Hunter X Hunter 2011

**Hunter X Hunter 2011** is an action, adventure, fantasy, drama, comedy, shonen battle anime series.  It was based on a

    manga written by Yoshihiro Togashi and published by Shueisha for Weekly Shonen Jump.  It started on March 3, 1998, and is still ongoing today with 35 volumes in total.  The anime adaptation was directed by Hiroshi Kojina, written by Atsushi Maekawa and Tsutomu Kamishiro, musically composed by Yoshihisa Hirano, and produced by Studio Madhouse.  It originally aired from October 2, 2011 to September 24, 2014, with a total of 148 episodes in the end.  It was the second anime adaptation of the manga, which not only increased production values, but also included two additional story arcs that weren't in the original show.

## Plot

The story follows a young boy named Gon Freecss, who was told all his life that both his parents were dead. But when he learns from Kite, an apprentice of his father Ging Freecss, that he is still alive and has since become an accomplished Hunter, Gon leaves his home on Whale Island (くじら島 *Kujira Tō*) to take the Hunter Examination (ハンター試験 *Hantā Shiken*) in order to become a Hunter like him.[8][9][10] During the exam, Gon meets and soon befriends three of the other applicants: Kurapika, the last remaining member of the Kurta clan who wishes to become a Hunter in order to avenge his clan and recover their scarlet-glowing eyes that were plucked from their corpses by a band of thieves known as the Phantom Troupe; Leorio, a prospective physician who, in order to pay for medical school, desires the financial benefits that Hunters receive; and Killua Zoldyck, another twelve-year-old boy who has left his former life as a member of the world's most notorious assassin family.[9][10][2] Among many other examinees, Gon continuously encounters Hisoka, a mysterious and deadly transmuter who takes an interest in him. After passing by many trials together, Gon and his friends end up passing the exam except for Killua, who fails after killing another applicant due to being controlled by his brother, Illumi, and runs away to his family's estate in shame.

After Gon and the others convince Killua to rejoin their side, Leorio and Kurapika depart temporarily for their own personal reasons, while Gon and Killua set for the Heavens Arena (天空闘技場 *Tenkū Tōgijō*), a skyscraper where thousands of martial artists compete daily in fighting tournaments, seeking to improve themselves, and gain monetary rewards.[11] There they meet a kung fu master named Wing, who trains them in utilizing Nen, a Qi-like life energy used by its practicers to manifest parapsychological abilities, and is also considered to be the final requirement to pass the Hunter Exam. Sometime later, Gon and his friends reunite again in Yorknew City (ヨークシンシティ *Yōkushin Shiti*) where they have a clash with the Phantom Troupe. In the occasion, some of the members of the band of thieves are killed by Kurapika and he is forced to give up the chance of hunting down the rest. In order to rescue Gon and Killua, who were captured by them, but not without succeeding in sealing the powers of their leader Chrollo Lucilfer.

A few days later, Gon and Killua achieve their objective and begin playing *Greed Island*, an extremely rare and expensive video game with Nen-like properties following some clues about Ging's whereabouts.[12] While exploring the game, it is revealed that its scenario is actually set somewhere in the real world, created with Nen by none other than Ging himself. Outclassed by the difficulty of the challenges in the game at first, they are soon joined and trained by Biscuit Krueger, an experienced teacher of Nen and kung fu master. During their stay on Greed Island, Killua takes a short break to apply for the Hunter Examination again, this time passes with success. The trio then complete the game together against all odds and Gon obtains the right to choose the artifacts from the game necessary to reunite with his father.

However, Gon decides to have Killua accompany him to meet his father using the aritfacts, but they send them to meet Kite instead. The duo then decide to help with Kite's research, and upon discovering a giant insect limb the group discovers that it came from a man-sized Chimera Ant queen. An insect that devours other creatures and then gives birth to progeny that inherit the characteristics of the different species it has eaten. The queen washes up onto an island nation called the Neo-Green Life (N.G.L.) Autonomous Region, where she quickly develops a taste for humans and builds a colony powerful enough to overcome the population, specially when its offspring learn the power of Nen after consuming some Hunters. Upon facing the Chimera Ants, Kite sacrifices himself to allow Gon and Killua to flee and alert the Hunter Association. After months of preparation, the Association sends a team of some of their most powerful Hunters, including Netero, the president of the Association himself to defeat the Ants and their king Meruem, whose subjects secretly overthrew the government of the nearby Republic of East Gorteau (東ゴルトー共和国) as part of their plan of subduing all of mankind. Despite losing to Meruem in combat, Netero ends up killing him with a bomb implanted in his body that poisons him to death soon after. In the occasion, Gon has a showdown with Neferpitou, the Ant who killed Kite and despite having exacted his revenge is hospitalized and in critical condition.

After the Chimera Ant incident is resolved, the Hunter Association's top echelons the Zodiacs, from which Ging is a member, begin the process of choosing Netero's replacement as Chairman, while Killua returns home to ask for his younger sister Alluka to save Gon's life. However, his family is unwilling to risk losing Alluka or having her dangerous powers used against them, but after evading his older brother Illumi's attempts to intercept him, Killua manages to bring Alluka to Gon's side and have him fully recovered, before sealing her powers completely to ensure that she can have a normal life. Killua then parts ways with Gon, as he wants to travel the world with Alluka who had never seen the outside world before, while Gon himself finally meets his father and learns the true nature of his quest.

