@thatduderox said:
I can't call it overrated because it's honestly that good. Plus, for some reason, more casual anime fans tend to avoid it, so it's not even all that popular compared to series like Naruto, Dragon Ball, or One Piece.
I can't say it's the best anime ever, but it is up there, especially among shonen. You'll be hard pressed to find other shonen who can rival it in sheer quality. That, being said, there are a few seinens out there that give it a run for it's money.
I find that for most people, HxH is usually their first series that breaks away from the simple and formulaic tropes of shonen. With most series, you can predict the outcome of the plot fairly easily or know that any deaths in the series either don't hold (Dragonball) or rarely happens period (One Piece).
Togashi goes out of this way to deconstruct the shonen formula and puts an enormous amount of effort into his worldbuilding and consistency. To put it simply, he cares about the quality of his work. You will find numerous videos on Youtube or reddit posts that go into great detail in analyzing the psychology of his characters or the complexity of his worldbuilding. That's why both HxH and Yu Yu Hakusho, till this day, are both considered anime greats. The guy is one of the best writers in his field... when he's not on hiatus.
There are plenty of deaths in the series of One Piece. Moreover, Oda as stellar world building. There are well developed and intricate civilizations each with their own economic structure, culture, etc. As for complex characters, look no further than Usopp. Usopp was a liar all his life, lying to his peers and painting himself as a warrior of the sea. After witnessing a true warrior in Monkey D. Luffy, Usopp decided that he wanted to work hard and achieve his dreams. As a member of the Straw Hat Pirates, Usopp would be responsible for the Going Merry's wellbeing, repairing it after every adventure. So when the Straw Hats decided to leave the Merry behind, Usopp would't stand for it. The Merry represented the result of Usopp's hard work and sweat, and Usopp was offended that his friends would disregard this as though dismissing his hard work. To prove himself, Usopp challenged Luffy to a duel, hoping to assert his usefulness to the crew, but he lost. Usopp, while getting the Merry back, was never really the same after that experience. Usopp started to lose confidence in himself so he created the persona of Sogeking to help save Nico Robin. Sogeking was the manifestation of what Usopp wanted to be and Usopp would take this persona as a way to help the crew to validate his role on the team. By the end of the story, after saving Robin, Usopp decides that he is of use to the crew and is able to overcome his self confidence issues and rejoins the crew.
I agree 100% about Ussop. He, Robin, and Nami are some of the standouts in the character department. And I've always said that Oda's world building is second to none in all of manga/ anime. Like Togashi, Oda's passion for the quality of his series has never waned. Unlike Naruto and Bleach were you could tell just from reading that Kishimoto and Kubo had lost the drive that made their series initially great. While it's not my personal favorite, it absolutely deserves to be the highest selling manga of all time.
My biggest issue with characterization in One Piece is actually Luffy himself tbh. To put it bluntly, Luffy is a pretty static character. While he has developed a little, it's at a snails pace compared to the length of the series, but I will say that Luffy, as a character is the perfect protagonist for a series with the tone of One Piece. I've heard the arguments that Luffy isn't supposed to be this emo intellectual who overthinks things, and those people are absolutely right, Luffy isn't that type of character. But with all the trauma that Luffy has experienced their should be noticeable differences in his thought process. A good example of this is another Togashi creation; Yusuke Urameshi.
Yusuke began the series as a smart mouth delinquent with a idgaf attitude. And Yusuke ended the series as a smart mouth delinquent with a idgaf attitude. That's Yusuke's core personality and it never changed. What did change, however, was Yusuke's view of the world and humanity as a whole. Yusuke began the job with humans are good, demons are evil mindset. This changed as he met demons like Hiei and Kurama who would become two of his closest friends. His view on humanity shifted when he encountered humans like Tarukane and Sakyo who were just as cruel as most demons he had met, and when he had learned of the contents of the Chapter Black Tape; which was a recording of some of humanity's greatest atrocities throughout history.
By the end of the series, Yusuke was not only okay with a demon he encountered that he knew feasted on humans, but was even willing to catch and feed evil humans to his demon father to preserve his life. Him being okay with demons feeding on humans completely disgusted his predecessor; the first spirit detective, who from then on saw Yusuke as a demon and someone unfit for earth, because a human would never be okay with something so cruel. And despite all of this and how his whole mindset had done a near complete 180, Yusuke was still the smart mouth delinquent with the idgaf attitude. I feel that Togashi was capable adding that nuance of character development while keeping the personality the same better with Yusuke than what Oda did with Luffy, but that's just my opinion.
I also recalled you saying in a previous post how Gon was coming off as unlikable at times, but that was intentional. One of the main themes of the Chimera ant arc was the parallel between Gon and Meruem, but also how humans could be even more cruel as the Ants themselves. As meruem was finding his humanity throughout the arc, Gon was slowly losing his. Togashi wasn't trying to portray Gon as being morally right or likable during those moments. He was even willing to kill Kamugi to get to Pitou. If you think about it, Gon is actually pretty morally gray. Gon has no issue with most evil people, no matter their atrocities, that is until said atrocities effect him and those around him. Then he has a problem. He's very self centered that way.
And the beauty of Kurapika lies in that not only is he a character destined for tragedy, Kuropika is very self aware of this aspect about himself. He knows that whether or not he achieves his goal, he will never truly find peace. Even when he killed Uvogen, the narrative was trying to paint it as a moment of triumph. After accomplishing the deed, he had this cold despondent look in his eyes. You can see the tole it took on him psychologically. He also desires a life with his friends, but at the same time, sees them as a weakness, and knows that to accomplish his goal of killing the Spiders, he has to isolate himself from one of things he desires the most; companionship. Kurapika's biggest tragedy is his self awareness of the things he knows he will personally have to do accomplish his goals, and how those actions will likely contradict his morality.
Sorry, I know this is a long read. completely understandable if you don't read through it all. I also can't take credit for the Gon and kurapika analysis. There's a youtuber who went pretty in depth about their mental states. I just summarized his thoughts on the matter.
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