Is HunterXHunter the best written battle shonen?

Recently, with the release of JJK season 3, there's been a lot of discussion on how battle shonen like JJK only rely on "hype aura farming moments" and that most authors struggle to make compelling stories with meaningful character arcs.

This can be for a number of reasons: due to pacing, pointless power ups, clichés, etc. But I feel like Hunter x Hunter doesn’t have any of that. The power system is probably one of the best in animanga, characters feel real, Gon isn’t your generic shonen protag who stays static, he spirals hard, and at the end of the most recent arc, he showed real flaws that will have to be addressed when he inevitably comes back.

So yeah, compared to other shonen that I’ve seen and enjoyed, JJK, Dragon Ball, One Piece, I feel like a lot of them are incredible at the spectacle and individual moments, but HxH is more consistent at making every arc feel memorable.

Voir le contenu lié

Commentaires

Wolfe2442026-01-24 23:25

Yes

I'd say honorable 2nd place goes to chainsaw man though

CorazonCracker2026-01-24 23:31

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Wolfe2442026-01-24 23:32

Anime fans really struggle to be normal

Use your words

CorazonCracker2026-01-24 23:32

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Wolfe2442026-01-24 23:34

You good?

Careless-Emphasis-802026-01-24 23:50

Love it when people pretend that chainsaw man doesn't have well done writing. Like, say what you will about the plot and art, but it is one of the few shonen manga that doesn't just info dump lore and power systems to you. Everything is conveyed through visuals and natural dialogue.

SnooPaintings69492026-01-25 01:27

Yup

The same admittedly can't be said about Hunter x hunter or should I say exposition x exposition

Adrian_Alucard2026-01-25 00:14

The parts adapted to anime are good, but soon it will become like Gantz if they continue with the adaptation

[https://i.imgflip.com/4y8jrj.png](https://i.imgflip.com/4y8jrj.png)

BiggieCheeseLapDog2026-01-24 23:27

It’s certainly my favourite, primarily due to the Chimera Ant arc.

Zynibo2026-01-24 23:29

It’s pretty decent, def one of my favorites

LaisyFaire2026-01-24 23:30

The incredibly poor pacing and massive power spike of the Chimera Ant arc annoyed the hell out of me. I hated Gon and the series by the end of it when I had loved everything up to that point.

MusubiKazesaru2026-01-24 23:35

The funny thing is that the pacing there was returned to a normal rate. They were rushing through 1-75 because all of the same content was covered in 1999 already. You can see them do that in many remakes like FMA or Dai.

emeraldwolf342026-01-24 23:31

I’d say Gintama and Karakuri Corcus are up there as my personal greatest, Dai no Daibouken as well.

Though for Karakuri Circus I’d only count its manga with how awful its anime was.

Scared_Living31832026-01-24 23:33

Gintama is better.

Mminas2026-01-24 23:42

Gintama is comedy and satire far more often than it is a battle anime.

Scared_Living31832026-01-24 23:48

Oh right. I forgot the battle in the title. Prolly hxh can't think if any other rn

Knuckleheaded-beardo2026-01-25 06:43

I second that.

SliderGamer552026-01-24 23:33

FMA and Attack on Titan are probably contenders. Mob Psycho too.

I dunno, "best written" is such a vague term. One Piece does writing that factually Hunter X Hunter can't do for example, just for sheer length at the very least.

MusubiKazesaru2026-01-24 23:34

I think without factoring in favorites, aside from it not having a conclusion it's likely the best objective battle shounen. I like YYH's anime slightly more, but I also prefer HxH slightly more in manga form as much as I like all three anime

beckychao2026-01-24 23:34

I understand people enjoy it, but I found it quite slow. I got like 24 episodes in and I gave up. It wasn't that interesting to me.

S-r-ex2026-01-25 00:11

HxH is absolutely slow burn, and at ep24, you just missed the mandatory tournament arc (which also explains a big part of the world building). If you're into big, flashy shonen fights, you'll be wowed eventually, but HxH focuses more on the buildup to those fights.

homegrownllama2026-01-25 03:40

I just don’t like it in anime format for the same reason.

