The Hunter X Hunter Series ... CONTAINS SPOILERS

⭐⭐⭐ (3/5)

So, I recently finished watching the entire Hunter X Hunter series as it was something I had added to my personal bucket list on my other website: www.thelistgirl.org The reason I had originally added it in the first place was because I started watching it as a teen and I'd get to the arc about the Spiders and Kurapika's intentions to execute them all and retrieve his families/tribes special red eyes back and I'd get kinda bored and slowly just fall away and lose interest. Then I'd restart the series just to get to the same arc and give it up again. So, I decided to add it to my bucket list so that I would stick through it and find out what ends up happening to Gon and Killua, because I genuinely wanted to get through the entire series. I just didn't care about Kurapika and his journey, it's not why I started watching it, and I just wasn't interested.

But, anyway, after deciding to stick to it, I finally got through the blandest of arcs and came to the arc involving Gon and Killuas time within the virtual world Greed Island, in search for Gon's dad Ging, and I was hooked once again. It really reminded me of Sword Art Online, despite not being half as glorious or amazing as SAO, but it did have a rather RPGish type feel to it. At least during the beginning and the start of the arc anyways. Throughout the middle of the arc, it rather reminded me of the initial hunter exam that the boys had to go through before ever setting off on their adventure and I kind of liked that too, but I would have loved it if it had a lot more of an RPG element to it, as in levelling up characters and gaining new skills and buffs as they'd go on through the game. Despite thinking that it would have been really cool to have seen I guess the creators of Hunter X Hunter really didn't want it to be too much like SAO (although, Hunter X Hunter began airing a year before SAO ever did, so, potentially, SAO got the idea of a virtual RPG world from the Hunter series).

Then there was the Chimera Ants arc which was quite a bore during the start and I personally felt as though it was far too stretched out and could have had a much shorter arc than it did. I felt rather grossed out that the ants ate various children and that the show killed off the bee girl from the Hunter exam, and I didn't much like the Chimera Ant King, nor his three annoying followers, but I did enjoy the variation and creativity of the new species. I found several of the Humans vs. Chimera battles rather entertaining such as the one between the Surfer looking Lion and Morel, the pipe-smoking addict. I also quite like the battle between the underwater dart-throwing Chimera and Killua, that was very paranormal and I quite enjoyed the game aspect of it (I think I'm starting to see a trend here). And talking of battles I will admit that I cried when the chairman died and I was extremely annoyed that despite the chairman's efforts and martyrism the Chimera King still survived. I especially thought the part where the Chimera King's bodyguards gave parts of themselves in order to feed the King back to health was rather gross and ludicrous, but hey, I've never written a series before so what do I know.

And finally, the last arc, the one involving the selection of the new chairman, now that was a waste of time, wasn't it?! The creators put us through several episodes of pure nonsense just for the douche running the show to turn around and say "just kidding, I quit, bye." What, a waste, of time. I was genuinely involved in the election as well, I wanted absolutely anyone but Pariston to win. I thought it might have even been interesting to have found out what could have happened if Leorio had won and become the new chairman, but the creators decided to mess with us instead. Also, I'm rather annoyed that the creators never even bothered to go over what eventually happened with Kurapika and the Phantom Troupe, I mean, I wasn't the least bit invested in that part of the story but if you're going to waste our time, and make us sit through an entire arc of it, but never tell us the outcome then why have bothered in the first place? I was also annoyed that it ended with Killua going off on his own adventure, but I did think it rather sweet that Gon and Ging finally had their little moment and it was very touching. I was also quite annoyed, as well as disturbed, by the fact that the show made a HUGE deal about Hisoka wanting his moment to battle against Gon and Killua one-on-one but that never happened and thus that was another disappointing anticlimactic part to the series. Not to mention the sexualization of Hisoka's feelings really grossed me out, so why bother having added any of it in? Wasn't it supposed to have been okay for children to watch? I mean, the show was rated 14, but Hisokas reactions were a little too obvious, especially with Gon and Killua being so young, I found that part to be extremely disturbing.

But all in all, I'd give the show a 3 due to a lot of time-wasting scenes and arcs, as well as a lot of unfinished business and confusion throughout. But I absolutely loved the Hunter Exam and the Greed Island arcs. And if I ever decided to rewatch the series I'd skip straight to those parts and ignore the rest.