Shounen [FEATURED] Hunter x Hunter

[manu]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

wow, Tathagata is a stand up guy.

I hardly find much use in these "reviews" and believe mangaupdates serves better since it has polls for the manga. Though I won't dismiss this opinion, HxH is not everyone tea. It is a polarizing manga in that it gets strong responses.

 

[zelllogan]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

Art : 5

Reading Hxh scans is really bad for your eyesight. i know that scans aren't the final work but still ... it's horrible. The design is not bad though. The final work is way better but it's still not a masterpiece.

Plot : 7

It's just a classical shounen (new enemy, become stronger, new enemy). The plot is classic but HxH's background is one of the best.

Characters : 9.5

For me, Characters are the real strength of this manga. Gon and Killua have nothing in common. In common shounens, gon and killua were destined to become rivals but not in Hxh. These two are friends no matter the odds. There is a real evolution in killua's character and Gon's character doesn't need any evolution. Gon isn't a powerhouse (even if his potential is the best in the world ... it's still a shounen ) but his superhuman obstination and his simplicity are what's make gon a perfect hero. Gon is not original by himself but because killua is with him, we have an original duo.

If it was only for the good characters, the note should be only 7/10. But the bad characters are just the best you can find in the shounen world: hisoka and genei ryodan. I'm not going to talk about hisoka because it would take too much time. Let's analyse genei ryodan instead. In all adventure shounens, when there is a bad organisation, it's almost always the same thing: mysterious unbeatable strong men who want to conquer/destroy the world ... who are beaten as soon as we know more about them (one piece, naruto, black cat, dbz, bleach, fairy tail, ...). Genei ryodan is different:

Spoiler: Possible spoiler

- no mask, no hidden identity, ... when genei ryodan is shown, everyone from genei ryodan is shown
- what's ryodan's final goal ? We still don't know
- the leader is the second one trapped after ubougin (just find me another shounen with that fact).
- even if genei ryodan is defeated by the chain-user, they still seems very strong and deadly. Even if the leader was trapped by kurapica, everyone knows that the leader is a monster.

In Hxh, even a monster can be defeated in one second, everything isn't about raw power or experience. Almost every battle in Hxh is a "Shikamaru battle" : use your brain if you want to win. And more than the brain, use psychology

And that's possible because of one notion: NEN.

Originality : 8

Spoiler: again, possible spoiler

- Almost every battle is won with brain or psychology
- there is a tournament BUT it's a reverse tournament with only one loser ... and the loser is one of the two hero.
- NEN
- sexual allusions
- ...

Overall : 8

If only these ants weren't there, it would be a 9.

 

[Dantrag]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

Again, the major drop of the quality of the is a direct result to the long time illness of the mangaka. He has indeed been doing a major effort on writing this manga despite his conditions. I agree they're far from pleasant and hopefully they'll be fixed later.

And a small piece of advice for Zabuck and Drakrami and others as well. Nothing gives you the right to bash and trash the review or the reviewer just because you don't like his/her review. All reviews no matter what will be influenced by the personal tastes of the reviewer and remember it's his/her opinion. It doesn't nescessarily mean the reviewers opinion is the absolute right one but neither is yours. If you can't discuss a review without bashing, don't discuss at all because the only thing your bashing will cause is that MH-staff will no longer allow people to comment on the reviews. I think most people here, including me would want keep the right to discuss the reviews in a civil manner...

 

[RoyalLush]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

The first review...well it's kinda a mess. Personally I love Hunter X Hunter, though the art does get sketchy, Yoshihiro Togashi is reported very ill during this time. He's an old man and things like that happen. His wife, creator of Sailor Moon, is trying to help him finish it.

I don't think it'll turn out that bad with her doing it...they've been married for a long time. I'm pretty sure that the Bishies in YYH and Hunter X Hunter were part of her doing in the first place lol.

Sometimes it's hard to picture Manga Artists as people too, but try.

 

[Kallandras]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

Like Tathagata and Dantrag I think its not right to insult someone just because he gave his peronal opinion. A simple I dont agree with you is enough. That is what the principle of freedom of opinion and democracy is all about.

The thing I love most about hunter x hunter is the way the main caracters grow stronger. There is no sudden level up which apears just in the nick of time to rescue our heroes. Gon and Killua are still no match against the older Nen users like the genei ryodan, morau or even Shoot and Knuckles. I really appreciate the fact that you can only belong to the very best after countless years of training and experience even if you are a natural talent. This is an unique feat that nearly no other manga has ( for example Sasuke suddenly finishing Orochimaru or other Akatsuki members or one piece characters developing new skills whenever some unbeatable characters come around).
It just makes me wonder how they should be able to defeat the royal guards.....

