Coming in loving one piece, made in abyss, full metal alchemist and really any show with expansive world building. Heard this show’s worldbuilding and magic system is the shit. Talk true?
The nen system is fine as far as shonen power systems go but the rest of the world building is pretty loosey goosey
>>29262Is it as expansive as one piece (honestly that’s a little much), well is it as expansive as avatar or made in abyss?
The magic system in HxH is elite tier and the best out of any battle shonen. The world building is great too but not one piece tier and imo not the main focus. But the power system is seriously insane shit.
>>29264Yeah I heard that the show is popular for having a coherent magic system that’s not like Naruto where only nepotism and asspulling breaks cohesiveness constantly and that it’s not like dragon ball where every fight is a power level measuring contest
The worldbuilding is not good and honestly that's kind of a poor metric of quality. The strength of the series is in its characters, who are much more than edgy or heroic supermen.
>>29263no,because we are in the berzerk boat situation 2.0 electric boogaloo,where he writes a thriller in enclosed space before resuming the actual worldbuilding,and there is 2 chapters every 2 years,it's over
It is hands down the best shonen ever. Forget world building, magic system etc, the magic of HxH is that
(i) it does not drag on unnecessarily.
(ii) things are hyped up and then actually deliver (unlike One Piece which abuses vibe/aura-farming for minimal pay-off)
(iii) minimum retcon/asspull. There is only like 2 things in the whole series which you could consider asspull, and even then, very debatable.
(iv) Togashi KNOWS what he is doing. Nothing too much, nothing too little. Whatever the flaws of Togashi, he knows how to write a story.
Yorknew and Chimera Ant are the among the greatest arcs in all fiction. Hunter Exam arc is great, it is like Chunin exam but (slightly) better. The Arena Tournament arc is great as well. Greed Island is a good training arc but I feel like it should have been a bit shorter (it has the misfortune of being sandwiched between the great Yorknew and CHimera arcs). The post-Chimera arc (election arc) is my least favourite. It's not bad, but not great either (but it's short so nothing painful). Can't really comment on the Dark Continent/Succession arc since it is manga only, which because of the slow pace, when a new chapter drops, I forgot what happened in the prior chapters like years ago.
>>29263One Piece's world is very wide, but very shallow. I prefer HxH, where it is narrower, more focused, but goes much deeper.
>>29273Nah, kaido and rocks both lived up to the hype. Oda knows how to introduce his villains and how to scale them
HxH is the most mis-recommended series of all time. I finally have a chance to steer someone right before they get disappointed by it because of the fans. I am so serious. OP please ignore everything that reeks of overhyping and heed my words.
>Read the manga first. Do not begin with either anime adaptation.
This is non-negotiable.
>HxH is the definition of "unpolished/messy but very inspired" within shonen.
The feeling you get reading it chapter to chapter is that Togashi is often doing whatever he wants, following his whims, throwing interesting ideas out there and following whatever fascinates him at the time. Which is why every act feels like it's completely veered away from the previous one. That format isn't for everyone, and it makes for a manga that's quite messy. This applies to everything, including the world-building. It is full of super intriguing cool lore concepts but it's all strung together with barbed wire and has no shortage of things that make you go "wait a minute, that makes no sense". The world map is literally a rearranged map of the Earth. It's that kind of series.
This isn't to say that it's completely unstructured. There is a plan, there is development and steady build-up, etc. Some stuff is very detailed and consistent (like Nen), some stuff is… just straight-up not. But it's full of anticlimaxes, unexpected directions, things that just sort of get dropped. The main character has not appeared in ten years despite being in the middle of some important development. Again, it's that kind of series.
So if you take "good worldbuilding" in the sense of a setting that's elaborate, thoroughly and clearly planned-out, logically consistent, etc. HxH will probably not satisfy you.
>It's barely a "deconstruction" the way people say it is.
One thing that's extremely clear reading it is Togashi's love for other things, especially Dragon Ball. The appeal of HxH is that it's a creative, freeform, smart take on a genre that has grown very rigid and unreflective over the years, without ever wanting to escape the boundaries of that genre. Look beyond the "dark" stuff and it's clear that it's emulating the spontaneous energy and whimsy of Toriyama but in a more serious, *slightly* more thoughtful form. While the story can get dark and melancholic, it's really not overwhelmingly so, and when it does it never really feels like it's attacking shonen tropes or anything.
>It's more adventure than action.
There are great fight scenes and some standard battle shonen stuff like training arcs, but it's not a huge part of the DNA. There are long, long stretches of the series without conventional fights or other battle shonen mainstays. I consider this a strength of the series, as I like the different kinds of conflict that Togashi comes up with.
>Do not listen to the fanbase about anything.
We are annoying and cringe. Yes, this makes my entire post a contradiction.
Tl;dr: it matches up to the imagination of One Piece and Made in Abyss but not the polish or tight long-term planning (although OP has been slipping on that front for years now lol). It depends on which you value more.