Some time later, Netero's son Beyond assembles an expedition to the Dark Continent (暗黒大陸 *Ankoku Tairiku*). The forbidden, vast area outside of the known world that is sponsored by the Kingdom of Kakin. Fearing that the expedition may bring disaster to the world, just like it occurred in previous attempts, the world's five greatest powers accept that Kakin join their ranks in exchange for full authority over its findings. To accompany Beyond and prevent him from doing something unexpected, the Zodiacs decide to watch over him and invite Kurapika and Leorio to join them. While replacing Ging and the former Vice-Chairman Pariston, who assembled their own teams by Beyond's request. Aboard Kakin's expedition's ship, the princes take part in a battle to the death to decide the next king, and Kurapika infiltrates the royalty's security force along with some of his friends after learning that one of the princes has a large collection of eyes from the Kurta Clan. Meanwhile, some of the members of the Phantom Troupe also infiltrate the ship while Hisoka, after almost being killed by Chrollo who recovered his powers, decides to hunt down all of the members of the Troupe one by one in revenge.

## Anime Movies

1. Hunter X Hunter:  Phantom Rouge
2. Hunter X Hunter:  The Last Mission

## Why It Rocks

1. Incredible animation, especially during the fight scenes and dramatic scenes.
2. Very appealing art style and character designs.
3. Excellent soundtrack.
4. Good voice acting in both sub and dub.
5. It's one of the few anime that extends far beyond 100 episodes and still remains great all along the way.
6. There's two recap episodes, but they did them in kind of an interesting way; insteaed of just recaping with a narrator, it's presented as Gon sending a letter to his Aunt explaining to her what he's already experienced up to that point.
7. Phenomenal fight scenes.
8. Amazing villains, for the most part.  The hilights include nearly every member of the Phantom Troupe, as well as three of the Chimera Ants, those being Meruem and the three Royal Guards.
9. KURAPIKA KURTA!
10. KILLUA ZOLDYCK!
11. HISOKA!
12. The Zoldyck Family are incredibly interesting.
13. Incredible final fight between Meruem and Netero.
14. Absolutely no filler content whatsoever aside from the two recap episodes.
15. The opening theme song is incredibly enjoyable.  Tones of people know about it, even if they haven't seen the show yet.  It was so good that they never changed it, and instead, once enough episodes passed, decided to use a different verse in the song with differnet animation accompanying it.
16. Despite the anime not being completed technically becuase the manga is still ongoing, they did manage to end it mostly conclusively without having any major cliffhangers at the end, which is rarely done in anime that's adapted from incompleted source materials.
17. Nearly every character in this show is interesting, complex, or at least just fun to watch.  From the main protagonists Killua and Kurapika, (Gon is excluded form this), to the villains including the Phantom Troupe and four of the Chimera Ants, (Meruem and his three Royal Guards), to the Zoldyck Famly, to strange, uncertain characters such as Hisoka.

## Bad Qualities

1. Gon Freeces, while not terrible, isn't that interesting or complex of a main character.
2. The Greed Island arc is incredibly boring with dull and uninteresting villains.
3. While the two recap episodes are cleverly disguised, it still doesn't change the fact that they're recap episodes and thus have no value whatsoever unless a person doesn't have time to marathon the show and thus may forget important plot details.
4. While not directly related to the anime, the manga author Yoshihiro Togashi is notorious for going on hiatus' all the time, which means that many fans have given up hope that it'll ever be completed, or that the anime will ever get a continuation.

## Reception

Madhouse's 2011 adaptation has been met with near universal critical acclaim.[*citation needed*] Adrian Marcano from Inverse considered *Hunter x Hunter 2011* to be the one of the Greatest Anime Series Ever. He said that the anime set itself apart with one of the greatest story arcs in anime history in which the villain, not the hero, takes the anime to instant classic status. He also said that, "It is in the 2011 version where we see probably one of the best story arcs in anime history: the Chimera Ant Arc."[138] According to *Movie News Guide* and *Latin Post*, the Madhouse's 2011 version received more viewers not only in Japan but also around the world, particularly in the North America. [139][140] Digital Fox Media's Michael Basile of Fox Sports Digital Media praised the animation quality of the new adaptation, "the animation actually appears to get better and better as the series progresses. The color palette can shift from vibrant and inviting to grim and menacing at the drop of a hat, the character designs are unique and appealing, the CG is very minimal, and the action sequences are some of the best that the shounen genre has ever produced, on-par with the best works of Studio Bones. It's almost miraculous how consistently beautiful this anime is." He also considered it to be one of the best anime of all time."[141] Nick Creamer held similar sentiments, writing "the show's fantastic aesthetics elevate it above almost everything out there – in direction, in sound design, in pacing, in animation, in basically every relevant aesthetic metric, Hunter x Hunter triumphs. That it's been maintaining this level of quality for well over a hundred episodes is nothing short of astonishing.