RAW 7(?): Hunter X Hunter

ID:90889
 
Feb 2 2010, 12:12 pm (Edited on Feb 2 2010, 7:57 pm)
Keywords: raw

Hunter X Hunter (pronounced "Hunter Hunter")



Hunter X Hunter follows the adventures of Gon Freecs and his attempt to become a hunter. No, he doesn't learn how to build campfires and kill rabbits (he knows that already).

Hunters are extraordinary people with the power to do whatever the heck they want. With their Hunter license, almost all public services become free. The license even acts as a visa, allowing them to travel to practically anywhere in the world for absolutely no cost (they can use public transport!). Not to mention the money they'd make from selling it would allow them to live 8 lives over. All sorts of other awesome perks come along with it, but I won't get into that right now.


The Hunter Exam
Basically, to become a Hunter (I'm gonna start capitalizing it), a special organization organizes the Hunter Exam. Thousands of people participate (or at least attempt to) in this exam every year. To cut the number of examinees, all sorts of diversions and traps are placed in front of them before the exam even begins.

The actual exam is different every year with different examiners, which are Hunters that are chosen by the Hunter organization. If you can complete all of the trials, you are awarded your Hunter license and are considered a professional Hunter.


The Main Characters

Gon Freecs
Age 12.
Gon is a wild kid. He spends most of his life on Whale Island in the wild. Because of this, he has developed exceptional abilities like being able to spot the movement of a shadow at night in a forest, and being able to understand the "language of the animals." He's basically just pure awesome in a can.

At the beginning of HxH, Gon learns that his father is not dead and, in fact, is a legendary Hunter (naturally). Gon realizes that his father left him behind so he could continue his work as a hunter. Understanding that the job of a Hunter could be so important, Gon sets off to become a Hunter and to find out what being a Hunter really means (or something like that).



Killua Zaoldyeck
Age 12.
Gon meets him during the Hunter Exam.
Killua becomes Gon's best friend. He's one of the few people Gon has ever met that is his age. He and Gon travel through the exam together.

Spoiler section:
His entire family is a group of assassins (Killua included). He was trained by his father and older brother, even as early as 5 years old, to be an assassin (which includes physical and mental torture). Before HxH starts, Killua (who never had a choice in the matter of becoming an assassin) breaks out and escapes from his home. He joins the Hunter Exam on a whim because he heard it was difficult and might be fun.



Leorio
Age 19 (I think).
Gon meets him during the "preliminaries" of the Hunter Exam. He gets into a fight with Kurapica over formalities (Kurapica doesn't address him with a title), which ends with them becoming friends. He becomes friends with Gon and travels with him throughout the exam.

PS: the anime and manga are different. In the anime, Gon meets Leorio about 1 episode earlier (though it is pretty significant how they meet).


Spoiler section:
Leorio joined the Hunter Exam so he could avoid the fees required to take classes and exams to become a medical doctor (yes, the hunter license does pretty much make everything free). The reason for this is because his friend died from a simple illness, but the village he lived in lacked the money to pay for medicine. He wants to become a Hunter/MD so he can provide care to people in need and not ask for anything in return.


Kurapica
Age 17, or 18. I think it's 17.
The same with Leorio. Gon meets him during the preliminaries. Kurapica gets into a fight with Leorio after Leorio insults his clan. Kurapica becomes interested in Gon's ability to be awesome and decides to help him through the Exam.

Spoiler section:
Kurapica is the last living member of the Kurata clan. They were marked by their eyes which turned red when they got emotional. The clan was massacred by the Phantom Brigade (also called "The Spiders," due to the tattoo that all members of the brigade have. A spider) so they could steal their eyes and sell them as treasures. When a member of the Kurata clan dies in an emotional state, their eyes remain red forever.

He wants to become a Hunter so he can avenge his clan by destroying the Phantom Brigade and retrieving the eyes of his dead comrades.

