Hunter x Hunter #1-14

Hunter x Hunter #1-14

Originally released in 1998

Written by Yoshihiro Togashi

Art by Yoshihiro Togashi

Today is Father's Day, though unlike Mother's Day, I had a tougher time with coming up with something that fit.  I could go with Dragon Ball Z (where Goku has a son named Gohan) or Dr. Slump (where Dr. Norimaki creates an android who is like a daughter to him), but I've already covered those series.  Hunter x Hunter is probably the most ironic example that I could go with here - it's about Gon, the main protagonist, wanting to follow in his father's footsteps, but this isn't necessarily treated as a good thing.

Gon's father Ging is an extremely talented hunter, and Gon inherited that skill, being described as a "feral savant" by some characters.  However, Ging abandoned his son when Gon was very young, and Gon's aunt Mito still hasn't forgiven him for that.  Usually, if a father in these stories leaves the protagonist, there usually tends to be a sympathetic reason for it (they don't want their kid to to be targeted by their enemies, they're dedicated to stopping the main villain), or they're one of the main villains themselves.  Ging doesn't seem to have a reason like that, making his actions come across as selfish or self-centered.

Gon doesn't seem to mind, though, viewing it as a sign of how important the life of a hunter is.  Gon's way of thinking can be odd at times, and there are times where he discovers the correct course of action by instinct or accident; this could be one of those times, or maybe he's looking at Ging's actions through rose-tinted glasses.

Joining Gon on the Hunter's Exam are Kurapika, the sole survivor of a clan that was killed because of their red eyes (this series came out a little over a year before Naruto, so I'm not sure if Kishimoto using a similar plot point with the Uchiha clan is intentional), and Leorio, an older-looking man (though he claims that he's not even 20) who is seemingly only interested in money. Kurapika rounds out the group later on - he's an unsettling kid (around the same age as Gon) and a member of a family of assassins who set out to be a hunter to rebel against them.

This series has a lot of the trappings of an action series (Gon's introduction is incredibly similar to how Goku was introduced in Dragon Ball), but action plays a surprisingly small part in the events so far.  Instead, a greater emphasis is placed upon hunters having to figure out the hidden meanings behind tests and notice small details.

While this isn't to the extent that the series will reach later on (it's infamous for going on extended hiatuses before releasing enough chapters for one volume, maybe 2-3 months worth of content, before going back on years-long hiatuses again, but from what I recall of one of the latest chapters, there's a whole chapter's worth of analysis and observation, filled with walls and walls of text as characters try to determine who should or shouldn't be told about a secret, that are almost immediately rendered moot when the worst possible person to hear that secret overhears them talking), it does a good job with establishing the personalities of the leads.  Kurapika is shrewd and attentive, Gon has good instincts, and Leorio scrapes by through dumb luck. (though his medical skills help)

A less friendly face that Gon encounters during the exam is Hisoka, a sadistic clown-like hunter who was disqualified in previous years for killing instructors.  Hisoka is creepy even this early on in the series, though his more disturbing aspects are only hinted at.

Despite being an exam, the tests for becoming a hunter seem loosely organized at best; it's unclear how many phases there are to the test, and examiners can choose to fail entire groups for no particular reason beyond them being in a bad mood.  The Chairman of the hunter organization, Netero, even offers to pass Gon and Killua right away if they can take a ball from him, though given that he's the leader of an organization where you basically have to be a strong fighter to join and he's an old man who has decades of experience under his belt, that's easier said than done.

I chose to stop at the beginning of the third phase of the exam, partway through volume 2.  Compared to other action manga that I've read or re-read, Hunter x Hunter puts more of an emphasis on brains and strategy - Gon doesn't have much of a fighting style (he uses a fishing rod, but doesn't have anything that could qualify as a named technique like many other protagonists), but his keen instincts and senses (to the point where his ability to track Leorio by his cologne has Kurapika questioning if he's part dog) are what's gotten him so much progress in the Hunter Exam rather than his fighting skills.