Moose3342026-01-24 23:35

I enjoy HxH a fair bit. York New City arc is a masterpiece to me. Honestly the only part I straight up hated in HxH was when they introduced the Zodiacs. Talk about some of the goofiest character designs of all time. I just get mad looking at them lol

IchibeHyosu992026-01-24 23:35

Its on top compared to what I watched, but I think there are ones I havent watched yet

Yusifer2026-01-24 23:35

Honestly, it is.

Not only is the Power System (Nen) explained properly and very well balanced, it doesn't go reaching crazy ceilings either (ok the Ants were an exception here), if you compare it to other shounens.

But what it really made the best for me, was the Chimera Ant Arc. How they tackled defeating the King was so different from other shounen. Most shounen would form like an elite party and go in battle with them. Hunter x Hunter did almost the opposite, only a small strike team and not even to defeat all opponents, just seperate and stall them until the King is dealt with. Strategy kept prevailing from beginning to end.

The only downside of this Arc, as said before, was that the Ants seemed to grow a bit too big in power, but all the upsides pretty much negate it. I've seen comments that the pacing was poor, but I honestly didn't experience that. I've seen other shounen with far slower pacing, and I'm not even talking about fillers.

In Hunter x Hunter, you don't need to overpower your opponent to win. You just need the better strategy.

PS: For the record, I'm not saying other shounen don't do this. It's just that Hunter x Hunter does it far more. Personally I've always been a fan of strategy > power battles.

gsenjou2026-01-24 23:35

No, FMA Brotherhood exists.

IceAceIce82026-01-24 23:50

Overrated

Careless-Emphasis-802026-01-25 02:33

This is cap. Everyone who likes shonen should watch brotherhood. I guarantee at least 90% of people who watch it will the quality

p1agueOW2026-01-25 05:15

Probably not when you consider the Succession Contest arc, but anime only is a real debate. HxH has higher highs with the Chimera ant arc (which is like a full third of the anime) and Yorknew, whereas FMAB is consistent the whole way through.

Paks-of-Three-Firs2026-01-24 23:36

I don't really have an interest in it. But I was extremely interested in that conspiracy theory about one of the villains

HonkHonkMTHRFKR2026-01-24 23:36

The best written one is Yu Yu Hakusho. Same author as HxH.

The main characters have serious depth with actual character growth and even the villains in the show written well enough to where you understand who they are and their motivations most of the time.

Jusenkyo_52026-01-24 23:55

It's REALLY hard to top Dark Tournament or Chapter Black. Kuwabara is one of the GOAT side characters.

4mz02026-01-25 00:27

Chapter Black was peak imo the greatest arc in YYH with ease. I wish the Three Kings arc was fleshed out better as it had great potential, the manga for it was short & the anime felt a bit rushed by the end sadly

Ky0raku2026-01-24 23:37

If you could FMA as a battle shounen, no.

LowRace61842026-01-24 23:39

I mean, depends what you want from a battle Shonen. A lot of series do one element better than the others, I find FMAB for example handles character relationships/interactions the best while HxH has the best arc structure. Every arc builds up to the climax amazingly with great pay off that builds into the next arc. If we are going to give one series the "overall" best writing tag I would say Mob Psycho but again battle Shonen's usually focus on one element due to being so fast paced.

Jusenkyo_52026-01-24 23:47

It's good, but I have 1000 grievances with it.

People will always say that nen is the best power system in anime but low-key it doesn't result in great fights all that often. There's like a 60 episode build up to nen even existing and then it feels like basically everyone either has a ridiculous power or is just an enhancer.

I also don't really like the majority of the side cast, and the series being unfinished lets it get away with a lot. HxH never has to rectify the fact that 99% of revenge stories suck because Kurapika's story peaked like 20 years ago. HxH gets away with the "shounen anime doesn't have consequences" trope because it hasn't written far enough for Gon's development to get fixed yet. The Phantom Troupe is corny and lacks depth. Chimera Ant is like 30 episodes too long and has very little to do with the rest of the series.

Pre-timeskip Naruto and Yu Yu Hakusho are my favorites.

Careless-Emphasis-802026-01-25 02:45

I know you'll get flames for this, but I have to agree with you. I've thought about I think hxh is so much more mid than everyone, and I think it was pretty original for the time and has some very good moments.

Jusenkyo_52026-01-25 02:57

It has some 10/10 moments, I just don't think it's a 10/10 anime lol.

