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Hunter × Hunter (pronounced "hunter hunter") is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi. It has been serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump since March 1998, although the manga has frequently gone on extended hiatuses since 2006.
- Overview
- Synopsis
- Production
- Media
- Reception
- Trivia
- External Links
- References
Hunter × Hunter
Hunter × Hunter 2011 anime logo
ハンター×ハンター
(Hantā Hantā)
Genre Adventure, Fantasy,[1] Martial Arts[2]
Manga
Setting
Hunters are licensed, elite members of humanity who are capable of tracking down secret treasures, rare beasts, or even other individuals. They can also access locations that regulars cannot access.[3] To obtain a Hunter License one must pass the rigorous annual Hunter Exam run by the Hunter Association, which has a success rate of less than one in a hundred-thousand.[4] A Hunter may be awarded up to three stars; a single star for making "remarkable achievements in a particular field"; they may then be upgraded to two stars for "holding an official position" and mentoring another Hunter up to single star level; and finally upgraded to three stars for "remarkable achievements in multiple fields."[5] Nen is the ability to control one's own life energy or aura, which is constantly emitted from them whether they know it or not. There are four basic Nen techniques; Ten maintains the aura in the body, strengthening it for defense, Zetsu shuts the aura flow off, useful for concealing one's presence and relieving fatigue, Ren enables a user to produce more Nen, and Hatsu is a person's specific use of Nen.[6] Nen users are classified into six types based on their Hatsu abilities; Enhancers strengthen and reinforce their natural physical abilities, Emitters project aura out of their bodies,Manipulators control objects or living things, Transmuters change the type or properties of their aura, Conjurers create objects out of their aura, and Specialists have unique abilities that do not fall into the previous categories.[7] A Nen user can enter into a Contract whereby pledging to follow certain Limitations, their abilities are strengthened in relation to how strict they are. An example of this is Kurapika who, in order to have an unbreakable chain that will hold members of the Phantom Troupe no matter what, offered his life should he use it on anyone other than its members.[8]
Plot
Main article: Story Arcs The story follows a young boy named Gon Freecss, who was told all his life that both his parents were dead. But when he learns from Kite, an apprentice of his father Ging Freecss, that he is still alive and has since become an accomplished Hunter, Gon leaves his home on Whale Island to take the Hunter Exam in order to become a Hunter like him.[9][10][11] During the exam, Gon meets and soon befriends three of the other applicants: Kurapika, the last remaining member of the Kurta Clan who wishes to become a Hunter in order to avenge his clan and recover their scarlet-glowing eyes that were plucked from their corpses by a band of thieves known as the Phantom Troupe; Leorio, a prospective physician who, in order to pay for medical school, desires the financial benefits that Hunters receive; and Killua Zoldyck, another twelve-year-old boy who has left his former life as a member of the world's most notorious assassin family.[10][11][3] Among many other examinees, Gon continuously encounters Hisoka, a mysterious and deadly Transmuter who takes an interest in him. After passing by many trials together, Gon and his friends end up passing the exam except for Killua, who fails after killing another applicant due to being controlled by his brother, Illumi, and runs away to his family's estate in shame. After Gon and the others convince Killua to rejoin their side, Leorio and Kurapika depart temporarily for their own personal reasons, while Gon and Killua set for the Heavens Arena, a skyscraper where thousands of martial artists compete daily in fighting tournaments, seeking to improve themselves, and gain monetary rewards.[12] There they meet a kung fu (originally kenpō) master named Wing, who trains them in utilizing Nen, a Qi-like life energy used by its practicers to manifest parapsychological abilities, and is also considered to be the final requirement to pass the Hunter Exam. Sometime later, Gon and his friends reunite again in Yorknew City where they have a clash with the Phantom Troupe. During the occasion, Two from the band of thieves are killed by Kurapika and he is forced to give up the chance of hunting down the rest. In order to rescue Gon and Killua, who were captured by them, but not without succeeding in sealing the powers of their leader Chrollo Lucilfer. A few days later, Gon and Killua achieve their objective and begin playing Greed Island, an extremely rare and expensive video game with Nen-like properties following some clues about Ging's whereabouts.