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This Week in Anime - Why Hunter × Hunter is Worth the Wait

Hunter × Hunter volume 37: I think I might be done with this series.

I have the utmost respect for Togashi professionally, and I can hardly fault him for writing what he's interested in, but I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the Succession Contest arc was a mistake. It's been four years since I read the last volume, and I have no memory of who any of the new characters are. Most of what happens here amounts to an absurd number of characters in an absurd number of factions trying to figure out each other's (or their own) absurdly complicated Nen powers. I'm not dedicated enough to keep the wiki open so I can track all the alliances and maneuvers.

And the effect on the scripting and paneling has become infamous. Akira Toriyama's death got a lot of people talking about his brilliance as a mangaka, but while Yu Yu Hakusho was published alongside Dragon Ball's second half, it's clear that Togashi doesn't have his old colleague's knack for visual communication. There are pages here that became a meme for being almost pure text back when the chapters first came out, and even with art added, they're still incredibly wordy. And for all the verbal information we have, the most important questions -- like "Is this good for Kurapika? Bad for Kurapika?" -- are often very difficult to answer for any particular plot development.

Compounding it all, a lot of these issues are exacerbated intentionally, because Kurapika's whole strategy is to give as many people Nen as possible, so the contest gets so complicated that it grinds to a stalemate and nobody ever gets around to targeting his infant charge. It's hard to make a compelling narrative out of, and that's without getting into the seeming disconnect from everything relating to the real Dark Continent or maybe even Kurapika's revenge quest, let alone Gon and Killua being absent and completely unconnected to any of this. I'm sure Togashi will eventually manage to get another volume's worth of chapters out, in whatever venue he and Shueisha agree on, and the ten chapters that started in late 2022 will then become volume 38… but I'm really not sure I'll be interested in coming back when that happens.

Did this is column really equate Alluka's family only sees her as a creature for being the host of a demon so they disregard her entirely and only refer to Nanika when addressing her to being transgender? Not sure how to feel about that one. I'll assume they meant well but...

I honestly never paid attention to Alluka's gender but the Zoldyk (or however it's written) are horrible family composed of murderers. Heck Illumi and the father (don't remember his name) put a niddle inside Killua's head so that he would follow their examples so any gender theme was not present when I was watching it. I mean Togashi has already drawn several characters who can be mistaken girls like Kurama or Kurapika (it doesn't help Kurapika also dresses like one in one arc)

Did this is column really equate Alluka's family only sees her as a creature for being the host of a demon so they disregard her entirely and only refer to Nanika when addressing her to being transgender? Not sure how to feel about that one. I'll assume they meant well but...

I’m sorry but that is 100% the intent. The whole family refer to Alluka as being male with the exception of Killua who refers to her as being female and Alluka also identifies as a girl. And because of this Killua is the only person who can ask Nannika for wishes and not be given a price so that clearly means a lot to them. What other explanation is there?

I only considered Nanika as the reason of being sealed considering Alluka wasn't that different to other kid characters as a female voice actress voiced her, had adorable clothing, and let the hair grow but not as much as Illumi. I honestly never considered the gender since there was more controversy about who was Nanika and what exactly was the power everybody wanted to obtain.

A manga article? Thought you guys would use Madhouse' adaptation since Netflix has it.