Hunter x Hunter is an amazing series, with arcs like Yorknew City and Chimera Ant often hailed as among the best shonen arcs ever. However, like all long-running anime, not all of its stories are created equal, and certain creative choices are sure to make fans wonder why they were included.
Be it because of their off-putting nature, a sense of pointlessness, or their poor use of characters, there are many parts of the series that even the most passionate fans don't like. Hunter x Hunter is a classic anime with its share of controversial, unusual and questionable storylines, from Illumi's obsession with Killua to Gon's breakdown in the Chimera Ant arc.
Hisoka's Obsession With Gon Is Disturbing
Fans love Hisoka Morrow for his style, badass moments, humor and ingenious schemes. What fans are more split on are his feelings toward the series' protagonist, Gon Freeccs. Hisoka lives solely to fulfill his lust for fighting and crushing powerful opponents, and he's more than happy to allow those he sees potential in to live and grow stronger until he feels they've reached the peak of their potential.
In their earliest encounters during the Hunter Exam arc, Hisoka takes an interest in Gon, seeing great potential in him. However, not only is he obsessed with Gon throughout the rest of the series, but in both the manga and the anime, Hisoka's desires for the 12-year-old boy are heavily implied to be sexual in nature. While this absolutely succeeds in making Hisoka more frightening as a villain, it also turns many fans off of him entirely, rendering them incapable of enjoying the other aspects of the series' most prominent antagonist.
Gon and Killua's Time With Zepile Feels Pointless
Before getting into conflict with the Phantom Troupe, Gon and Killua spend their time in Yorknew City attempting to earn money to purchase a copy of Greed Island at the upcoming auction. They purchase various items to sell for a higher amount, but when they take them to a pawnbroker, they're nearly scammed. Zepile, a former counterfeiter turned antique trader, turns up just in time to expose the pawnbroker's attempts to buy one of the boys' items for far less than its worth. He teams up with Gon and Killua to sell their items elsewhere, educates them on counterfeiting, and acts as a friend for the rest of the arc.
On its own, Zepile's section of the story is enjoyable enough. However, his lack of relevance in the story after his introduction makes his existence feel like a waste of time, especially as Gon and Killua earning money doesn't end up mattering in the long run. After helping the boys, all Zepile does in the series is get drunk with Leorio and get knocked out by Killua at the 288th Hunter Exam. Zepile isn't a bad character, but it's hard not to wonder why he was included at all.
Fans Don't Love Ikalgo's Struggle
After befriending Killua, Ikalgo, a Chimera Ant, betrays his people and joins the Chimera Ant Extermination Team. When the palace invasion is launched, Ikalgo is assigned the duty of rescuing the team's agent on the inside, Palm Siberia. This results in an extended conflict between Ikalgo and the far more powerful Chimera Ants, Welfin and Bloster.
The tension is high during Ikalgo's scenes, and the strategies he comes up with to survive against his enemies are clever. However, with how slow-paced these scenes are and how much else goes on at the same time, with characters fans care about far more, many find Ikalgo's desperate struggle to be more of an annoying waste of time than anything else. With Palm herself ultimately not even in need of being rescued, the entire affair can even feel pointless, especially for those who fail to become emotionally engaged in Ikalgo, Welfin and Bloster's stories.
Illumi's Obsession With Killua Is Way Too Creepy
Illumi Zoldyck is Killua's eldest brother, and even more than their father, Silva, he is responsible for the bulk of the trauma in his younger brother's life. Killua is an assassin prodigy, and Illumi sees it as his responsibility to make sure he grows up to be a cold-hearted master assassin and a proper head of the family. To this end, he emotionally torments and manipulates Killua and even sticks one of his Nen Needles in his brain to subtly control him.
As the series goes on and Illumi becomes more frustrated with losing his grip on Killua, his calm, emotionless persona breaks, and the depths of his obsession with his younger brother are revealed. Given Illumi's close friendship with Hisoka, Illumi's chilling grins and dramatic speeches regarding Killua make his feelings about him easy to interpret as similar to Hisoka's feelings toward Gon. Illumi has always been effortlessly loathsome, but there was little reason to take him in this direction.
Leorio Becoming a Doctor Keeps Him Out of the Story
As a child, Leorio Paradinight lost his best friend because he couldn't afford expensive medical care. This made Leorio obsessed with money and instilled in him a drive to become a doctor who would care for every patient who came to him. This is a valiant goal for one of the four main characters of Hunter x Hunter to have, but unfortunately, it's also limited his inclusion in the story.
While a significant part of the Hunter Exam and Zoldyck Family arcs, Leorio becomes largely irrelevant after them. He's a supporting character in the Yorknew City and 13th Hunter Association Chairman Election arcs. Still, his roles in these arcs are ultimately meaningless, and he's absent entirely from the Heaven's Arena, Greed Island and Chimera Ant arcs. Hunter x Hunter is a battle shonen, and Leorio's dedication to his medical studies makes him not only incapable of engaging in combat but disinterested in doing so at all. Leorio is well-loved by fans, but he'd be even more popular if he hadn't been saddled with a storyline that keeps him from appearing more often.
