| Hunter × Hunter | |||
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| ハンター×ハンター (Hantā Hantā) |
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| Demographic | Shōnen | ||
| Genre | Action, Fantasy | ||
| Manga | |||
| Author | Yoshihiro Togashi | ||
| Publisher |  Shueisha |
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| Serialized in | Weekly Shonen Jump Weekly Comic |
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| Original run | June 4 1998 – Ongoing | ||
| Volumes | 24 (270 chapters ongoing) | ||
| TV anime: Hunter × Hunter | |||
| Director | Kazuhiro Furuhashi | ||
| Studio | Nippon Animation | ||
| Network | Animax, Fuji Television |
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| Original run | October 16 1999 – March 31 2001 | ||
| Episodes | 62 | ||
| Related works | |||
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Hunter × Hunter: Original Video Animation |
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Culturecom
NET TV, 
Hunter × Hunter (ハンター×ハンター Hantā Hantā?) is a manga by Yoshihiro Togashi about a 12-year-old boy named Gon Freecss, and his quest to find his father, Ging Freecss. Ging is a Hunter, which in the setting of Hunter × Hunter means that he is a member of society's elite, with a license to go anywhere or do anything. Hunter x Hunter is one of Togashi's two most famous titles (the other being YuYu Hakusho). It started running in Japan in Weekly Shonen Jump in the 14th issue of 1998. As of volume 20 the manga has sold over 36,958,000 copies in Japan.[1] The manga has also been translated to different languages in many countries around the world. It has spawned an anime series, whose story is continued in three OVAs. In the last few years, there have been several long breaks in the release of the manga. Most recently, the manga was put on hiatus in mid-2006, and resumed on October 6, 2007.[2] However, as of December 5, 2007 the series has been put on an indefinite hiatus once more.
Contents |
Characters
- Gon Freecss
- A young boy who wishes to become a hunter to find his father, the legendary hunter Ging Freecss. Ging had left Gon in his aunt's care since birth. Gon is a headstrong optimistic youth with extraordinary senses of smell and hearing, sharp instincts, and an innate understanding for animals.
- Gon starts with an unusual choice of weaponry - a fishing rod. After learning nen, he switches to relying on his Hatsu ability, the Jajanken.
- Killua Zaoldyeck
- Born to the Zaoldyeck family of assassins, Killua is considered the genius of his generation. He is named as the heir to his family due to his amazing talent, and has been trained and raised since birth to take over the Zaoldyeck family business of assassination and is already a professional assassin even at his young age.
- Killua joined the Hunter exam after running away from home, and by chance meets and befriends Gon. He is a very agile and strong fighter with just his bare hands, carrying his family's characteristic immunity to poisons and electricity. He later bases his transformation type Hatsu ability on electricity. His original killing ability was to 'adjust' his hand therefore sharpening his nails. This allows him to slice up his opponents and/or pluck out vital organs. He also knows a technique called the 'rhythm echo', which creates a series of after images of him through a varying cadence of steps. Later, he learns to fight with a yo-yo and electric shocks.
- Kurapika
- The last living member of the Kurta clan, Kurapika has made it his life goal to hunt down and destroy the group responsible for his tribe's destruction - the Genei Ryodan (also known as the Phantom Troupe). His tribe was renowned for their eyes - which would turn flaming scarlet in times of anger or emotional agitation. The so-called 'scarlet eyes' (also known as Kurta eyeballs) were considered a priceless treasure among body-part collectors, which is what prompted the Genei Ryodan to destroy them.
- Kurapika enters the Hunters Exam because he believes becoming a Blacklist Hunter will give him the necessary resources to fight the Genei Ryodan. Kurapika is in general calm and level-headed, preferring to think before leaping into battles. He is also a strong fighter - a huge boost in strength and agility being a side effect of his tribe's scarlet eyes. After being taught nen, Kurapika develops the ability to use two nen types - his usual materialization type, and a specialization type that comes into effect only when his eyes turn scarlet. The specialization type allows him to use the other five nen types all at 100% efficiency. He takes advantage of this fact while fighting against the Genei Ryodan by tricking them into thinking they are fighting a nen user whose only ability is either manipulating or materializing chains. He doesn't want anyone to know he was from the clan so he wears black contacts.
