I really have the urge to talk about HxH right now.
I am rereading and rewatching (whatever suits better in a given situation) the entire manga, so i wanted to review every arc one after another.
I figured opening a new thread for it would be redundant since this thread is inactive since a while, so I will use this one for it.
I will divide all my reviews into three parts: Exposition, Execution, Resolution.
So, let's start witht he hunter's exam arc (with the zoldyek arc included since i think those two belong together).
EXPOSITION
We met all of our Maincharacters (at least for the whole runtime of the anime) in this arc.
The introduction of Gon seemed generic enough. Little boy aspires to become great like his father.
It was still nicely executed here, the parting of mitou and gon was done well and (more importantly for the manga as a whole) it was clever
to introduce kite at that point so that we already knew some things about ging and gave gon an actual reason for trying to become a hunter
(which is better than 'i wanna be pokemon master').
However, the exposition of kurapica, killuah and leorio was more interesting in my opinion.
Over the course of the arc, Togashi managed to give us (almost, in case of kurapica) the whole backround stories of the maincharacters and in a way not utilizing excessive flashbacks. More importantly, The characters of the four mains were already well defined but also surprising.
It is actually not easy cramming all of those expositions into one arc (kurapicas hate for the spider and his eyes, killuah being a killer) in a convincing and not distracting way, but i thought it was done perfectly.
At the same time, the string for the future of the series were made by introducing hisoka who would subsequently motivate the plot of the next two arcs (gon fighting him in heaven's arena, kurapica learning the whereabouts of the spider from him).
This arc contained a lot of very relevant information about the characters and the universe of the hunter world, in that regard, the exposition was very strong and as i mentioned, it didnt take away from our next point.
EXECUTION
Of course, a succesful exposition could fall under this category, since it is about how you execute a scene whether it is succesful or not, and not just about the information of what is happening.
What did togashi want to show us instead of pure information about backstories and the hunter world in this arc?
He wanted to show us our maincharacters becoming friends, he wanted to show us how gon's relationship to hisoka evolved and it wanted to show us the tone of the world the story is set in.
The tone of the story becomes very clear in the hunter's exam: Lots of people die in lots of horrible ways.
The way togashi showed us how cruel the hunter world is was quite a shocker.
The way to the exam location was just a bit wacky. Okay, some guys died, but oh well, those guys were not nice guys.
However, after the running test, hisoka starting a bloodbath just like that and not even facing consequences was a punch in the gut.
There are people insanely strong and insanely evil and noone can stop them.
That is what i got from this arc, since hisoka was even able to kill an examinator.
And even the headchairman, who seemed able to stop him, just didnt.
They just watched the fights commencing, like when hanzo threatened to kill or mutilate gon, and tbh, that is what i haven#t seen in a shonen before or after, at least not at an early point in the story.
We were shown that this story will not be about morals, but about individual motivations and convictions.
AND, as the most important point of what this arc showed us, about personal relationships.
In my opinion, togashi used very smart ideas to show us how the maincharacters got closer to each other.
The boat scene in the very start comes to mind in which kurapica and leorio fight but later safe gon when he is trying to save the sailor.
An easy scene like this can already tell a lot about the characters can trust each other or not.
Those scenes are expanded on later.
In the running test, kurapica, a character who we saw is very distrusting to strangers (namely, leorio on the boat) tell leorio his backstory, accepting him as a friend.
The same goes for a scene in the tower test. Leorio, who is rather a pragmantist, tells Kurapica it is okay to not kill majitani even though it might make them run out of time.
We also get to know however that at least kurapica and leorio value their dream very much, even more than their newfound friends when they are willing to fight it out in the tower (when they think only 3 of 5 may pass).
Killuah is, at this point, not really friends with leorio and kurapica.
It rather seems like he accepts them because he wants to be friends with gon. But even with gon, he is interested but reluctant.
He sees gon as a rival for a bit (exspecially when the hunter examiners value gon higher than him in the fight test).
Their friendship progresses through various stages, with an important moment being killuah telling gon about his family.
(And of course the team gettign killuah back from the residence, but we will talk about that later).
But i think the moment gon and killuah really became friends (and also killuah and the rest) was when they came to his home to get him back.
What is notable in HxH is that the maincharacters' relationship to each other is a tad different from other shonen manga.
There is no clear 'leader' or 'mainmaincharacter'.
While it is true that gon's backstory was, at least for the chapters until DC, the mainmotivation of the plot i do not see gon getting more introspective or more screentime or importance than killuah.
All of the characters have genuine motivations to do what they do and those motivations is given at least some importance without just being a reason to further the plot.
The characters talk to each other and have different relationships towards each other which are justified.
With killuah excluded, who only shares moments with gon, the rest of our maincharacters all have at least one moment together (i mentioned kurapica and leorio, gon had a moment when he talked about hisoka with kurapica after hisoka knocked out leorio, and all three shared a moment when they saved leorio from the cave of snakes).
Gon's relationship to Hisoka is, at this point, rather telling us things about gon than abotu hisoka.
Gon is thrilled when he fights hisoka, it shows us, that inside the cute exterior, gon is actually a beast thriving for fights and challenges.
And hisoka is more than eager to enable him to fully become that beast.
The execution of Killuah's relationship to his family was short but shocking, when his brother made him come back to their home and the spunky killer went with him like a lapdog.
Togashi also didnt do the mistake of many manga which go like 'oh well, ya, this guy is a killer and very dangerous, but i will only show him in cute scenes and occasionally killing a bad guy'.
Killuah killed 2 absolutely innocent bystanders on the hunter zeppelin and the equally innocent bodoro in the exam fight.
He showed us that killuah is in fact very dangerous and coldblooded, and not only towards bad guys.
He also showed us that his friends came for him anyway and that killuah had good reasons to be that way.
The execution of all those scenes worked very well for me.
The only that could have been shortened was the way to the hunter exam place, but since it was used to show us more about the personality and strength and weaknesses of our mains, i think it is fine.
RESOLUTION:
So, what did get a resolution in this arc, which, as the first arc, will not be ripe on resultions?
Actually only one thing.
Killuah becoming friends with gon.
As i mentioned, killuah was not really friends with gone (and much less kurapica and leorio) until the hunter exam ended.
He wanted to be friends with gon, and they did sahre some moments, but he still was unable to stand up for gon when his brother revealed himself and he gave up his dream to be a hunter right there and believed illumi's words that he would not need a friend.
And even before, he was not able to fully trust and accept their friendship and had insecurities.
However, the exact moment that changed for me was when the team appeared and killuah met them in the residence.
Both killuah and gon being bruised and commenting on that and laughing was, for me, the moment killuah accepted gon as equal and was also confident that gon also saw him as true friend and, to a lesser extent, also the moment on which he could trust kurapica and leorio.
This was the only thing which received a resolution this arc, but it was a beautiful one.
____________________
So, that's from me for now, i hope this is not considered as spam.
I think they are so intersting and you know a lot of strong hunters get succes until now and I am interested how strong were they at the Hunter exam. And of course...
