Tag Archives: Hunter x Hunter

Why It Works: The Madness of Hunter x Hunter’s Hero

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Hey everyone! For this week’s Why It Works, I dove back into Hunter x Hunter, that seemingly infinite well of potential storytelling topics. This time, I explored the unique ways the show characterizes its protagonist, and how it manipulates our expectations regarding its genre to essentially conceal Gon’s most frightening qualities. I’ve sorta been going through Hunter x Hunter one arc at a time, highlighting various strengths of the show along the way, and this time I cheated a bit – this is technically the “Greed Island article,” but it’s more about Gon than Greed Island itself. Still, I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it too. Let’s get to it!

The Madness of Hunter x Hunter’s Hero

Why It Works: Fighting With Impact: The Brilliance of Hunter x Hunter’s Nen System

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With the already-limited spring season now experiencing a necessary wave of delays and cancellations, my Why It Works columns are at last able to assume their final form: weekly odes to Hunter x Hunter, each column celebrating a different aspect of its collective majesty. Alright, that’s probably not actually going to happen, but I really could write about Hunter x Hunter’s excellence forever, and I was happy to ramble about the nen system this week. Let’s get to it!

Fighting with Impact: The Brilliance of Hunter x Hunter’s Nen System

Why It Works: Let’s Explore the Finer Points of Anime Power-Ups!

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I’ve got another fairly breezy Why It Works column for you all this week, though this one certainly plays into a fair number of storytelling and conflict-building fundamentals. When and how characters overcome their previous limitations is actually a pretty important part of shonen narrative design, particularly since audiences have been primed to assume “sweet power-ups” will always be a part of that genre’s narrative bargain. Today let’s highlight a few broader categories of character improvements, as well as what sort of narratives potentially suit them best. Let’s get to it!

Let’s Explore the Finer Points of Anime Power-Ups!

Why It Works: The Brilliance of Hunter x Hunter: Exam Arc and Lateral Thinking

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I hope you’re ready for a sturdy craft column this week! With all the promotional hullabaloo of the season premieres finally behind us, today I dove into some meaty storytelling nuts and bolts stuff, centered on one of my favorite shows to write about. I could write about Hunter x Hunter’s intelligence of narrative construction for days, and might actually end up doing that, as long as this article does well enough. Either way, I hope you enjoy the piece!

The Brilliance of Hunter x Hunter: Exam Arc and Lateral Thinking

Hunter x Hunter – Volume 36

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I wonder how Togashi himself feels, moving around his hundreds of chess pieces on his massive, three-dimensional chessboard. Surely he himself has a clear ending in mind, right? How could anyone possibly have the confidence to throw this many balls into the air and start juggling, with no idea how the performance will end? Any other author would leave me certain that the Dark Continent, or at least the Succession Arc in particular, will end in unfocused, shambling tears – but this is Togashi, and he pulled off Chimera Ant, so I’ll give him as much rope as he needs. As for this volume in particular, Togashi works very hard to simplify the sprawling madness of the boat setup into three core, parallel conflicts, each of them intersecting, each of them containing within them a variety of sub-conflicts. Let’s start where the volume itself starts, and dig right in!

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Hunter x Hunter – Volume 35

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Togashi, what the hell are you doing.

I had assumed, upon reading and critiquing Hunter x Hunter’s thirty-fourth volume, that I’d essentially covered the gist of Togashi’s schtique – his tendency towards creating impossibly convoluted tactical setups, and his skill for resolving them as a series of dramatically coherent action beats. The fight between Chrollo and Hisoka was essentially that instinct in isolation, split between half a volume of expository notes on Chrollo’s powers and half a volume of evaluation time “I hope you got all that” payoff. Surely the complexity would let up just a tad for the next volume?

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Hunter x Hunter – Volume 34

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Hunter x Hunter’s thirty-third volume was entirely dedicated to establishing the base conflict of the Dark Continent arc. Even with a full volume worth of board-adjusting and exposition, those chapters still felt like they were bursting at the seams with pure information. The king’s declaration, and his alliance with Beyond. The Hunter Association’s reaction to that announcement, and their conscription of Kurapika and other potential allies. The background interference of Ging and Paristan, and the concerns of the larger scientific community. The introduction of the king’s succession war, and Kurapika’s subsequent enrollment in the youngest prince’s service. All of that served as meaty but ultimately passive setup, setting the stage for volume thirty-four to come barreling out the gate with the true start of the arc.

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The Best Anime Next Steps

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There are a lot of anime out there! Literally thousands, with over a hundred more being released every year. There are new hits every season, and old favorites that have slowly lost their topical sheen. Given all those shows, it can be understandably hard to pick what to watch next – anime, like every other medium, is full of stuff that will disappoint you, and everyone’s tastes are different.

My own tastes in particular are a little weird – I like arthouse stuff and intimate character studies and occasional cathartic message-focused shows. But fortunately, there is indeed such a thing as “normal” taste in anime, or at least the most common preferences shared by fans outside of Japan. And today, I’m hoping to help that audience – or more specifically, hopefully, You.

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Hunter x Hunter – Volume 33

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It’s almost painful to read these chapters, knowing how close I am to the current stopping point, knowing how uncertain it is this arc will ever be concluded. So much of this reads like a fantasy dreamland idea of a Hunter x Hunter arc. Kurapika and Leorio are back, and they’re both relevant! Ging and Pariston are dueling on the sidelines! Biscuit and Cheadle are there too! It’s all too much happiness for one Hunter x Hunter fan to take in – the joy tempered by the cruel fact of Togashi’s terribly uneven health. I hope he finds some rest for his own sake. I can live with just these treasures.

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Top Ten Anime of 2014

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I had to stretch to get a top 10 this year. I’m ready to admit that. Last year, it was easy – in fact, it was too easy, and I ended up expanding my list to twelve shows basically by necessity. But this year didn’t have quite the top shelf of 2013, and so concessions had to be made. There are certainly a couple notable absences here, with I’m guessing the biggest ones being Kill la Kill, Space Dandy, and maybe Nozaki-kun. The reason for those absences is simple – I didn’t like any of those shows very much. If you’re looking for a general “all the shows that enjoyed positive appraisal among the kinds of people who make a point of appraising shows,” I’m guessing all three of those would be included, but this is my list, and I’m gonna talk about what I wanna. (Incidentally, if you are looking for a list like that, my fellow critics at ANN all contributed their own top five lists to this recent retrospective – and that’s all shows that started in 2014, so even my list over there is pretty different). My list may be a little shorter this year, but it’s still got some real gems, and considering three of the year’s best shows aren’t included simply because they aren’t finished (Shirobako, KimiUso, and Parasyte), I’d say we made off okay. Let’s run it down!

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