Friday Hunt – Hunter X Hunter challenge week 30

Wow, I feel like I could just copy paste my las post.

1. How did you find HxH?
2. Favorite main character
3. Favorite supporting character
4. Favorite Chimera ant
5. Least favorite character
6. Favorite Zoldyck Member
7. Favorite Villain
8. Favorite Nen type
9. Favorite Nen ability
10. Favorite episode
11. Favorite scene
12. Favorite opening animation
13. Do you ship anyone
14. Saddest scene
15. Favorite non-nen ability
16. Favorite ark
17. Least favorite ark
18. Favorite type of Hunter
19. Favorite character outfit
20. Funniest scene
21. Who would you cosplay as
22. Friendliest character
23. Least friendly character
24. Best main character family member
25. Favorite character backstory
26. Worse main character family member
27. Manga or Anime
28. Most relatable character
29. What got you hooked on the show
30. Why do you love HxH

Why do you love HxH

Here we are everybody! The last post of the challenge. Man, I love Hunter x Hunter. I’m not even happy that I can stop writing abut it.  Ironically, writing about why I love it has got me a bit stumped.

I’ve already extolled on the pacing and narrative structure as well as the characters, what more do you want?

Hunter x Hunter is a well-crafted story. Form a technical standpoint, it’s just well written. Events are interesting and escalated in a way that’s believable and also exciting. Nothing gets repetitive or predictable. Characters have consistent personalities and react in a way that’s always in line with their personas. Despite being supremely quirky, they are never reduced to simple tropes.

 

Hmmm, it seems like a cheap answer. I love Hunter x Hunter because it’s a good show? I don’t think I can get away with that.

Let me try again. I love Hunter x Hunter because there are no heroes. NONE. Every single character is morally compromised on some level and the narrative never punishes or even judges them for it. The entire universe is in shades of grey. There are many classic elements that attract me to the standard shonen genre, but I have always been a little bored with the clear Black and White dynamics.

 

I understand that a good vs evil, hero’s journey plotline is such a widespread template because it offers up a simple format for the audience to get emotionally vested into cheering on an unquestionably virtuous hero, without ever having to reexamine that character’s motives and values (and by extension their own), all the while being able to enjoy unmitigated gratification when the villain gets their comeuppance. Morally grey characters are a gamble. You could lose the audience’s sympathy if your protagonist does something objectively unbecoming. Your viewers might be disappointed if a villain doomed to failure turned out to be a decent person.

 Even with so called antiheros (I guess Batman comes to mind) the moral qualms are usually superficial. They may be too rigid, uncompromising in their pursuit of justice, but never once do you doubt who the good guy is. Even when the storyline explicitly tells you that they have certain questionable traits or beliefs, ultimately, they ae always framed as Big Fat Heroes. Similarly, the most affable and likable villains are either so completely devoid of sympathy to the point of suspecting mental illness or get a redemption arc (maybe they’ll die but everyone will know they weren’t that bad…)

Hunter x Hunter doesn’t play those games. Aside from Hisoka who is presented as an irredeemable villain (with little support from actual plot events), everyone is presented without any judgment. We follow Gon and his friends, as they are occasionally virtuous above all and occasionally reprehensible. The narrative never tells us that we should feel any differently about them once we discover genuinely unpleasant traits that they have no intention on fixing. The phantom troupe all get backgrounds and development. They are often shown being rather pleasant and interesting. There is something likable about most of them, even admirable in their loyalty to their friends. They are given the Freudian excuse of having grown up in abject poverty, rejected by society for simply having been born in a geographically undesirable area. These characters would be easy to like, except they are also monsters. Actual monsters that slaughtered a race of people and tore out their eyes because they were paid to. And they all seem to be sleeping just fine at night.

I love Hunter x Hunter because it never told me how to feel or think. It left the judgement calls all up to me. I appreciate when a show thinks I’m smart and I think Hunter x Hunter is smart too.

 

Suggested drink: a Night of the Hunter x Hunter

I didn’t come up with a drinking game for this one. I just couldn’t put all my love into a simple list. Instead, I have a suggestion. Find someone you like. Make them a drink or two, and introduce them to Hunter x Hunter! They’ll like you back!