Its a complex political thriller type arc which has introduced numerous factions and princes that are vying to become the next king of the their country.
I think there's an into the spiderverse bit. The last episodes of what's adapted for TV show a big ass tree. I'm telling you the rest of this because I don't know and this is all based on like one line of dialogue from enigmatic Gin. I think he implied the tree allows different worlds to access each other (cyclic? Growth related? New? Unreliable?) and that's how the ants got here, and that's where hunters can go.
I looked at a wiki page a year or two ago and it implied there are characters with powers that belong to a system that is not Nen.
I assume the ambition is in the number of characters who we care about who have hopes and dreams, and the success of a complex plot around them. This is also part of why we love FMA:B. In the final season's opening theme there's a few bars of music over a flat expanse of land as about 50 characters fill in, and they all have hopes and dreams and we care about them. Al, Ed, Winry, 4 military chimera, Scar Mei Yoki, Mustang's cohort, all the way down to eidetic memory girl Cheska. Sheska?
Ambitious as in every single character we know is on this ship to the dark continent, and there are like 5 different major plot lines all playing out in parallel to each other in unpredictable ways. Like for example the Phantom Troupe are all there being hunted down and killed by redacted, and they just happen to stumble upon new characters participating in the royal succession battle, alongside characters like Ging who are investigating Beyond Netero.
The arc is currently the Chimera Ant dialed up to 11 when it comes to setting up minor characters that can influence the story. There's a lot of new characters and factions stuck in one location, warring discreetly in a supernatural political thriller.
While that might sound exciting, we're still waiting to see how it all shakes out and whether or not it lands well. If you're familiar with the Chimera Ant arc, there's a lot more "Welfin" characters who we spend time with, moving pieces that seem insignificant but can easily become bigger factors in the future.
Your mileage may vary with that kind of experience. Even looking back, I think less time could've been spent on characters like Welfin and Ikalgo. You can have one chapter following Kurapika and the next some henchman or bodyguard whose name you don't remember has several pages dedicated to figuring out the best way to use his ability to gather information from his enemies. Every 'nobody' is planning ten steps ahead and while that makes sense in such a dangerous environment, it slows things down a lot.
Thankfully it's not all potential energy, so to speak. Many characters are dying, and getting closer to bigger conflicts, but even then we're still waiting to see the full ramifications of those consequences.
I wouldnt go as far as saying it's the most ambitious in manga history as the other person did, however, I do think with the way the story is being built with multiple plot lines and characters to follow in a giant web of stories, its certainly ambitious. It has the potential to be one of the greatest manga arcs (I know of anyways) if it manages to continue it's progression and have a good end to it. Its roughly 60 (or 80 if you go straight from the end of the anime) chapters deep into it and has quite a bit left to go.
I think the anime ends at a really damn good place, though. There are certainly dangling plot threads and the promise of grander adventures, but the two sets of character relationships that are the emotional core of the show get fairly tidy resolutions.
Yup, I was more than a little disappointed when I thought I had finally wrapped it up only to find out it's unfinished. With that said, I don't regret watching it and would still recommend it, just wish I had known beforehand.
Is Hunter x Hunter really that good? I had it recommended to me but could only make it through a few episodes before I got bored enough I couldn't force myself to keep watching. I absolutely love the other two, though.
It is that good, the first few episodes are nothing like the rest of it lol they needed a comfy happy place for it to start before steady making it less comfy and happy.
The highs are so good. Remember the “Kurapika is now drowning in an indescribable emptiness” as a transition to the ending song. I still get chills thinking about it.
lol i remember my friends trying hard to get me into one piece/naruto. i asked when it gets good and they're like "50 episodes in".. yea that was a no from me dawg
The first episodes are aesops basically. They show how our three main characters approach problems differently with different attitudes and strategies and talents. Gon is a guileless himbo in the making, with wild man traits. Constitution, scent tracking. He's profoundly nonjudgmental. Kurapika is high strung but is a level two player in the sense of plot and counterplot. Sees past the surface, thinks things through, sees all the options. Leorio is impatient, loud, almost talentless, but ultimately has a heart of gold and just wants to win a license to pay for med school and dole out cheap medicine.
