Title: Hunter x Hunter Volume(s): 22+ Creator(s): Yoshihiro Togashi Format: Unflipped; Right-to-Left Publisher: Viz Media MSRP: $7.95 Genre(s): Action/Martial Arts Rated: Older Teen (16+)

CONSUMER ADVICE

Parents might not want to let their kids read this series unless they are sure kids can handle the violence in this series. While most of the characters are given cute facial expressions and are very young, the intense fight sequences and psychotic villains will certainly bother most kids. There is also some mild foul language and several uses of tobacco and alcohol. Women may not care for this series much. There are no female characters in the series at this point, and the series revolves around nothing but fighting (at this point in time).

Many of you know that when I started reading "Yu Yu Hakusho," I felt that it was a series that had potential to be a classic that ended up falling flat on its face by trying to be a "Dragonball" clone. I still stand by what I said. While I did admire the effort author Yoshihiro Togashi put into "Yu Yu Hakusho," I just felt the storytelling just fell through the cracks at the end of the day. A couple years after having first read "Yu Yu Hakusho," I was able to read his next series, "Hunter x Hunter." From what I had read from other people about "Hunter x Hunter," it is a very good series. Many people I know gave the series glowing reviews, some of them saying that "Hunter x Hunter" was addicting in the areas "Yu Yu Hakusho" failed to be. What pushed me over the edge into checking the series out was the cheap $7.99 price tag. I mean, who can resist a deal like that?

After reading three books of this series, I can't say I'm impressed. The story of "Hunter x Hunter" is a simple one. The story revolves around a young teenage boy named Gon Freaks (boy, what a name), whose lifelong dream is to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a Hunter. A Hunter is basically someone who travels the world and hunts down treasures, magical beasts, and even other men. It's a brutal, merciless job, so naturally Gon is a cheerful, happy-go-lucky kid. But to become a Hunter, Gon first has to pass a set of entrance exams. Gon enters a Hunter's tournament of some sort, where he meets several friends as well as several rivals.

And that's really about it. "Hunter x Hunter”’s biggest problem is that the storytelling for the series seems extremely lazy and rushed at the same time. The author explains what a Hunter is in the first chapter, and starting in the second chapter Gon is already taking his Hunter exams. This creates the first major problem of "Hunter x Hunter," which is that the adventure begins before you really get a grasp of what is going on and who everyone is. In "Yu Yu Hakusho," Togashi may have killed Yusuke on the very first page of the series, but he then goes on to establish who Yusuke is, what his life was like, and what his feelings about his life and friends (or lack of friends) were. It was a powerful opening that left you wanting to read more, as you found yourself truly caring for Yusuke and his dilemma. In "Hunter x Hunter," Gon becomes a Hunter only panels after he is introduced, but the author never really gives us a feeling for who this character is or what his life is really like. Sure, he may be cheerful and have spiked hair, but who is this guy really? What is his life like? Why is following in his father’s footsteps so important to him? For that matter, who is his father (I'm sure this would help us identify with Gon's desire to be like his old man). None of these questions are addressed, and Togashi seems to assume we're reading "Hunter x Hunter" just so that we can observe the journey.

It doesn't help matters that other characters that are introduced have even less personality and history than Gon, and what ends up happening is we get bored of the journey before it even starts just because we have no idea who these people are and are given no reason to care about their journey. There are deeper and more complex characters to be found in "SGT Frog," and that's a series that isn't even supposed to be deep in any significant way.
Then once the tournament starts the pacing of the series goes to hell, as events make little to no sense, and many of the situations just seem to be thrown in randomly, as if Togashi was hoping people would be too distracted with the action to realize that things were happening for no reason at all.

The Three Stooges return as you've never seen them before.

Speaking of action sequences, many people will be shocked to discover that the action sequences in "Hunter x Hunter" are flat, lifeless, and lacking any sort of emotion or suspense of any kind. When it’s time for two characters to fight, they usually face each other, wait for the bell to ring, and start attacking each other. Before the reader has a chance to figure out what is going on, the fight is over, leaving the reader wondering whether he or she missed something or not. On and on this series goes, giving the reader one random story twist and fight sequence after another. You could play the single-player campaign of "Street Fighter II" and find a more coherent story in that game than you'll find in this comic.

Ideally, the one saving grace for "Hunter x Hunter" should be its artwork, but I can't even praise the artwork in this series. If there's one thing I can't fault "Yu Yu Hakusho" for not having, it was good artwork. The artwork in that series was excellent, as it was very detailed, clear, and well-drawn. In comparison, "Hunter x Hunter" looks like an amateur project gone horribly wrong, with horrid character designs, poor backgrounds, and (mostly) squiggly lines. It's hard to believe that Togashi made "Yu Yu Hakusho" in 1991 while he made "Hunter x Hunter" in 1999, as the artwork in "Yu Yu Hakusho" looks like twenty years of advancement in comparison to "Hunter x Hunter." For some reason, I think it's wrong that an older series looks more advanced than the newer series.

And here I thought fighting subtitles went the way of the 60's "Batman" show.

My final verdict for "Hunter x Hunter" is far more simple than I would have liked it to be, but I just can't recommend this series to anyone. I know this series has gotten extremely positive reviews over the years, and I know I'm going to look like a bully picking on the most popular series with this review, but "Hunter x Hunter" is just a poor series for a variety of different reasons. I gave this series a fair chance. Really, I did. I held off writing this review for three books, hoping that maybe I would be proven wrong, that the series just started out poorly and got better after the first couple books. No such luck. I read three books of this series, and I didn't like it once while I was reading any one of them. If this series gets better, then I will be shocked and amazed. Whether I ever read more "Hunter x Hunter" is another question altogether. The books are cheap, but I just don't feel like I have the patience to read any more of the series than I already have. A real disappointment.