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| Japanese shotas are ruining my life |
Gon: He's cute! He's the one we want to encourage! We'd like to be his friend!
Killua: He's strong! We'd like to have him as a little brother!
Kurapika: We like! We like! We like!
Hisoka: He's mysterious...We're afraid but we like him too..
Seriously, Gon is such a badass cutie at twelve, and you'd totally want to be his friend because he's the type of person who'll back you up for sure and be all cute and smiley about it. He's super genki and you just want to watch him and Killua and Kurapika and Leorio go on adventures together forever.
And speaking of his bestie, Killua, GODDAMN am I in love with that boy. He's the ultimate number one top anime shotas you want as a little brother. Unfortunately for Gon, my love for Killua far outshines him. Also because Gon made Killua cry in the Chimera Ant Arc and I cannot forgive him for making my precious baby cry. Killua's logical and oh so cool, especially the way he casually knocks out huge opponents like it's a piece of cake. His family arc was one of my favorites, and his whole family is just one giant badass family. But I really only like Zeno, the grandfather because 1) Illumi is creepy. You know you're way beyond repair when even Hisoka says "I'm fucked up but you're a piece of work too..." 2) I can't tell what Silva is thinking, especially easily letting Killua go like that. If you hurt my cute little brother I will hurt you. 3)Kikyo is creepy and possessive. You can't have Kil. 4)Milluki is just no. No. 5)I haven't seen enough of Kalluto to make a judgement on his character yet but he wants to get his brother back and dresses like a Japanese girl. Uhhh, tough call? 6) Alluka. Okay I'm sorry Alluka and Nanika, no matter how adorably androgynous you are, no matter how game breakingly sweet your powers are, I just can't like you. Mainly because you came out of FUCKING NOWHERE with your apparently awesome game breaking powers that don't even have a consequence if its made for the sake of someone else. I am pretty fucking sure somewhere along the line in their grand adventure she could've been mentioned for her deus ex machina powers. And Killua is supposed to adore her yet he's never even mentioned her at all? They use Illumi's needle as a random excuse but seriously? You could stand to at least hint that you might have a game breaking sister/brother there. And finally, it's because you made Gon and Killua separate. No that is not okay. They were the brotp of brotps. They were bffs. They were nakama in arms and they were supposed to be together forever and be badass shotas on adventures FOREVER. I can't even.
Moving on, Kurapika. Mixed feelings about this one, because although he seemed like a shoe-in for position of favorite character before Killua came onto the scene, he or she just totally disappeared off the map. And he comes back briefly before rejecting them again. And he wasn't even there when Gon was dying, instead just brooding in front of jars of eyes. I mean I get that you have a tragic backstory but jfc why is everyone so determined to get in the way of my dream of friendship and adventures forever?
"We're scared but we like him..." is completely and utterly my reaction to Hisoka. Except replace 'scared' with 'creeped out as fuck'. Because on one hand, he's cool, he seems to know everything, he's strong, he's a casual anti hero helping out sometimes, he's mysterious, he's also got various hidden motives and tricks, his expressions are more interesting in the recent Chairman Election arc, and he's flipping hot with or without his make up. On the other hand, he's a creepy pedophilic clown. Like sometimes I'm just like...what the fuck Hisoka....what the actual fuck are you doing....why is that censor speech bubble slowly moving up -OH GOD NO. I mean, sure all the ho yay sexual tension is off the charts for pretty much everyone, but Hisoka just takes it up to eleven. That's the kind of person he is. Up to eleven. "We're creeped out as fuck but we like him...."
My favorite story arcs are, in order: Heaven's Arena, the Hunter Exam, and the Zoldyck Family. Notice how they're the first three story arcs in Hunter x Hunter.
The Hunter Exam arc: Establishing that Gon is an adorable badass, Kurapika is an intelligent badass, Killua is an adorable and intelligent badass, and Leorio tries really hard to be badass. I also liked how the 2011 anime handled this arc, what with the examiners and all that. I love this arc for giving birth to my dream of my OT4 together going out into the world and having lots of adventures together as a shounen band of nakama. I hate the subsequent arcs for cruelly subverting that dream.