 

[hill_mie87]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

you do know that the mangaka is terribly sick and is making an inhuman effort to finish the manga? otherwise his girlfriend (sailor moon's mangaka) will take over the series which would mean ULTIMATE SUPERBEAUTIFUL MOON LIGHT death for this manga. So make an effort to appreciate the arcs even though they're falling in quality.

I personnally think this manga has/had the potential to be one of the best mangas out there. It's pure shounen with martial art, clans, upgrades, techniques, insane enemies, etc...

well, togashi is married to the sailormoon mangaka u know. but yeah, cant imagine the character being beautified like sailormoon. nevertheless, i like the storyline

 

[Freerunner36]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

Again, the major drop of the quality of the is a direct result to the long time illness of the mangaka. He has indeed been doing a major effort on writing this manga despite his conditions. I agree they're far from pleasant and hopefully they'll be fixed later.

And a small piece of advice for Zabuck and Drakrami and others as well. Nothing gives you the right to bash and trash the review or the reviewer just because you don't like his/her review. All reviews no matter what will be influenced by the personal tastes of the reviewer and remember it's his/her opinion. It doesn't nescessarily mean the reviewers opinion is the absolute right one but neither is yours. If you can't discuss a review without bashing, don't discuss at all because the only thing your bashing will cause is that MH-staff will no longer allow people to comment on the reviews. I think most people here, including me would want keep the right to discuss the reviews in a civil manner...

A review, or more so a, "Critique," shouldn't include the writers own personal impressions from the piece. A Critique by all literary standards is an unbiased laying down of the facts either positive or negative.

To tell you the truth, opinions aside, that was a bad review. Lots of repetition and the author swam in and out of, "txt tlk." There were whole run on paragraphs basically making one simple point. Much of what he was saying was hard to understand; except that "Something bit donkey balls." (Which is a ridiculous statement in ANY review)

To the Author:
Make that review half as long and in complete English and It'd be decent. Tone down your opinions, keep the facts, rephrase single ideas so they don't take a paragraph to say.

To the potential Readers:
Read a different review. (Anime News Network) Though this one does address many truths it hardly does this Manga justice and it's worth your time to read a much more objective review, or just go ahead and read the manga yourself.

 

[njt]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

To the Author:
Make that review half as long and in complete English and It'd be decent. Tone down your opinions, keep the facts, rephrase single ideas so they don't take a paragraph to say.

To the potential Readers:
Read a different review. (Anime News Network) Though this one does address many truths it hardly does this Manga justice and it's worth your time to read a much more objective review, or just go ahead and read the manga yourself.

Nice comment .

Thanks everyone for taking the time to write your different opinions as well .

Also could I get 4 images from the manga? Keep them in spoiler tags, and at a width and height no greater than 500 x 500. Thanks

 

[Oblivion]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

What a terrible "review". Maybe you should retake 5th grade English first. HxH is not a manga aimed at 12 year olds. There is death, complexity, logical fight systems, genocide, etc. It skirts the edge between Shonen and Seinen while making itself palatable to those looking for the former. In a sea of shonen series with protaganists winning fights by sheer willpower, bad guys changing sides because they were "forgiven" once by the good guys, and incredibly predictable story arcs, HxH is a breath of fresh, Cynical air.

qft

hunter x hunter even in this arc is more then just a seinen, gon and killua are complex, even the enemies like pufa are given complex traits, the whole ryodan is great. the enemies arent bland but intelligent wits who think before acting.

great manga through and through. only time i got bored was the mid part of the GI arc and the mid part of the Ryodan arc.

zellogan's comments on the characters and originality (especially sexual allusions) are a good read.

 

[Destiny510]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

If anything, I find that the Ant arc dives even deeper into the psychology of not only the protagonists, but also the antagonists. I don't see how the Ant Arc is "bad" at all. I'm glad this manga isn't turning into a "charge up and use superior power level + willpower to overwhelm the opponent" type of series.