- Leorio
- Leorio claimed that he joined the Hunter exam solely for money. Later, he reveals that it is because he wishes to become a doctor, and needs the money to pay for school fees. He had once lost a very close friend (Pietro) to a debilitating illness only because he had lacked the money to pay for a cure, and now aspires to become a doctor who is able to cure the poor without needing to charge.
- He is not so much of an experienced or talented fighter like most of the other Hunter Examinees, but is by no means weak. He is actually revealed to be physically stronger than Gon or Kurapika. He too, came to learn of nen after passing the Hunter exam. However, he has (at current) chosen to put aside his nen training so he can fulfill his goal of becoming a doctor. Before showing Gon and Killua his Nen he thought that all there was to nen was "ten," one of its four aspects; however, he was corrected by Gon and Killua.
- Hisoka
- Hiding under the guise of a clown-faced magician, not much is known about him or his past. During the Hunter exams Hisoka decided to take on the role of assistant examiner and commenced to kill anybody whom he thought did not meet his standards as a hunter. During this event Hisoka met Gon and became interested with him after realizing the potential Gon had to become a great hunter due to his his courage to face him despite great odds solely to protect his friends. He believed he was a hunter he would see grow to his prime, then destroy. Due to knowledge of nen being so limited, Hisoka takes advantage of this and uses nen freely, claiming it to be magic. This would make him more of an illusionist than someone who actually has magical powers. Despite dressing up as a clown claiming to be a magician, he is an extremely skilled and dangerous fighter.
Story arcs
Hunter Exam Story Arc
In the first major story arc, Gon takes a series of bizarre tests to become a Hunter himself, which include such things as navigating a deadly jungle, hunting other applicants, killing a wild boar, an extraordinarily long underground marathon and making sushi. During the Hunter Test, Gon meets and befriends three of the other applicants, Kurapika, Killua and Leorio. Another of the applicants in the Hunter Test is Hisoka, a complex villain who uses playing cards as weapons, and who views Gon as an "unripe fruit" that he will take great pleasure in killing once he's grown up enough to present a challenge.
Zaoldyeck Family & Celestial Tower Story Arcs
The second story arc involves Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio springing Killua from his parents' mansion. At the end of the second story arc, Leorio leaves for medical school and becomes a professional doctor while Kurapika leaves to find work, taking both characters out of the story. In the third story arc, Gon and Killua go to the Celestial Tower (also known as "Heavens Arena"), a 251-floor building where people can compete in fighting tournaments around the clock for cash. It is here they meet the Kungfu master Wing, who teaches them about Nen, a chi-like energy that can be used to manifest superhuman powers. He teaches a young child named Zushi, who joins Gon and Killua to fight in the tournament to gain money and experience. Hisoka defeats another powerful Nen user, Kastro, who was able to create and use a double made from Nen. Hisoka loses both arms in the battle but Machi, a fellow Nen user and Genei Ryodan member, uses her ability to sew the arms back on. Gon battles Hisoka and is able to land a few hits but loses in the end.
Genei Ryodan Story Arc
The fourth story arc reunites the four main characters for the world's largest auction in a sprawling metropolis called Yorkshin City. While Gon, Killua, and Leorio try different methods to make enough money to buy Greed Island, a "Joystation" video game that could help Gon find his father, Kurapika takes center stage. This story arc introduces the Genei Ryodan (also known as the Phantom Brigade), a group of thieves who, among many other crimes, slaughtered all the other members of Kurapika's clan. Kurapika crosses paths with them while working as a bodyguard for a teenage girl named Neon, who has a clairvoyant Nen ability. He spends the rest of the arc balancing his bodyguard duties with his goal to hunt down the Genei Ryodan. By the end of the Genei Ryodan story arc, Kurapika has directly killed Ubogin, indirectly killed Pakunoda (via a deadly Nen ability which killed her when she broke the conditions he had set onto her), and "sealed" Kuroro Lucifer's Nen ability (via the same ability he used on Pakunoda). The latter two are accomplished via an unsteady alliance with Hisoka, who betrays the Genei Ryodan in exchange for a chance to fight Kuroro Lucifer. Once Kuroro's powers are "sealed," Hisoka completely loses interest and walks away.