[13] While exploring the game, it is revealed that its scenario is actually set somewhere in the real world, created with Nen by none other than Ging himself. Outclassed by the difficulty of the challenges in the game at first, they are soon joined and trained by Biscuit Krueger, an experienced teacher of Nen and kung fu master. With the help of Biscuit, Gon and Killua train their Nen and learn to shape their abilities to their traits. During their stay on Greed Island, Killua takes a short break to apply for the Hunter Exam again, this time passes with success. The trio then complete the game together against all odds and Gon obtains the right to choose the artifacts from the game necessary to reunite with his father. However, Gon decides to have Killua accompany him to meet his father using the artifacts, but they send them to meet Kite instead. The duo then decide to help with Kite's research, and upon discovering a giant insect limb the group discovers that it came from a man-sized Chimera Ant queen. An insect that devours other creatures and then gives birth to progeny that inherit the characteristics of the different species it has eaten. The queen washes up onto an island nation called the Neo-Green Life (N.G.L.) Autonomous Region, where she quickly develops a taste for humans and builds a colony powerful enough to overcome the population, especially after her offspring learn the power of Nen after consuming some Hunters. Upon facing the Royal Guard of the Chimera Ants, Kite sacrifices himself to allow Gon and Killua to flee and alert the Hunter Association. After weeks of preparation, the Association sends a team of some of their most powerful Hunters, including Isaac Netero, the president of the Association himself to defeat the Ants and their king Meruem, whose subjects secretly overthrew the government of the nearby Republic of East Gorteau as part of their plan of subduing all of mankind. Despite losing to Meruem in combat, Netero ends up killing him with a bomb implanted in his body that poisons him to death soon after. In the occasion, Gon has a showdown with Neferpitou, the Ant who killed Kite and despite having exacted his revenge is hospitalized and in critical condition. After the Chimera Ant incident is resolved, the Hunter Association's top echelons the Zodiacs, from which Ging is a member, begin the process of choosing Netero's replacement as Chairman, while Killua returns home to ask for his younger sister Alluka to save Gon's life. However, his family is unwilling to risk losing Alluka or having her dangerous powers used against them, but after evading his older brother Illumi's attempts to intercept him, Killua manages to bring Alluka to Gon's side and have him fully recovered, before sealing her powers completely to ensure that she can have a normal life. Killua then parts ways with Gon, as he wants to travel the world with Alluka who had never seen the outside world before, while Gon himself finally meets his father and learns the true nature of his quest. Some time later, Netero's son Beyond assembles an expedition to the Dark Continent. The forbidden, vast area outside of the known world that is sponsored by the Kingdom of Kakin. Fearing that the expedition may bring disaster to the world, just like it occurred in previous attempts, the world's five greatest powers accept that Kakin join their ranks in exchange for full authority over its findings. To accompany Beyond and prevent him from doing something unexpected, the Zodiacs decide to watch over him and invite Kurapika and Leorio to join them. While replacing Ging and the former Vice-Chairman Pariston, who assembled their own teams by Beyond's request. Aboard Kakin's expedition's ship, the princes take part in a battle to the death to decide the next king, and Kurapika infiltrates the royalty's security force along with some of his friends after learning that one of the princes has a large collection of eyes from the Kurta Clan. Meanwhile, members of the Phantom Troupe also infiltrate the ship while Hisoka, after almost being killed by Chrollo who had previously recovered his powers, decides to hunt down all of the members of the Troupe one by one in revenge.
Author Yoshihiro Togashi explained that one of his hobbies was collecting objects of all sorts, so he was inspired to create a manga involving collecting titled "(something) Hunter".[14] He came up with the final name Hunter × Hunter while watching the television variety show Downtown, in which the hosts often repeat what they say to make the audience laugh.[14] The "×" in the title is silent.[15] As with his previous series, YuYu Hakusho, Togashi used drafting ink and Kabura pens for his illustrations but began using an eMac to color them.[16] Togashi uses few or no assistants in the manga's production;[17] however, fellow manga artist and future wife Naoko Takeuchi assisted Togashi in adding screentone to single-color pages for the first volume.[18][19] With the birth of their first son early in its publication, Togashi felt that this personal aspect of his life would be a great influence on his work, particularly the manga's theme of a young boy searching for his father.[16]
There have been several instances in which Togashi has apologized to readers in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump for low-quality artwork and promised to redraw portions of the chapters for their tankōbon (collected volume) releases.[20][21][22] In addition, the publication history of the Hunter × Hunter manga has been plagued with hiatuses, in which serialized chapters would be separated by extended periods of time.[23][24][25] After returning from a two-year-long hiatus in June 2014,[26] and joining the English-language Weekly Shonen Jump lineup, the manga went on another just two months later.[27] The series returned from this hiatus, which has been its longest to date, on April 18, 2016.[28] However, just over two months later, Hunter × Hunter began another hiatus on June 4, 2016,[29] until resuming serialization again on June 26, 2017.[30] Just over two months later, on August 31, it was announced the series will go on hiatus again, with plans to return by the end of the year.[31] The series returned in the 9th issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump on January 29, 2018,[32] before entering in hiatus again on April 9, 2018.[33] The manga returned on September 22, 2018,[34] and went on hiatus again in November after issue #52.[35], finally returned on October 24th, 2022 (Weekly Shōnen Jump #2670, No. 47).[1][2]
