Hunter X Hunter (All)

[DB]

Two in the same day. What do you know.

Here's a series that is something of an oxymoron for me. I like the world, and I like the plot, but I don't like 3 of the 4 characters.

This takes place in a parallel world, where the technology is the equvilent of ours, but some people have the ability to access their nen (chi equivalent) and can perform superhuman feats with it. While it appears many people can do this, it's actually only a small segment of the population. And those that can use it have varying degrees of ability. It should also be noted that there are several different 'schools' of nen, (transmuteors create things, reenforcement deals with the body, etc), which means characters have different superhuman abilities (as opposed to Dragonball, where it's a simple case of how strong you are), so there is vareity among the people with similar power levels)

As you might have guessed, it's the nen abilities that set the cast apart from the rest of humanity.

There are 3 supporting characters that center around the main character.

Our main character is Gon Jinks, he's ten or so at the start of the series, and is just stumbling onto his nen abilities. Abandoned by his father before he can rememebr him and with a dead mother, he's being raised by his young aunt. However Gon discovers someone who knew his father, and he desires to meet him. In order to do this, he must become a 'Hunter' (an organization of nen users). Hunters can legally do lots of things normal people can't, so it's a coveted membership lots of people want to belong to. During this, he meets his future comrades.

Gon's personality is fairly simple. He's a not very bright kid who believes in his ideals to the point of winning people over with his stubborness. He's basically a good guy, but simple. Actually, I would say he's intentionall one of the most simple minded characters ever created in anime. He has no dark side, and no secrets. He wears all his emotions on his sleeve.

Killua- who's two years older than Gon and from a prestigous family of assassins. He's already racked up a number of kills, but isn't actually evil.   To him, it's just a job, and he doesn't go out of his way to kill anyone, and definitely doesn't enjoy it. As the series progresses, his friendship with Gon (which is the central character interaction in the series) reforms him to the degree he no longer wishes to be an assassin.

Kurapica- about 16, his village was wiped out and he's seeking the band of criminals who genocided them for their 'red eyes' (eyes that turn red when angered). He goes out on his own about halfway through the series, and has by far the coolest storyline toward the end of the series.

Leorio-- the token adult. He's sort of the voice of reason, and has the least role in this. Bacially with such a young cast, they frequently need an adult to open doors for them, so to speak. Luckily, he disappears halfway through the series since he doesn't add much to it.

Now as it turns out I found all the characters except Kurapica fairly annoying. They are shallow, and frankly I don't sympathize with them. Usually this is a sign of something I don't like, since characters generally support the series. Here however, it was the conflicts, villains and supporting cast, and what there is of a plot, that got me.  Of the supporting cast, there is one in particular that appears throughout the series.

Hisoka, a card dealing nen using powerhouse that's a full fledged psychopath. Despite this, he's actually interesting. Despite his homicidal tendencies, he's not a mad dog. In fact, he's bored. He's so good at killing that just whacking people that die easy doesn't excite him. He's keeping his eyes open to people that might challenge him someday. Which is the only thing that saves Gon in their first encounter. IN fact, Hisoka serves almost as a mentor at some points in the series, prodding Gon along to get better so that someday the kid can challenge him.  

In some ways there's almost DBZ underttones in this, in that when Gon and company encounter someone more powerful than them, the group trains to become more powerful to confront said menace, and then best it., only to encoutner another one, all the while Gon is seeking his non-caring father.

This is a series that you will either like or dislike. I don't think there's much middle ground. it's fighting shonen, but as I said, the background worked for me, though there were major flaws in the series as well including a group of criminals that were just way too uberpowerful for the opposition they were facing.

the first series goes about 60 episodes, with 3 OVA series.

Final score: 6 out of 10, for Shonen.

[Dracos]

That seems...remarkably short for any real stuff to happen (Six eps that is).  How does the pacing play out?

Dracos

[DB]

That seems...remarkably short for any real stuff to happen (Six eps that is).  How does the pacing play out?

Dracos

Oops. Meant 60. Has since been corrected