cracks fingers I apologize this took so long.
@Brainyz:
I'm talking about the pacing of a single page itself, with walls of unnecessary dialogue with blank background, these pages take forever, and serve almost no enjoyment.
That is what you meant, well I have found other series more taxing to read. Akumetsu being an example [at least from what I remember]. I found the exposition useful at exposing us to the world's intricacies or philosophies; things that do not have a cool one liner to send the point across. Different people, different preferences.
Thanks, but if this turned out to be article long arguments, I'm sorry I won't be able to reply to them, as I'm currently very busy.
This is why I took so long to respond.
I have seen lots of people that hold HxH in a high caliber, because of its unpredictability. Usually because of character deaths and the anti-climactic ends to each arc, which is probably due to asspulls because Togashi rights himself into corners.
The amount of times I have seen the word ass pull used in the past pages far exceed the amount of times I used in the past years. The meaning also varies depending on the user saying it. In its own way, I found that the deaths are actually what I would expect from a story, in fact I would argue that series that lack ~realistic~ deaths is what makes them anti-climatic. Whenever I see a death in Hunter I do not think: "WOW, I wasn't expecting that" on the contrary it goes: "that is what I expect of such an exchange".
@HeartOfDarkness:
Can you elaborate on that point? Considering the fact that HXH barely has a main narrative that majority of the time is ignored for pointless side-activites, and had an mind-blowingly rushed ending that killed what could have been one of the biggest character-moment for Gon.
While the overall narrative has some connective tissues, the story still has no structure, with concepts usually getting introduced and then thrown in the bin after the arc they were introduced in ends.
First arc: adventures story, about Gon making friends and searching for his dad in the fantastical world of HxH.
Second arc: the genre shifts here to battle shonen, with lots fights, and shonen power/abilities appears.
Third arc: the genre shifts again, this time to a story of revenge/drama
Forth arc: the genre returns to its adventure roots, but this time it's not like the first arc,
And then whatever type you can categorize the Chimera ants arc into. (Everyone suddenly forgets the bizarre creatures from the first arc, and every new beast is from the dark continent)
The election arc is basically a chasing arc, with lots of disposable characters, some of which are killed during the arc without serving any purpose, which leaves bad taste in my mouth because I wasted my time with them. (Same thing could be said for 90% of the ants, almost non of them was important until we got the royal family)
Also, "Hi, I'm Pariston Hill, and I'm here to waste your time with fake tension, thanks."
I figure I can answer both of these simultaneously. I think what matters here is: what do I believe is the story of Hunter x Hunter about. To me it is the story of a child that is trying to find his self worth by understanding the world his father left him for. It avoids the topics of being the greatest of all time, which is such a refreshing touch in a genre where authors use being the best as their go to theme and then run into difficulties because they need that narrative to hold and deliver progress for the character in this regard.
In terms of Gon searching for his father I don't think the narrative fails at structure. Each and every arc holds an important lesson for Gon and his search. Mainly there is a special focus on how even though Gon is gifted he is never coming on top because of his desire to be the best. And him throwing away concepts is not entirely true. The hunter exam came back during the Greed Island arc again. The fact that the author can bring elements to make the world feel alive and to complement the main narrative: the search; is what makes Hunter so refreshing.
I don't particularly hold HXH as some sort of benchmark in terms of writing especially when the series struggles to make simple points through its dialogues in a concise manner. Beyond the series lengthy dialogues, and mentally retarded characters being mentally retarded, lies an shallow core that tries to cover itself with "big" words, but ultimately fails to have any real depth.
I don't hold it out to be a benchmark neither, but many of the ways it deals with shonen tropes are something that other series could adapt to put them up a notch.
–-
Ass pulls is something that is not established prior to the event. Let's analyze the ones you present:
-The sadako girl not dying but turning into a chimera because her ability is to convenience to lose.
However, the bodyguards had been amassing the civilians and hypnotizing them to undergo a selection process in which they would become soldiers. This was established way before Palm was captured, it only makes sense that if they were gathering up regular civilians, they would not miss the opportunity to go after a nen user.
-Shaiapouf's ability to mimic Komugi, used once for plot convenience and never again.
His powers allow him to break down to a molecular level, the progress in his power makes sense to me.
-The entire Poor Man's Rose thing. Now there is a huge scientific advancement in the HxH world + wars that would warrant its creation.
But the world has always being technologically advanced. There is internet, cellphones among other things. Why wouldn't the non-hunter humans not have this technology. There are guns and what not.
-The king loses his memory, and then it returns back as the plot demands.
Not sure where the problem stems from: that he lost it, or that he recovered it?
-Kaito is not dead anymore.
I will admit that I was surprised he managed to survive.
-Killua can suddenly make any wish with next to zero consequences.
From what I understood, there was an emphasis between making a wish and a demand.
-Sometimes nen gets stronger when the user is dead, and this concept was introduced for the sole purpose of saving Hisoka few chapters later.
As other mentioned, this effect was established ever since Kurapika was able to seal nen.
–-> Damn, even though I tried to keep it short.