Hunter X Hunter (2011 anime) ~ Hunter Exam story arc review

The first story arc of Hunter X Hunter anime (the 2011 remake) had just finished its run on Animax Asia. It revolves around the Hunter Exam that our four protaganists; Gon, Kurapika, Leorio and Killua, enter in order to become professional Hunters and to get the Hunter license that can open to so many doors and opportunities. Each of them had their own purposes in entering the tough and cruel exam; Gon wants to meet his Hunter dad; Kurapika wants to get his revenge on the famous criminal group, Phantom Troupe, who had murdered his entire Kurta Clan; Leorio wants money to further study and become a doctor to give free treatment to his patients; while Killua just wants to get away from his assassins family.

The Hunter Exam that they entered consists of 5 phases. For the first phase, the candidates just had to follow the examiner through a long run to get to the second phase site. Sounds easy but this phase will test the candidates stamina, and they also had to run past a swamp that filled with ferocious creatures. The second phase involves cooking, but the ingredients that the candidates need to cook are the wild boars, which can be deadly to catch, and the eggs of the spider eagles, which in order to get the eggs the candidates had to jump through a gorge.

In the third phase of the exam, the candidates were left on a high tower known as the Trick Tower and need to find a way to escape from it in 72 hours. In the tower, they were faced with prisoners who were hired as the examiners of the exam. For the fourth phase, each candidates were given a target (one of the other candidates) and were left in an island for several days. While there, they need to fight each other for their badges and collect points to proceed to the next round.

The fifth and final phase of the Hunter Exam involves a one-on-one combat between the remaining nine candidates. One win will guarantee the winner the hunter license while the loser will have another chance by fighting others, but not all candidates have the equal amount of chances. Plus, out of nine candidates, only one will fail and eight others will get the hunter license, if no one is killed of course. If a contestant kill another during the combat, then that contestant will automatically get disqualified and the remaining contestants will officially passed the exam. Tricky.

Now let's talk about the quality of the anime. I did missed several episodes (like phase two of the Hunter Exam) but personally, I think the anime looks really good and well made with great voice acting. I love the voice acting of the four protagonists especially Gon and Kurapika. But some of the best ones are from the antagonists; Hisoka and Gittarackur @ Illumi. The episodes were neatly separated between each other and does not interfere with the flow of the story. But some of the scenes in the anime were a bit downplayed compared to the original manga probably to reduce the violence. The one that I thought were obvious was when Killua killed the serial killer prisoner in the Trick Tower during phase three of the Hunter Exam.

The story is, of course, great. I love to see the different personalities of the characters and how they interact with each other or respond to certain events. Our main heroes; Gon with his cheerful attributes and determination, quick-thinking Kurapika with his calm demeanor, Leorio with his clumsiness and funny comments and Killua with his cool act; have that strong presence that made me always rooting for them. But what I love to see the most is the friendship that bond as the characters gone through the tough exam. It was really inspiring.

Another great part of the anime is the background music in which it brings the adventurous mood of the story. The opening and ending theme are great too. The opening theme "Departure!" is sung by Masatoshi Ono while the ending theme is by the Japanese band Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas called "Just Awake".

I highly recommend this anime to everyone, whether you're a fan of anime or not. It has great plot, great characters and great music. What more could you asked for? If you haven't watch the anime yet, you can still catch it on Animax Asia (Astro Malaysia Channel 715) from Monday to Friday at 7.30 pm with repeats at 10.30 pm.

Images from Animax Asia.