**Spoilers Ahead**

I don’t know what the writers were thinking when they came up with this anime. HunterXHunter is set in a world where being a hunter is an ultimate job. You can be any type of hunter that you want, a magical beast hunter, cooking hunter, explorer hunter etc. The story follows a 12 year old boy named Gon living on a small island with his Aunt Mito and Grandma. He’s out fishing and catches a legendary catfish from the lake which was a prerequisite for him being able to take the Hunter’s Exam. It’s revealed that Gon was left on the island by his Dad Ging (Pronounced Jean) who supposedly is a great hunter. So Gon wants to take the Hunter Exam so he can find his Dad and figure out why he left him on the island to be a Hunter.

Gon is the typical overly optimistic protagonist that you would see in any anime. Hyper focused on always wanting to do the right thing and since he grew up on an island he’s also naive to the workings of the world. In the anime on Netflix we see 6 of the 8 major story arcs portrayed in 6 season with the Chimera Ant Arc spanning 61 episodes. Along his journey he meets up with allies in the form of Kilua, Kurapika and Leorio.

Season 1-3 Hunter Exam Arc, Heaven’s Arena Arc and YorkNew City Arc revolved around the growth of each character, what their motivations were, and how they developed new skills and techniques. At a certain point they went their separate ways and and met back together again. It really kept me wanting to keep watching. In the YorkNew City Arc they drifted away from Gon trying to find his Dad and delved into more of Kurapika and his back story.

Season 4, Greed Island Arc is where it started getting weird for me. First off there was no Kurapika or Leorio and in order to play the game you had to use you Nen (Aura) to activate the game then be transported into the game. Greed Island was a video game that was the most sought after and most expensive game in the auction of the YorkNew City Arc. What led Gon and Kilua there was a memory card that Ging, Gon’s Dad, had left him with a save file that supposedly had a message for him on it. After figuring out a way to be able to play the game, it turns out that Ging and his friends made the game and it was another dead end for Gon finding his Dad. Ging just wanted Gon to enjoy the game. The game turns out was played on a real island where the laws of physics doesn’t exist and you can program teleportation and all sorts of magical things to work in the real world. It was super strange to me, who the hell was Ging and all his friends that they could do this.

Season 5, Chimera Ant Arc and Season 6, 13th Hunter Chairman Arc is where the disappointment happened. First off Season 5 was 61 episodes and it reminded why I started to dislike Dragon Ball Z. The episodes just went on and on and it felt like the plot was never moving forward and this would be the first time Gon would find out that his optimism and grit weren’t going to to get him through. It was such a tough time for them. The Chimera Ant Arc introduced characters that reminded me of other characters from other anime such as Knuckles, who reminded me of Kuabara for YuYu Hakusho: Spirit Detective and the King who looked like Cell and Frieza from DBZ had a baby. The Ending of that Arc was anticlimactic but I will say that there was a part that pulled on my heart strings which were toward the beginning and the end.

Season 6 was short with only 12 episodes so I’ll keep this short too. The 13th Chairman Arc deals with the fall out of Season 5 and primes for Season 7 which is not on Netflix. Ging is finally revealed as a member of the Zodiac, which a group of top Hunters in the Hunter’s Association. This really upset me because if they all rallied in Season 5, Season 5 would have been 12 episodes too and I wouldn’t have had to slough through 61 episodes of non-sense. Leorio makes another appearance on the series and Gon finally meets his Dad.

This meeting between Gon and his Dad was the reason I watched all 148 episodes on Netflix. Gon just wanted to know what his Dad wanted so bad that he left his son back on that island. Instead of waiting for his son to complete an errand and come back to talk to him, Ging left his son and told him to meet him on top of the world tree. This is where I started to think Ging is a POS Deadbeat. So Gon travels to the world tree which turns out is the tallest in the world over 1,000 meters high. When he finally reaches the top and meets up with Ging he asks him his question. Ging tells him, “He wanted what he couldn’t have.”, he then went on to some other BS about whatever that meant. I mean 148 Episodes and that’s the answer I get?! Near death experience after near death experience and then you had me climb the worlds tallest tree?!? If I was Gon I would have pushed Ging to his death!! I was hella mad!

Season 6 primed for the Dark Continent Arc which was not on Netflix and maybe there is more to the story than how Season 6 ended but it doesn’t change that fact that Ging Freecss is a deadbeat Dad and at every chance he had he dodged being around his son. Gon’s best friend Kilua comes from a family of assassins and his Dad Silva at least wanted Kilua to be a part of the family business. This Dad assassin is a better father figure than Ging is.

Bottom Line: Watch Season 1-3 maybe 4. but you can definitely skip out on Season 5 just watch a highlight video of it on YouTube then maybe watch Season 6 if you want something to waste your time like it did mine.

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