A teenage boy stands in a hotel suite and waits. As the boy’s cell phone rings, a burly thug ascends a grungy stair hall. He opens the door and they lock eyes.
They are both here for retribution. The man, livid and arrogant, has come to regain his pride. The boy’s grudge, though, runs deeper. You see, five years ago, the man, along with 12 other criminals, slaughtered the boy’s entire family and uprooted his childhood. And the boy has been waiting. He’s been fighting and calculating, slipping below the criminal world’s radar, playing every decision correctly along the path to this exact moment.
Then, the man speaks: “Where do you want to die? I’ll let you choose.”
“Somewhere remote where we won’t cause a disturbance,” the boy says. “Since I’ll have you screaming at the top of your lungs.”
If you pictured Riverdale’s newfound dreamy iterations of Archie Andrews or Jughead Jones after reading the scene above, you’re not that far off. It’s from 2011’s Hunter x Hunter remake, a ridiculous (even for anime standards) anime that’ll suck you in by the time every core character is introduced. It’s the on-screen spectacle that Yoshohiro Togashi’s seminal manga of the same name deserves. Hunter x Hunter is straight-up Shonen that defies its own tropes, is familiar and unpredictable at the same time, and makes viewers wring analyses and theories out of every possible moment. And if you’re a fan of Riverdale’s high-stakes thrills on the CW, it’s the show you need to be watching.
Hunter’s guise is simple: dopey but spirited 12-year-old Gon Freecss sets off to become a Pro “Hunter,” just like his absent father. Gon’s ultimate goal is to meet him, but he also reasons that Hunterdom must be an exceptional line of work if someone’s willing to abandon his own kid to pursue it. Along the way, he meets others working toward the same goal for various reasons (Freedom! Money! Revenge! License to kill!) and encounters challenges and threats that escalate along with the story arc. Just like Riverdale, this show seldom slows down. And despite taking place in a vastly different universe, Hunter x Hunter echoes some of Riverdale’s strongest plots and binge-worthy characteristics. We’ve broken them all down here.
1. Both shows are coming-of-age thrillers
Hunter x Hunter’s first string of episodes, better known as the exam arc, start off safely and focus on Gon’s budding friendships. But once it cracks, it doesn’t take long for the facade to start crumbling, and soon you’ll be mourning characters you thought you hated. That’s not to say the series becomes entirely scarring or devastating, especially since these kids know they’ll experience peril in search of change. It’s a trade-off, just like adolescence.
2. Both shows are obsessed with revenge and its consequences
Another Hunter x Hunter plotline established early — halfway through episode 1, to be exact —is Kurapika’s motivation for becoming a Pro Hunter: revenge on a notorious gang for wiping out his entire tribe. Some 45 episodes in, that thirst for vengeance hits the fan, and that’s when the show goes from really good to amazing. It’s important to note that like Riverdale, Hunter illustrates that a drive for justice, which is iterated through Gon farther down the line, is dangerous and nearly costs multiple characters their friends’ — or their own — lives.
3. Both shows put family front and center
Part of what makes Riverdale’s crime and class war so salacious is that the show often frames its conflicts within families. Veronica and Jughead’s demons, for example, are inescapable because they involve the people they care about most. In the Hunter universe, you’ll find those complicated ties in the Phantom Troupe, a formidable gang formed in a disrespected city, and the Zoldycks, a family of professional assassins who are pretty much the Lodges in anime form. When all these factions come to blows, and when loyalties are tested from within them, not even blood relations can guarantee the characters’ safety.
Hunter x Hunter and Riverdale share more in common than print origins and rabid fan bases. Their dopey protagonists, muddled morality, and, most remarkably, storylines that veer between the intense and the outrageous make both shows intensely watchable on their own and even better taken together. As we speculate on where Riverdale’s latest twists will lead, turn to an anime that’s almost unrivaled in its absurdity, even for its supernatural, batshit crazy genre. Will Hunter x Hunter illuminate Hiram Lodge’s complete intentions, the catalyst that sparked Betty’s silent suffering, or why some writer thought Papa Poutine was a good mobster name? I doubt it, but in the words of Ging Freecss: “You should enjoy the little detours to the fullest because that’s where you’ll find the things more important than what you want.”
Don’t look for answers. Instead, watch and keep asking questions.
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