Discussion What makes Hunter x Hunter different than other shonen?

[shionoro]

Come to think of it, a big part of why i do like HxH is because i dont actually hate the maincharacter (which i would, at least until now, assume to be gon).

And that even tho gon probably does more selfish and rather amoral things than most other shonen mains.

Thing is: Gon is his own character and does not appear to be a vessel to whatever the author things young boys would like as a protagonist.
He is definitely a deconstruction of the shonen hero trope (at least initially) and thus shares some similarities with heroes like son goku and other shonen heroes.

However, a big difference is that gon is allowed to not always be the hero. He is not always going to save the day (or even want to), he not always going to win, he is not always going to do the right thing.
He is however sometimes willing to make deals with rather vile characters, he is willing to put others into risks for personal growth and he plainly has a very distinct separation between his friends and other people, while the latter can often go die for all he cares if he deems it 'fair'.

Like that, i can accept anything gon does much more easily, even if i find it wrong.

Gon is not as predictable as the other shonen main goody doodies.
Furthermore, the world does not revolve arround him.
He is allowed to fail (and not only the usual 'fail in the beginning of the arc, then win anyway' type of failing) and allowed to lose.
His plotlines are often tiny in the grand scheme of things, oftentimes, other characters have a much bigger impact on the given arc.

In yorknew, he was clearly a sidekick to kurapica, and in the chimera ant arc, he did manage to beat a very strong foe (to a high prize) but the actual conclusion of the arc had nothing to do with him.
The only arc in which he was the clear hero was greed island, and biscuit and kurapica had equal parts in that success.

The role of gon is shining bigger because the sidecast is much stronger and the things the sidecast does are actually interesting and relevant.

I think the sole reason of me not liking one piece anymore is that i know exactly how every arc will conclude, namely by a 1n1 fight between luffy and the arc's villain (with some mix ups, but generally) and the relations of the island the fight is on getting much better in the process.

I always felt that this is cheapening the actually great sidecast, because most things they do seem rather forced just to give them anything to do, even if what they do is cool and funny.

It is annoying to me to see that the maincharacter is always morally right and even if he does stupid things he is proven right in what he does.

Stupid decisions get mostly punished in hunter x hunter.

I get much more thrill out of calculated risks which may or may not pay off than out of just raiding the enemy base and having a punch out of which i know that the hero will prevail, and only then i can take the protagonist as an actual person more than a pawn moved by the plot in a calculateable way.

 

[Riyuki]

I actually had an epiphany about this the other day. The reason HxH is so unique and amazing is simple :

The series is literally the manga/anime version of a JRPG. The music reminds me so much of Lunar SSS and I'm really curious if Togashi is a fan of that game. I'm almost positive he is. We all know hes a huge Dragon Quest fan and I feel like when he wrote HxH... he had video game elements in mind the entire time. It's not just Greed Island that is like a game. That's more of a game inside of a game theme, IMO.

The music.. the characters.. the in-depth ability analysis.. its just unreal. I also feel like there are strong similarities and/or shout outs to Yu Yu Hakusho, his previous work.

Think about it :

Gon (Ging, actually lol) = Yusuke
Kurapika = Kurama
Killua = Hiei
Leorio = Kuwabara

I've converted over 50 people that I know offline to watch hxh. I actually made a facebook post and publicly said that if anyone will watch the first 2 episodes of hxh on Netflix and not enjoy it enough to keep watching, then ill paypal them $20. No one even lied to claim the $20 because they loved the series so much and theyre all huge fans now.

 

[shionoro]

Maybe somewhat.
You can clearly see togashi likes rpg.
Nen is about optimization of given ressources like in an rpg.

But tbh, if it comes to gaming, i'd rather see HxH as an adventure game which is open world.
Our maincharacters put emphasis on fighting, but it is clearly shown in the manga that fighting is not everything and that a gourmet hunter or whatever hunter gets similar respect (even if, yes, they can fight).
And those guys didnt set out to get super strong by improving stats.

The whole DC arc is about (as for now) intrigue and gathering people with special sets of skills (which are majorly non fighting related) to survive in an unknown world.

This rather looks like survival games like 'dont starve' to me than anything else.

