters for food, Berserk has the main characters survive rape and massacres, Death Note has one of the main characters killed by the other. However, because Hx H constantly moves around, many of its charcters don't get much of a chance to develop. Thus its is easy to get detached from the characters as well as the setting in general. One of character's allies, Squala gets decapitated by a villain in one the story arcs. This is supposed to be a shocking moment, but due to his stilted dynamics with Kurpika, another character that is later put Out of Focus being fairly, it's impact is rather limited
Hunter X Hunter is subversive in its storytelling, but that is all I can say about it. Having one interesting quality isn't enough to carry a long running story and as I've pointed out its over-reliance on this tool sometimes be detrimental to the plot, as story arcs are often dropped on a whim. Hunter x Hunter has ugly art, its panels are filled with heavy text boxes, its characters are unrelatable and often stagnant, most of its relationships are poorly developed, its dynamics are repetitive, and above all else it is painfully slow. Its a storyline that drags itself along as it is weighed down by its many flaws. The question comes of whether you can tolerate watching a snail move along the leaf, just so you can see the occasional odd curve before it moves back into the same standard pace.