HunterxHunter - The x Greatest x Start

26 years ago today Hunter Hunter began serialization in weekly Shonen Jump since then it has amassed worldwide Acclaim boasting over 80 million manga copies sold and receiving two very successful anime adaptations it currently stands at 37 volumes and 400 chapters which is a little over half the number of chapters we would have if yoshihiro Togashi wasn't F to have a debilitating back problem togashi's health issues and the several hiatuses they have led to is nothing new it is one of if not the most discussed topic as far as Hunter Hunter goes it's devastating that these health issues have forced a man who clearly wants nothing more than to work on his beloved story to share backup endings for the manga in the unfortunate case he passes away before completing it I have left a link to that specific interview in the description and I highly suggest you give it a read if you haven't already especially if you want to know tashi's plans for the future that we may never see this interview was recently released however besides the rough ideas of where the story could go it's not necessarily breaking news Togashi has flirted with the idea of Hunter Hunter never ending in past interviews yet at the same time it is a story that has already once ended you can say at one point in the story where gon meets Jing that I have completed the story once I believe that some readers must have thought wasn't that supposed to be the end game and I did write it to seem that way still I did not intend to cut off the flow of the story there and I hope my readers can see that there is still room for continuation with the final episode of the 2011 anime and the 339th chapter of the manga Togashi gave Hunter Hunter a soft ending wrapping up the most Central threads of the story whilst keeping the door open for more in a way everything following that conversation on top the world tree is Togashi embracing the story's philosophy of detours himself the current art consists of an absolutely massive cast of characters most of which are newly introduced while the arc will definitely address many of the unresolved plot threads from previous arcs it is also raised several new threads of its own so this is a story that is both finished and unfinished depending on how you choose to look at it while it's incredibly unfortunate that togashi's work may never be completed that we may never have an ultimate conclusion it is eily fitting for this story specifically to be a never-ending Journey Hunter Hunter is not yoshihiro togashi's first manga in fact it's nowhere close among his other manga is one that boasts arguably even more success YuYu hakusa with its undeniable influence on the entire medium incredibly impressive sales figures and even a shogakukan manga award was Yoshi Hiro togashi's breakthrough while not his first it's the manga that made him the legend of the industry that inspired many what is especially painful to think about when placing togashi's two most popular Works side by side is that both are unfortunately plagued by the author's health issues I have yet to read you hakusa myself but Togashi personally addressed the strangely sudden ending as a result of his failing Health that was heavily exacerbated by the overwhelming stress he felt trying to meet shui's deadline demands this is why Togashi has such freedom in weekly shown and jump with Hunter Hunter despite the incredibly competitive environment of the magazine where stories are being dropped left right and Center Togashi has the special privilege of taking breaks whenever he needs to his extreme popularity coupled with with the disappointing conclusion to his biggest hit at the time which shua themselves were at fault for gave Togashi a strong bargaining position for his next big Series in the magazine Hunter Hunter was a fresh start for Togashi and that is best showcased in the author notes that accompanies its first volume our work hard to crank out dozens of volumes tells us that Togashi had always planned for this to be a long running story and when it comes to Long running sha and manga specifically the first chapter is always going to to be extremely significant one piece for example comes in strong with its first chapter being a bold microcosm of the story's main themes of friendship dreams and Freedom the adventure fantasy elements are played up to the Max and it generally feels like a grand thematic statement the first chapter screams expectations at you and makes itself very familiar then we have something like Dragon Ball which takes a more grounded simpler approach while it obviously shares many similarities with both one piece and Hunter Hunter having inspired shown in manga as a whole it is much more subdued in its presentation between one piece and dragon Ball's Beginnings the first chapter of Hunter Hunter lies somewhere in the middle it is both bold and grounded all-encompassing and self-contained any effective introduction to a story serves as an encapsulation of what this story hopes to be and in that regard there is no first chapter more effective than this one today to celebrate 26 years of this story I want to take a very very close look at the the first chapter of Hunter Hunter immediately Togashi makes his intentions for this story very clear whether you experienced it in the anime or the manga this opening narration about the mysterious unknown is a staple of Hunter Hunter the perfect hook into a story that promises to Captivate you with its spell the first two pages of the manga both in content and presentation bu a striking resemblance to the very first two pages of AO 's one piece which had began calization in the same magazine less than a year prior both appeal to our sense of intrigue efficiently pulling you into the Mystique of their respective worlds with bold narration that immediately sets expectations a journey in search of the mysterious unknown they both very effectively capture the core motivations the respective authors want to convey the first single page is followed by a double spread and in both cases these are filled to the brim with treasure and backgrounds that give us a sneak peek into the world this story will take place in even the placement of gon and Luffy is identical with their respective mentors being positioned on the right side of the spread while this may seem like a simple coincidence digging further into these similarities has made me believe this is