The Phantom Brigade is also a major part of the series and takes up an entire arc.


Now that that's done, I'd also like to say that Hunter X Hunter is definitely my favorite shounen series ever. I haven't given it away yet, but later on something called "nen" is introduced to the series, and it will blow your mind. Among all of the shounen super powers (CHAKRA. SPIRITUAL POWER. KAMEHAMEHA), nen is the awesomest.

That is all.
Thanks.

PS: HxH started a year before Naruto.
PPS: HxH is created by the same guy who made Yuu Yuu Hakusho.
Feb 2 2010, 12:33 pm
While I'm not a huge fan of Hunter x Hunter, its worth checking out.

That and... RAW <3
Feb 2 2010, 1:00 pm
lol keeth weeaboo
Feb 2 2010, 2:02 pm
Hunter X Hunter had some of the coolest fight scenes and most creativity. I'd encourage anyone to check it out. There's also 20ish OVAs to pick up where the story left off.
Feb 2 2010, 2:22 pm
And Hunters do what? Hunting people down like bounty hunters or fighting/hunting any kind of monsters?
Also could you be a little bit more specific on this one. "...extraordinary people with the power to do whatever the heck they want."

Thx anyway iŽll give it a try ;)
Feb 2 2010, 3:40 pm
I never seen this anime before...
Feb 2 2010, 3:54 pm
DBK Team wrote:
I never seen this anime before...

That's why it's on RAW.
Feb 2 2010, 5:29 pm
I seen a couple episodes of this. But I never got into it.
Feb 2 2010, 7:20 pm (Edited on Feb 2 2010, 7:52 pm)
Blackrize wrote:
And Hunters do what? Hunting people down like bounty hunters or fighting/hunting any kind of monsters?
Also could you be a little bit more specific on this one. "...extraordinary people with the power to do whatever the heck they want."

Well, I didn't go into specifics because there's not much to be specific about. There are a lot of "Hunter" professions, like black list hunters, and culinary hunters, things like preserving ruins, discovering new types of creatures, etc..., but basically Hunters are just normal people funded by an organization to do whatever they feel like.

For example, one of the contestants is a sociopath who participates in the Hunter Exam so he can get the license, rendering him untouchable by law enforcement. Basically, so he can kill people and nobody will say anything (because he has a Hunter license).

Hunters are just people with a Hunter license (well, there is another part of it, but you'll have to watch/read to learn what that is. this deals with the "extraordinary" quality) when you get right down to it. By simply having it you have access to all kinds of things that would be otherwise be almost impossible to attain. So naturally, a very large group of people would probably be interested in this.

edit: Also, I fixed up some of the sloppy writing. When I originally posted it this afternoon, I hadn't had a chance to read over it and I didn't want to submit it again, and I didn't see any way to edit it.

Should be less weird.
Feb 4 2010, 10:18 am
Finally someone appreciates this thing, When I had the funimation chanell I used to always watch it.

Basilisk and Buso Renkin next.
Feb 4 2010, 10:21 am
By the way after watching through many episodes I can't figure something out, Is karapika a man or a girl. XD
Feb 4 2010, 12:50 pm
Riku 123q wrote:
By the way after watching through many episodes I can't figure something out, Is karapika a man or a girl. XD

I was actually going to talk about that in the introduction. When Kurapica was introduced in the manga, nobody could tell if he was a she or a he. I think the author eventually verified this, but if you watch/read it, it becomes obvious that he's a man.

And just to add on to that, there's a part where he cross dresses much later in the series while undercover.
Feb 18 2010, 5:05 pm
I've watch the episode while they must hold a string connecting to the boulder in their sleep or if they let it go it fell on them... I actually like the show..
Feb 26 2010, 5:18 pm
I've read the manga and I am also a fan of this series. The Ryodan are the coolest group of villains ever IMO.
Apr 15 2010, 9:17 am
Great anime sorry for the late post havnt been on BYOND all that much here of late.