We're talking about the cream of the crop right here. A series more famous for it's hiatus status than it is for it's story. Like-wise, Togashi is a guy who likes to play with rationality. He likes to turn anything logical upside-down, which is simply the weirdest, or the best way to cook up a series like Hunter X Hunter. Anything he thinks is fun he just throws in there for the next story arc.

The term 'Hunter', as we soon find out, is something that binds the characters in this series together. In the beginning the term was used as kings of the jungle, rulers of the world, and regarded as the tamers of any creature. It was something that was always talked about in the first arc. Whatever they were doing, they were doing it because of the hunter's influence. Every character in the series has their own back story and different ambitions but the thing they all share in common was their appreciation for hunters.

The typical shounen manga series, the world is vast, we never think it's small at all and perhaps it may not seem that way due to the authors deliberate lack in background, but some could claim that the disregard in background was a way for us readers to imagine. And we do imagine. He could either be a genius or just some lazy bum for only concentrating on the character art.

Each plot in this series is extremely planned out, making them look spontaneous to the point that these characters follow anything that they find interesting, which is what leads to the next arc. The characters thought up by Togashi are purely an example of his genius. Everyone is much stronger around Gon, because despite his age has the charismatic capacity of a lion. Kurapica is a genius in his own right, a survivor of his clan against a horrid band of criminals, the York Shin arc is layered out to us in his very background, a clever way for readers to understand Kurapica's motivations, though a bit exaggerated for his size. Which brings us to Leorio and his ambition for money, his character is the most mysterious when introduced because here's a guy who's always carrying a briefcase full of medicine and a guy who slowly gets entranced by Gon's behaviour, as do every other character who meet Gon. Last but not least Killua Zoldyck and his proud charm for being so strong but so young, another thing Togashi likes to mess with, switching the strongest characters with the youngest characters rather and making the weakest characters older.

Killua's relationship with Gon is somewhat precious as they grow to know each other. They are the same age and Gon trusts in bonds and friendship, something that Killua admires in Gon because he himself has never had a friend, or allowed one. Gon appreciates Killua like a twin brother with cool toys and his sense in wisdom, even though Gon is wise for being so dense at times. The two fit together like a piece in a puzzle, and even more so when connected to Leorio and Kurapica. When we see these characters torn from each other is makes us want them back together, we yearn for it the way they yearn for it.

The complexity in plot design is very well crafted, most of the time the characters don't care where the situation takes place as long as they get their share from the environment they're in. We are given rules and guidelines in the beginning, we follow them as they go through a situation that no ordinary human could possibly consider doing. Even though an 80 km run seems rather elementary for these characters, we think they're all monsters and deserve their hunter's license right there and then. But we follow Gon and Killua and decide that if they think it's fun and easy than it probably is, everyone else isn't deemed worthy to speak to these two little boys. A great way to point out the best guys and the guys who would likely make it to the end of the Hunter's exam. We don't even know the cost of a Hunter in some of these arcs, but we know that a Hunter can clearly make a run that's 100 km and more, and thus creating our image of a Hunter, skilled and swift.

You can't decide what your favourite arc is anymore once you finish them, all of them putting Gon and Killua in a labyrinth like two mice in a maze filled with cats. The entire series is one large chase to find Gon's father, but we must hurdle over everything he's set up for Gon. This makes for impressive development strategy for Togashi because Gon, while racing to find his father, slowly watches himself turn into his father at the same time. The Greed Island arc was easily the best storyline I've ever read in a series, forget the rest of the series if you want to, but at least take the time to read this arc by itself, it's a beast of a storyline in my opinion.

Without a doubt, this series gets a seat on my shelf. It is by far the best series running in the weekly shounen jump magazine today, and holds a spot above even One Piece, though that is still debatable. I congratulate Togashi for trumping his own YuYu Hakusho, taking that fantasy world and applying more stricter rules on everything in HxH. No one is too over-powered or godly even, each depend on a more sturdier attitude and charisma to upgrade their strengths. Thank you Togashi!!

... Last updated on November 4th, 2011, 4:28pm

But still is my most favorite shounen manga ever.