wholly intentional even down to how gon's journey of searching after Jing was sparked by a brief childhood meeting with kite is an almost identical mirror of Luffy's quest to become pirate king after being inspired by Shanks who left behind the straw hat while kite Left Behind Jing's hunter license these little similarities are a statement by Togashi one that stresses that Hunter Hunter is a series of this time that it is a story that while critiquing and continually showcasing an awareness of its employed tropes is without a doubt unabashedly shown in these first two pages are the Bold statement introduction they make it very clear what this story is going to be about with forthright presentation and content but the next two are perhaps the very inverse of that there's a Mystique to them a calmness depicted through the textless presentation besides the designation of this island's name these pages are uniquely layered in their own very clearly intentional and symbolic ways we start off with a view of whale Island the island having a volcano spitting clouds of smoke at the position a whale's blo hole would typically be found this is one of togashi's unique traits coming to life where he transposes a motif or a piece of iconography onto several aspects of the series with varying scale in this case the whale represents the first checkpoint of the series paralleled by the black whales departure in chapter 359 titled called departure Which contrasts chapter 1's title the day of departure it acts as a signifier of progress moving from an island whale which is static to a whale ship which is bringing us to the New Frontier of the entire story the new continent the billowing smoke being present in both signaling the beginning of our two respective protagonists Journeys gon in the beginning and Kurapika now you can Envision Togashi storytelling approach to be like Russian matrioska doll layered from the most minute to the most grand layers of his narrative the story can sometimes feel mechanical in its implementation of motifs and like a series of those dolls everything is independent and self-contained yet at the same time a piece of a greater hole a good example of this is on the very same page we first see whale island in the bottom panels we have a microcosm of the natural ecosystem several animals hunting smaller animals while in turn being hunted by larger animals you can tangibly see togashi's obsession with reinforcing these NeverEnding intertwined dynamics that make up the bigger picture picture this small section reminds me of free4 Four's iconic spread in which Neto Zig and lyette are seen witnessing the Carnage of the Dark Continent but in essence what they see is exactly the same as what we see on chapter 1 page three the cycle of Life the natural order in which everything Finds Its place in the world I don't think it's a stretch to say this was an intentional callback especially considering the earlier mentioned interview where Togashi BM considers 339 to be a type of ending for Hunter Hunter it's very plausible at least to me that he drew references to the first beginning in drawing this new beginning the fourth page is a personal favorite of mine it marks our first meeting with the protagonist gon who is immersed in his task of fishing for the master of the swamp we see him camouflaged by leaves and the like at top a massive tree and since butterflies birds and squirrels are comfortably resting on him the implication is that he has been sitting there for quite a while every single thing about this page is so effectively presented gon's body language as well as the clues given to us by the way he is positioned and the animals around him already goes a long way to efficiently characterize this boy in all the ways necessary to understand him without having him say a single word he successfully catches the master of the swamp Revels in the achievements and carries the massive fish back to Aunt meor seeking her approval for him to partake in the hunter exam there's a small interesting detail here that I want to overanalyze gon snatches a hat and puts it on this seems like quite the minor thing but it may actually be one of the Myriad of motifs Togashi obsessively follows through threw on over the course of the series The Hat itself is not closed off but rather has an open top and gone specifically puts it on in the moment where the pre-requisites for his journey are met the moment in which he is finally ready to depart it is no coincidence that immediately following this we see Jing in the picture frame the resident journeyman also wearing a hat although the top is covered by his scarf now there are other instances where we see characters wearing headbands or hats at the start of a journey but only a few come to mind which means these could just be coincidences like Hannah with wfin and bf going to look for gyro or crlo talking to shaar about plundering the black whale just before hisaka shows up and does his thing whether this hat or headband visual being paired with departure is entirely intentional and always the case doesn't really matter for the purposes of this video because specifically in this scene it's used to connect gone with his father and that's what we care about despite meor never having told the boy about Jing being a hunter her and Jing's grandmother is complete complely unsurprised blood will tell it hardly matters why one look at The Gleam in his eyes and you'll know he will not be stopped his choice has been made gon's great grandmother is talking about him here but it is accompanied by a closeup of the picture of Jing this idea ties neatly into the introductory speech in which the unknown is the very thing that exudes the most Allure and in the process of seeking the unknown what is really being found is everything that is on the way there the more abstract the goal the more concrete the things found along the way which is yet again just a substantiation of the dialogue between gon and Jing in chapter 339 the ultimate theme of the story The detours Jing himself started his journey as a young boy due to seeking out an archaeological site but that very thing was just a catalyst for something much bigger hence why he tells gone the only thing he ever wants is whatever he doesn't have in a sense this is the ultimate manifestation of enjoying the detours and really experiencing each step for what it is and it is similar for gon too who has had the choice of remaining