hunter x hunter, the power of friendship, and why it isn’t the dark anime you may think it is: a thread

i’ve seen a claim around some parts of the anime community that hxh is this “dark, gritty” anime with a “monster” of a protagonist. that it’s supposed to show humanity’s weakness and flaws. i however, disagree with this, and don’t think this was togashi’s intentions at all

while hxh does indeed have morally gray characters throughout the entire show, i believe it’s overall theming shows that no, hxh isn’t about how terrible humans are at all! if anything, it shows the bonds as a strength

the chimera ant arc is usually at the center of this, with gon’s character arc being seen as “a human becoming a monster” and meruem being “a monster becoming human” however... both characters were not entirely “monster” OR “human”

they’re both complex beings that have made their flaws, and have redemption. this applies to most characters in hxh actually. they may have done terrible things, but they have their reasons (varying from justifiable to not at all.)

but hxh has the distinction to make all of its characters, antagonists, protagonists, side characters, not inherently “good” or “bad.” even our protagonists are guilty of a murder or two or a few hundreds. however, they’re still our protagonists.

we see their struggle. we see what leads up to what they do. they aren’t “evil.” in fact, let’s dive deeper into one of the main reasons people see hxh as dark and hopeless: gon’s reactions during chimera ant arc.

the reason gon lost his rational thinking was because pitou wouldn’t help kite, and was caring for komugi instead. pitou was desperate to heal komugi for meruem. meruem wanted komugi healed because he cares for her. begin to see a pattern? yes, in short, it’s a pattern of love

i don’t mean this romantically, although there is some throughout the series. it’s about, baseline, platonic love here. gon is angry because he saw kite as a father, who was taken away. pitou greatly respects and cares for the king. meruem saw the world with komugi.

even in the ending’s (hyori ittai) lyrics itself, it mentions love and hate coming from the same place. gon hates pitou because they killed someone gon loved. pouf hates komugi because she is “taking away” someone he loves. these emotions are just inherently linked together.

of course, i’m using chimera ant arc as an example here, but i think another crucial moment to this is kurapika at the end of yorknew. he gives up his chance of killing spiders his number one goal, episode one, to ensure killua and gon are safe

kurapika, who we’ve seen constantly fighting battles, absorbed by revenge, slows down to make sure killua and gon are safe. if this isn’t a type of love i’m not sure what is. it shows that despite what his backstory would want you to believe, kurapika cares about his friends more

kurapika has been changed so much by gon, killua, and leorio. this, is what a lot of people consider “the power of friendship,” even if it isn’t as blatant. and despite the trope getting a bad reputation, it works very well in hxh to progress and humanize the characters

a lot of hxh’s cast is affected by this. gon and killua revolve around each other to help, kurapika has his friends, meruem has komugi, the troupe has each other. the motivations of these characters come from the bonds with other characters.

these bonds, rather than creating a dark, gritty, hopeless story, actually creates a story of hope and friendship. despite what these morally gray characters go through, they have each other to help each other and stay grounded.

in conclusion, i wholeheartedly believe that despite other’s interpretations, hxh is really a story about love and bonds, instead of the dark “monster” that others say it is. thank you for reading :)