Hunter x Hunter (2011) REVIEW

Amongst the many things I've been doing with my "free" time was watching an anime called Hunter x Hunter. This anime is, as almost all animes are, adapted from the manga original. It depicts a boy, named Gon, and his travels to find his father, put very simply. The story is based in a fantasy world where Hunters are people who pursue treasures, money, rare items, amongst other things. In Gon's travels, he meets other Hunters and their stories intertwine into something bigger overall. If I were to genre-ify this anime, I'd say its Superpower/Adventure/Action. The first run of the anime aired in 1999. However, in 2011, Hunter x Hunter was rebooted to better follow the manga. Apparently, the 1999 version deviated from the manga quite a bit. Regardless, I decided to give the 2011 version a try since it sounded like my kind of manga.


CHARACTERS

Like all anime, Hunter x Hunter has characters that resemble other characters from other manga/anime. However, I thought that the character design was still good. I will admit, one of the reasons why it took me so long to start watching this anime was because I was not impressed with how the main characters looked (having only looked at the poster). Boy was I wrong. While the characters look simple (in the beginning), the whole backstory and character as a whole more than make up for the lack of "design." There is a bountiful amount of interesting characters in the anime, some pretty creative in my opinion. Character development and backstory was also well done. I personally don't like spending a lot of time on a character's backstory, but I thought Hunter x Hunter found the sweet spot between too little and too much. You slowly learn about each character's backstory and yet you never stop learning all the way to the end of the series.


STORY/PLOT

This is probably the most important reason why I enjoyed this anime. The description of the anime that I read from the anime site I watched all the videos didn't make it sound very interesting, but it was interesting enough for me to give the anime a shot. At first, I wasn't intrigued by the concept of Hunters. Like most people, I think of hunters as those who hunt deer and other animals for recreation. However, I was surprised to find that I was hooked from the very beginning, and that the Hunters in this anime are pretty different from what I initially imagined. There are a few episodes throughout where the pace felt kind of slow, but they were few and far between. The story is broken down into arcs every 20 episodes or so, with 7 arcs, totaling 146 episodes. This prevented the whole plot from seeming too drawn out, while giving something fresh to feast on. As with all animes I like, there is a constant sense of mystery, wondering what will happen next. You will follow the main characters and watch as they grow and develop. I've always been a sucker for any storyline that involves the main character, or even just characters, evolving and developing into a better version of themselves. Of course, you can't forget the  involvement of super powers and action.


MANGA ADAPTATION

Unfortunately, I can not comment on how closely the 2011 version of Hunter x Hunter follows the manga as I have not read the manga at all. I know this is an important factor for people who are fans of the manga. However, I would recommend fans of the manga to give it a shot since it was rebooted precisely to be a more accurate adaptation of the manga.






OVERALL IMPRESSION

This is, to this day, the only anime that is over 100 episodes I've ever finished. It pleasantly surprised me with how capturing the whole story was. The creativity was there. The action was there. As always, I'd recommend watching the anime in the original Japanese language with English subtitles. Too many times I've tried watching an anime that is dubbed in English, and too many times have I wanted tear my ears out from how horrible it sounds. In my opinion, this is a definite watch for a diehard Hunter x Hunter fan. Heck, this is a definite watch for anyone interested in anime.



Rating: 9/10