Hunter X Hunter

These days, I'm finishing my first rewatch of Hunter x Hunter since the anime ended in 2014.
I have a deep admiration for Togashi and his storytelling talent. He's not just a good storyteller; he's a master architect who builds worlds and characters in a way that makes it seem accessible to anyone.
Of course, this is just one of the many reasons HxH is my second favorite shonen, right behind Naruto. I genuinely believe—nostalgia and feelings aside—that if HxH were a complete work, it would have surpassed Naruto in every aspect.
But this post isn’t about comparisons, especially pointless and unproductive ones for public discussion. Instead, I want to share a question I have.
Is the trope of an absurdly powerful yet unrefined protagonist outdated? And if so, is that universally and definitively true? Or does it depend on the creator’s approach?
I ask because, if we look at HxH cynically, it’s a cocktail of tropes. We have two protagonists who are essentially “diamonds in the rough,” training arcs, fighting tournaments, card games, video game isekai, ridiculously strong grandpa sensei—you name it. Yet, the use of these clichés is so creative that it’s easy to overlook them at first glance. And even if you do notice, they don’t feel off-putting.

https://img.inleo.io/DQmdtcP8jLNk7zQ73w6fvp8h5AEB99cRfbQ4Cc4e9tYheRs/IMG_9145.webp

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The glue that holds it all together is the incredibly charismatic Gon and his deep friendship with Killua. It’s a friendship that isn’t handled in a cheesy way—like, let’s be real, Fairy Tail did—but speaks to the pure form of this sacred bond.
As for how overpowered Gon is, that’s actually a plot point. But it’s one so organically woven in, avoiding any sense of cliché, that it elicits exactly the right emotions, or rather the emotions this specific trope was designed to evoke.
So, to answer my own question, I don’t consider it outdated. It’s just that because it’s now overused, it’s become harder to execute it creatively.

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