Critical reception for the first "Hunter × Hunter" television adaptation has been generally favorable. Miyako Matsuda of "Protoculture Addicts", Carl Kimlinger of the Anime News Network (ANN), and Derrick L. Tucker of THEM Anime Reviews all expressed positive views of the series' narrative and characters. Matsuda admired the adventure-filled world of "Hunter × Hunter" and the practical character qualities of friendship, effort, and victory inserted by Togashi. Beginning with the second Viz DVD volume, Kimlinger summarized, "Togashi's plotting is canny and occasionally insightful and Furuhashi's visuals inventive yet attuned to the measured pacing of the series. Together they create a "shonen" action series that is both fun to watch and curiously respectful of its audience's intelligence. A strange combination indeed." Tucker admitted to being "bewitched" by the series mainly due to the remarkable and original characters, especially the interplay between the vastly different personalities of the Phantom Troupe members. Kimlinger gave particular praise to the characteristics of the complex villain Hisoka and the deep, emotional transformation of Kurapika in the latter half of the series. Theron Martin, also of ANN, contrastingly found the plot of the earliest episodes to be cliché, called the protagonist Gon "an obvious Son Goku derivative", and stated that many of the story's aspects have already been covered by other "shōnen" series such as "Dragon Ball Z" a decade earlier. Martin was also displeased by an alleged lack of character development on the main protagonists' parts in the initial episodes.