Hunter × Hunter is an anime I’ve heard about for a long time but I’ve mostly ignored it. I wanted a new anime to watch and decided on it after I realized that the guy who wrote the manga was the same guy behind Yu Yu Hakusho, one of my absolute favorite animes of all time. This isn’t the first anime based on the manga because for some reason, the original one didn’t go more than a few seasons but this one goes up to 6.

The primary character is Gon, a young boy who was abandoned by his father. His papa decided that being a hunter was more important than being a dad. But Gon makes his goal in life to see why his dad was not in the picture anymore.

Which involves him taking the hunter exam when he turns 12 years old. Hunters are the best of the best and there’s apparently a lot of benefits to being a hunter for various reasons. Most of the applicants are skilled adults, as the hunter exam is (in truth) many phases of very tough challenges.

Many of which are actually quite deadly and it’s not uncommon to see an applicant of the hunter exam lose their life.

Animes are like sitcoms; without a strong cast of supporting characters, it kind of falls apart. Luckily they did a decent job with Gon’s friends. The one I liked the most was Kurapika, whom is a lot like Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho.

I was trying to figure out Leorio and then I realized he was the Kazuma Kuwabara of Hunter × Hunter. When he got to “hand inspect” something “warm” that’s when I realized the similarities.

And finally there’s Killua, who has a lot of similarities with Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho, despite liking the main character from the start. Despite his small size and nature, he’s absolutely deadly, just like Hiei.

Hisoka became pretty obvious as the main villain season 1 from the start, though he doesn’t do a whole lot of evil to the main cast. I doubt he’ll be the main baddie of the entire series, but I’m sure we’ll see more of him when I get to watching season 2.

Overall I liked but didn’t love the first season of Hunter × Hunter. I heard many praises online about it, but it’s definitely not as good as the first season of Yu Yu Hakusho. The powers of certain characters are kind of lame, it’s definitely less violent, and even at the end of season 1; I’m not even quite sure what a hunter really is. But I will definitely start the second season fairly shortly.