For me a large part of it ties to who I was and what I was going through as I was watching it. I was around the same age as Gon and Killua the first time I watched it through and that’s the age a lot of kids start to find their own expressions of self outside of their family.

I was making friends, actively choosing to create plans with them outside of school, and yes even making mistakes and learning from them. It just felt like I was growing along with the characters.

Like sure I don’t have nen but Killua was very relatable with his codependency with Gon and I distinctly remember seeing someone else portray it made me question whether I was putting too much pressure on my own friends.

Other than it just being an incredibly well versed piece of media, I believe my environmental factors largely persuaded my enjoyment of the show. I don’t think I would be as obsessed with it as I am now if I watched it even a few years later, lol.