Gon's Date With Palm Is Uncomfortable
After Gon fails to defeat Knuckle Bine, thus breaking his promise to her, Palm forces Gon to go out on a date with her. With how terrifying Palm is consistently shown to be, Killua is paranoid about what she may do to Gon, who's unable to access his Nen, so he follows the two around on their date. She ends up attacking the boys in a fit of rage before being halted by her mentor, Knov.
This story is meant to be a comedic interlude in the middle of the grim Chimera Ant arc. However funny some fans may find Palm's antics, it's difficult to get past her being a 22-year-old woman interested in going on a date with a 13-year-old boy. There were certainly other options for comedic side stories that could have been featured instead of one that ruins Palm for many viewers.
Gon's Breakdown in the Chimera Ant Arc Makes Many Fans Hate Him
Throughout the bulk of Hunter x Hunter, Gon displays troubling behavior for a 12-year-old boy but is primarily a prototypical, good-natured, shonen protagonist. This changes during the Chimera Ant arc, where, while the arc's villain, the Chimera Ant King Meruem, learns to be more human, Gon transforms into a monster.
Neferpitou's murder of Kite and the general stress of his hopeless situation shatter Gon mentally, resulting in him doing many horrible things. Despite all the love Killua has for him, Gon makes clear to his best friend that he cares more about getting his revenge. He threatens to murder an innocent and defenseless Komugi to get to Neferpitou, and upon discovering that Neferpitou can't bring Kite back to life, he brutally slaughters them. While some fans enjoy and appreciate the darker direction Gon was taken and think that the reveal of his "true nature" was set up well, others see it as a betrayal of a character they once loved, who they can no longer enjoy.
Nanika Restoring Gon to Life Feels Cheap
After Gon destroys his own body during the Chimera Ant arc, Killua rescues his younger sister, Alluka Zoldyck, from their family and uses the wish-granting powers of the entity with which she shares a body, Nanika, to heal him. Alluka is a popular character among Hunter x Hunter fans, but opinions are more split on Nanika and her function in the story.
While Alluka's inclusion is a necessity in the 13th Hunter Association Chairman Election arc, as finding purpose in protecting her and breaking free of his co-dependency with Gon is a perfect ending to Killua's arc, many fans wish that Gon had been killed off. While Gon does lose his Nen after being restored by Nanika, as well as his relevance in the story, his continuing to live in good health can be seen as undercutting the ending of the Chimera Ant arc. Even among those who don't wish Gon had been left dead, it's felt that healing him should have been a far more arduous task and that Nanika's existence is overly convenient.
Genthru Is a Conspicuously Weak Antagonist
Hunter x Hunter is famous for having many of the greatest villains in any anime. Fans revere Hisoka, Ilumi, the Phantom Troupe, Meruem and his Royal Guard, and Pariston Hill. In stark contrast to all of them, there is the main antagonist of the Greed Island arc, Genthru the Bomber.
What makes many of the series' villains so popular are the depths they're allowed to show. It's not hard to root for members of the Phantom Troupe or Royal Guard, and even purely despicable characters like Hisoka and Illumi are easy to invest in because of how well-developed they are. Genthru has a cool power, and his fight with Gon is arguably Gon's best fight in the entire series, notable as the only time Gon defeats the main villain of an arc, but as an antagonist, he's incredibly shallow. He's devious and ruthless and wants to win Greed Island for purely selfish purposes, and apart from having genuine care for his partners, that's all there is to him. With how poorly he stands out among the rest of the series' rogues gallery, it's odd that more wasn't done with him.
The First Episode of the 2011 Anime Has a Controversial Starting Point
By and large, the 2011 adaptation of Hunter x Hunter from Madhouse is a more loyal adaptation of the manga than the 1999 adaptation, which included a great deal of filler. The one massive exception to this that makes fans tilt their heads to this day is the 2011 anime's decision to excise the events of Chapter 1, in which Gon meets Kite. Instead, the series begins with Gon leaving Whale Island to take the Hunter Exam.
This creative choice is baffling because of how important Kite and his relationship with Gon are in the Chimera Ant arc. The logic is that the 2011 adaptation's opening is more exciting and enables Kurapika and Leorio to be introduced in the first episode. Still, for those who have never read the manga or watched the 2011 anime, it can make the Chimera Ant arc a difficult viewing experience. Gon's character development during Hunter x Hunter's darkest story hinges on his affection toward Kite, and without the background knowledge of why Kite is so important to him, it's difficult to sympathize with Gon, and the atrocious actions he performs in Kite's name are impossible to understand.
