Hunter x Hunter (2011)

Hunters devote themselves to accomplishing hazardous tasks, all from traversing the world's uncharted territories to locating rare items and monsters. Before becoming a Hunter, one must pass the Hunter Examination—a high-risk selection process in which most applicants end up handicapped or worse, deceased.

Ambitious participants who challenge the notorious exam carry their own reason. What drives 12-year-old Gon Freecss is finding Ging, his father and a Hunter himself. Believing that he will meet his father by becoming a Hunter, Gon takes the first step to walk the same path.

During the Hunter Examination, Gon befriends the medical student Leorio Paladiknight, the vindictive Kurapika, and ex-assassin Killua Zoldyck. While their motives vastly differ from each other, they band together for a common goal and begin to venture into a perilous world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Zoldyck, Killua Main

Ise, Mariya Japanese

Kurapika Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Freecss, Gon Main

Han, Megumi Japanese

Paladiknight, Leorio Main

Fujiwara, Keiji Japanese

Morow, Hisoka Supporting

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Meruem Supporting

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Lucilfer, Chrollo Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Netero, Isaac Supporting

Ginga, Banjou Japanese

Neferpitou Supporting

Fujimura, Ayumi Japanese

Portor, Feitan Supporting

Yamaguchi, Kappei Japanese

Maruyama, Masao Producer

Tamura, Manabu Producer, Planning

Nakatani, Toshio Producer

Mita, Keiji Producer

Reviews

Jul 12, 2025

Dylatron0712

Recommended

I think that the reasons this stands above so many other shonen manga and anime is that it understands what makes that genre great and so takes its time in a way that most shows don’t. The character writing is great at being sappy in an endearing way without sacrificing maturity, especially in its kid characters. Gon and Killua feel exactly like real kids if they were placed into a world like this. Very idealistic and stubborn, but not simplistic or stupid. The power system is also top-notch, as has been stated many a time, and that’s because it develops over time in a way ... that the viewer can understand and allows each threshold of power seen in the previous arc to be shattered without feeling like a cheap trick. My only complaint would be that there are points where it drags a bit, mainly in Greed Island and the middle of Chimera Ant. All in all, this feels like a true epic that takes its time developing its world, power system, and characters, while also allowing each individual moment to be just as fun as the shonens that rush and use cheap tricks.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Feb 11, 2025

Sasori_Nagashi

Mixed Feelings

Really good up until Greed Island. From then on it's a huge slog on massive narrator monologues explaining things directly to the viewer which gets worse and worse, culminating in the final arc being borderline unwatchable for all the constant interruptions and pacing issues. Not to mention the power creep. Dragon Ball and Naruto are constantly given guff for their power creep, even One Piece is somewhat with the haki system but Hunter x Hunter has got to be the worst example in all of shounen anime. The amount of times enemies are like... Legendarily strong in the lore then entirely overshadowed by the next ... set is wild. Also the Greed Island villain has to be the single lamest, unintimidating and boring villain in all of anime history. The first half? 10/10. The second half? 3/10 because of the ungodly pacing issues even though the Chimera Ant Arc with GOOD pacing might arguably be the best arc in all of shounen anime. The core story is fantastic but the pacing makes you want to saw your own head off with a butter knife.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 20, 2023

Adam_Lilith

Not Recommended

Funny

"I can see people calling it a fun guilty pleasure, but one of the highest ranked anime of all time is a catastrophic crime"

Hunter X Hunter 2011 is one I have heard of for years. In fact I caught up to the manga many years ago during one of the many hiatuses. I remember thinking the manga was pretty good. Anyway my brother told me it was his favorite anime. He is not usually into anime so I thought it would be a great thing for us to bond over if I watched it again. And so I started.

At first things seemed good, ... Gon and Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio and the rest of the cast seemed interesting. The world intrigued me. The Hunter Exam was fun. The Zoldycks were cool and even the arena was kind of entertaining. Yorknew was fine. Greed island was fun though a little elementary. But more and more flaws started standing out to me. In the storytelling, the ability to utilize multiple characters at a time, to give a compelling story without insulting your audience or pulling bs. I stopped caring for any of the characters pretty early as they just didn't feel worthy of investment or all that compelling. I mean Leorio is maybe in 10 episodes and yet you can tell he's considered a main character. It felt like an anime for 10 year olds the way characters speak and act at times.

Every arc drags just a little more than the last one until the chimera ant just puts you to sleep with an asmr narrarator who needs to recap for 5 minutes what you just saw 2 minutes of in real time. I am sure people hear a lot of negatives about the chimera ant arc and think, "It's just one arc it can't sink the whole series". Unfortunately, Chimera ant is nearly 50% of the entire anime runtime. It is horrendously long and dragged out. It dragged more than the 4th great shinobi war, which had dozens of more characters to balance to flush out and was about 4 times longer.

Ultimately Id give the first few arcs a generous 6.5-7 but the Chimera ant arc should have been a 7 if it was 1/3 its length. Unfortunately for that I have to take off 3 points for 40 episodes that felt like someone put me in time-out. When nearly half of the anime is a 4/10 I can't really justify more than a 5.

All in all, Hunter x Hunter is the single most overhyped anime I've ever seen.

I fell asleep to it many times, which is very unusual and I had to force myself to start the next episode on multiple occasions just because I wanted to talk to my brother. It felt awful. It has it's moments but they are very far between and don't justify themselves when there is so much better out there.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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