There’s no point in denying that a big part of the story with Hunter X Hunter is the series itself.  Anytime it’s either coming or going is big news, and while a hiatus of roughly 5 months would be nothing to celebrate in most instances, with Togashi Yoshihiro it represents real progress.  Not only did WSJ announce a planned return date when Togashi took his latest break, they almost met it.  It may be that Togashi and Shueisha are finally handling his health issues proactively.  I hope so, and if Togashi-sensei could maintain a schedule of 20 or so chapters per year (roughly 10 means a new tankoubon release), I would be ecstatic with that.

Five months on is short enough that I can almost remember what was happening about the Black Whale when we left.  Kurapika is about to begin training the various princes’ security forces in Nen, while at the same time trying to piece together what’s really happening on this strange vessel.  He’s concluded that the murder which closed the last chapter could not have been connected with the Nen beasts, because the snakes in question were visible to normal humans – so what were they then, exactly?  While puzzling this through he also stumbles across the notion that the succession battle may be a condition for the creation of said Nen beasts – meaning that if any of the 14 candidates backs out, the Nen beasts might disappear.

Kurapika’s training is interesting – as with Tserriednich’s bodyguard, he’s trying to teach as little as possible without seeming like he’s holding back.  He introduces an interesting method, having his pupils put their hands together in whatever way seems comfortable to them – is this perhaps Izunavi’s version of Wing’s water test?

The headline-grabber here, I think, is the appearance of the surviving members of the Phantom Troupe – Chrollo included – on-board the Black Whale.  They’re there to kill Hisoka, obviously – and at this point there’s no reason to suspect that Hisoka isn’t on-board somewhere too.  I’d been holding out a vain hope than Gon and/or Killua might finally make an appearance with this chapter (though it’s hard to see where it would fit, so it was never more than an intuition) but this isn’t a bad consolation prize.  The Phantoms run afoul of the the low-level mafia thugs on the lower decks, and quickly subdue them and put them to work helping in the Hiso-hunt.

The direct link between the princes and the mafia families (whose names together spell “Shueisha” – Togashi, you scamp) is an interesting twist, as is the revelation that the King has some kind of contraption build of 14 “capsules” that look suspiciously like coffins (which certainly inspires some speculation on what might be his endgame for this succession war).  “Dark Continent” is still conspicuously in the unspooling stages, and even for a full-time mangaka this would be very much a long-term project indeed by the looks of it.  Maybe we should be encouraged by the fact that Togashi-sensei shows no inclination to scale down as he inches forward with Hunter X Hunter – either he believes he’s find the reserves to finish it, or he’s just too damn proud to care.