 

[REN KOUEN]

these are the qualities that stick out to me

gon is not a goodie-too-shoos protagonist, sure hes a good guy, but if you notice, he has very mean dark side, we would have never seen naruto or luffy do to a villain what gon did to pitou, to continue bashing their head in after defeating them, the only thing close (of the major titles) is when ichigo was in hollow form and mercilessly blasted ulquiora into oblivion
so in summary, it is this darkness and ability to "go crazy" that makes the protagonist of HXH different than other protagonist's

ok next
the quality of the plot

i know that this is more of an issue of how good something is as opposed to what makes it different, but in the case of HXH, the plot is SO much better and so much more well written, that it sets HXH apart from the rest, and honestly the story/characters makes HXH the best shounen manga/anime of all time (if togashi would get off his ass and finish it!!!)

and third , and most importantly
the organized structure of the power-leveling
the structure of the nen-system how much depth togashi put into how the nen tree works for hatsu and the 4 main principals of nen
i cannot think of any other shounen that reaches the levels of orginazation and depth with the super powers. honestly this is a huge reason why hxh is the best there is

--- Double Post Merged, Feb 26, 2016, Original Post Date: Feb 26, 2016 ---

I actually had an epiphany about this the other day. The reason HxH is so unique and amazing is simple :

The series is literally the manga/anime version of a JRPG. The music reminds me so much of Lunar SSS and I'm really curious if Togashi is a fan of that game. I'm almost positive he is. We all know hes a huge Dragon Quest fan and I feel like when he wrote HxH... he had video game elements in mind the entire time. It's not just Greed Island that is like a game. That's more of a game inside of a game theme, IMO.

The music.. the characters.. the in-depth ability analysis.. its just unreal. I also feel like there are strong similarities and/or shout outs to Yu Yu Hakusho, his previous work.

Think about it :

Gon (Ging, actually lol) = Yusuke
Kurapika = Kurama
Killua = Hiei
Leorio = Kuwabara

I've converted over 50 people that I know offline to watch hxh. I actually made a facebook post and publicly said that if anyone will watch the first 2 episodes of hxh on Netflix and not enjoy it enough to keep watching, then ill paypal them $20. No one even lied to claim the $20 because they loved the series so much and theyre all huge fans now.

my roomate doesnt even watch anime, and i got him to start watching HXH, its that good

even non-anime fans love it

 

[shionoro]

Another thing that sticks out to me is the HxH, unlike most shonen mangas i know, is not about the young generation changing an old and cruel system.

We have the world nobles and generelly the establishment on any island which needs to be thrown over in most cases in one piece.
We have (as far as i read it) similar themes of nobles and establishment in magi.
We have the hogake theme in naruto and naruto being basically a saviour for konoha.
We have zahard in tower of god and the generally cruel tower system.

In all those cases we have seen at least some main chars standing up to that on any occasion they had and surpassing previous generations (which is a common theme in a lot youth literature anyway).

But i really do not see that in HxH. We have kolluah being supposed as heir to the zoldyek family, alright (and not wanting that), but aside from that?
It looks like Gon will never catch up to ging in terms of awesomeness and like noone will ever catch up to old man netero.

We also do not have HxH denying that gon and killuah are awesome to a big part because it is in their genes and they are fast learners.

Most other shonen have that too with inherent powers and abilities but are lying about it (naruto vs neji fight anyone?) at least to some degree.

But HxH does not do that in both cases.
Gon and Killuah both accept the world arround them as it is. If they find something unjust, and can do something about it, they do.
But it is not like they ever question the system . It is about personal moral what they do, not some idealistic concepts.
The manga also fully embraces that gon and killuah are special. They need to train to get stuff done, but it is stressed several times that with one month of training they can do thiings that others cannot after several years.

And the best thing is that they still do not just overcome 'the old generation' or some bullshit like that, because people with more experience than them are still the big players in the HxH world and they are just above average hunters.

 

[REN KOUEN]

^Of all the WSJ manga that I read Togashi's art is actually my favorite(when he's really trying like in the most recent chapters ofc).

it certainly has the best story

the art is a bit weak sometimes, but character and story...nothing touches hxh

 

[shionoro]

I would state it like this: The art is mediocre at best and oftentimes (in the sloppy chapters) downright ridicoulus for the things which do not need a lot of focus (like backrounds or the bodies of characters when they are just doing some talking or gag scenes), but the art always archieves what it sets out to do when it tries to establish the mood via favial expressions or body boses or symbolism, and that is a feat in itself.

It is not pretty, but it archieves what it wants to 'say'

 

[Rescorlian]

Hunter x Hunter is just a lot more mature than most other shonen are.
When I was first reading it I was 14 or 15 and i felt a little bit repulsed by what was going on.

I was used to Naruto and One Piece, and when those kids entered the hunter exam, it seemed like it was totally fine if people died on the way and noone really cared (end well, noone cared actually) and those monsters like hisoka and the spiders later were killing people without anyone making them stop.

That's hard to take for a kid believing in goodness and stuff.

