Hunter X Hunter and endless hiatus (Review)

Hunter X Hunter is about Gon, who decided to become Hunter. Hunters in this series's world are respected people who have various set of skills and goals. He's basically trying to follow his fathers, who has been gone all his life, footsteps. The exam to become Hunter can be described as ruthless. At the Hunter exam Gon meets Killua, and they quickly become friends. This is how the story begins, but is nowhere limited to it.

Hunter X Hunter is one of my long favorites. I watched the original anime through like 10 years ago and absolutely loved it. Greed Island OVAs which aired a lot later were also good quality and a great watch. I've also watched the new 2011 anime, but haven't really noticed any improvement regarding the original story. I have sort of high hopes of the new anime if it ever gets to the Ant arc which is brutal and at the same time very exciting. I pretty much enjoyed it as manga. What actually bothers me in HxH is that its author Yoshihiro Togashi is taking very long pauses in between releasing new chapters. Can't really remember how long it took for him to complete ant arc but it sure was a long time. The arc after ants was amazing and we finally got to see some sides of characters which people had longed to see.

The art has been for the most part good, but can be as of after the Greed Island arc to be called as varying. I remember the art being honestly like crap too often in the weekly jump when Togashi was being sick and sometimes it was from decent to even good. He improved his art when the chapters were about to be released in volumes (tankobon format). It never bothered me too much since the story was so good and interesting to read, but it is as it is.

The character development and friendship between Gon and Killua has been very enjoyable to read and they have personalities that fulfill each other very well. Kurapica and Leorio I consider decent or good at the best, but it doesn't really matter since Yoshihiro Togashi seemed to realize this too by showing less of them. But the main characters in this series (even though they are good) are not the best thing, but it's the villains and the side characters that excell in Hunter X Hunter. Villains such as Hisoka (which is one of my all time favorite villains), Genei Ryodan etc. are excellent and Hisoka may easily take the top 1 place in my villain ranking if I decide to make one in the future. As for side characters I have to say that this is where HxH really does it's job well: Hunter Organisation's president Netero, Gon's father Gin, Kaito etc. are characters that aren't shown much but have had a huge impact considering the development of the series.

The story is a very good one and Togashi has managed to make it linear but very varying. When considering the beginning of the series and going through all the nen training finally to the ant arc it's great to see how the characters have developed power wise and that the series had managed to always make itself better, even though ant arc wasn't as excellent as the others. After the ant arc I have to say that Hunter X Hunter managed to make itself so good that it  was truly enjoayble to read it week after week before it going back to hiatus. The cliffhanger that we have been left currently was an excellent one.

So what makes Hunter X Hunter such a good watch and read? I'd have to say that I really can't descibe it. I've sort of grown with the series for many years and I believe that if I'd begin watching or reading it today I wouldn't appreciate is as much as I do right now. Originally the originality of typical shonen power ups intrigued me greatly. Now the new plot developments which happened after Ant Arc really kept me going since Togashi managed to spin all the beliefs about the "world" around. You have to see it to feel the excitement.

All in all I really can't do anything else but to recommend HxH to anyone who appreciates better than decent shonen.