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Hunter × Hunter
File:Hunter x Hunter Volume 1.jpgCover of the Japanese Hunter × Hunter manga Vol. 1
Genre	Shōnen
Created by	Yoshihiro Togashi
Manga
Written by	Yoshihiro Togashi
Published by	Shueisha Chuang Yi
Anime
Directed by	Kazuhiro Furuhashi
Studio	Nippon Animation
Related works
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.

Story arcs

Characters

Types of Hunters

After a canditate becomes a fully-fledged Hunter, they may choose to specialize in one particular area. The following is a list of the different types of Hunters that have appeared in the manga. These titles seem to be unofficial - so that any Hunter can name themselves accordingly to what they have choosen to hunt.

• Blacklist Hunters - The profession for the brave and determined upholders of justice, they have the heavy duty of tracking down the most dangerous and wanted criminals. Kurapica has expressed his interest in becoming a Blasklist Hunter.

• Treasure Hunters- They scour the world in search of rare and valuable booty, especially suited for those with a sense of adventure and a liking towards the unknown. Gon can be said to be a Treasure Hunter.

• Culinary Hunters - Suited for the gastronomically inclined, the goal of a Culinary Hunter is to find and collect rare ingredients, and to bring these flavours to live by using new and creative styles of cooking. Menchi, an examiner in the second test, is an example of a Culinary Hunter.

• Archaeological Hunters - For those fascinated in bringing ancient cultures and structures to life. Ging, Gon's father, is one example of a Archaeological Hunter who has made significant contributions to this area of study. Satotz, the examiner of the first test, was also an Archaelogical Hunter.

• Wildlife Hunters- These are the people who feel a deep love for nature; whose job as a Wildlife Hunter involves the study and preservation of undiscovered aniaml species.

• Music Hunters - Definitely catered to the musically talented, they are the ones who have choosen the pursuit of rare musical pieces. Senritsu is a Hunter of this category.

Hunter license description

Appearance
A Hunter licence is in the form of a normal card. It is slightly thicker and has inbuilt computer chips. The front shows your Hunter rank, and the back has a magnetic strip with a unique serial number that identifies each individual to their licence. It works similar to a credit card, with card machines that can swipe and read the licence. The license also comes with a range of extra benefits. Although these benefits can only be used by the true owner of a license, the Hunter License is still a valuble collector's item, and can be sold for great deals of money (enough money to support himself for at least 7 generations in luxury!)

Benefits
With regards to the numerous benefits, first and foremost is the unparalleled fame and recognition a licence holder can enjoy, being one of the few in the world who owns a licence. Next comes the material benefits, which include:

• 1. having a hefty 95% discount on all public services (e.g. hotel lodging, food, transport, etc.). Furthermore, all such services are provided at 1st class.
• 2. unrivaled freedom to travel around the world. They are granted access to 90% of countries that are normally restricted to outsiders, and access to 70% of areas that are normally deemed 'forbidden'.
• 3. no legal responsibility for killing people (this basically means Hunters can get away with murder.)

Ranks
Upon passing the Hunter Exam, candidates will recieve a standard Hunter License. However, Hunters can be awarded with stars for significant contributions to society.

• 1 star - given to hunters who have made a significant contribution to a part of society.
• 2 star - given to hunters who have made significant contributions to several fields.
• 3 star - given to hunters who have made extraordinary contributions to society over several fields. This is the rarest and most difficult rank to obtain, and is considered a great honour. The number of 3-star hunters is only about 10.

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 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 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). The anime is produced in English in Singapore by Odex.

• There has 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 is an original story, that appears to take place in between the end of the "Genei Ryoden Arc" and the beginning of the "Yorknew City" part. Gon gets a mysterious phone call, to come aid the citizines 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 preformers, and save the country.

The second Musical is called "Hunter × Hunter; The Nightmare of Zoldyck".

This is a alternate re-telling of when Kurapika, Leorio, and Gon go to Kukuruu 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.

• 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.

• Hisoka is sexually aroused by people with very powerful Nen ability, regardless of gender, and derives sexual satisfaction from fighting and killing them. At one point in the Celestial Tower story arc, when he's telling Gon how impressed he is with his power, he is depicted with beams of energy emenating from his crotch, and at another point in the Greed Island story arc, he holds an extended telescope against his crotch while talking about how arousingly powerful another character is.

• 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. Also, there are only five Zoldyck children, and it is quite clearly stated in the manga that the Zoaldyeck'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.

Here are a few examples of the names of the official spellings:

• • Kurapika – Curarpikt
  • Hisoka – Hyskoa
  • Quoll/Kuroro Lucifer – Quwrof Wrlccywrlir
  • Ubogin – Wbererguin
  • Shizuku – Chzzok
  • Pakunoda – Phalcnothdk
  • Bonorenolf - Vonnornoth
  • Coltopi - Colhtophy
  • Feitan - Heytun
  • Franklin - Fulunkln
  • Illumi - Yellmi
  • Karuto - Calltt
  • Machi - Matiy
  • Phinx - Phynkss
  • Shalnark - Syarnorke

• Following the recent announcement that D.Gray-man would be temporarilly halted due to the manga-ka being ill, Shonen Jump has announced that Yoshihiro Togashi is also ill, therefore Hunter × Hunter will be on hiatus until next year's issue #8, to be released on January 23 2006.

• 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 toneing in Hunter × Hunter's first volume. This happened, notably, before their marriage in 1999.

Views and speculation

• 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 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 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:

1. "Ohayou" by Keno (episode 1 – 48)
2. "Taiyou wa Yoru mo Kagayaku" by WINO (episode 49 – 62)
3. "Pale Ale" by Kenichi Kurosawa (episode 63 – 70/OVA)
4. "Pray" by Wish (GI)
5. "Believe In Tomorrow" by Sunflower's Garden (GI Final)

Endings:

1. "Kaze no Uta" by Minako Honda (episode 1 – 31)
2. "E-Jan - Do You Feel Like I Feel" by Masato Nagai (episode 32 – 50)
3. "Hotaru" by Masato Nagai (episode 51 – 62)
4. "Carry On" by Kenichi Kurosawa (episode 63 – 70/OVA)
5. "Popcorn" by Mikuni Shimokawa (GI)
6. "Moshimo Kono Sekai de Kimi to Boku ga Deaenakatta Nara" by Sunflower's Garden (GI Final)

References and external links

• Seek Out! Hunter × Hunter
• Hunter × Hunter 2020 :: Fansite
• Update HxH manga information
• French encyclopedia about Hunter × Hunter
• Japanese Hunter × Hunter website
• Official Jump Comics Web Site
• Official Anime Web Site
• English HxH scanlation and discussion forum
• Hunter × Hunter Manga Review
• Watch Hunter X Hunter anime for free

See also

• Hunter × Hunter story arcs
• Hunter × Hunter characters
• Nen
• Greed Island
• Yoshihiro Togashi

• Manga series
• Anime series
• Adventure anime
• Fantasy anime
• Hunter × Hunter
• Manga
• Nippon Animation