Manga
Main article: List of Volumes and Chapters Written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi, the Hunter × Hunter manga began its ongoing serialization in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on March 16, 1998.[36] Shueisha has compiled most of the chapters into 36 tankōbon volumes as of October 4, 2018.[37] The series has also been published in a sōshūhen edition that aims to recreate the manga as it was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump in the same size and with the color pages. Eleven volumes were released between December 9, 2011 and April 18, 2014, covering up to the Hunter Election story arc.[38][39] Kurapika's Memories, a two-part manga Togashi wrote to act as a prequel to the first animated film, was published in the December 3 and 10, 2012 issues of Weekly Shōnen Jump.[40] Tokyo Ghoul author Sui Ishida created a 69-page storyboard of a manga chapter depicting the past of Hunter × Hunter's Hisoka. The storyboard was released digitally via Shonen Jump+ on June 2, 2016.[41] In April 2005, Viz Media began publishing the manga in English in North America.[42] They market the series as part of their "Shonen Jump Advanced" line for older teens and young adults.[43] Thirty-six volumes have been released in North America as of August 6, 2019.[44] Viz included the Kurapika's Memories chapters in the December 17 and 24, 2012 issues of their digital English magazine Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha.[45] On April 22, 2014, it was announced that Hunter × Hunter would be joining the digital English magazine Weekly Shonen Jump.[46] The manga has also been licensed and translated into multiple languages throughout Europe and other parts of Asia. For instance, it was serialized between 2001 and 2005 in Banzai!, a German version of Weekly Shōnen Jump.[47][48]
Films
Before the first anime television series was created, a short film adaptation of Hunter × Hunter was shown as part of the 1998 "Jump Super Anime Tour" alongside similar adaptations of Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi! and One Piece.[79] Produced by Studio Pierrot and directed by Noriyuki Abe, it depicts the early events of the manga up to Gon's ocean voyage from Whale Island. A film adaptation by the second television anime's staff called Hunter × Hunter: Phantom Rouge, featuring an original story, was announced in March 2012. It was released on January 12, 2013 by Toho.[80][81][82] It centers around Gon and his friends efforts to retrieve Kurapika's eyes which were stolen by Omokage, the original person with the No. 4 spider tattoo. The film is based on an unpublished story manga creator Yoshihiro Togashi wrote around 10 years before.[83] A second film, titled Hunter × Hunter: The Last Mission, was announced following the first one's debut. The film has some focus on Netero, the chairman of the Hunter Association as Gon and his friends discover the dark secrets behind his past. The movie was released on December 27, 2013,[84] and the DVD and Blu-ray was released on July 23, 2014.[85] At the Japanese box office, Phantom Rouge grossed $12,595,288,[86] and The Last Mission grossed ¥850 million[87] ($8.72 million), bringing both films' total Japanese box office gross to $21.31 million.
CDs
Main article: List of Hunter × Hunter Music The background music for the first Hunter × Hunter anime and three OVA series was composed by Toshihiko Sahashi. A large number of audio CDs for the franchise have been released by Marvelous Entertainment. The three-volume soundtrack for the 1999 anime television series (1, 2, and 3) contains 129 instrumental and vocal songs. The Original Video Animation Hunter × Hunter Sound Trax for the first OVA series contains 18 songs and the Original Video Animation Hunter × Hunter: Greed Island Original Sound Tracks for the second OVA series contains 30 songs.[88] In addition, character-specific and story arc drama CDs and a 17-volume radio drama titled Hunter × Hunter R have been published throughout the anime adaptations' release period.[89][90][91]
Manga Reception
The Hunter × Hunter manga has been largely commercially successful; having sold over 60.6 million collected volumes in Japan as of February 2012, making it Shueisha's eighth best-selling manga series.[123] This number had grown to 66.3 million copies by 2014.[124] Several individual volumes have topped Oricon's list of the best-selling manga in Japan during their release week; such as volumes 30 through 36.[125] Volumes 24, 27, and 30 through 34 were some of the top-selling volumes for their respective years.[126] Hunter × Hunter was the eighth best-selling manga series of both 2012 and 2013, with 3.4 and 4.6 million copies sold those years respectively.[127][128] In North America, volumes 23 through 27 have ranked within the top 300 best-selling graphics novels list of sales estimates by Diamond Comic Distributors.[129][130][131][132][133] The manga has sold over 72 million collected volumes in Japan as of December 2018.[134] The Hunter × Hunter manga has received much praise for its plot and characters. In his 2007 book Manga: The Complete Guide, Jason Thompson described its storyline as "an almost random collection of psych-outs, battles, puzzles, and trickery" that works on both a chapter-by-chapter basis and a larger scale.