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 Spotlight: Hunter X Hunter (Part One)
Written by Barb Lien-Cooper
Preface: My Love/Hate Affair with Fighting Manga
As with many manga-related incidents in the Lien-Cooper household lately, this one starts with Naruto. My husband loves the manga and the anime series. I merely like it a lot. The difference may be partly one of taste and partly one of gender. While I know a lot of female readers like fightin' manga as much as the guys do, I'm somewhat less tolerant of them---and I think some female readers agree with me. The reason?
Fighting manga tend to test one's patience. It has nothing to do with the gadgetry or the violence or the action or the speechifying some of the characters do in a fight. Females like me actually like such things, believe it or not. But we want a story to be more than one fight scene that lasts up to two volumes. We need more than just fights, which is probably why a lot of us tend to shy away from mainstream superhero comics. Manga has great characterization and is as much about the characters' psychological journeys as the fights. But when it comes to some battle manga, we do tend to think, Lord, do some storylines never end? Naruto is actually better than a lot of fighting manga in terms of keeping the stories at a tolerable length, but even there I sometimes want to scream, "Haven't you secured that bridge yet? Can't you see that Sasuke's a lost cause for now?" As much as I like Naruto, I get scared when I see that a series doesn't have an exit strategy in terms of how all of this is going to end. No, I don't want Naruto to end. I just hope that creator-san has it all plotted out so when it's time to go, it can go in style. So many manga series seem to have a no exit strategy in mind policy, so when you get to the end, it's weak and the reader feels let down. I get worried that it will fall into the Inu-Yasha syndrome where new villains are constantly introduced, but we get no further into solving the main big challenges to the characters until our love turns to like and our like turns to indifference.
Having said that, Naruto is still a staple at our house. That leads to a problem that I'm sure a lot of Naruto fans can appreciate. Namely, what do we do until the next Naruto comes out? Enter Hunter X Hunter, also known as the fighting manga we read when we can't get Naruto. Problem is, we read all the Hunter X Hunters so quickly that we're now looking for the battle manga that we can read while waiting for the next Naruto AND the next Hunter X Hunter to come out. In my husband's case, it's FullMetal Alchemist. To me, the series looks good (and I admire that it's an action-adventure fight fest created by a female manga-ka), but I'm not looking for that long of a commitment. Because, believe me, when you read a fighting manga, you'd darned well better be ready to make a commitment to it. Right now, manga-wise, I'm sitting around waiting for something to replace Mail. Three volumes to ten volumes---after 21 volumes of Hunter X Hunter, that's about all of the commitment I can take right now.
My husband, the editor over here, has roped me into Hunter X Hunter. He saw good things said about it, so he got copies from the local library in order to try it out. Why our local library system, which is aces when it comes to manga, never seems to have books like Mail or The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, I dunno, but it seems that Park has much better luck than I do with finding manga he likes at the library. Anyway, one day he sat down and read the volumes he had of Hunter X Hunter (Hunter X for short, okay?) in one sitting. He laughed, he gasped, he had a good time. Then the ritual "show my wife the best parts of this manga" began. We like sharing best bits of manga that we like but the other probably isn't going to read. But Hunter was different. There were too many scenes; all of them indicative of interesting writing and innovative plotting. I knew what my duty as a good wife had to be.
"Honey, would you like me to read Hunter X Hunter, too?"
"Only if you want to," Park said.
Which means now I'm stuck doing a feature article on the darned thing.
21 freaking volumes of battle manga.
He owes me big time.
PART ONE
Hunter X Hunter is what is known as weird, wild stuff. The tone is eclectic and wildly inconsistent, both in terms of storytelling and in terms of art. Loose ends of plot get tossed away like the plastic wrapper on a shrinkwrapped manga. By the time you start wondering, hey, "did all of those guys get off Greed Island" or whatever, we're cheerfully onto another adventure. The story is as exciting and ingenious as it is sloppy and self-indulgent. Sometimes, it's a train wreck, sometimes it's head and shoulders above its competition. I can't exactly find the words to describe the most insane battle manga I've ever been blessed and cursed to have read.
The only thing I can tell you with all honesty is that Hunter X is highly addictive reading. It's the type of series where you read the first volume, and you know that you're in it for the long haul.
The setup: A kid named Gon finds out that his long-lost father is a "Hunter," which is sort of a weird combination of a hero, a world-protector, a collector of rare stuff, a conservationist, and whatever else creator Yoshihiro Togashi decides the word means that volume. Gon, who is probably one of the most charming and realistically-written young kid characters out there, decides that even though he's only twelve years old, that he'll take the Hunter exam and go find his dad. Unfortunately, Dad really, really doesn't seem to want to be found.
Volumes 1- 4: The Hunter Exam
Volume 1 starts out as if it's written and drawn by someone who just fell in love with One Piece, but wanted his own manga to look and act just a tad less silly and overtly funny/strange. You can tell that creator-san is still trying to find his tone with the first couple of stories. But don't worry, the plot is strong. Once Gon decides to take the Hunter exam, the whole thing starts cooking with gas. As the volumes go on, we meet Killua, a kid that comes from a family of assassins. Killua's decided to give up the family business of killing others and just be Gon's friend. The strength and joy in their friendship is what kept me reading even when I got frustrated with some of the volumes later in the series. Doing a realistic friendship between two kids is a difficult authorial trick to pull off, but the creator does it in spades.
We also meet Kurapika, who looks as cute as a girl, but is actually a kid out on a vendetta. You don't want to mess with him (her?). Then there's Leorio, the perfect big brother type. He's under-utilized in the series so far. I'd like to see him come into his own someday soon. Finally, amongst a cast of seemingly thousands of wanna-be hunters, a deadly evil clown/jester sort named Hisoka stands out. He has a stupid costume, unfortunately, but he's still deadly. He can pull your head off before you even know he's coming your way. I'm strangely fond of him. He's just so good at what he does. If a character's gonna be a psycho killer anyway, he might as well have personality, right?
Which leads to a big warning about Hunter X Hunter. Do not, just because the lead character is a kid, think that this manga is for little ones. From the time Hisoka hits the scene, the violence slowly but surely edges up. When I read the first storyline, which is the gentlest, I thought to myself that Viz was wrong to put an OT label on the series. I thought that any strong-stomached ten-year-old could take it just fine. By the time I got to the third storyline concerning an auction like no other, I bowed to the inevitable. Viz were right about the label. I was wrong. You probably should be a fairly tough teen reader to read this series.
Not much else to say except the Hunter Exam is probably the best storyline of the series. The tests and tasks that the candidates have to face aren't just ones of brawn. They're also ones that require real problem solving skills. It's all very clever, with plot twists that I didn't always see coming.
Grade: A
Volume 5: Must Rescue Killua From His Family
After some familial interference/dirty pool from Killua's family, Killua comes home depressed, unable to cope. He won't speak to anyone. Gon decides to go after Killua. However, remember, Killua's family are a group of assassins. They live on a well booby trapped estate. Coolness ensues.
Anything and everything happens in this volume. Unique characters, viewpoints, and situations abound. This is the volume where you really feel like the creator has found his own voice for the series. You honestly can't wait to see what happens next. This is the volume where you say that this series is playing with the big kids now.
Until you hit the Battle Tower storyline, where you almost take it all back.
Grade: A
Next time: Everything Else
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30 August 2010
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