I was initially put off by the art style and cutsey-looking premise, but that was COMPLETELY WRONG. It's hard to put into words, but the series is one deconstruction after another.
The world is a mash of fantasy and sci-fi, and there's always something for a Hunter to hunt —
No tedious,repetitive,predictable storylines and this author is not afraid to go there, whatever it is. You get used to the shonen formula, and while this series is undoubtedly shonen, it doesn't follow set conventions.
Friends can go their separate ways, meetings and deaths happen at any time, wounds are taken seriously and effect fighting ability, luck happens and doesn't, people die and stay dead, plans are followed, 'villains' are fully fleshed, thirst for revenge is an acceptable trait, people lie, fights have strategy, murder doesn't make you evil, dark, and angsty, everyone has their own backstory and unpredictable actions, there's always someone stronger- naturally, not forced by the storyline to make a new arc. Pretty awesome.
As for the art, character designs are very distinct, though a large amount of guys look like girls.
Action background are portrayed super-nice and clear. To be clear, the story doesn't degrade... it expands. Same with the characters, which gain more depth as time goes on. All the mystery is in the Hunterverse, and how the Hunters react to a given situation.
Fightings were awesome as each character possessed a 'ren' which helped and determine fighting techniques, Fights like the one between The Phantom troupe and the shadow beast
Where Uvogin showed he can use every part of his body to fight. and the fight between the Chairman and the Ant King I'd say the Author knows his villains and know how to empower and make them likable
Cons are: this is a particular kind of story, it can come off as pretty weird to people, I imagine. If you're looking for an easy-to-follow storyline and don't want to read closely, this will be pretty puzzling->gibberish.
Since the whole series runs off a more cynical-realistic base, any information is dispensed in large quantities at one time according to a specific character which may or may not be lying or changing conditions so prepare your analyzation skills. The art fluctuates wildly from nice to 'how did this even get published' sketch-style. Sometimes, this manga is so subtle that you can't be sure you completely caught the author's meaning-and on the flipside he filibusters quite a bit to explain situations (I personally enjoy it).
It's unpredictable, and fun, very interesting, and occasionally gross. Characterization is amazing
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