Fun read. I enjoy hearing HxH feedback, positive or negative. Interesting thoughts on Greed Island. I get what you mean, though. It's certainly more light-hearted than Yorknew and is more akin to the Hunter Exam arc than any other arc.BACK AT IT AGAIN WITH THOUGHTS ON HUNTER X HUNTER
I finished it about a week ago (on the 28th) so here are some thoughts on each arc, like I promised.
TL;DR - I really liked it overall, especially the second half. The pacing is very slow in some areas, which is the show's biggest weakness, but it's an enjoyable ride regardless. 8/10.
Spoilers for each arc under the hide tags.
- Pretty generic stuff, very reminiscent of the Chuunin Exam arc from Naruto. The main purpose of this arc is to introduce the main characters (our main squad of four and Hisoka) and it does a good job at it. Gon vs. Hanzo is easily the strongest point of this arc, though nothing in these first 26 episodes comes close to Rock Lee vs. Gaara (though I'm digressing at this point). This arc does an excellent job of characterizing Gon, and two moments in particular stick out with me: the first is when Killua straight-up rips the heart out of a serial killer and Gon doesn't bat an eye, and the second is when Hisoka takes back his tag and Gon is furious about being so weak. That second moment also does a great job showing how Hisoka is quite the interesting character and is more Chaotic Neutral than anything else. Overall - 8/10
- Also super generic, but the main purpose of this arc is to introduce Nen as a concept and to hammer its principles into the viewer's brain - and I'll be damned if it didn't hammer those concepts in by the end of this arc. I was a little disappointed by the way they introduced Nen as it just seems like it comes out of nowhere, especially considering how vital it is over the next 100 episodes. They do make some subtle allusions to the existence of Nen during the Hunter Exam, but I felt that there wasn't enough. Add in Hisoka making an off-handed remark about Zetsu after Gon ambushes him, or have the Zoldycks casually discuss some aspect of it. I know that Nen users are forbidden from mentioning it to non-Nen users, but as it is, its introduction in the show felt sloppy.
- Overall this arc was pretty predictable, but its strong point was showcasing how Hisoka fights and demonstrating just how smart he is. Despite only being 10 episodes, it was still pretty slow and also suffered from the lack of a good B-plot (we get bits and pieces of Kurapika training, I guess). 6.5/10
- I loved a lot of things about this arc and I hated some others. The Phantom Troupe are generally a joy every time they're on screen and I liked watching the shenanigans they pulled. On the other hand, I despised Kurapika's sudden power-up (it gets me irrationally angry) just because it makes no sense how strong he gets in such a short amount of time. We have a small idea of how strong the Troupe are during this arc, but later on during the Meteor City sub-arc of the Chimera Ant arc, we see that the Troupe are really fucking strong. Chrollo is also potentially one of the 5 strongest people we see over the entire series. The things that Kurapika accomplishes during this arc just flat-out should not be possible regardless of what Nen or his Specialist powers are capable of, so that frustrated me.
- Rant aside, the Troupe are entertaining as hell to watch, and seeing Hisoka improvise his way out of the fortunetelling scenario was also pretty cool. We also get to see the Zoldycks in action, though they don't do too much. In terms of our MCs, this arc mainly focused on Kurapika, and I've already made it clear that I wasn't a huge fan of his "development". 7.5/10
- Man, was this really only 17 episodes? It felt a lot slower than the Yorknew City arc, but I guess that's because way more stuff happens in Yorknew than on Greed Island. We get a training montage (which I liked), three episodes dedicated to a dodgeball game, and a couple of wrap-up episodes to deal with the Bombers. My biggest issue with Greed Island is that there's no urgency and that I never feel like Gon and Killua are in any real danger whatsoever, even during the fight against Genthru, where Gon literally sacrifices some of his limbs. In general, the entire first half of the show suffers from this issue: there's no real sense of danger, as the main antagonists are either playing with their food (Hisoka), not interested (Phantom Troupe) or aren't threatening whatsoever (Bombers). 6.5/10
- This arc is really solid. There are a few major issues that I have with it - it takes a long time to get off the ground, I didn't really care about some of the secondary plots/characters, and there's waaaaaay too much narration during the palace invasion - but the good points of the arc are amazing. There's actual tension because the villains are menacing as fuck; Neferpitou's first scene is fucking incredible right off the bat, for example. The real stars of this arc are Meruem and Komugi, and, like faint said, Meruem does not disappoint in the slightest when it comes to character development and flat-out being a good antagonist. Pouf and Youpi are alright, as well, but I didn't care about them (or most of the other Ants) nearly as much as I did for Pitou, Meruem, and Komugi. Like I mentioned before, episodes 131 and 136 are out of this world and are easily the two best episodes of the show. Side note: 131 in particular (Gon's transformation) is a really interesting tribute/deconstruction of Goku's first Super Saiyan transformation after Krillin's death in DBZ.
- The show's budget also starts to shine through here with some really well-animated fights, including everything in Meteor City, Gon vs. Pitou, Netero vs. Meruem, and any scene where Killua uses Godspeed. The weak points of this arc that I mentioned in the last paragraph are all very large flaws, but the peaks of this arc are so high that I'm not really too upset about it. 9.5/10
- The falling action of the show, and as good a way as any to end the anime for the time being. Alluka and Killua had some good interactions, but a lot of people are worried that Alluka's existence is too strong of a plot device for the good guys. We get to see more Hisoka in action (it's a miracle how good the Chimera Ant arc is without ANY Hisoka in it) and Gon finally gets to meet Ging. Pariston is also a really interesting character, with a lot of potential. I don't have much else to say here - this is a really solid, short arc, and its biggest flaw is that it directly follows the Chimera Ant arc. 8/10
other than that, Erased is still quite good and Dagashi Kashi is also really enjoyable every week (as long as Saya keeps getting screentime). also picked up Ping Pong recently but this post is getting long enough as is
Even when Gon blows off his limbs it's as though he doesn't even care.
Also, the power of certain characters is directly related to how strong their condition is. That's why Kurapika is flat out OP against any Troupe member, and why Gon basically killed himself when facing Pitou.
Also, the power of certain characters is directly related to how strong their condition is. That's why Kurapika is flat out OP against any Troupe member, and why Gon basically killed himself when facing Pitou.
.png/revision/latest?cb=20121113003613)