Greed Island Story Arc
Gon, Killua, and Leorio return to help Kurapika at the end of the third story arc, after which Leorio and Kurapika leave again, returning the focus to Gon and Killua. The fifth story arc concerns Gon and Killua's adventures on Greed Island, the seemingly-magical video game that sucks its player's physical bodies into its own world. It is later revealed that the game is actually set on an island in the real world (the physical game set is actually just a teleporting device), created and run by a group of powerful Nen users who are led by none other than Gon's own father Ging. 'Greed Island' is named after the letters of each name of the creators. The Greed Island story arc is very video-game-like. The game Greed Island runs on a complex card-based gaming system. The goal of the game is to collect a number of set cards, although almost everything in the game, from food to money, can be turned into cards. There are cards capable of doing anything, from making people pregnant regardless of gender, granting wishes, and magic spell cards that can warp you to specific towns. Inside Greed Island Gon and Killua are joined by Biscuit Kruger; nicknamed Bisuke, a 57-year-old woman who looks like a 12-year-old girl, and is a master and experienced teacher of Nen. She continues the Nen training Wing gave to Gon and Killua during the Celestial Tower arc. As the story progresses, a player nicknamed 'Bomber' is bombing other players up, when in fact the there are three. By placing their hand on the person, and saying 'bomber' a bomb is planted there. In order to activate the bomb, they must reveal that they are the bomber, and the bomb will start its count-down. The count-down's speed is according to the pulse of the person. Gon, Killua, and Biscuit team up with other players and take the bombers out. The Genei Ryodan also travel to Greed Island, looking for a Nen remover to remove the dagger placed on Kuroro's heart by Kurapika. Gon, Killua and Biscuit are the first to complete 'Greed Island' and after bidding Biscuit goodbye, they return to their search for Ging. As part of their reward, they are allowed to take three cards to be used in the real world. Using the card 'Accompany' they travel to 'Nigg' who they believe is Ging. 'Nigg' was his father, but his father only wanted Gon to come alone, so he had a safety measure in place, that if "Accompany" was used, it would take them to Kaito instead. Also during this arc, Killua's little brother, Karuto, joins the Genei Ryodan; replacing Hisoka as member number 4.
Chimera Ant Story Arc
After leaving Greed Island, Gon and Killua meet up with Kaito, the Hunter who told Gon about Ging and Hunters in the very first chapter. They are all hired to investigate a strange insect leg that washed up on a beach. Genetic testing determines that the leg belongs to an abnormally large queen Chimera Ant, an insect that eats other insects and animals, and then gives birth to children that inherit the characteristics of all the different insects and animals it has eaten. The queen Chimera Ant itself just happens to wash up on the shore of an island called the NGL (Neo Green Life) inhabited by a luddite culture, and quickly develops a taste for humans after given the opportunity to eat them. The Chimera Ants proceed to wipe most of the population out and spawn hundreds of offspring before Gon, Killua, and Kaito arrive. The three very powerful Royal Guards are introduced, who develop Nen abilities. One of the Royal Guards, Nefelpitou, fights Kaito and kills him. Kaito is later brought back by Nefelpitou as a puppet used to train Chimera Ants, but his zombification renders him unable to recognize Gon and Killua. Chairman Netero, Morau, and Novu arrive as reinforcements. However, they are unable to stop the birth of the Chimera Ant King. The queen dies because the King ripped himself out of her womb too early. Many of the ants stop being loyal to the King, proclaiming themselves kings, and two even join the Hunters side. As a side story to the main plotline centered around Gon and Killua, one of the children of the queen Chimera Ant, Zazan, starts a colony near Ryuuseigai, the place that is the origin of the Genei Ryodan. Half of the group: Phinx, Feitan, Shalnark, Shizuku, Bonorenofu and Karuto travel to Ryuuseigai to halt the invasion. Upon reaching the colony, the team splits up, agreeing that whoever defeats