In other shonen, the spiders for example would either be depicted as loveable villains or be defeated in their respective arc, but in HxH, they are just criminals whose reasons for crime can be accepted or not.

In HXH, black and white fade more than in other works, because evn the maincharacery long arc be concluded with ana tom bomb and without beating ters are not purely white.
They may be innocent to some extent and cuties, but white? no they aint, definitely.

As an example, there are othe rworks with great fights and nice strategy, complex dialogue and whatever, but there is no work which would conclude a very long arc with an atom bomb and without defeating the main villain's moral.
Meruem was actually, at least in the end, right about the world and was looking at it objectively but was defeated by the humans just because they would never accept a might which ruled them.
Not to mention the chapters in which togashi went out of his way to show us gungi games.

You wont find this in other shonen and you wont find it depicted that well in most seinens.

Tbh, i see hunter x hunter as a much more mature work than most seinen mangas are, and this is what tells it apart from most shonen, also.

The setting is put in a cruel world which resembles our's.

And this is what makes all the stuff happening much greater. because you know people can die, because you know good deeds and saving people is not easy and can get you killed, and because you know pursuing your goals is not easy and can get you killed.

In other works, it seems like if you just 'try hard enough' nothing can happen to you and everything will be alright.
HxH is honest, at least.
There are other works with great fights, nice strategy, complex dialogues and whatever but there is no othe rwork which would dare to have a v

I agree 100% on this and with all what OP said. Those things make me rate HxH as the best Shonen still "going on". Compared to Naruto, Bleach, FT the richness of HxH is just incredible. The world is much more interesting, the characters are truly well thought, there is no boring black and white stuff, no stupid moral where the good guys are always right and always win, etc.
HxH is truly incredible for its complexity, a pure pleasure to read

 

[shionoro]

I think a lot of the things which makes HxH special are due to the fact that Togashi has a lot more freedom than other Mangaka.

When taking into account how often Mangaka are made to write whole arcs they dont stand with or rush or cut subplots they think are good, you can only imagine how many quality chapters like the gungi game chapters would have been cut out.

It could also have beared the danger of interesting characters being given too much spotlight and becoming boring.

I could have seen publisher's making togashi focus on the spider's instead making the greed island arc. or at least forcing him to keep including kurapica (because those characters were very popular back then in the polls).

Given some of those things could have been fun, but it still would have been a risk for togashi's flow. It could have ended as a convulted sequence of chapters the mangaka does not actually think are a logical progression, like many other manga.

 

[Mahou-Nii-Sama]

What separates HxH from other shounen:

It uses the word Hiatus for the title, hence; Hiatus x Hiatus

kidding aside; for me it's gotta be the characters;the deconstruction in chimera ant arc alone was just too damn good, the unpredictability, the tactics used in fighting, no super-saiyan-ing every freakin' time, and the no-friendship-quotes-nonsense-every-episode.

 

[shionoro]

I agree with that: The characters are allowed to evolve from their assigned roles.

Allowing killuah and Gon to be departed because it is obvious that their current life targets do not align with each other's anymore is a move that i would not see in any other manga.

The good thing about HxH is that characters do not overstay their welcome just because they are popular.

For example, Kubo was forced to drag out the arrancar arc because arrancars were very popular back then, he was simply not allowed to shift the focus away from them.

It happens in a lot of mangas and webtoon that characters are 'just kept arroundÄ.
They are there, in the backround, maybe the get a chapter of spotlight, but they simply do not matte rin the grand scheme of things except for plot devices.

In HxH, this problem is solves a little better: When characters are not important to the plot anymore andhave nothing interesting to do, they mind their own business which might evolve on its own.

Other mangas would have kept leorio arround while he casually mentions nonstop how hard he is studying for his dream but offers nothing but occasional comic relief until people get sick of him.

Also, characters don#t get 'whorfed'. A characters which is competent at one point is usually competent at another point in the manga too.

It's not like the spider's are lightweights now. Power levels tend to make some sense.

Hunter x hunter also does not bother with useless side plots. The sideplots it offers usually have some meaning.
In other shonen, i often see sideplots in which minor characters plan something or train, just so they can maybe beat one form of the arc villain but fail anyway.
Those plots are not rewarding, they are nonsense, i dont need to say people who will not have relevance in any way.

The chapters which were not super relevant were the chapters in which gon and killuah learned how to bet, and even those chapters filled a purpose in learning a bit more about nen and had a slight pay off later on and were tied to the mainplot.

Aside from that, whenever HxH focusses on side characters, that story is either rewarding in itself or has a big pay off later on.

