Hunter x Hunter 2011 anime
Hunter x Hunter is my favorite show. That fact is pretty well known if you actually know me. With that said, to me, the Chimera Ant Arc is one of the greatest pieces of fiction ever written.
The Chimera Ant Arc began with Hunter × Hunter Volume 18 in 2000 and ended with Volume 30 in 2008. That's 8 years and 3 months spent on a single arc.
I didn't discover Hunter x Hunter until the 2011 anime adaptation. The anime covers this arc in 61 episodes (Episodes 76-136), which is pretty much a whole day's worth of runtime. I was lucky enough to watch the episodes as they were released weekly from April 21, 2013, to July 2, 2014. For those who like math, that's 62 weeks and 3 days. I waited over a year for the story to unfold one episode at a time.
Truthfully, at that point in my life, it kept me going. Every week, I had something to look forward to.
I've watched this arc no fewer than seven times in its entirety, not to mention all the times I've gone back to rewatch individual episodes. That's about 140 hours of total watch time spent on this arc alone. It's been over a decade now, so you could say I average about one rewatch per year.
One particular scene has weighed heavily on my mind over the last two years. I'm talking about the scene where Chairman Isaac Netero expresses gratitude for everything in his life:
Chairman Isaac Netero
"I'm thankful for everything... that has led me to this point. That led me to you!"
- Isaac Netero
I often think about gratitude in my own life.
In the words of my Line Brother Josh, "Everyone has problems." Which is true. However, some problems are better than others.
No Longer Human First Edition Cover
I'm not sure whether this is good or bad, but during my "Sad Pig Arc" from 2022 to 2025, I read No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. Although it's an incredibly depressing book, after finishing it, I actually felt better about myself and my own problems.
I think I literally said:
"Damn, I'm happy I'm not that guy."
The novel is a semi-autobiographical account of Dazai's life through the character Yozo Oba. Throughout the story, Yozo feels incapable of revealing his true self and instead adopts a false persona to hide his isolation and inner struggles. Through a series of notebooks, the novel explores abuse, alienation, shame, mental illness, and addiction, all of which ultimately lead to his collapse of identity.
Osamu Danzai
All of that made me realize something. As deep as my problems felt, and in their own respect they were, I hadn't experienced even half of what Yozo Oba went through.
I started to reframe my problems. Instead of dwelling on them, I began thinking:
"I'm grateful I got these problems instead of those problems."
That shift in perspective dramatically improved my emotional intelligence.
Tying this back to Netero and gratitude, I don't have many regrets. Every stumble, every lesson, and every loss made me who I am today. I'm grateful for the hardships I've encountered because, truthfully, I like how I turned out.
Will I go outside and throw 10,000 punches of gratitude? No, probably not. But I will continue to express gratitude in both victory and defeat. Because every experience, good or bad, led me to this point.