Zazan will be the temporary leader of the Genei Ryodan until Kuroro Lucifer's return. Feitan ends up defeating Zazan, and as such, is now the ad interim leader. The ants pull a "coup d'etat" on the nearby Republic of East Goruto and from there begin the process of "selecting" humans that have the capability to gain Nen powers. This causes many deaths as only a small amount of humans are able to gain Nen powers. As soon as Gon, Killua, Morau, Knuckle, Shoot, Novu, and Ikarugo break into the palace of East Goruto, both Netero and Zeno arrive. Zeno uses his hatsu ability to cause extensive damage to the palace in order to create a large enough distraction for Gon's team to enter unnoticed, injuring Komugi in the process. The King, distraught by the damage done to Komugi, orders Nefelpitou to heal her wounds while complying with Netero and Zeno's request for a battle located on different grounds. The plan developed by Gon's team was temporarily halted by the surprise of encountering Montutuyupi, one of the Chimera Ant King's three royal guards, in front of their point of entry. Shauapufu, worried for the King's safety after the destruction done to the palace, rushed towards the throne room where he was confronted by Morau. At the same time, Montutuyupi engaged in combat with both Knuckle and Shoot, while Killua and Gon attempted to discover an alternate entry into the throne room after the staircase had been destroyed.
Nen
Nen is the living aura produced by all living beings, and the ability to use nen is what makes Hunters, and people like the Genei Ryodan so powerful. An individual becomes sensitive to his/her nen once their shouko (points of the body where energy flows from) are opened. Learning to control this energy however, is no simple task. The study of nen begins with several basic techniques, as well as a range of more advanced techniques that require experience and high endurance. The most important ability of a nen user is their 'Hatsu.' This is their special ability - the unique manifestation of their aura. Nen-users carefully create their own Hatsu ability to enhance their own strengths, resulting in abilities that uniquely represent the nen-user. Although every nen-user's ability will be different, nen-users can be split into some general 'groups.' As powerful as nen may seem, a fundamental concept of nen is that everything must be within human boundaries. These boundaries however, can be pushed to the limit through a means of a balancing act set in a contract a nen-user defines for oneself. Ergo any 'Hatsu' created has some fundamental drawback, which is usually tailored to interfere as little as possible with the needs and personality of the said creator. For example a character in the story has the ability to attach time-bombs to people's bodies. In order to do so he must meet several conditions: to attach an inactive bomb he must say the name of his ability while touching a person; to active the bomb's countdown he must explain his ability and its conditions of use, and he must explain how to deactivate it (by catching him and reciting a phrase). Being a wily and elusive character he makes it difficult to be caught and thus shores up his weaknesses nicely while maximizing the utility of his ability. It is a delicate balance system that rewards a well thought out ability and the smarter and more thoroughly prepared nen-user in a battle has a distinct advantage as opposed to the out-and-out stronger nen-user.
Hiatus
For unknown reasons, the manga has been on a very loose schedule since mid-2003. In mid-2006, the mangaka, Togashi, took his longest break. The Manga returned on October 5, 2007 and went on hiatus again December 5, 2007. The official reason given for the break was illness. Despite this, fans have speculated much on the cause of this hiatus. The rumor that Togashi's wife Naoko Takeuchi (famed creator and artist of Sailor Moon) would take Togashi's place in authoring and illustrating the series was laughed off by her on her web diary.
Media
- The manga is currently published in Japan in Weekly Shonen Jump, and past episodes have been compiled into a set of 24 tankōbon and growing. The manga is currently being published in the United States by VIZ Media. It is currently up to volume 17, the latest recently released in late October of 2007.
- An early Hunter × Hunter OVA was shown only at the 1998 Jump Super Anime Tour.