 

[smokeesid]

It's hiatus makes it different. It has inconsistent artwork and anything else could be found in other manga as well. Anything minor that I could point out to differentiate it would mean my attachment to this manga

 

[shionoro]

Another thing coming to mind:
The things we see in HxH usually have a pay off.
That is not to say everything a character does pays off for him.
We have seen many characters failing at things they tried, but the reader got a pay off for the things he read.

As example: Other manga often have problems with their side characters. At some point there are so many characters sticking arround that you have to let them do something. I will use DBZ as an example: You remember that krillin, yamcha, tien and piccolo had training arcs in the anime? It was absolutely for naught. The whole fusion storyline of goten and trunks and mystic gohan were also for naught, since it just prolonged the fights.
Most of the time, the villain changes forms, defeats side characters, then goes 1 n 1 with the main character.
That happens a lot in most shonen. Some side characters make a plan which seems to work or train a certain attack which ends up doing basically nothing if you think about it.
Those chapters are nothing but fillers because they have no pay off. And if you read enough shonen you know that they are not going to defeat the big bad or ever do more than supporting the main char or maybe winning a fight against some underling.

I never had that feeling with hunter x hunter. When i am shown something it is either important information, action or at least has selfworth (for example the chapter which showed the human's suffering in our society in the ant arc as comparison to how humans are compared to what meruem envisioned).

Other mangas, as i mentioned in another thread, would have had leorio stick arround just for him to fail over and over again.
They would have shown us leorio training just to get to a point where it looks like he can do something but then still fails.
And i am glad hxh does not do that.

It does not show us things which are not necessary for us to see. And as we see now, it does resolve the things it shows us.
Ging is fought, the Hisoka/Chrollo fight is happening right now. Old characters are suddenly appearing against because their subplots (like melody's cursed tune) become relevant again in the new world (at least i think that).

HxH does not open unnecessary subplots. Another good example of that is heaven's arena: They were there for a good plot related reason (getting stronger in that case), but the arc also functioned as possiblity for them to learn nen and for gon to resolve his business with hisoka.
All done in a very short arc. After that happened, they didnt dwell on in heaven's arena to get to the top, because everything they wanted to do was settled.
We weren't shown what zushi does because it didnt matter, he also didnt tag along.
When a thing in hxh can be resolved quickly, it does get resolved quickly.

 

[Aonori]

HxH is too good, for the most part other shounens cant compete with it (except FMA), due to all things stated above, the reader can look forward for the unexpected, we get villains that actually show some compassion with one another (which increases relatability levels with the viewer, even for villains) and always founds out good ways to deal with the villains and the way it sets them up is fenomenal. Meruem was for me a good exemple of this a powerhouse such as him was dealt in 1 arc, but dealt damage (killing Netero for me, was the Pinnacle of that, in my opinion, other villains dealt in 1 arc, normally suffer from facing plot armored characters or something else and end up beaten without getting anything accomplished, Meruem nope, he got stuff accomplished).

the hiatusxhiatus, thing can also be advantageous for togashi to restructure the future plot points or add new stuff here and there, it also is good for the side characters being introduced, since he will take his time to analyse them and make changes or adapt them to diferent situations throughout the arc, etc... thus promoving them beyond one dimensional (a thing other shounens tend to do with their side characters). It´s also not all about the main character which is a breath of fresh air, in the current manga/anime industry filled of world centered protagonists, we also get other points showcased by the author that can serve to criticise other manga´s clichés. Also the plot twists are well set for a modern society along with the way the plot progresses, for example makes sense for a villain like Meruem to get nuked when then the strongest hunter cant take him down and it makes sense for humans to play dirty against chimeras, doing to how the whole themes of the Chimera ant arc were exposed too, it´s exposition is also very good, loved the the narrator of this series and it´s also very positive to the overall plot to have one, that clearly does more than most of the other ones in other diferent Shounens, Togashi clearly spends his time working on the narrator for the overall plot and does work on when to have him do exposition or not, which is also a plus.

Aside from that, I particularly like the way they did Chrollo and the PT, as said above way better than other villain groups like the Espada, the Akatsuki, etc... You get to know straight up from the get go where the leader and most of his PT members come from as a justification to hide, their true fate, this is good, showcases the dirty society (the one they also suffered from and which in a way gives some empathy to them, if the viewer were to consider the place they came from, wouldnt the viewer think there would be at least a good chance to turn out like them and thus emphasize with them just from the situations they are in? (better than to have villains unexposed, and wait til their final fight to give them their origins)), Meruem getting nuked and dying over radiation, good, among many other instances, showcases how dirty humanity really is and it is showcased much better than the way than in other shounens that work less on this aspect and strive to create MC(s) and characters to be focused on instead of these aspects, HxH tries hard to be special and go on about the stuff that other Shounens tend to neglect for the sake of a more interesting plot, with better narration, etc... Which is why in my opinion it is 2nd best Shounen of all time, for now at least.