The Zoldyck Family arc: In which Gon and Kurapika and Leorio get together and be badass together to save Killua who seems like a badass in distress until he rips off his chain and smacks Milluki with it. Oh Killua. Happiness because its my OT4 being badass and cute together.
Heaven's Arena arc: In which my brotp of brotps get together and take several levels of badass. I love this arc because it's Gon and Killua together kicking ass and taking names. Also Hisoka being cool and creepy at the same time. I just love how broken those boys are, as they push and knock out their opponents for more than a hundred levels, and how Killua is clearly way more badass than previously imagined.
Yorknew City arc: It had its highlights but towards the end it just had me asking "Oh god this is the longest first week of September ever" and "wake me up when September ends". Moments I enjoyed were Kurapika being badass and Hisoka working together with the heroes. Moments I did not like were the boring auction period where they were trying to raise money and how Kurapika left at the end. Moments that were forgettable and I felt apathetic towards were the whole damn rest of the arc. Arc fatigue in spades.
Greed Island arc: This was pretty decent until the plot became all convoluted and long. For a series that already suffers from fatigue in real life due to the many hiatuses, you'd think that the arcs would just keep it short and simple. Nope. While I did like the training from hell that Gon and Killua got from Biscuit, and I loved Killua completely wiping out the competition at his second Hunter Exam, and I also loved the team of badass game breakers get together to win dodgeball, what I didn't like much was everything else. The whole thing with the bombers didn't interest me nearly as much as Killua and Biscuit despairingly giving in to Gon's shounen hero tendencies. I also didn't like how Killua goes from having a skateboard to bare hand fighting to lightning to yo-yos, or how Gon goes from his fishing rod to janken.
Chimera Ant arc: If you were ever looking for a poster boy for arc fatigue this is it. No wonder some people call this series Hiatus x Hiatus. It did get better towards the end though, or was that my happiness at it finally ending? One thing's for sure, I was completely confused and bewildered at the beginning of the arc. It was like SUDDENLY CREEPY INSECT BUG ANIMAL THINGS JUST 'CAUSEEEE. Oh and also terrible sketchy art! I mean I understand there was a health situation irl and various circumstances with the author but it just made the sudden creepy insect things twelve times more confusing and out of the blue. I'm not sure I liked how the King was such a greyscale villain, but shipper that I am, I did enjoy his interactions with Komugi. And no matter how fatigued I was by the arc, I couldn't not get emotional over their deaths. Speaking of emotional, Gon I'll never forgive you for making Killua cry. "You wouldn't understand" "Being weak hurts" "He's my best friend" "You're the most important to him" I hate you both. Give me back my tears Killua.
Chairman Election arc: Moving on from the terrifying spectacle of a grown-up buff Gon (which is surprising because usually time skips are the best things in the whole world), comes this arc which wasn't terribly good but wasn't terribly bad either. I mean, it had Leorio become a dark horse in the election and punching out Ging. It also had Hisoka finally making an appearance and be interesting with Illumi. I also liked seeing the various allies they made on their trips standing guard around Gon's hospital room. But it also had stupid Killua feelings and Alluka being more disorienting and sudden than the creepy insect things. Also this arc ended with Kurapika being a loner, and Gon and Killua separating which is a capital offence that I'm not sure anything would make up for.
Hunter x Hunter is certainly a subversion of the usual shounen tropes, not least in its much more graphic violence. (And creepy insect things and pedo clowns) I did enjoy the series, and it had moments that I loved, and two characters that I desperately want as little brothers. (adding to the questionable list of Japanese shotas that are too cool for their own good) It has badasses aplenty, and ho yay aplenty (its series name is like a ship name) though I'm not sure if the latter is a good thing or bad. And that's what really sums up by my thoughts for this series. I just can't really figure out if I like it or not. It's just kind of ambiguous...just like many of its characters.
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