- An anime of Hunter × Hunter was broadcast on Fuji Television from mid October 1999 to March 2001, and ran for 62 episodes. The anime series removed the vast quantities of gore and severed limbs that filled the manga, added new scenes like the "Battleship Island" test in the Hunter Exam, and fleshed out both the main characters and a few minor characters. The televised anime ended just before the end of the Genei Ryodan story arc. Three subsequent OVAs have carried the story through the end of the Genei Ryodan story arc (8 episodes), and through the Greed Island story arc (8 episodes, released from February through April 2003, and 14 episodes, released from March through August 2004). There was a fourth OVA in production, but was put on hold for unknown reasons. The anime is produced in English in Singapore by Odex.
- There have been three musicals, the third of which very little is known about. In the musicals, Killua, Gon, Leorio, Kurapika, and Hisoka, are all played by their Japanese voice actors;
- Gon – Junko Takeuchi
- Killua – Kanako Mitsuhashi
- Leorio – Hozumi Goda
- Kurapika – Yuki Kaida, Kimura Akiko
- Hisoka – Hiroki Takahashi
- The first is just called "Hunter × Hunter: Musical". It was originally performed during December of 2000. It is an original story that appears to take place in between the end of the "Genei Ryodan" arc and the beginning of the "Greed Island" arc. Gon gets a mysterious phone call, to come aid the citizens of Elrais. Once they get there they find that the country's four best performers have been kidnapped. It is later found that the kidnappers are controlling Madame Isabel (who is like a ghost). They plan to use her power to take revenge on Elrais. It is up to Gon and party to rescue the performers, and save the country.
- The second Musical is called "Hunter × Hunter; Deja-vu in summer." It run from Aug 15 until Aug 26, 2001. This musical has not been released on DVD.
- The third Musical is called "Hunter × Hunter; The Nightmare of Zoldyeck." It was originally performed during August of 2002. This is an alternate re-telling of when Kurapika, Leorio, and Gon go to Kukuruu Mountain to fetch Killua back. This includes a farewell party at the Zoldyck mansion, and Illumi placing a "switch" in Killua's mind. This switch will cause Killua to become murderous and attack his friends, if he ever tries to fight Illumi.
- There is also a play called "Hunter × Hunter: Real Stage; A Longing for Pakunoda ~ A Spider's Memory ~". It was originally performed during August of 2004. It is a darker retelling of the kidnapping in the Genei Ryodan Story Arc. It has no singing and not too much humor unlike in the Musicals. In addition, Kurapika is played by Kimura Akiko; the voice actress of Mito-san and Bisuke in the Hunter x Hunter Anime. Killua and Gon are played by their respective voice actresses. It contains flashbacks of Pakunoda's (played by Ikeda Yukiko) memories and experiences with the Spiders.
- As with several other anime series, Hunter × Hunter has spawned numerous video games (most of which take place on Greed Island), and appeared along with other Shonen Jump properties in the Nintendo DS fighting game Jump Super Stars and its sequel Jump Ultimate Stars and a trading card game (which is not based on the cards used on Greed Island).
International releases
- Hunter x Hunter Anime was aired in Latin America on a mostly not censored/edited version, in countries like Chile the series where broadcasting in 2003 by the local channel Chilevisión and the cable TV channel Etc...TV, despite to be a moderately success in the mainstream, the Anime got a lot of popularity in the Otaku Chilean community and actually got a cult status.
- Hunter x Hunter also found popularity in Arabic speaking countries when Space Toon aired the Arabic dub under the title "القناص" (The Hunter) on Cannal Algerie, for instance, although a number of scenes were edited out, the plot, the violent fight scenes and the characters' names remained available in the dub. In its early runs, the Arabic dub had ended with the original 62 episodes of the anime. In later runs, it added the 8 episodes from the first OAV (giving a total of 70 episodes).
- Hunter X Hunter Anime Series was aired in GMA 7 Philippines they have also aired in OVA Greed Island but unable to continue to air the OVA Greed Island Final. The DVD for this series was widely available in Metro Manila Malls and available manga was translated in English.
