Hunter × Hunter
Encyclopedia : H : HU : HUN : Hunter × Hunter
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Hunter × Hunter: Original Video Animation
Hunter × Hunter: Greed Island
Hunter × Hunter: Greed Island Final
|} Hunter × Hunter (pronounced "Hunter Hunter") is a manga by Yoshihiro Togashi about a 12-year-old boy named Gon Freecss (ゴン＝フリークス), 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 pretty much total license to go anywhere or do anything. Hunter x Hunter started running in Japan in Weekly Shonen Jump in the 14th issue of 1998.
Characters
- Gon Freaks
- A young boy who wishes to become a hunter to follow in his father's footsteps. His father, the legendary hunter Gin Freaks, 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 off with an unusual choice of weaponry - a fishing rod. After learning nen, he switches to relying on his Hatsu ability, the Jajanken.
- Killua Zoldyck
- Born to a family of (in)famous assassins, Killua is considered the genius of his generation. He is named as the heir to his family due to his amazing talent, 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 transmission (transformation) Hatsu ability on electricity.
- Kurapika
- The last living member of the Kurta tribe, Kurapika has made it his life goal to hunt down and destroy the group responsible for his tribe's destruction - the Phantom Troupe (Genei Ryodan). His tribe was renowned for their eyes - which would turn flaming red in times of anger or emotional agitation. The so-called 'scarlet eyes' were considered a priceless treasure among body-part collectors, which is what prompted the thief-gang Phantom Troupe to destroy them.
- Kurapika enters the Hunters Exam because he believes becoming a Blacklist Hunter will give him the necessary resources to fight the Phantom Troupe. 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 learns he can switch between both the Conjuration and Specialization types of Hatsu depending on what color his eyes are at the moment. He takes advantage of this fact while fighting against the Phantom Troupe, tricking them into thinking they are fighting a nen user who's only ability is materializing chains.
- The name of Kurapika's tribe, "Kurta", is often used by many fans as his surname. The manga neither confirms nor contradicts this (Kurapika's surname has not been mentioned.)
- 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 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 fulfil his goal of becoming a doctor.
- 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. A hunter he will see grow and then destroy when Gon's at his prime. This is the type of person Hisoka is. Due to knowledge of nen being so limited, Hisoka takes advantage of this and uses nen freely, exclaiming it to be magic.
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, 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.
Zoldyck Family & Heaven's Tower (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 as a Hostess, taking both characters out of the story. In the third story arc, Gon and Killua go to the Heavens Tower, 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 was currently teaching a young child called Zushi. They 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, uses her Nen ability to sew them back on. Gon battles Hisoka and is able to land a few hits, but loses in the end.Phantom Troupe Story Arc
The fourth story arc reunites the four main characters for the world's largest auction in a sprawling metropolis called Yorknew 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 Phantom Troupe ("Genei Ryodan"), 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 Phantom Troupe.
By the end of the Phantom Troupe story arc, Kurapika has directly killed Uvogin, indirectly killed Pakunoda (via a deadly Nen ability which killed her when she broke the conditions he had set onto her), and "sealed" Chrollo 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 Phantom Troupe in exchange for a chance to fight Chrollo Lucifer. Once Chrollo'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 players 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 ran by a group of powerful Nen users who are led by none other than Gon's own father Ging. 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 Krueger (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 Heavens Tower arc.
Also during this arc, Killua's little brother, Kalluto, joins the Phantom Troupe; replacing Hisoka as member number 4. (See Miscellany section of this article for details regarding Kalluto's gender)
Chimera Ant Story Arc
After leaving Greed Island, Gon and Killua meet up with Kite (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 are combinations 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 inhabited by a luddite culture, and proceeds to wipe most of them out and spawn hundreds of offspring before Gon, Killua, and Kite arrive. The three very powerful Royal Guards are introduced. They develop Nen abilities. One of the Royal Guards, Nefelpitou, fights Kite and decapitates him. Kite is later brought back, but he is zombie-like and unable to recognize Gon and Killua.Netero, Morau, and Novu arrive as reinforcements. However, they are unable to stop the birth of the king. The queen dies because the king ripped himself out of her stomach 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, started a colony near Ryuuseigai (City of the Shooting Stars); the place that is the origin of the Phantom Troupe. Half of the group: Phinx, Feitan, Shalnark, Shizuku, Bonorenof and Kalluto travel to the 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 Phantom Troupe until Chrolo Lucifer's return.