Careless-Emphasis-802026-01-25 03:43

100% agree

Knuckleheaded-beardo2026-01-25 06:41

Finally, someone who isn't blindly deep throating H×H.

Adrian_Alucard2026-01-26 22:40

>People will always say that nen is the best power system in anime

"If you need to power up just make a pinky promise to yourself"

Jusenkyo_52026-01-26 22:42

Lol I actually do think that that's a cool aspect of it, but why introduce a whole system where each person falls into a category, can use but not master adjacent categories, and is weak against the opposite category and barely ever use or reference it again?

Adrian_Alucard2026-01-26 23:12

>whole system where each person falls into a category, can use but not master adjacent categories, and is weak against the opposite category

Except if you are Kurapika, then you can use all categories with no penalization

Or you are Chrollo and you can steal whatever power you want, again, with no penalization

HxH power system is broken, it can be ignored if the plot demands it, like in most battle shonen

Careless-Emphasis-802026-01-24 23:52

I personally did not find much appeal in hxh. I found the main character boring, the overall plot directionless (maybe the manga feels less like this), and the character design weak. This is my personal feelings, and I understand it is an unpopular opinion.

Adrian_Alucard2026-01-25 00:10

Gon and Killua are basically Goku. The moment they are presented with a new concept they dominate it effortlessly with little to no training (poor little Zushi, he put so much time and passion training only for Killua and Gon mop the floor with him just after a couple day of discovering the existence on Nen)

Also, everybody and their mom know know about nen, is not like is some sort of secret art (again, look at Zushi, he is not even a hunter, just a small kid), except Gon and Killua

Ok, Gon live in a small island, But Killua is an expert and well trained assassin, even Killua's little brother (Kalluto) knows about nen, the Zoldycks family butlers too

I found HxH worldbuilding rushed, filled with plotholes

Resubmitted post without the spoilers (man, the format to post spoilers is really annoying)

Dizzy-By-Degrees2026-01-25 00:33

It's so weird Hunter X Hunter introduces that there's two ways of awakening Nen: years of hard work to unlock the fundamentals and a guy taping you on the shoulder in his hotel room so that you can skip all that.

And they don't even pretend there's any reason to not just do the second option.

tomato_blitz2026-01-25 00:37

iirc it’s only possible for Gon and Killua because they’re not exactly ordinary and would kill regular people.

Dizzy-By-Degrees2026-01-25 00:41

It kills or seriously hurts people if it's down with violent intent (which is why all their enemies in the Tower are missing body parts).

But Gon and Killua need to learn it in an hour because we've decided this series is about Nen energy now.

Adrian_Alucard2026-01-25 00:39

It is even repeated in the chimera ant arch

This rabbit chicken thing ant has nen now because it fought with Gon and Killua, let it attack its allies so they all have nen too

And absolute nobody has to train the slightest to fully dominate it

MathRockEnjoyer4202026-01-25 00:13

It's my personal favorite battle shonen so sure lol

Dizzy-By-Degrees2026-01-25 00:42

Depends on what you value in your battle shonen adventure stories. Because if you want balls-out action then get ready for 50 episodes of that just not happening. That's not the point or the appeal to Hunter X Hunter. Hunter X Hunter is a series where they'll spend an episode talking about antiquing that might be relevant someday, while the story arcat large is a mob movie with magic guns.

> Gon isn’t your generic shonen protag who stays static, he spirals hard, and at the end of the most recent arc, he showed real flaws that will have to be addressed when he inevitably comes back.

Not for nothing but you can say the same about Naruto.

The-6th-Goblin2026-01-25 03:44

I don't think it's even Togashi's best work (YYH is).

abandoned_idol2026-01-25 05:09

No. Not for as long as "World Trigger" exists.

That said HxH is my 2nd most favorite battle shounen, so it's nothing to be disappointed about

OP, you need World Trigger... but you should wait for the season 1 reboot to air first.

InsertRealisticQuote2026-01-26 04:19

World trigger is probably the best written battle shonen. The tactics used, the characters motivations, and the overall plot are all very well thought out. A lot of characters are introduced and each one seems unique with their own style and backstory. Its not as flashy as other battle shonen but everything seems to be considered carefully and crafted to create a world filled with a lot of conflicting motivations.