[17] Thompson elaborated that with all the goals and subplots of each of the main characters, the story could seemingly go on forever and is unpredictable enough to hold reader interest.[17] In a different review for Anime News Network in 2012, Thompson wrote that it was hard to summarize the story because it is every shōnen manga in one, with training sequences, tournament battles, a crime-mystery story arc, and a virtual-reality, RPG-style story arc. But unlike most shōnen manga, he called Hunter × Hunter "incredibly dense." Examples being its fictional nen ability, which is explained "so thoroughly that you almost think it could exist," and the little challenges and games the characters face; "Over and over Togashi invents some little closed system or rules just so the heroes can break them; if he ever wants to change careers, I'd suggest game designer." Thompson praised the character art as great, pointing out how instead of alternating between realistic and chibi like other artists, Togashi has cartoony and realistic characters interacting in the same panels. Thompson did note how the artwork during its magazine run is often "sketchy" and missing backgrounds, but that Togashi goes back and fixes it for its collected tankōbon release. Mentioning Togashi's love of gore he stated "the whole manga is about the mixture of childish adventure and creepy, adult themes" and noted how some panels later in the manga are apparently censored for gore by being covered with screentone.[135] Reviewing the first story arc, Chris Sims of ComicsAlliance called Hunter × Hunter one of the most "fun, ridiculous, and ludicrously violent comics I've ever read." He stated that while it has every stereotypical idea about shōnen manga in force, what sticks out the most is the violence. Sims summed it up as "full of clever setups and characters that, while simple to the point of almost seeming one-dimensional at times, still manage to be solid and entertaining based on their reaction to the increasingly strange, increasingly deadly events around them".[136] Charles Solomon, a writer for The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, praised the moral seriousness of Gon, a quality that gives the protagonist "an appeal his relentlessly upbeat counterparts lack".[137][138] Publishers Weekly gave a positive review to the first volume of the manga, stating that Togashi "shows a deft touch" with its standard story, calling his artwork "clear and graceful", and mentioning that his characters are "endearing and complex".[139] While Rika Takahashi of EX.org and Claude J. Pelletier of Protoculture Addicts found the art style in Hunter × Hunter to be much simpler than Togashi's two previous serializations, Level E and YuYu Hakusho, both reviewers appreciated the intricate narrative and characters.[10][3]
•From its debut (issue 14, 1998) to the present day (issue 22, 2019), Hunter × Hunter has been absent from Weekly Shonen Jump 627 times.
•The Chimera Ant arc lasted 134 chapters over 402 issues of Jump; that averages out to one-third of a chapter per week.
•The longest hiatus remains 80 issues missed (2014 - 2016).
•The series record for absences in a calendar year is 2015 when it missed 49 of 49 issues.
1.↑ "Official Website for Hunter x Hunter". Viz Media. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
2.↑ "Hunter X Hunter Vol. 1". ComiXology. Archived from the original on August 10, 2018. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
3.↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Matsuda, Miyako; Pelletier, Claude J. (June 2001). "Anime Stories: Hunter X Hunter". Protoculture Addicts. No. 66. Protoculture Inc. pp. 64–5. ISSN 0835-9563.
4.↑ Togashi, Yoshihiro (April 5, 2005). "2". An Encounter in the Storm. Hunter × Hunter. 1. Viz Media. ISBN 978-1-59116-753-2.
5.↑ Togashi, Yoshihiro (April 1, 2014). "331". Day of Reckoning. Hunter × Hunter. 32. Viz Media. ISBN 978-1-4215-5912-4.
6.↑ Togashi, Yoshihiro (January 3, 2006). "47-48". The Invisible Wall; Hisoka's Terms. Hunter × Hunter. 6. Viz Media. ISBN 978-1-4215-0185-7.
Stream and watch the anime Hunter x Hunter on Crunchyroll. Gon, a young boy who lives on Whale Island, dreams of becoming a Hunter like his father, who left when Gon was still young.
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- S5 E1-Departure x And x Friends
Hunter x Hunter: Created by Yoshihiro Togashi. With Issei Futamata, Megumi Han, Cristina Valenzuela, Mariya Ise. Gon Freecss aspires to become a Hunter, an exceptional being capable of greatness. With his friends and his potential, he seeks out his father, who left him when he was younger.
- (135K)
- 2016-04-17
- Animation, Action, Adventure
- 24
Latest anime releases. +38 Amazon Only. Hunter x Hunter: The Complete Series Box Set (Amazon Only) Gon is a young boy who dreams of following in his father’s footsteps to become a Hunter. But first he must pass the notoriously difficult and dangerous Hunter Qualification Exam.
Sep 2, 2011 · Ambitious participants who challenge the notorious exam carry their own reason. What drives 12-year-old Gon Freecss is finding Ging, his father and a Hunter himself. Believing that he will meet his father by becoming a Hunter, Gon takes the first step to walk the same path.
Hunter × Hunter (ハンター×ハンター, Hantā Hantā), pronounced "Hunter Hunter", is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi with two anime adaptations. The first chapter of the Hunter × Hunter manga series was published in March 1998, in Weekly Shōnen Jump.