The ants move into East Goruto and 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.
Currently, Gon, Killua, Morau, Knuckle, Shoot, Novu, and Netero are about to attack the 3 royal guards and the King in the King's palace. However, it has been strongly suggested that something will go wrong with the plan.
Togashi is currently on "sick" leave, and have been on and off for the past couple of years, so it is uncertain whether he will finish this particular arc of the storyline or not.
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 Phantom Troupe 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 manisfistation 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. A nen-user may choose to materialize a sword with his nen; but no matter how sharp and hard he makes his sword, he will never be able to materialize a sword that can cut through anything. Such a sword would be deemed to be 'beyound human boundaries.' However, since nen is powered by a nen-user's will, conditions can be added onto abilities to strength them if the nen-user is determined enough. For example, a sword may be able to cut through anything given a very strict set of conditions are met.
Media
- The manga is currently published in Japan in Weekly Shonen Jump, and past episodes have been compiled into a set of 23 tankōbon and growing. The manga is currently being published in the United States by VIZ Media.
- 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 Test, and fleshed out both the main characters and a few minor characters. The televised anime ended just before the end of the Phantom Troupe story arc. Three subsequent OVAs have carried the story through the end of the Phantom Troupe 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). The anime is produced in English in Singapore by Odex. The anime also found popularity in Arabic speaking countries when Space Toon aired the Arabic dub under the title "القناص" (The Sharpshooter), although a number of scenes were edited out, the plot, the violent fight scenes and the characters' names remained available in the dub. However despite its popularity, the OVAs have yet to recieve Arabic translation (Which is pretty commen for Arab dub anime series that get released but the movies based on the series don't).
- 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
- 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 "Phantom Troupe" arc and the beginning of the "Yorknew City" arc. Gon gets a mysterious phone call, to come aid the citizens of Elrais. Once they get there they find that the country's 4 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; The Nightmare of Zoldyck". It was originally performed during August of 2002.
- This is an alternate re-telling of when Kurapika, Leorio, and Gon go to Kukuroo Moutain 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.
- The third Musical is called "Hunter × Hunter: Real Stage; A Longing for Phalcnothdk (Pakunoda) ~ A Spider's Memory ~". It was originally performed during August of 2004.
- As with several other anime series, Hunter × Hunter has spawned numerous video games (most of which take place on Greed Island), the most recent being Jump Superstars for the Nintendo DS, and a trading card game (which is not based on the cards used on Greed Island).
Miscellany
Trivia
- The title is pronounced "Hunter Hunter" rather than "Hunter-ecks-Hunter". Yoshihiro Togashi got the idea for the title from a Japanese cop show in which the hero's sidekick always says everything twice.
- Yoshihiro Togashi makes two cameo appearances in the anime as a man wearing a dog mask with square-rimmed glasses. In the first appearance, he gives the audience some very tangential exposition about Hisoka's childhood, and in the second appearance he gives the audience a brief, public-service-announcement-style warning about the perils of online auctions. Both appearances are completely superfluous to the plot, and the main characters are oblivious to his presence.
- While Killua's little brother Kalluto appears to be female (i.e. dressing like a girl and being voiced by a female seiyū in the anime), he addresses himself as "boku" (a humble male first-person pronoun in Japanese), and the manga guidebook for Hunter × Hunter distinctly states that Kalluto is male. There are only five Zoldyck children, and it is quite clearly stated in the manga that the Zoldyck's have 'five sons.'
