Listen, I love the 2011 anime, but I'm not going to lie about it being a perfect adaptation. There are definitely some moments that just don't make any sense why they change things or cut stuff out. So, I want to talk about the differences between some characters in the 2011 anime and the manga.
Perhaps the biggest and most notable change from the anime is how they handled Kite. He is extremely important to Gons' character. Kite is the whole reason for Gons' entire goal to become a hunter to find his dad, so taking that out cheapens the emotional impact of Kites' death and Gons' reaction to it.
The reunion between Gon and Kite is honestly laughable as a manga fan. It was supposed to be this wholesome reunion with the fans being excited with Gon to see Kite again. Instead, we get Gon and Kite barely recognizing each other after Kite shoots at him. In the manga, Gon and Kite never forget each other. Gon always talked about Kite to Killua. It was something that Gon never let the readers forget. This is exactly why most people who are anime only didn't connect emotionally with Gon and Kites' relationship and when Kite died. Because it wasn't as present in the anime as it was in the manga, and they don't even try to make Kite this life changing person to Gon.
Not to mention that Kite's exclusion from the first episode changes the audiences perception of Ging as a character. This leads me to the next character.
I won't go into too much with Ging since I made a whole post dedicated to him and Mito. Ging seems to be perceived to be worse in anime than what the manga shows. First, he doesn't "force" Mito to be a mother. I know the anime doesn't explicitly state this, but because they cut the scene where Ging's grandmother tells Gon when Ging comes home with Gon and the part where Mito tells Gon that she went to court to get custody. It leads the viewers to believe that Ging just randomly comes home and hands Gon to Mito and then just leaves. I'm not saying that Ging is a great dad or even an okay dad, but he is portrayed worse in the anime.
Now, I've already made a post about both Aunt Mito and Ging and how the anime changes them. But long story short, Aunt Mito lies to Gon about Ging and actually takes custody over Gon. The anime made it where Aunt Mito was completely honest about Ging to Gon, so it seemed like he knew about his father the entire time and they made it seem like Aunt Mito is this perfect mother figure so it also makes the audience feel like Gons journey to be weird as he leaves his perfect mother figure to find his dead beat father. Which still he does in the manga, but it is much more complicated than what the anime suggests. And you can understand Gon's decision and even empathize with him more in the manga.
I go more into details about Ging and Mito and the differences in another post, so check it out if you want to hear more about my opinion on it.
Because they change so much about Kite, Mito, and Ging in the anime, Gon will definitely be at least slightly different. I'm not saying that Gon is a completely different character, but because of those changes, the audience will perceive Gon differently, and I blame the stupid "Gon is a psychopath" rhetoric on the anime because of these changes. Also, they kinda dumb Gon down a bit.
The complete exclusion of Kon is also crazy. That's one thing I loved about the 1999 anime, the fact they really showed Gons love for animals and his easy nature to get along with them is really present like in the manga. In the 2011 anime, it's barely there.
The anime cuts the scene of ant Gyro and completely cuts the foreshadowing that implies that Gon and Gyro will meet and most likely will have conflict with each other given the difference between the two characters. Because of this change, people come to the conclusion that Gons' story is over. I talked more about Gyro in my post about Gons' likely return in the future.
Leorio has some of the weirdest decisions to change or cut out imo. The changes may seem small, but they are big enough to notice.
The first change is Leorio introduction. The anime makes Leorio a jerk who demands both Kurapika and Gon to refer him as Mr. Leorio and when Kurapika doesn't abide by that, Leorio makes a bigot comment about his clan and challenges him to a fight, but in the manga, he doesn't do that. It's Kurapika who initiates the fight between the two. He mispronounced Leorio name multiple times, and then he made snide comments towards him for seemingly no reason at all. The anime makes Leorio the one who is 100% in the wrong, but manga Leorio is just someone who is a bit obnoxious. I'm not condoning Leorio making that comment towards Kurapika's clan, but he didn't call the Kurta clan "dirty" or "filthy," and all he did was retaliated to Kurapika's rudeness.
Another change is the anime weird decision to undermine his strength. They cut out Leorio opening the first and second gate by himself in the Zoldyck arc and cut out Leorio arm wrestling a big man and breaking the man's arm and the table. Now, you may think these are small and pointless changes, but I would argue that we view Leorio differently. All of the main four are supposed to be very rare talents that will eventually become some of the best hunters/nen users. And what made Leorio stand out between him, Kurapika, and Gon was that he's the physically strongerst amongst them. Obviously, this isn't including Killua, as he is actually the strongest between all of them. And I'm not talking about nen. I'm strictly speaking about them before requiring nen.
So yeah, those six have the most dramatic changes imo. Its not like these characters are different characters or anything like that, but they are different enough to perceive them differently from the manga.
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