 

[shionoro]

Another thing from the recent chapter:
There are rarely abilities just as 'one off' plot devices or situations set up just so that one character can show off an ability and make himself useful.
In other works, it is quite often that we see characters do things with their power they just forget about or are never mentioned again.

Kortopi's ability would be one of those, it was useful for the context of yorkshin, but there seemed not much more to do with it.
But combining it like in the latest chapter makes it really fearsome.

 

[apm]

in what other series does the main char lose his powers?
that never really happens and bleach is the only series i know of, but its still insanely rare.
as of now its also unknown what happens to gon, maybe alluka fully healed him and he just has to rediscover his nen?

the fact that we have a whole new continent, with new and old enemies and friends and a ton of new storylines...
i think the story is unusual but still straightforward, as in no giant plotholes, giant missing pieces everywhere or switching locations for no reason.
nothing like bleach with 10 fights going on at same time or the strawhats splitting up.

the story overall might be the best. one piece could be equal but we know next to nothing about the background of everything.

edit: does any other shounen manga have such complexity in fights?
we will probably see more fights like the current one, with very different limits and a ton of options on how to use them.
until the big break we have mostly seen beginners use nen and that will change now.

 

[shionoro]

The sudden change of longrunning relationships and character goals:

I think hunter x hunter is the only shonen i know in which maincharacter's goals actually do change and they are explored in a different way. without this being a plot point brought in early on (like rachel's betrayal of baam being a part of baam's character establishment in the first big arcs).

Gon found his father and noticed that ging is great and all, but he doesnt really see him as a parent and then went back home to either live a normal life with mito or maybe search for other things to do.

Killuah became more emotionally independend from gon and does his own thing now by protecting his sister and living his own life.

Kurapica and leorio are not quite there yet and kurapika's character developement so far did in fact happen in the first few big arcs (from revenge as motivation to getting the eyes back), but there are still other well established relationships being shaken up now:

Hisoka's relationship to the spider was always more a thing of gritty comic relief. Yes he wanted to kill chrollo, but it came down to playing fancy tricks with the other spiders, flirting with machi and being dumbfounded when he didnt get his fight
Imagine it like in one piece: The two giants on the island want to fight each other to the death and it is implied that they (even if they actually like each other) would not hestitate to give each other the finishing blow out of their warrior's pride. But noone would imagine it to actually happen in one piece. Noone would imagine boogey actually brutally maiming woogey and then taking his head (and in one piece, that is a good thing. Things like that would seriously destroy the merry atmosphere of that manga).
The same way I,. personally, would not have imagined the well established comic gritty comic relief that is the spider to turn into a slasher movie.
That is a big change on a well established relationship between one character and a group of characters after such a long time.

And as i said, i know no other shonen manga in which such well established relationships are broken, at least not just like that.


Now, you could say that in the end of Naruto, Team 7 fighting together against the endboss was a longtime relationshipchanging thing, but that was lampshaded since forever and only happened at the very end of the manga.
There certainly are face heels turns in other manga, such as a villain becoming a friend or at least a nonthreatening neutral/ally.
But those things rarely touch the narrative role of the character and character chemistry.
Baam in ToG will probably always stay somewhat emotionally dependend on rachel. He can mature in that relationship and learn to cope with it, but their relationship to each other will hardly change.
the example i gave for naruto is similar: Naruto#s and Sasuke's rival relationship didnt change at all. It was explored in different ways, yes, but to every reader, it was always clear that they have this kind of relationship to each other with some kind of hidden respect.

the relationship of the spider and hisoka however substantially changed. even in universe, the spider didnt even seem to hold a grudge against hisoka, even tho he was partially repsponsible for the death of two of them. It was a give and take relationship and machi even had sympathy for them.
The change from 'hey, should i stich you up' to the facial expression she gave after he said he woul dkilll the spider indicates how severe this relationship change is.

There are similar changes i could see in the future, like leorio turning from comic relief to a very serious character having to emotionally care for kurapika, but we will see about that.

For me, gon and killuah's parting and hisoka's change do indicate the change up of a lot of the character relationships in the future to keep the manga fresh after it has run a long time.
And I do not see other shonen changing up their formula like that (and as i said, this is not nexessarily a negative. There are manga which could be seriously hurt by doing that. I think a disbanding of strawhat members could destroy one piece and a lot of people reading naruto would be sad if sasuke actually was evil and naruto abandoned him or even killed him. There is a big difference in the manga you are writing and the twists that it can stomache)..