- In an official "Hunter's Guide" book that was released in June 2004, the official spelling of several names by Yoshihiro Togashi were shown. They are mostly considered bizarre, since they make very little sense. Because of this, translators kept the original translations of the names based on pronunciation rather than the official versions. Examples of these 'official spellings' include Hyskoa (Hisoka), Vonnornoth (Bonorenolf), Phalcnothdk (Pakunoda).
- One paticulary interesting "cameo" that featured early on in the series was Sailor Moon (as one of Togashi's pre-chapter sketches) as thanks towards Sailor Moon's writer, Naoko Takeuchi, for her help with the colored artwork and toning in Hunter × Hunter's first volume. This happened, notably, before their marriage in 1999.
- Kurotopi a member of the Phantom Brigade, resembles It from the Addams Family.
- Togashi is a fan of Naruto, which is seen in his sketches between chapters, often resembling Naruto or other characters from the show, as well as a character that looks very much like Kakashi in chapter 215 of the 21st volume. He appeared as a doctor with a mask covering his mouth and nose, and a scar accros his eye.
- The manga is noticeably more talky and poorly-drawn through the middle of the Greed Island story arc. This is supposedly because Yoshihiro Togashi was "very sick" at the time (which in Japan, where illness is almost always left vague, could mean anything from "a bad flu" to "on chemotherapy").
- Kurapika's gender is a major point of contention among fans of the series. Although Kurapika speaks "male Japanese", his features, clothes, and mannerisms are all very feminine, he is voiced by a woman in the anime, and he does numerous things (like refusing to undress in front of anyone else, becoming incredibly embarrassed when Leorio strips down to his underwear at one point in the anime, and showing complete sexual disinterest in either women or men) clearly designed to keep his gender ambiguous. In a scene that some fans feel resolves the issue, Kurapika dons a long-haired pink wig and even more feminine clothing as a disguise to capture someone. When his captive says "I didn't realize [the person who was hunting me] was a girl", Kurapika removes the wig and replies "you shouldn't make assumptions" which is, of course, probably the most ambiguous answer possible. This dispute is easily resolved by pointing out the cover to manga volume 14, which depicts him shirtless. He has also appeared shirtless in episodes of the anime, completely comfortable as thus, and without any indication of breasts. In addition to this, the Official Hunter × Hunter manga guidebook states his gender as being male. This suggests that he is merely another in a long line of anime bishounen.
- It has been noted in Naoko Takeuchi's website [link] that she has been asked when 'she' would resume the series, meaning there was some confusion between who out of the married couple writes Hunter × Hunter. However it has to be noted that she laughed this off on her website, meaning that the possibility of her continuing the series in the event of Togashi's illness not improving isn't too high.
Music
Openings:- "Ohayou" by Keno (episode 1 – 48)
- "Taiyou wa Yoru mo Kagayaku" by WINO (episode 49 – 62)
- "Pale Ale" by Kenichi Kurosawa (episode 63 – 70/OVA)
- "Pray" by Wish (GI)
- "[Believe In Tomorrow]" by [Sunflower's Garden] (GI Final)
- "Kaze no Uta" by Minako Honda (episode 1 – 31)
- "E-Jan - Do You Feel Like I Feel" by Masato Nagai (episode 32 – 50)
- "Hotaru" by Masato Nagai (episode 51 – 62)
- "Carry On" by Kenichi Kurosawa (episode 63 – 70/OVA)
- "Popcorn" by Mikuni Shimokawa (GI)
- ["Moshimo Kono Sekai de Kimi to Boku ga Deaenakatta Nara"] by [Sunflower's Garden] (GI Final)
References and external links
- [Official Jump Comics Web Site]
- [Update HxH manga information]
- [English HxH scanlation and discussion forum]
- [Seek Out! Hunter × Hunter]
- [Japanese Hunter × Hunter website]
- [Official Anime Web Site]
| Hunter × Hunter |
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| Hunter × Hunter#Characters>Characters: Main | Minor | Hunters | Phantom Troupe |
| Other: Greed Island > Nen | Yoshihiro Togashi |
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