on whale Island and living a regular life or pursuing his curiosity in departing upon a journey with guaranteed risks and no guarantee for reward in chapter 338 Jing States adults with common sense try not to open Pandora's Box while talking about his own motives and his desire to reach the Dark Continent Jing clearly doesn't think of himself as an adult with common sense and so he leaves gone with a choice his own Pandora's Box and I mean this quite literally as the box that Jing leaves behind for gone requires nen to be opened in this sense nen quite literally represents the barrier between the regular world and the supernatural between normaly and Adventure Jing grants his child the gift of choice while equipping him with a safe and comfortable childhood with a family that will do much better for the boy than he would as a quick tangent I'm not using this as a justification for Jing's negligence of his own son I'm just trying to illustrate his thought process what's most interesting about this all is that gone himself is not even that interested in meeting his father for the sake of it what really drives the boy is curi iOS it he sees all the things his father sacrificed to instead be a hunter and this very Mystique this Fascination about what could be so important it supersedes your fatherly and familial duties is what drove gone on this journey called Hunter Hunter a title which by the way perfectly encapsulates that Russian doll storytelling approach as it can both mean the hunter gon chasing the hunter Jing and the hunter gon alongside the hunter Kurapika the two main characters of this story although that train of thoughts deserves its own video gone chasing Jing is what care about today as the words of Jing's grandmother alongside other details lead me to believe that this generational freaks family Dynamic did not start with Jing and gon but rather with some unknowable ancestor in the past the only one we know of is Don freaks who Departed the regular World some 300 years ago and who might still be in the process of writing the journey to the new world West Edition however he may not have been the one to begin this Trail perhaps he himself is chasing after the legacy of his own ancestor what's noteworthy here is simply the implication that this is something that has been going on for quite some time all this is further reinforced by the yet again Russian dolles layering of togashi's motifs we initially have Greed Island a Fantastical setting that was seemingly out of this world constructed by Jing as a sort of playground for his son and a route for gone to find his father and now we have Jing himself on his way to the Dark Continent to find out what the deal with Don Freaks and the journey to the new world is the similarities with these two settings being out of the world and tied to a freaks are obvious enough it is a migration a graduation of sorts in which we get to see how the very same things no matter how infinitely small they are make up the bigger picture just as gon is an adventurer and Jing was his goal so is Jing himself also an adventurer whose goal is done small things infinitesimally small things are needed to build the entire universe and in this case the entire narrative another series encompassing idea that is established in the first chapter is curiosity as a central theme and characteristic of gun sometimes quite literally killing the cat for example kite only kills the fox bear mother because he is on this island looking for Jing while curiosity is one of the primary driving forces of the series it is also often framed as a detrimental quality that can cost lives in certain situations where it not for kite's curiosity regarding P's n and his desire to gauge her strength coupled with his miscalculation of the time she'd need to cross the distance he most likely would have never lost lost his life in the process this is case one in which the cats killed the Curiosity but as always Togashi never leaves the inverse unaddressed it is in turn pto's curiosity regarding her own strength that brought her to kite in the process enraging gone which caused her demise in this instance the character most emblematic of curiosity in the series kills the cat this becomes even more interesting when applied to kite's presence in the first chapter as well as K the fox bear cub which gon projects himself onto as those who have experienced both the the 2011 anime and the manga no kite was entirely omitted from the first episode of Hunter Hunter 2011 while we have no clear explanation as to why this happened I can think of two likely reasons the first being that Hunter Hunter 1999 already existed which elaborately adapted the kite section which in turn made mad house think it was fine to quickly brush over this is similar to how Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood for example rushes the first few episodes of material since the original F run had already adapted these portions well and the second reason I can think of is to create a sort of plot twist effect when kite is quote unquote introduced at the beginning of the chimra antar while the 2011 anime is as good of an adaptation as you can ask for in most regards I think this is an absolutely terrible Omission for several reasons for one kite has arguably had as much of an impact on gon's mentality as even Jing himself after all kite is the only reason gon knows about Jing or hunters in general everything G knows about Jing he knows about from kit the challenging hunt to find Jing is not something that was was directly passed onto him it's something he saw kite's partaking in and decided to place himself on omitting such a foundational encounter for the protagonist is problematic for obvious reasons then there's the issue of not knowing what's at stake when kite dies later on for those who know the background and the impact kite had on gone the boy's reaction and subsequent breakdowns are more easily understandable yet for people who only experience the anime even if their relationship is retroactively presented it feels far too sudden and vapid a dynamic to f warrant the way gon acts throughout the ark it can almost feel a tad melodramatic and most importantly the kite encounter feels like a well- earned and significant detour on the journey to find jing a type of checkpoint a signifier that gon has been making strides and is well on his way on his journey framing it as a sort of twist and only focusing on