Behold, because i decided to have a fanboy outburst:
You know, when i stand in the fantasy department of a bookstore, then there is a moment when i hold up a novel which looks interesting and think to myself: Oh well! This is interesting! This might be a good and compelling read!
Then i notice that i am deluding myself because no fantasy novel will ever thrill me like the witcher saga, might it be game of thrones or any markus heitz stuff, and then i curl up to embryo position and have to be taken out by security.....metaphorically speaking.
And i have the same with HxH and other shonen.
Whenever i read another shonen save very few exceptions (basically tower of god which, as a manhwa, shakes up some of the things you usually see in shonen), there comes a moment when i think 'well, i'd rather be rereading hunter x hunter right now'.
I do not think this has anything to do with the long hiatus tho.
I have to wait pretty long for the next game of thrones novel too and, honestly, i can, even if i had at least some fun reading those.
But with HxH there are two factors making new chapters very desirable to me:
The first is a staple in shonen, namely, that you followed the characters for such a long time.
Even if you stopped reading one, you are sometimes tempted to check by to what bollocks bleach is up to these days or at least read some of the ending chapters of naruto to see how the characters ended up.
The same is true fot HxH to a degree: You followed the four mains a long time now and are invested into the world.
You also waited a long time for certain things: You waited for ging, you waited for finally seeing kurapica move against the spiders, you even waited for some of the side characters like hanzo to reappear.
Even if HxH had a quality drop, you'd probably want to at least read the hisoka fights or something.
But unlike lots of other shonen, you also have a lot of shaking up the formula.
When i read one piece, for example, i get basically the same every arc (on a high level tho).
What makes one piece enjoyable is (as in many literature) how it happens.
The jokes, the flashbacks, the fights are all on a pretty high level and the surprise comes from the absurd ways some characters manage to win their fights and from their equally absurd personas.
If we take that away however (like in many less popular shonen) there is always the same stuff happening arc per arc.
This applies to most long running shonens (may it be the train arc --> fight arc formula or anything similar) and most of those are not as enjoyable as one piece and fill themselves up with plotholes really quickly.
Mostly, the strongest arcs of most shonen happen in the early years of it.
I do not think naruto ever got as good as in the early stages in the first mission team 7 had. At least i know it is the reason i started reading it and the lack of arcs like that made me stop reading it.
I think many people started fanboying one piece due to the alabaster arc and it is still considered (together with enies lobby, admittedly) as one of the best.
And i think i do not have to tell anyone that early bleach is considered MUCH better than today's bleach.
Also, tower of god definitely had the people most invested into it in the early testing arcs compared to now.
There is a thing in a manga in general (and mos definitely in a shonen) in the early stages of it which makes you want to read it because something about the premise thrills you, and this is either done to death OR dropped completely out along the way.
For example, a lot of people stopped liking tower of god that much because the testing set up and the intrigue between the contestants was somehow toned down.
There are less deaths even tho they are at a higher stage of the tower and the testing itself is there but mostly a side aspect while an overaching story takes more spotlight.
People who got hooked on another premise have to deal with that in order to still enjoy it.
On the other hand, mangas like one piece follow their premise very rigourusly.
MAny people do like that, however, i personally got annoyed by that at some point and stopped reading, and there are some other shonen (and seinen) examples which did not change at all either and thus got predictable and bland to some.
The thing with HxH is that i feel like reading a new manga every arc because the premise changes but that new premise is a) embedded in a world i already know well and makes sense within it and b) is compelling enough to me that i would pick up a manga on that premise too.
For example, the yorknew arc, the greed island arc and the election arc could all come out of three very different mangas , speaking about tone and setting, but connecting them in an overaching plot and embedding them into the strong groundwork of nen battles and character relationships we had already make you accept it as part of the whole story without coming off unnatural.
Thus, starting the DC like that, with all the characters we like or want to know more about set up to a complex plot which again feels unlike anything we saw in HxH already is very thrilling, and waiting for it is like waiting forever for a new manga you just picked up and are very passionate about because it feels fresh.
The wait wouldnt be half as bad if the next arc was just going to be 'oh well gon fights in heaven arena again to finally face off hisoka (lets assume he got his nen back' because with that i'd totally know what to exspect, at least roughly and had already seen some of it.
). 