MILD SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 400 AHEAD
Regardless of the genre or style, most manga series have a central character and stick with them throughout the story. In the beginning of Hunter x Hunter (1998-present), Yoshihiro Togashi sort of set up four protagonists–Gon, Killua, Leorio, and Kurapika–and we got to see their story.
We saw them go through the Hunter Examination for the first 50 or so chapters, but then it kind of turned into the Gon and Killua series with a touch of Kurapika. Now, the latest arc has Kurapika step into a pseudo-protagonist role, while Gon and Killua are nowhere to be seen.
This is the Succession War, and over the last 15 years, Togashi has slowly been building a significant roster of characters and conflicts all happening at the same time, and they’re all about to blow up. It might be Yoshihiro Togashi’s best work yet.
What Is Currently Happening
Tserriednich Hui Guo Rou is the 4th Prince of the Kakin Empire. He’s an intellectual, an art connoisseur, and a sociopath. His art collection consists of human body parts, notably the Scarlet Eyes of Kurapika’s clan that the Phantom Troupe wiped out. Fans also suspect the head he prominently displays is Kurapika’s childhood best friend, Pairo.
Tserriednich is one of 14 princes taking part in a contest of death to inherit the Kain throne. Each is granted a powerful Guardian Nen Beast with an outlandish ability, but it’s not enough for Tserriednich.
Recently learning of the existence of Nen, Tserriednich begins training, and unfortunately, he’s a genius unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. A week into learning Nen, he awakens another Nen Beast and an ability to see 10 seconds into the future and change his fate.
Tserriednich is just one prince vying for the throne, and every other (along with the Hunters they’ve hired to protect them) is strategizing to win the contest. Kurapika ended up with the youngest prince, a newborn baby named Woble.
All of this is happening aboard the Black Whale 1 ship, and it’s happening on just Tier 1 of the ship’s five tiers.
The Rest of the Ship
Altogether, the ship holds about 200,000 people. On these other tiers, there’s a three-way mafia war between the Heil-Ly Family (Tserriednich is their main benefactor), the Xi-Yu Family, and the Cha-R Family (both of these other families are also propped up by other princes).
The Heil-Ly Family is led by Morena Prudo, who wants to end humanity with her Nen ability “Contagion.” This ability essentially grants her followers Nen, the ability to strengthen their Nen, and spread abilities to more followers if they kill more and more people.
The Phantom Troupe is also here, split up and embroiling themselves with the mafia while hunting for Hisoka, who’s stronger than ever and hunting them. Chrollo is alone and, before finding Hisoka, is trying to steal one of the Kakin Empire’s royal treasures.
The ship’s destination? The Dark Continent - a barely explored locale around the known Hunter x Hunter world that hosts the most mysterious, deadly, and life-altering flora and fauna. An area Isaac Netero and the Hunter Association forbade the world from traveling to.
Leading the expedition? Beyond Netero - Isaac Netero’s son. We don’t know his motivations, but the little we have seen and the strings he’s pulling behind the scenes spell out the fact that he’s not someone to underestimate.
Why You Should Care
It’s a lot to take in, but it’s easier to digest when you understand that most of what I outlined has been brewing since 2012 when Togashi started this arc. There are so many people, all part of different factions with unique motivations and abilities, and now the gears are turning faster and faster, progressing toward a point where everything will converge. Soon, readers will reap what Togashi has been sowing for over 15 years.
This kind of story arc, one that Togashi has expertly handled before with the Yorknew City arc, is a “Chaos Arc.” When multiple factions and plotlines move in a similar direction and all intersect, everything comes to a head. Other “Chaos Arc” examples are:
- The Shibuya Incident (Jujutsu Kaisen)
- Egghead Island (One Piece)
- Konoha Crush (Naruto)
You’re never certain what’s going to happen because someone somewhere has something in their back pocket you forgot about, or an ace up their sleeve they’ve been hiding until the perfect moment.
While we don’t know how the Succession War will end, it seems Togashi is leading us to a confrontation between Kurapika, Tserriednich, Hisoka, and Chrollo. What role will Beyond, Morena Prudo, and the other Kakin princes play?
Only time will tell.
Yoshihiro Togashi’s Health and Hiatuses
The arc began in 2012 with chapter 340, and as of writing this article, the most recent chapter is 416. That’s 76 chapters in 14 years. For comparison, Eiichiro Oda released almost 600 One Piece chapters in that same period.
Every author has their own pace, but Togashi and taking hiatuses isn’t something new. His previous series, YuYu Hakusho (1990-1994), had numerous readers and fans, but he decided to abruptly end the series after overworking himself. He was chronically ill and developed chronic back issues.
Hunter x Hunter ran somewhat steadily with occasional breaks from 1998 to 2006, but around this time he took an almost two-year break from the series, right in the middle of the Chimera Ant arc. Today, he can only draw a little at a time while he’s lying on the ground.
There have been other long hiatuses with some chapters here and there, with the longest running from 2018 to 2022. At this time, Togashi created a Twitter account and teased updates on the series. Here, Togashi’s new batch strategy began, finishing 10 chapters before proceeding with publication. After three years, we're at the end of the third batch, and the energy is palpable.
How Much Longer?
The arc has not reached its climax, and each batch of chapters has had about a two-year gap preceding it. I think the next batch of chapters is where the separate plot threads begin crossing over, and the next batch after that would be the climax.
That means almost five more years before the conclusion, but if you’ve been waiting this long, you can wait some more. And who knows if it would actually work out this way. Togashi can always go in an entirely new direction or introduce some new destabilizing element.
Either way, I’m excited for more Hunter x Hunter, even if I do have to wait. Trying to completely understand the character motivations, powers, strategies, factions, and internal politics of everything going on, everyone is going to spend the next few years reading and rereading. There are so many moving parts to keep track of, but it’s the level of detail necessary to tell a story like this.
Yes, some critics point to the newer chapters as simply being walls of text, that Togashi should give up trying to tell this story as a manga and instead turn the series into something like a light novel. While there are numerous pages with a heavy amount of exposition, this is not the whole manga.
In addition to text, Togashi hasn’t lost his ability to draw. Sometimes the art is masked behind text, but Togashi will break up that exposition with art that is oftentimes harrowing, dropping you back into the reality that we’re in the middle of something massive.
The End of Hunter x Hunter?
Even at the culmination of the Black Whale 1’s voyage, there is still more story to tell. The Dark Continent is gigantic, both narratively and physically in Hunter x Hunter’s world. It’s a location shrouded in mystery and powers beyond our characters’ understanding, and Togashi seems keen on exploring it with us.
This is just one possibility for the series’ future after the Succession War. In 2023, Togashi announced there were four possible endings for the series. He released “Ending D” as a contingency if he passed away before completing the series. In this ending, Gon is a grandfather living happily with his granddaughter Gin on Whale Island.
Endings A, B, and C are all possibilities for Togashi, so even the creator of the series is still as uncertain about the ending as its numerous readers. Regardless of the overarching direction the story is heading, what’s currently happening in the story is endlessly exciting.
There’s more momentum behind Hunter x Hunter than there has been in the last decade. If you’ve been hesitating or unsure whether to dip your toes into the story, hesitate no further. Dive in.
