#i wanna discuss this lmao i wanna be like intellectuals discussing the meaning of epic novels but with hunter x hunter

[uiruu]

People talk a lot about how HxH is a deconstruction of shonen anime, and like, for a long time, that’s the word I’ve been using too. I watched a youtube video that made me reconsider, and it got me thinking about this. (tho you dont need to watch it before reading this, i disagreed or had slightly differing opinions about slight things anyway)

On the whole, Hunter x Hunter does have the standard themes and tropes of shonen. The optimism, the growth, love, friendship, hardship, adversity, often loss and tragedy and overcoming it, that stuff... but what sets it apart is how it explores and examines the way those themes are handled in shonen. When HxH deals with the standard tropes of shonen, it often deconstructs.... but the series is not overall a “deconstruction”.

It digs into and subverts and often breaks things down... it deconstructs a trope and peers into its guts, only to build it back up a little. Is it a “reconstruction”? I don’t know lmao, that’s nothing haha. Even though a lot of the time, you’ll be watching it and things will happen that make you go “wow, I kind of can’t believe this is happening in a shonen battle anime...”, so yeah, it does feel different than you’d expect it to feel, but at the same time... it’s pretty distinctively still a shonen feeling. I think Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a proper deconstruction cause none of the shit in that series would fly in a regular magical girl anime, I think (uhhhh maybe. im not well versed, maybe it would, idk), and so when things spin off in that darker direction and are direct counters to tropes found in the magical girl genre, thats a deconstruction. It saw the original tropes, picked out what made them work, did the opposite, and made that work. But that’s not really what HxH does. If that was the case, Gon might face a villain and outright lose, and never recover. Or, circumstances will develop that portray the protagonist as very clearly the villain of this story. In that way, I guess you could say Death Note is kind of deconstructionist. It’s essentially a shonen battle manga/anime with psychological battles instead of physical ones, and the main character is undeniably the villain, and he only gets worse with time. HxH doesn’t usually completely deconstruct or subvert a trope, so much as it more fully explores those tropes, and has to play with deconstructing them a little bit to do so.

Here’s an example of what I mean. Take for instance, “Knov has to go in and plant teleport portal things in the king’s palace. He manages to do it, but is discouraged when he sees Pouf’s aura”. That could happen in Naruto. What HxH does differently is peer into the workings of that scenario, and thinks about what would actually happen there. It shows Knov’s panic attack, his mental state. This is maybe more of a deconstruction, because even though Knov succeeds, he is overwhelmed, and his confidence is shattered. He withdraws from the rest of the mission, at least for the time being. He is noticeably scarred by this event forever afterwards. Other shonen wouldn’t delve that deep into the implications of the actions characters take.

But then take for instance Gon’s Anime Power Up versus Pitou…. “young kid ages up because of magic to a point at which he can beat the opponent, but risks losing his nen and possibly his life”. That could happen in Dragon Ball Z (in fact dbz wrote the book on this trope). But it differs in the tone set, the way it was handled, the sheer emotional weight of every word spoken in that episode, the terror Killua has once he finds Gon, etc. This is a bit of deconstruction, in that it has this power up be an unequivocally bad thing that could end Gon’s life and shakes Killua to his core, but in the end, some of the “construction” is build back up, because Killua’s calling out to Gon saves him, and the bond of friendship (AND LOVE) that these two share brings Gon back from the brink. It was, of course, a little too late, and Gon is essentially, for all intents and purposes, dead from this point on, and the only thing that could save him was something that breaks all the rules of the universe up to this point, and is possibly a power originating in the Dark Continent, which is mysterious and ancient and seemingly full of unexplained phenomena. So, Gon is saved, lessons are learned... Things were still awkward for Gon and Killua even after Gon apologized but... in the end they still care a lot about each other. That’s not very deconstructionist... that’s awfully shonen, actually. But the level of detail HxH goes to to break from formula and show in depth what the characters think and feel is really nonstandard.

Conceivably, characters could be feeling these emotions in other shonen when these things happen, but it’s not explored in them. I bet when an anime character has a big “I’m risking my life to attain ultimate power!” moment, it could really traumatize the friends of that character... but that’s rarely something explored in any other canon of a show in this genre. And that’s the thing about HxH. It’s not so much a full, dark, terrifying deconstruction of shonen tropes, it’s an examination of them. If it was a deconstruction through and through, Powered Up Gon might have died there, or hurt Killua so bad that Killua leaves Gon forever, or he could have lost after it wasn’t enough to stop Pitou, or he could have used this power for evil and killed someone truly innocent, etc. HxH would never do any of those things. The moment of Gon’s transformation wasn’t done to emphasize how twisted the main character of a shonen could be, it was done to emphasize how much the people around Gon could love him, and how Gon was forgetting that. Gon withdrew, succumbed to grief, pushed the people he loves away. But no matter what, even after committing to this being the end of his life, Killua was there for him. Not pushed away. He saved Gon and in that moment reminded him that there are still things to live for and love to be experienced.

Hunter x Hunter arguably emphasizes the themes of love and friendship and optimism way better than standard shonen, rather than subverting those themes.

Long story short, I think Hunter x Hunter is basically Togashi flexing and saying “okay, I see what you all are going for, lemme show you how I’d do it” and fucking knocking it out of the park.