I read all volumes of Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi

 

Hello, and welcome to my blog.

I am happy to share this post today because it took a lot of reading to get here. It has been a fun journey overall, but oh boy, was I in for a treat.

The first time I got in touch with Hunter x Hunter dates back to the early 2000s. I have been watching anime since a very early age. I can date back my first memories of watching anime to around six years old. I distinctly remember watching Dragon Quest - The Legend of Kai and Dragon Ball.

After that, I proceeded to watch all that the early 2000s could offer a kid. Saint Seiya - Knights of the Zodiac, Pokemon, Digimon, Monster Rancher, Shinzo, Shurato, etc. An extensive list that I went through endlessly, watching and rewatching multiple episodes. Above all, the one that marked me the most during my childhood was YuYu Hakusho, maybe because it had a darker tone than all the others.

On YuYu Hakusho, the plot revolves around a detective that fights demons in the spiritual world alongside his companions, and the stories revolve around the human world and the “Makai,” which is a correlative to hell. In the early 2000s, when watching Hunter x Hunter for the first time going on cable TV on some random afternoon, the dark theme in an anime caught my attention.

It was no surprise to know that Hunter x Hunter author Yoshihiro Togashi is also YuYu Hakusho’s author. But what I did not know is that Hunter x Hunter was not precisely a darker story. I was just watching the Yorknew Arc, which was a darker part of the plot.

Many years passed since those random episodes from the Yorknew Arc that made me fall in love with the 1999s anime’s aesthetic, but every time I read the name Hunter x Hunter, I’d remember it as something that intrigued me.

I was going through this reading journey, as we all know at this point, and I really thought going back to those early readings I made, which were comics, in my childhood, and having the possibility to access all of a Manga archive I did not have in the past, I decided to start reading some Manga, and Hunter x Hunter was an obvious pick.

Also, booktuber Emma started reading this, and it was the final motivation I needed to start it myself. I read the first three volumes on my cellphone. Even though I have always hated reading on my cellphone or notebook, I finally decided it was time to start, so I started even though I disliked the display.

Last but not least, the kindle I bought back in early September did play a huge role in helping me have access to a pleasant way to read Manga more efficiently.

And that’s how I ended up on this journey which involved reading 37 manga books of about 210 pages each, as well as a few extra chapters on the Shonen Jump App.

To talk about this story, I am going to quickly go over each one of the story arcs.

The Hunter’s Exam

This was the introduction to the Anime, where they explain that in the world where the story passes, that are Hunters who are elite individuals with access to an array of resources that are not available to regular people.

The main characters, Gon, Killua, Leorio, and Kurapika, pursue their Hunter’s license, each for their specific reason.

This arc’s big villain is Hisoka, who’s a great character.

This is the easiest arc to digest. It’s where everything begins. I loved how deep Gon’s story “seemed” to be at the time.

Zoldyck Family

In this arc, we visit Killua’s family to learn more about the character's origins. The powerful family of assassins is entertaining, and Killua’s fans mostly love this arc.

I am not particularly into this arc.

Heaven's Arena

Also, not my favorite, to raise some money to buy a game called Greed Island made by the protagonist’s father, Ging Freecs, Killua and Gon follow to Heaven’s Arena, a tower where they can fight for money and rise to the top to enhance their skills.

This arc is where the magic system of the anime is explained. Our main characters start developing their Nen. This is a pretty standard training arc. Not my favorite as well.

Yorknew City

This is my favorite arc. We get into the story of the Kurta clan, which the Phantom Troupe has murdered. Kurapika, the last survivor of the Kurta clan, wants revenge on their brethren whose eyes were stolen because their scarlet red color was believed to be one of the world’s most beautiful colors.

This arc shows how flexible the show can be with its main characters, shifting focus from Gon and Killua to Kurapika a little. The story seems more adult, and Kurapika is a beloved character. This arc hits hard. Also, the Phantom Troupe is a group of incredible villains, really good stuff.

Greed Island

We forget Kurapika has existed for a long time now. Gon and Killua enter the game made by Gon’s father in the hopes our hero will find his dad.

This arc can be interesting or boring. They beat the game, and oh my, were they in for a treat.

Chimera Ant

Spoiler alert, they did not find Gon’s father. They actually found Gon’s father’s colleague Kite, who was about to go on an expedition to a technology-less country called Neo Green Life, or NGL.

A special type of ant starts consuming another species and receiving their attributes, and oh my fucking God. Our beautiful manga derails into a story of overpowered ants.

That’s where I feel like I am having a flashback from some random acid I took years ago, but it was just Hunter x Hunter being Hunter x Hunter.

13th Hunter Chairman Election

More spoilers, the previous chairman from Hunter’s association gives his all to defeat the Ant King, and now we need to elect a new chairman.

I actually liked this very short arc. It made me have fun again as they explored more in-depth Hunter’s association and the politics within Hunter’s world.

Dark Continent Expedition

Shit derails, and acid flashbacks return. The world as the Hunters know is not as they know it. They actually only knew a small part of it and what they thought was their world was just a group of islands floating on and gigantic lake surrounded by a gigantic ancient continent never before exploded. The Dark Continent.

They make an expedition to go explore uncharted territory and colonize. Fuck, man, this was trippy.

Succession Contest

And now, this is the arc we currently are in. Inside the ship that leads to the Dark Continent, the lots and lots of princes from the king of Kakin have to fight themselves to death with the assistance of an intricate system of bodyguards and mafia until only one remains to be the heir to the throne, all of that before stepping into the Dark Continent.

Togashi does suffer a lot from health conditions, and Hunter x Hunter has been on a hiatus for longer than it has been released, so this arc has not yet come to an end.

I hope the best to Togashi, but I am very eager to read more.

Chapter 395

The latest chapter until this post was made has been 395. It was a big one that brought a flashback and background to the Phantom Troupe after so long deep into the succession contest arc with no familiar faces anywhere to be seen.

Seeing the Phantom Troupe around is actually a relief.

Wrap Up

I loved how much I progressed on this story, this was the first manga that I read from beginning to end ever in my life, and now I follow it weekly in the Shonen Jump Magazine.

This was an amazing journey that I would recommend to anyone.

Find a manga you love, and get ready to live in a different world for a while, explore it, and live its fantasy.

I will be back soon to talk about books and manga, and maybe even, for the first time, movies. Let’s see what the future holds.

Until then, let’s read.