When I turned on Netflix, Hunter X Hunter jumped out at me, and I had a full bowl of Cheerios and didn't want to search. A good enough reason to watch.
Left: The show is apparently popular enough for cosplay. But it just dropped on Netflix. What's going on? Oh well, nice bulge.
First Intro: Annoyingly upbeat: "You can smile again...you can fly again...just find the power that's within you" or something like that.
Second Intro: A map of the world with various regions popping out: Strange Beasts, Hidden Treasures, Evil Haunts, Uncharted Frontiers.and the Mysterious Unknown. Scary zombie hands try to grab it all; the narrator informs us that these zombies are called "Hunters." So having adventures is evil?
Scene 1: Whale Island. A green-haired boy named Gon is fishing. Back on the docks, fishermen gossip that if he catches the Master of the Swamp, he'll be allowed to take the Hunter Exam. No way a little kid could catch that fish! "Yes, that's the idea," Mito, who looks his age but is actually his aunt/guardian, reveals. "He'll never catch the fish, so he'll never take the Hunter Exam and become one of those scary zombie monsters!"
But Gon catches it, and drags it back to the dock. Everyone cheers. Mito has no choice but to give him permission to become..ugh...a Hunter.
Left: The show is popular enough for action figures. And it's Hunter x Hunter (the x is dropped).
Scene 2: Mito and her Great-Grandmother complaining. No one has caught that fish for 100 years, so we thought it was a sure thing. But Gon somehow did it! We're stuck! He's just like his father, always obsessed by...ugh...adventures.
Later, as Gon packs, Mito tries to talk him out of it: "your father was about your age when he abandoned all of us to become an...ugh...Hunter. Do you really want to betray your family?" "Yep!"
"Do you care about some dumb old adventure more than your loving family?""Yep!"
"Aren't you afraid of being killed by the horrible monsters in the uncharted regions?" "Nope!"
Scene 3: Mito crying and hugging Gon and making him promise that he'll be safe. Ugh! Let's get to the monsters!
Scene 4: Gon saying goodbye to the townsfolk as the ship slo.....www....ly disembarks. This show could use better pacing.
Scene 5: On the ship, the other Hunter applicants laugh at Gon. He befriends an androgynous, bullied-sailor in training, Kaizo (I assume they are a boy).
Later, Gon tells the Drunken Captain that there's a storm coming -- he can tell by the smell of the air. The Captain thinks: "This boy...those eyes!"Ok...um...a little pervy.
Scene 5: The storm appears as promised, but the Captain doesn't mind. He seems to enjoy plowing through it. By the way, it's a sailboat, but there are modern instruments on the bridge. Afterwards, the Captain drinks (more) while the Hunter applicants keel over from seasickness. Gon and Katzo go around, offering water and medicinal herbs.
The Captain stares at him again, but soon is distracted by a blond boy reading a manga in a hammock and a guy in a blue suit eating an apple. "Some of them are ok," he concludes. Ok for what? Does he have a nefarious plot?
Scene 6: The Captain summons Gon and the two other applicants who didn't get seasick -- Kurapika (blond) and Leorio (suit), and asks why they want to become Hunters. Gon: "My dad is a hunter," Leorio: "None of your business, you f*king jerk!" Kurapita: "I respectfully refuse to divulge my reasons."Actually, it takes him five minutes to finish respectfully refusing. More pacing problems!
The Captain advises them to answer, since the Hunter Exam has already begun. The applicants who got seasick have already been disqualified.
After sniping at each other for awhile, the two others agree to tell. Kurapita: "The Phantom Troupe killed my entire clan. I want to become a Hunter so I can get revenge." I thought Hunters were explorers, not vigilantes.
Leorio: "I want to become a Hunter for the money. I want a big mansion, a cool car, and lots of booze." Hey, he doesn't mention acquiring women! Score one for lack of heteronormativity.
Scene 7: Leorio and Kurapita go up on deck to fight. But the storm is still raging, and they're approaching a waterspout!
Katzo is blown overboard, so Gon rushes to his rescue, and is blown overboard, too. Leorio and Kurapita rescue them, then apologize to each other for their rude behavior earlier. Seeing their change of attitude, the Captain decides to let all three go on to the next level. The end.
Animation: I don't care for anime style, especially the set-pieces with heavily exaggerated reactions.
Hunters: I was misled by the scary zombie hands in the second intro, but apparently Hunters are benevolent, or at least respected.
Katzo: You think that characters will be important, but by the time you learn their names, they are dropped.
Pacing: Very slow. An entire episode just to reach the city where the testing will begin?
Gay Potential: Creator Yoshihiro Tagashi apparently tweeted: "Why do my fans ship Killua and Gon? U guys are gay!" If he's actually homophobic, there won't be any canonical gay characters. But...no one expresses any heterosexual desire, apparently throughout the series, and it looks like all of the main characters are men, so there should be ample subtexts.
Late to the Party: Hunter x Hunter is a manga series published since 1998 (36 volumes so far, most available in English). There was a tv series in 1999-2001; this is the second, from 2011-2014. All 142 episodes are up on Netflix, but who has time to dive head-first into a franchise that began long ago? At two episodes per day, I would be done sometime in June.
Left: Griffin Burns from far down the voice cast list.