 

[zelllogan]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

If anything, I find that the Ant arc dives even deeper into the psychology of not only the protagonists, but also the antagonists. I don't see how the Ant Arc is "bad" at all. I'm glad this manga isn't turning into a "charge up and use superior power level + willpower to overwhelm the opponent" type of series.

after the last chapters, it's easy to say that. But the beginning of the arc was catastrophic, it was slow and the basic idea was horrible. From the beginning of the manga, we have seen hardworking people mastering nen with a lot of sacrifices. And now, we have ants mastering nen in 2 weeks like it was nothing. And the charisma of the ants is at level 0 if you compare them with genei ryodan or zoldyeck family.

And, at the graphical/design level, the ant arc is the worst by far. King's design is just another cell.

And last but not least, there are more battles in the last arc than in all previous arcs. More battles means less development.The actual battles are great but the first ones ...

 

[tim098]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

I ve always thought Hunter X Hunter actually had the potential to be THE VERY BEST of them all. Especially right before the greed island arc, because i seriously ABSOLUTELY appreciated the genei ryodan story. Really found it fantastic. Greed island was definitely not bad at all, the card thing going on was pretty cool. Chimera ant.... Well in my personal and honest opinion I was quite sad because one of the things that i LOVED about this manga was its realistic-ness, especially up to just before greed island. It seemed REALLY feasible to me. But after chimera ant arc, it becomes much less. Well, I just hope he doesnt end the manga in a hurry.

OH and i really really like togashi using Both Gon and Killua as the main characters, roughly equal strength overall, equal potential, and very different personalities.

Ratings:

Art : 6.5
Plot : 8.5
Characters : 9.5
Themes : 7. Before Chimera ant and maybe (possibly) greed island, 10.
Originality : 8.

HxH is my personal favourite manga

 

[vattu-]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

Well, not to bash or anything, nice long and good review kinda.
Just that you should try to simplify your explanations.

And about letting the manga stop because, "gon and killua are top 'tier' hunters"
made me wonder if you actually read the whole manga.. Yeah, they're kinda good hunters
better then average probably (comparing to the old guys), but why should the story end when
Gon becomes extremly good hunter? The whole point of the story is to watch Gon grow and get stronger AND ____find his father____

EDIT: I posted this after reading the first review..

 

[Umbra Wolf]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

after the last chapters, it's easy to say that. But the beginning of the arc was catastrophic, it was slow and the basic idea was horrible. From the beginning of the manga, we have seen hardworking people mastering nen with a lot of sacrifices. And now, we have ants mastering nen in 2 weeks like it was nothing. And the charisma of the ants is at level 0 if you compare them with genei ryodan or zoldyeck family.

Well the basic idea was not bad at all in my opinion but the pacing was indeed horrible.
But I have another problem with the concept: We're talking about a worldwide invasion. Call Gin, hire all of the Zoldycks! Don't appear with your bodyguard, your secretary who is useless when it comes down to fighting and take two kids and two apparently random guys from the street. This ain't a game like Greed Island it's about the extinction of mankind but less people seem to care than to finish a video-game. It appears to me striking illogical.

 

[Maxy Barnard]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

Okay, There are certainly SOME misconceptions here. I'll try to clarify some of them.

The whole 'long term illness' thing, is and presumably always will be, rumour. The explanations that generally apply to the WSJ editions being in poor quality and far apart are pretty much easier to swallow.

In WSJ, the editors are often considered cruel, forcing series to continue on past their mark (e.g. dragon ball going past the frieza saga, against toriyamas original intentions), or offering little to no breaks a year. Now around the end of YYH it is said that Togashi's sheer popularity was at a peak, and he could hold some control over what he did, else he could stop drawing in readers, something crucial at the dark period WSJ was nearing, or in, i forget. As such, he gets a good payrate, more breaks, and through his own choice was allowed to work with no assisstants, and most importantly, broke out of the forced continuation thing.

Then came his next series, hunter x hunter. With this he was further in with his life with the sailor moon mangaka than before, and spent as much time as possible with her, and even more once he had a child some time later. These long absences are usually applicable to this, as hunter x hunter takes massive breaks and yet loses no ground with shueisha due to the popularity of the series.

And the quality of his art is rapidly produced, by himself, for WSJ, in whatever bouts he manages, and has the final versions worked on in his breaks to be released in tankobon format.