the surprise factor of gone being sent to kite because he used a company instead of magnetic force diminishes the value of the scene turning this backstory into a retroactive insertion completely takes away from from the weight of meeting this figure who plays such a significant role in the very first chapter it genuinely dampens a lot of the material in one of the greatest arcs of all time for me a lot of subtext in regards to gon psychology and the way it has taken the shape it has is far better received with the full context of chapter 1 in Mind to build on that the anime episode emits another very crucial scene from chapter 1 the conversation between gon and meol where she opens up about having lied to him telling gone that she made his father give him up and he never abandoned him gone responding by saying he had always figured is a very crucial piece of characterization that gives moments down the line where his abandonment issues are clear and exposed added Nuance in general this first chapter gives us a very Vivid image of gon's State of Mind with hints at the internal struggle he has with his identity the abandonment issues he harbors and the way said issues manifest in his behavior and the way he engages with others this is all best showcased through the flashback following the encounter with the mother fox bear and kite having to kill it gon takes in the fox bear cub and even names it con which couldn't be more similar to his own name if he tried this is a clear Act of projection stemming from him relating to the situation the Cub has been placed in having lost a mother while young and having an absent father being more or less stranded he sees himself in the baby and wants to ensure that the Cub is being taken care of on this page we even have a panel where gon and con overlap by transposing gon onto K visually their parallels are brought to attention but what's most noteworthy is that k ouet is drawn to be terrifying and beastly hinting at the potential monster hidden within gone considering the monster within this boy is exposed in the face of another feline I think it's fair to say these are intentional seeds that have been planted with a rough image for the tree they will become in due time if some visuals isn't enough to convince you that Togashi had all this planned from chapter 1 the nature of this scene with the fox bear mother's death and kite speech about the Cub possibly holding a lifelong grudge against humans definitely should this entire flashback is transposed onto The Narrative of the Cima ant Arc and gon's Descent of course it's not a one-o-one parallel in fact the dynamic is flipped and kite the figurative parent in this scenario is killed by Pito the feline creature who is in turn killed by gon because of a deep Grudge he Bears towards the killer of his parent the main purpose of this fox bear scenario is to serve as an allegory for kite's eventual death but the differences and deviations are what's most interesting to me kite states with complete confidence in his words that because he killed the mother the Cub will grow up to hate humans however thanks to gon's good treatment of the fox bear it grows up just fine and becomes his best friend it does not hold any grudges like kite was so convinced it would but when the tables turn and it's gone time to witness loss he is completely consumed by this dark need for vengeance at least on the outside I'm aware that the root of gun's descent lies in his self-worth and abandonment issues his need for validation manifesting in his rage but revenge for a parental figure is the vehicle for this trajectory and completes the parallels to con as a whole this first chapter is one that ages incredibly well every little detail is enriched by later context like the foundation of a structure it is the necessary Cornerstone that supports the rest of the story the irony of gone embarking on a dangerous mission in pursuit of his father whom he craves the validation of leaving behind con the fox bear he adopted and raised very much like a child of his own to live up to this enigmatic father gon yearns to become like him to Revel in this world that is so fascinating it means more to Jing than his own family the boy forced himself to grow up too quickly to become strong so that he may dep part on this journey and with that hastiness came cracks in his mentality a childishness that will follow him over the course of this entire Journey manifesting most profusely during his bouts against PTO it isn't until his soft conclusion ATP the W tree and the following brief conversation he has with jing a few chapters later that gon grows past this defining quality and finally gets to properly grow up for example looking back on his fight against genthru it is painfully clear just how deluded and in his own world gone can be while his thinking does luckily result in the desired outcome his approach could have very easily cost him not only both of his arms but his ability to breathe and speak this childish Purity that defines gone manifests in several ways whether it be his curiosity his ignorance or his recklessness the battle against is perhaps the best depiction of gon's childish hardheadedness his refusal to give up even if it means being beat senseless he doesn't want to get hurt and he doesn't want to give up he wants things to go his way and they do for the most part the world consistently in one way or another affirms gon's delusions by gracing him with Good Fortune whether it be fate or people recognizing the innate talent and potential for chaos he possesses gon is allowed to persist in his own world that is until the Rel realization that kite is truly dead sets in and this fugazy reality crumbles right in front of his eyes it is astonishing just how concisely Togashi conveys all the building blocks for these developments in the very first chapter of the story and I have yet to come across a first chapter in manga that embodies the style of its author as effectively as Hunter Hunters the obsessive detail oriented methodology that makes this work so rewarding to analyze and dissect thank you viewer for watching and thank you to for 26 years of Hunter Hunter

Channel: Radman

Views: 11,212

Keywords: hunter x hunter, phantom troupe, dark continent, hxh, hxh 2011, gon, ging, don freecss, whale island, black whale, succession war

Id: TW6qNLlVpEU

Length: 23min 31sec (1411 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 03 2024