I love the art style (esp at the beginning volumes): Simple but nice, love the way the actions were drawn. The current art has been worse, but because it's due to the mangaka's health issues, I can overlook it (sadly that many other readers can't). It doesn't bother me.
I love the fact that it actually has a proper power system. All the rules and limitations, I love them all. The story is interesting, the battles involve many strategies and thinking (You don't just punch your opponents to death! You don't win because you love your friends and you believe in yourself! How wonderful is that!) And the characters are great, the friendship between Gon and Killua is one of the most unique and beautiful friendship ever, even the villian characters are likeable.

There are just three things I find annoying in the manga:
- "The Gon" - typical shounen protagonist: simple mind, dumb, stubborn, unlimited potential... I just hate type of guy like that. (this also applies to Naruto and Luffy... haha). It seems his morals's started to become darker now, I'm looking forward to this developement.
- The dragging in the Chimera arc. (Such a looong arc while Kurapika and Leorio are still absent, side characters I expected to die but did not).
- And ofc, the lacking of Kurapika and Leorio. They are parted of the 4 main characters but they haven't appeared for so long. I want them to comeback and make their own arcs.

In conclusion, this is a great manga and I will surely keep up with it . I've already prepared myself to read it with my kids in the future... haha XD

... Last updated on November 5th, 2013, 2:23pm

Hunter x Hunter is my favourite manga because of one reason.

That reason is that the two main characters grow during the entire manga.

I love Gon and Killua (could care less about the whining Kurapica or the annoying Leorio), and these two characters grow exceptionally much during the entire manga that you won't even recognize them anymore if you compare the first volume with the ant arc.

Gon is your typical goody two shoes that is naive, pretty dumb, but very strong and has a lot of talent (Goku/Naruto anyone?). Killua is the opposite; he is a cold blooded assassin (could care less if he killed someone), very manipulative and very smart (and also very talented).

Now these main characters look very stereotypical, and they're nothing special, because these type of characters can be found in any other manga. However, HxH breaks away from the stereotyping and develops the characters into 3 dimensional people. A lot of people hate the Greed Island arc (they go into a virtual game where they can really die and collect cards), but for me it's the best. Not only do I love the whole concept of the game (well thought out Togashi!), it's also where Gon and Killua changed drastically from their original personalities.

In the Greed Island arc we see how Gon changes from a naive, dumb kid, to someone who HAS to prove himself and has to use his strength to get there AT ALL COSTS (aka; he's a maniac), and he can't do it without Killua either. Killua transformed from a cold, manipulative kid, to a best friend that would do ANYTHING for Gon, literally anything. Gon and Killua have grown on each other so much that it changed them for good; the best friends would die for one another and it has changed their personalities.

No longer do we have the goody two shoes and naive child Goku .. *cough* I mean Gon who believes he can be friends with anyone. Now we have a Gon who would kill anyone without a second thought if they would try and hurt his existing friends (especially Killua). He loses his mind when he is in a state like that. It's such a refreshing turn on a stereotypical character like that. In the latest chapters (around 290) you can really see how scary Gon has become; you won't recognize the nice, naive kid anymore.

Killua's wall has broken down and went from a manipulative, could-care-less-about-the-world kid to a heartwarming person who would help out other people, and he will always stand next to Gon and help him out. He doesn't hide the fact that Gon means everything to him, and will always try and protect Gon (I swear these two are gay sometimes). Usually characters like this would never change so drastically like Killua did, which is why it's such a joy to read about both Killua and Gon.

So because these two characters grow so much during the entire manga, HxH has become my favourite because of Killua and Gon's friendship.

HxH can have the best, most thought-out battles in shounen manga, but for me, it's these two characters that count the most. Interesting battles won't make me keep reading, developing characters will. So if you are also interested how characters can change, this is definitely a manga for you.

Hunter X Hunter's premise seems rather simplistic at first. A young man goes out into the world to find his father, who abandoned him to become a professional Hunter. This young man, Gon Freecs, is convinced that being a Hunter must be fantastic if his own father was willing to abandon him for it. And so he goes out into the world.
As a character, he is a typical shounen male protagonist in the same vein as Goku (Dragonball) and Luffy (One Piece). Simple, honest and a bit dumb, but still an accomplished combatant. He soon teams up with three other Hunters-to-be, Kurapika, Leorio and Killua Zoldyck. Kurapika wants revenge for his massacred clan and Leorio wants money - the Hunter's license is merely a means to that end. Killua is a darker character, as the son of a famed assassin clan, and in the later arcs, it is he and Gon who make the unlikely main duo- Gon being straight-forward, naive and a limitless ball of happiness and Killua being the perceptive strategist who slowly learns that he has a friend in Gon.