A good example of this would be when he returned last october. he did the poor quality chapters for 10 weeks, then had another ten weeks off, in which he produced the final quality versions for the tankobon, released when he returned, for, and i love this, another ten weeks. hopefully this pattern continues.

but basically there you have it. theres also some use of his time where apparently he gets addicted to rpgs, but i dont know much about that.

hopefulyl that gives you more of an idea of what COULD very well be the case, and seems the closest answer to the truth, considering Shueishas 'Togashi-ism'

 

[Fallou]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

One thing I'd say about HxH is that i'm glad it has survived. Of course, it's not as good as it was when it started, the chimera ant arc is really lame sometimes, and the art sometimes makes you think:what the heck is togashi makin fun of us?. But it was such a promising shonen at the beginning that i just can't help but think that things are gonna be better.Weirdly, my favorite arc is the Genei Ryodan one, because it's really different than usual shonen, it's very adult, violent, and sometimes complicated.

 

[weixiaobao]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

well, i planning to read this series for year after falling in love with yuyu hakusho anime, though after looking at yuyu hakusho manga, which was a turn down for me because of the art..

Well, i first glance my opinion was "cool, another shonen.." but the plots getting darker and darker as the story progress.

Art: point range 4-9 avg 8 out of 10
Good, didn't annoy me, and not a negative factor, well some of the characters and places design was super, but other times was very typical and expected.. in the middle/beginning of the Chimera Ant arc, the art was a bit less than average at time ..

Plot: lowest 6 highest 10 avg around 9.2
At time the plot is pretty unpredictable especially when the readers try to predict which side characters going to play a huge role.. It is quite moving at least for me who read almost the entire series in 2 days and not have to wait week by week.

the first arc and follow up was very very good .. and Genei Ryodan/ Greed Island was darker and surprising .. and after that Chimera Ant arc just turn the whole series into another Claymore/ Berserk ..
Though the Chimera Ant arc i believe is appearing way too early in the story, and should have waited a bit more for the characters to developed.. But because it is the way it is the story developed much faster and was very unexpected.. (I skim through the Chimera Ant arc instead of actual reading)

Characters: point 10, excluding the Chimera Arc
I love hxh characters, some though appear briefly yet very very memorable. I am fine that they didn't have thorough screen time or develop more before they die because I refer that than the there are flaw in character development..

the antagonist (excluding chimera ant arc) especially ryodan were especially awesome.... some are quite unique even comparing to other series ..

the main characters .... wonderfully developed, all of them have certain flaws in which make them even more likeable ..

Theme: perfect 10 out of 10
if we just describe this as typical shonen jump, then this probably an understatement.. Tagashi-sensei bring these basic theme in a different kind of level .. in the "friendship" category there are more than just sacrifice more than just silence bond.. the friendship between Gon and Killua especially in the chimera arc had developed in such deep deep level and in such a way that even way way beyond naruto-sasuke or etc friendship.

In "Trying, not to give up" theme.. the story also show giving up, also show people who have their dreams shatter, who have the will but do not have the strength, which but one cannot help but feel pity and sincere.. which give it a realistic feel.. Some only death will end their struggle.. Gon, the main character, put his life out there couple of time reinforce this theme..

Originality: 9+
I don't really read that many manga in an otaku level yet but this series really got my respect , and keep surprising me .. In my limited view the originality is very good.


[Luckas]Edited to conform the review to the review template.[/Luckas]

 

[xblkdrag0nx]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

Like most ppl, I'm not a huge fan of the Chimera Ant arc but I find the King and Gou's relationship very interesting. There are some points in the Chimera Ant arc that are quite fascinating like Killua finally figured out that a needle was buried in his head, etc. I hope that this series doesn't end after this arc since there is still some much development and loose strings.

 

[Sagara]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

Like most ppl, I'm not a huge fan of the Chimera Ant arc but I find the King and Gou's relationship very interesting. There are some points in the Chimera Ant arc that are quite fascinating like Killua finally figured out that a needle was buried in his head, etc. I hope that this series doesn't end after this arc since there is still some much development and loose strings.

Yeah I feel that same way, the Chimera arc has got its interesting parts. I really enjoyed the beginning of the new arc but now its just getting boring for me

The anime rules though and I hope it doesnt end soon, and it comes out of hiatus

 

[OdaForPresident]

Re: Hunter x Hunter

I kinda agree with the review, most of this series has been great, everyting exept the ant arc. Personally greed island was my favourite arc. The great thing about this manga is that the way the main characters is very natural, training, training and training, mostly the basics. Very different from sudden power increases like bankai, hollow mask, rasengan, gear second etc. Too bad about the art work though. Anyone know why the show got so crappy? I read somewhere the author got sick or that there where contractual issues, anyone know something more?

EDIT: Just read the rest of this topic and now know he's sick, real shame.