Anime Review: Hunter X Hunter

I asked people for anime recommendations, and I had a few people suggest Hunter X Hunter. I looked it up. I saw the character designs. I cursed and cringed and cursed some more. Worst character designs ever. Embarrassing character designs. Who is responsible for this? What were they thinking? Ugh. Just ugh.

Anyway, I was really, really craving some good anime and I finally decided to give it a fair try. It's currently available on TubiTV. It took me two tries to watch episode 1 because the character designs are so ugly and stupid looking.

I hated this anime but I couldn't stop watching. Almost. I finally stopped at like episode 21 or something. Just shy of the end of season 1.

About the same time that I was progressing though season 1 of this anime, I coincidently saw this video on YouTube called "The Neuroscience of Addictive Storytelling (And How to Master It)" by @kallawaymarketing (link). I don't want to steal his work or his views, but I'll summarize the concept.

This video explains a story writing technique that is based on exploiting your brain's reward system. First, the story establishes a hook to get your interest. Then it asks you a big question to get your mind working and trying to predict what happens next. This creates investment. Then, the story surprises you by giving you something you wouldn't have guessed but is still plausible. This prediction and surprise is the thrill or the high that you feel. Then it re-hooks you with a hook for interest and big question for investment before you have a chance to come down from the high, setting it all up again. The loop then repeats.

Let me give you an example of this technique in action.

Let's say I'm writing a story. There's a dragon that eats all the livestock and wild game that's supporting a poor small village. Without the livestock to slaughter and without the wild game to hunt, the people will not have enough food to make it through the winter. So, the village hires a hero named Marcus to go deal with the dragon. Marcus is a poor young man from a poor little town, where he watched everyone suffer and die to disease and brigands and monsters while the greedy king did nothing! Now, he wants to be the greatest hero ever so that he can build his own kingdom with prosperity and security. Fighting this dragon is going to be the biggest accomplishment ever, and a major benefit for his goal.

That's the hook. Those are the stakes. I have introduced characters who are so far sympathetic because they're good people in need who are trying to do good things for good boy reasons. Yippie skippy.

Now, to reiterate the big question. Can the hero save the village from the dragon?

I bet your mind is working really hard trying to guess what's going to happen next. Marcus climbs the mountain and overcomes cold and hunger and blisters and fatigue. When he finally finds the dragon's lair, he enters. He smartly waits for the dragon to go to sleep. He sneaks in. He raises his sword to the sleeping dragon's neck. Victory seems assured, but the moment is tense! Then the dragon moves! The hero's sword misses, and Marcus has missed his chance! Now, the dragon is awake and angry!

Hold up, wait a minute! The dragon doesn't kill the hero. Instead, the dragon corners the hero and speaks. "I'll spare you if you help me." So, the hero agrees, and the dragon explains she's not actually a dragon. She's a beautiful princess and she was transformed into a dragon by her treasonous court wizard. "You must get him to change me back, or kill him for his evil deeds!"

Cool, so, do you see what I did? I faked you out. You were expecting an epic fight between a hero and a dragon. Marcus was going to kill the dragon, then he was going to return to the village as a hero, and his reputation would swell! He'd be off on his next adventure with an accomplishment in hand. Instead, I surprised you by giving you a completely unexpected, yet still plausible, alternative story. And I re-hooked you with new stakes and a new big question!

To reiterate the stakes: can Marcus save the village from the dragon by saving the innocent princess from her transformation? The new big question is can the hero Marcus get the treasonous wizard to reverse the transformation spell or kill him so that his evil can be stopped?

Now, what do you think is going to happen? By using this writing technique, I as the writer and going to say eff you, we're going into left field again. Here's what happens. Marcus climbs down from the mountain and explains the situation to the villagers. The villagers give him supplies and guide him to the wizard's tower. Then, the hero breeches the entrance, bypasses his magical traps, defeats his golem sentries and other magical constructs. Then, he solves a puzzle where he has to mix a potion and save himself from poison! Ooh, so tense! Then, the hero finally, finally gets to the wizard. Marcus raises his sword and demands that the wizard reverse the spell on the princess. Then, the wizard says he can't yet. 

YET!? Excuse me, what? Yes, that's right! Another damn plot twist! The wizard actually thinks of the princess as his own daughter. He loves her like family. The reason why he transformed her into a dragon is because she has cancer, and dragons are immune to cancer! Aw, dang it! I didn't see that coming!

So, the wizard is working to save the princess from her cancer first, then he'll reverse her transformation which will be easy. And you know what will help? If Marcus went on a fetch quest for some McGuffin medicinal ingredients that he can use to make a magical cure for cancer! But, the McGuffin is being guarded by a...

You get it. New states. New Big Question. New Surprise. Repeat ad nauseum.

Here's what I don't like about this storytelling technique. It feels like a lot of build-ups to nothing. Over and over and over again. If feels like the story keeps promising me a cool action scene and then denying it over and over and over. I'm being strung along without a payoff in sight. I want my conclusion already. Please give me my conclusion. Where's my conclusion? Where's the pay-off! This is frustrating! I'm getting really impatient! What the hell! Roar!

Go ahead and learn the technique to understand it if you want. It might genuinely be a blessing for you because maybe it'll give you the ability to recognize when some TV or comic series is doing it to you.

So, here's why I don't like Hunter X Hunter: It does this. I felt like I was promised an anime with fun, thrilling fight scenes with classical shonen style hero growth. There were no completed fights. By episode 19, the anime establishes a tournament. The hero loses in the first round. When he wakes up, the tournament is over. That subversion is incredibly disappointing. Then some side character summarizes what the hero, and the audience, missed, then the story sets up new stakes, new hooks, new questions, and I didn't have any more trust in it. If you promise something, you need to deliver. Also, the character designs are sh!t. 0/10. I do not recommend. You know what it's like? Calling the DMV and getting transferred, then getting transferred somewhere else, then getting transferred again, and again.