The complexity of some of the battles and scenarios proposed is breath-taking. Every action has a reaction and every advantage has a disadvantage. Not for us the deus-ex-machina 'Super Sayian' plot turns or an unexplained host of powers. Nen, the chi or chakra of Hunter x Hunter, is closely scrutinized and explained and probed, every Nen user's power is slightly different, because with Nen, your imagination and your Nen strength is your only limit. This makes for a whole host of diverse yet believable powers which at no point go into Super-Sayian-overpoweredness.

Likewise the story arcs are genius. The goal is laid out clearly at the start of the arc and each arc is self-contained in it's own specific set of rules and limitations. The card system of the Greed Island arc could easily have been incorporated into its own free-standing manga, and while the Chimera Ant arc seemed to veer away at start, it ended fantastically and arguably held more character development for Gon and Killua than the rest put together.

Sure the art went a bit wobbly at some point, but if we were here for the art, we'd be reading Oh! Great's manga, wouldn't we? Plus he is a bit ill. And a perfectionist. Who'd have thought. I can understand the frustration of some of the more impatient fans, but I do not believe that the quality has dropped at all since its debut.

I give this a 9/10 - Top of the Crop. 1 mark dropped off for occasional weakness in art.

... Last updated on December 17th, 2012, 2:24am

The mangaka's hiatuses really gave this awesome arc in the series an undeservedly bad reputation. As this part in the story is about to end, I decided to give this a marathon reread. And you know what, I came to the conclusion that it's the best in the series so far. It has the most mature storyline with tremendous character growth for our two favorite characters Gon and Killua. This arc actually gave Gon a personality aside from being a cuddly, naive, stereotypical shounen protagonist who fights for justice. And let's not forget Killua. Slowly but surely he's maturing into a character who could be Gon's true partner.

I don't want this series to end with the Chimera arc. There is so much more to explore in the world of Hunter X Hunter that I would curse Togashi to hell and back if he ends this series here. This manga deserves to have a lot more years ahead of it.

... Last updated on October 5th, 2011, 9:53pm

Hunter x Hunter is the kind of works that appear from time to time. Somebody below stated that this manga is one for the ages. He’s right.

The plot seems rather simplistic: a boy looking for his father. In order to reach this goal he becomes a hunter, and this title is what connects him with the other characters. From this you would expect a fantastic adventure. And this adventure happens, just with a dark spin.
Togashi is a man that understood that the quality of a story doesn’t rely only in which or what tropes are used, but in how they are used. The term for the technique that Togashi uses is deconstruction. This is what allows Hunter x Hunter to give some astonishing twists and ideas. A pretty memorable example of this is how a character actually is disturbed after killing somebody. How many times have you seen that in a shonen?

In this story we have a varied main cast that can easily grip you into the story. Our main character, Gon, who is energetic boy looking for his father; Killua, a boy that comes from a family of assassins; Kurapika, a young man looking revenge; and Leorio who wants to become a doctor.
In fact, Hunter x Hunter has some of the strongest beginnings in shonen manga. But the development of the story is stronger. Hunter x Hunter follows an arc structure for the story. But every arc contribute to the plot and yet more. The most amazing thing is how these arcs aren’t repetitive. Even the storytelling varies from arc to arc.

Another amazing feature of this manga is the battles. They are all around well-crafted and breathtaking. The concept of Nen is perhaps the most creative, sophisticated, original and complex power source until this day in action manga.

The only notable flaw I have seen so far is the inconsistency of the art. Sometimes is well or sometimes is awful. Yet, Hunter x Hunter is, along with FMA, the most well written shonen so far. There’s no doubt about why Shonen Jump haven’t rejected Togashi despite all the pauses he takes.