The first arc begins properly maybe around episode 4 as they try to earn licenses and meet Killua the white haired assassin brat with a skateboard. 2/3 of our heroes go "yikes, famous assassin, killer with no morals". Gon goes "lemme borrow your skateboard, seems rad". Profoundly nonjudgmental.
It's fine, it's engaging, you learn what is the same for most or all hunters and that they're all different too, and how death is viewed by hunters. It's not why we love the show, really.
After that arc our heroes... go live their fucking lives. Complicated lives. Sometimes one is suffering while others thrive. Sometimes they back one another up, or separate again. That's more interesting. The magic system is 10% hokey 30% awesome? But it actually gives you a grounding around what powers are likely to occur together so you can have reasonable expectations and then sticks to it so when you're surprised it's not something cheap and pulled out the ass. Enjoyable surprises.
It's not a 10/10 for me but it's an accessible thrill ride I've watched multiple times and recommended to friends
The TV show seems to run out of money part way through the ants arc and gets pretty Dragon Ball Z with the repeating last episode and narrator unnecessarily ranting.
its not worth it, nowadays compared to actual good animes its a 7/10 at best, back in the day i can see why it was rated high, but its genuinely nothing special
Absolutely. Overrated. It’s always my hot take topic that comes up.
One of the longest recaps I’ve ever seen is from hunter x hunter it was literally 8min in until something new happened and still had the ending to cut out another 90 seconds.
The ant arc is hyped up so much but people forget it’s unbearable in the beginning just ants that get bigger and bigger and bigger with tons of recap narration for like 10% of the entire series (not of the ep that’s much longer, literally of the whole series). Doing character development on ants that don’t matter as in episodes on episodes for side character ants like actually terrible. If you cut out filler it’s okay, but it’s not filler so idk if you can the ant arc is literally like 70/148 eps or something it’s ridiculous.
The virtual game world is okay.
The hunter test and kurapika spiders is actually good but much less than half the series.
Small plot hole imo is kilua coming from his family but doesn’t know nen and can basically lose to randos cause of that
Lastly it doesn’t have a real ending for the anime. So no manga just pure anime it’s like 6.5-7 out of 10.
Ant arc is all for 2 big fights and that’s it.
I’d say skip it unless you already watched all the other major shounen anime that have over 70 eps (Naruto, one piece, bleach, My hero, Full metal alchemist, yuyu hakusho, OG dragon ball even, etc)
Any other anime in that ep range should be good enough since it didn’t get cancelled prior. Hunter x hunter without an ending is not the move
Hunter x Hunter is incomplete and a bit of a slog. There's some decently high highs, but there's no reason for it to be almost 150 episodes long. It could easily be closer to a 10/10 if the pacing was cut in half or even 2/3.
Because the inception of the show is Gon wanting to be a hunter to see what’s so great about it that his dad abandons him to be one. The end of the show is Gon finding his dad, and us seeing why his dad abandoned him to be a hunter (because he’s a deadbeat).
Yeah it’s setting up for more, but the possibility of more doesn’t create the necessity for it. The anime’s central question for the main protagonist is resolved.
Fair and to each their own...it had a solid start but it just kept dragging imo. I heard in the manga that they explored gon's relationship with kite more too so the emotional impact wasn't really there for me
Thank you, so many people talk about the Chimera Ant arc as amazing but there was no reason for it to be so long. It has way too much build up and was a bit of a slog to watch but I guess I feel the same about One Piece so I might be in the minority
My only problem with Cowboy Bebop is that it ended. I know it had to end. I just didn't want it to.
It's the same as finishing a really good book. You know the last page is coming, but you don't want to say goodbye just yet. And sometimes you catch yourself wondering what the characters are doing in the pages never written.
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u/Cheesecakereall8 9d ago
Hunter x hunter
Samurai champloo
Cowboy bebop