Anime Review: Hunter X Hunter

Review Hunter X HunterWritten by WarpshadowRating very good/ excellent

Anime shows that center around fighting have been bastions of intellectualism but it is nice to see a show that is less stupid than average for the genre. Hunter x Hunter is such a show.

Gon Freecs is a boy who lives a simple life with his aunt. One day he learns from a passing stranger that his father is in fact alive and is a type of professional adventurer called a hunter. This inspires Gon to become a hunter himself. To even become a hunter one must pass the rigorous hunter exams. However this doesn't faze Gon in the slightest, for he feels if he doesn't have the strength of will to become a hunter he will never find his lost father.

Hunter x Hunter is a shonen fighting anime show but a remarkably intelligent one. While action is plentiful in this show things don't get bogged down with gigantic fights that last forever. The nature of the fights themselves is a bit different that other fighting anime shows in that they are often swift (by the genre's standards), brutal and tactically complex. Also while they are strong, the main characters aren't the strongest characters in the world who can blast through any competition with a cliché display of guts.

Outside of the realm of combat Hunter x Hunter is still a great show. The characters are interesting and work well together. The show ends after sixty episodes rather inconclusively but considering the fact that it doesn't wind down with filler material either like some other shows of the genre I can't really complain. A few people might be turned off by the dated animation but for everyone else Hunter x Hunter is a shining example of what Shonen anime can aspire to be.