Other thing that has bothered me is that sometimes the situations are a little bit tedious (Greed Island and certain parts of the Chimera Ant). But, the interesting situations and the amazing character development is what kept me going.

I really like what Togashi is attempting to do in shonen manga. And I will love if his work has influence in future works of future authors.

I would recommend this manga to anyone that is looking for an excellent story. If you can’t handle the art, you can watch both animes. But the 2011 version is the anime I would recommend the most since it is faithful to the source material.

Love all the characters, the good and the bad. The relationships between them are a joy to see as they meet, grow, and interact with one another, whether for good for evil. I love the manga just for the characters.

I also love the story, a boy off to find his father... though I wouldn't want to find a parent who abandoned me to go have fun off on his own, but whatever, suits this story fine. I like the power growth, the training, and all the things the boys have to learn and how they go through each obstacle. It was a delight to see overcome trials without having to yell about nakama and such. The humor's pretty good too.

However, there came a point where I believe the mangaka got too much into strategy and away from plain old storytelling. He obviously is very good at stories, but something must have happened personally because HxH severely suffered at the Ant monster arc. Toward the latter half of that arc, there was much narration going on rather than dialogue, which resulting in him telling the story rather than showing it. That's like having more stage direction in a play than the character's dialogue. We want to see the characters act, not be told how they are acting.

It wasn't a bad storyline, it just dragged on for far too long, moving away from the main story, and if I weren't so devoted to the characters I would have dropped it. Two of the characters from the beginning didn't even make an appearance... for what, 150 chapters? 200? I've never been so relieved to start a new arc in my manga-reading life.

Once that long and tedious arc was over, however, the story picked back up to its original good pacing and plotting. The art picked up as well. Hopefully, if and when the mangaka starts this again, he will not fall back into a convoluted, unnecessary story and stick to the original heart of the manga.

... Last updated on February 25th, 2013, 11:38pm

This manga take the themes of cliche shounen and twist them into something awesome. The attention to detail is amazing, and can easily make you believe that such an universe exist. The story telling is riveting, and doesn't treat you as if you were retard. And though the art isn't masterpiece like, the characters desings is among the greatest and the mangaka really knows how to transmit emotions.

If you care about how things are done more than of what its done, this manga is for you.

... Last updated on December 3rd, 2011, 4:18pm

Well HxH is the first manga I ever started reading so it's something special to me. I've been following it for 8-9 years now and I still haven't found an adventure story quite like this. Yeah there are a few close ones but I think HxH still tops the shounen department. Yes better than Naruto and Bleach but well maybe not One Piece (thank God for no long hiatuses!). Character development is amazing and the plot is just so interesting. You can tell Togashi has thought out the each of the arcs which are so intricately executed you feel like you've been hit behind the head quite often (meaning he's got some pretty wicked surprises). I love that throughout the series Togashi sensei has kept adventure as his prime theme and continues to keep the readers entertained with new powers/worlds which aren't as blown up as say DBZ. I'd be lying if I said I didn't mind the hiatuses (dman it) but I tolerate it because HxH is THAT good. I'd love to stop reading this but I can't help but keep coming back for more each time Togashi sensi releases new chapters even though I know he's gonna screw me over again in a couple of weeks.

... Last updated on December 1st, 2016, 4:19am

Here's a manga that's just hurdled with controversy, due to a fickle author who for reasons unconfirmed takes year-long breaks. But it's a testimony to his qualities that the editorial staff of Jump hasn't dropped him despite this. Despite the occasional loss in artistry, and a focus on convoluted descriptions, overall this remains one of the best shounen manga around. Even the contested NGL Arc (aka the Chimera Ant Arc), when viewed as a whole it's one heck of an ambitious, and ultimately rewarding storyline. One that in its final stretch simply upstages anything that predates it.
In general it's a manga that's riddled with the fantastical. You simply have to go with anything the author cooks up to get the most of it. On the surface it might seems like a very basic adventure manga, but there's a surprising amount of layers underneath.
Ultimately what I believe is at the source of its qualities, is an author who just seems to do whatever he thinks is fun. Most shounen manga (and especially in Shounen Jump) cater to an audience to a large extent. Togashi doesn't need to, and he still has a huge fanbase despite such capriciousness.