- Hunter X Hunter was aired in France and Belgium, in an uncensored edition. The DVD are also available, and the OVA have been announced.
- In Brazil, the character named "Kurapika" was translated "Karapaika", because kurapika means something like male genitalia.
Translation Problems
The English spellings of the main characters' names in Hunter x Hunter is a topic of debate among fans of the series. The series first became available to English-speaking audiences via scanlations, translators generally translated names phonetically. Later, in the endnotes of the series' 12th tankōbon, Togashi wrote several of the characters names in romaji (the representation of Japanese sounds using Roman characters), many of which didn't match up to the translators' guesses. To further complicate matters, Togashi released an "official handbook" in June 2004, which listed the names of characters with completely different Romaji spellings, many of which were nonsensical (such as translating "Pakunoda" as "Phalcnothdk"). When Viz translated the manga for its legitimate American release, they created their own set of English names - some of which were phonetic and others were English translations. As an example, the first name of the leader of the Genei Ryodan is "クロロ", phonetically translated as "Kuroro". Later, the name appeared in Romaji both in the endnotes of the 12th tankōbon "Quoll", but in the official handbook Togashi spells the name "Chrollo." Chrollo is the spelling adopted by Viz for their American translation, although Kuroro remains as the most popular form amongst fans (and is also as close as Japanese phonetics can come to spelling Chrollo).
Music
The background music for the anime was composed by Toshihiko Sahashi, and released onto five different soundtracks. The first three soundtracks correspond to the first series, while the latter three each were released in response to each Hunter x Hunter OVA. Openings:
- "Ohayou (Good Morning)" by Keno (Episodes 1 – 48)
- "Taiyou wa Yoru mo Kagayaku (The Sun Also Shines at Night)" by WINO (Episodes 49 – 62)
- "Pale Ale" by Kenichi Kurosawa (Hunter x Hunter OVA)
- "Pray" by Wish (Hunter x Hunter Greed Island)
- "Believe In Tomorrow" by Sunflower's Garden (Hunter x Hunter GI Final)
Endings:
- "Kaze no Uta (Song of the Wind)" by Minako Honda (Episodes 1 – 31)
- "E-Jan - Do You Feel Like I Feel" by Masato Nagai (Episodes 32 – 50)
- "Hotaru (Firefly)" by Masato Nagai (Episodes 51 – 62)
- "Carry On" by Kenichi Kurosawa (Hunter x Hunter OVA)
- "Popcorn" by Mikuni Shimokawa (Hunter x Hunter Greed Island)
- "Moshimo Kono Sekai de Kimi to Boku ga Deaenakatta Nara (If You and I Never Met in This World)" by Sunflower's Garden (Hunter x Hunter GI Final)
References
External links
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This article contains Japanese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of kanji or kana. |
- Official Hunter × Hunter website (Japanese)
- Official Jump Comics Web Site (Japanese)
- Official Anime Web Site (Japanese)
- Viz's Hunter x Hunter Manga Page (English)
- "Seek Out!", a Hunter X Hunter fansite (English)
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Hunter × Hunter
|
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| Anime: Anime episodes | OVA episodes |
| Characters: Gon | Killua | Kurapika | Leorio | Hisoka | Kuroro |
| Groups: Hunters | Genei Ryodan | Zaoldyeck family |
| Lists: all characters | monsters | other characters | chapters |
| Other: Greed Island | Nen | Yoshihiro Togashi |
| Series currently running in Weekly Shonen Jump |
|---|
| Bleach · D.Gray-man · Eyeshield 21 · Gintama · Hatsukoi Limited · Hunter × Hunter · KochiKame · K.O. Sen · Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro · Muddy · Muhyo and Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation M×0 · Naruto · One Piece · Our Hero Studies · Poseidon Private High · The Prince of Tennis · Psyren · Pyū to Fuku! Jaguar · Reborn! · Samurai Usagi · Sket Dance · To Love-Ru |
