Review: Hunter x Hunter (1999)
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January 11, 2012 • Esteban Avila
Filed under Reviews, Television, Top Stories
Hunter x Hunter (1999) is an anime based on the manga by Yoshishiro Togashi which has been published in Weekly Shonen Jump since March 3, 1998. It was animated by Nippon Animation and aired from October 16, 1999 to March 31, 2001 on Fuji Television in Japan for a total of 62 episodes. It was released in North America by Viz Media direct to DVD on December 9, 2008 through December 1, 2009. It later aired on the Funimation Channel starting in 2009.
This anime adaptation differs in execution from most Shonen Jump anime in that it expands on events of the manga rather than creating “filler” episodes as a method of keeping the story from catching up to the manga’s serialization.
Despite this the anime ended due to frequent hiatuses in the manga’s publication. This was met with much dissatisfaction from fans. The series was later continued in the form of direct to DVD OVA (Original Video Animation). These were released from January 17, 2002 to August 18, 2004.Viz however chose not to release the OVA in North America. Despite the slower rate of releases by OVA, the series again caught to the manga’s troubled serialization.
In July 2011, Madhouse announced plans to create a new adaptation of Hunter x Hunter starting from the very beginning of the manga rather than continuing where Nippon Animation left off. The new adaptation began airing on October 2, 2011 and adapts the manga much more faithfully. This differs from Nippon Animation’s style of putting their own spin on the series by expanding events and character development in their own way.
The 1998 adaptation doesn’t seem to have much of a point now that the 2011 adaptation is being produced. The 2011 version does a better job of adapting the source material and it’s likely that will bring a conclusion to the story. It’s time to discover how the 1998 adaptation holds up.
In the series a Hunter is regarded as a special part of society with many useful privileges. Primarily a Hunter’s objective is to “hunt” for various things in the world. There are those who hunt people like a bounty hunter, discover new species, find lost treasure, and explore old ruins. In order to become a Hunter a person must pass a special test called the Hunter Exam.
The series follows four characters that befriend each other on their journey to become Hunters. The main character is Gon Freecss, a boy who grew up in a small village on Whale Island. He was raised by his Aunt Mito and knew nothing about his late parents. One day a Hunter named Kite comes to Whale Island. He befriends Gon and informs him that his father is still alive and a professional Hunter. Taking Kite’s advice, Gon decides to become a Hunter to find his father and follow in his footsteps.
The first person Gon meets on his travels is a guy named Leorio Paladiknight. Leorio’s reason for becoming a Hunter is that he wants to make a lot of money. His reason for wanting money is because money can buy everything, supposedly. However he actually wants the money to pay for tuition to medical school to become a doctor.
On his way to the exam site they meet a boy named Kurapika Kurta. He desires to become a blacklist hunter; one who hunts down people with bounties in order to bring them to justice. When he was young his entire clan was murdered by a band of thieves called the Phantom Troupe. He seeks to work his way up the chain for a chance to get his revenge for the death of his people.
At the Exam the group then meets Killua Zoldyck a boy the same age as Gon. Killua comes from a family of professional assassins and his reason for becoming a Hunter is because he’s bored.
The anime covers the Hunter Exam Arc through most of the Yorknew City Arc of the manga. The OVA concludes the Yorknew City Arc and covers the Greed Island Arc.
As mentioned before, the anime expands on the events of the manga, sometimes even changing the way events occur, and altering character development/plot points. A lot of the changes allow Nippon Animation to fill in the show’s timeslot with a single chapter. Since one chapter of the manga is released per week this greatly stalls the rate at which the anime series would catch up to the manga. The downside to these changes is that they cause the story to go at a rather slow pace.
Considering that the 2011 version is covering the manga accurately for the most part, the original content is one of the only reasons one could think of to watch the 1998 version.
So the question is whether they are good or not.
The answer is yes and no. Some of the ways they expand on details and backstory can be rather intrusive and the original content changes character development to the point where it would have made the Chimera Ant Arc rather awkward if it was ever animated due to changes in Gon’s personality the anime made.
The strongest and arguably only good example of Nippon Animation’s work on pacing the story is the Yorknew City Arc. Every little change added in it only adds to the experience of the Arc and there is never a boring moment.
The content in the show adapted from the manga is done great. The animation and script are leagues above other attempts at a Shonen Jump manga adaptation. It’s just a shame that they were forced into this slow pace by creating the anime while the manga was having a hard time putting out more chapters.
One of the best parts of the show is the soundtrack. The opening themes are one of their kind masterpieces that pump you up for a show and avoid the typical clipshow style that most Shonen series opt for. Toshihiko Sahashi did a great job composing fitting songs for pretty much any moment in the series and of course director Kazuhiro Furuhashi did well on deciding what song to put where.
The Japanese voice acting for the series is top-notch as we’ve come to expect from their consistent quality. The standouts are Yuki Kaida as Kurapika who actually became famous for the role and deservedly so and Hiroki Takahashi as the villainous Hisoka.
Unfortunately Viz Media didn’t contract with Studiopolis for the English voice actors like they usually do. They instead hired Ocean Productions who have a rather varying quality leaning on mediocre. The English dub of Hunter x Hunter is unfortunately one of those mediocre attempts at voice work. Most of the voice actors hired have never done voice work before and for that they do good but it’s not good enough. The only bit of acting above average comes from Annika Odegard as Killua and Brendan Hunter as Hisoka.
In the end Hunter x Hunter (1999) is a great anime that’s just extremely hard to recommend. The show has an extremely slow pace and makes more than a few odd changes to the story it’s an adaptation from. Then of course there’s the existence of the 2011 remake which is handled better overall. I’d recommend it to a big Hunter x Hunter fan but I reckon they’ve already gone and watched it. Everyone else should go watch the ongoing 2011 version.
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