Another volume (35), another first-place ranking for Hunter X Hunter. Of course this one “only” racked up about 450K in volume sales, but it was only out for part of the week and it seems a certainty to top 1 million once more. If Togashi-sensei can manage to put out about 20-22 chapters per year, that would mean two volume releases. Is that realistic, given his health woes? I have no idea, but I think it’s a scenario that would make almost everyone happy – even a good chunk of the notoriously surly Hunter X Hunter fanbase.
Story-wise, I’m happy to be getting any Togashi goodness – and “Dark Continent” is full of the complexity and intrigue that help make Hunter X Hunter the iconic series that it is. I am still feeling a bit of distance from this arc though, if I’m honest – it’s not connecting with me in a personal way. I really have no reason to care about most of these people yet, and only a couple of the new cast have made enough of an impression to break through that. There’s Kurapika of course, and Biscuit and Hanzo and Melody, et al – not to mention Hisoka and the Phantom Troupe’s remnants. But I contend still that Hunter X Hunter misses Gon and Killua when they’re absent for extended periods, because they humanize the story in a way nobody else in the cast can do.
These chapters don’t venture into the developing Spider side of the arc, instead remaining focused on the increasingly deadly succession war. Hanzo is at the center of a lot of this, blaming himself for the death of Momoze and alarmed at the changes in Marayam’s Nen beast which are seemingly a result of it. He commits himself to finding Momoze’s killer – which he does rather quickly and dispatches him, thanks to his “Bunshin no Jutsu” ability. But when he tries to return to his body he finds it, Bisky and Marayam missing – though the young prince’s Nen beast remains behind, looking fiercer than ever.
Meanwhile, Camilla shows off her own “Resurrection” ability – which is a rather impressive one, though pretty gross. Her behavior here is odd – a full-frontal assault on Prince Benjamin, which leads one to wonder if she’s under the influence of a manipulator. This whole succession battle (apparently some have taken to calling this the “Succession Battle Arc”, since the Dark Continent is nowhere in sight and may not be for years) was already a massive clusterfrick, but add the complication of Nen running about like a bull in a china shop and the potential for carnage and chaos seems almost limitless.
Stefan
February 10, 2018 at 12:51 amI like the “Succession Battle Arc” (SBA) and “Dark Continent Arc” division.
It reminds me of the relationship between “Yorkshin City Arc” and “Greed Island”.
I find that Chimera Ant (CAA) & SBA are both two Bizantine labyrinths, carrying a complex mindscape of stories upon stories and details upon details. But they take on vastly different forms, and the very nature of those labyrinths is different — while CAA muses the nature of identity, equality and the intricacies of survival, all the while deconstructing Shonen and providing us both hopeless, empty revenge & enlightened redemption… The landscape of SBA is so much more isotropic, so much more uniformly self-absorbed, and this level of granularity starts from our very central Hero — Kurapika, which in his Dark journey, as you’ve noted, he simply cannot compel the way Gon & Killua do.
This self-contained, intrinsic egotism that is the madness at the heart of this Story… Could it be that, no matter how smooth or refined or technically satisfying, it can never reach the youthful contrasts of CAA and, as a result, its final purity and wholeness, and ultimately caliber at all?
Could this be a function of Togashi’s age? After having spent time exploring existential crisis, loss, and finding one’s own place in the world in CAA… We have now absolved into an ugly and complex world, an almost asphyxiating canvas where all the (similarly muddy) colors add up and mix until everything closes in on us.
We’re boxed in this story every bit the characters are. If CAA represents adolescence (and existential crisis), SBA represents adulthood (and middle age crisis), with all its ugly baggage.
Alternatively, it could simply be the natural growth of the author, and his transition from vigor to rigor, as his heart got used to the adult world around him and reflected its nature as it is — a selfish game running for its own sake. We’ve far strayed from the joys and difficulties of Chimera Ant, or the cellular martial spirit of Heaven’s Arena and Greed Island (which now seem as distant as childhood).
This theme of “maturity isn’t all, or at all, necessarily better” is also witnessed in the plain vanity of the characters in this claustrophobic struggle: Camilla, and her combination of utter lack of foresight and childish temper, or Sale-sale and his hedonistic tendencies. The evil and madness of Tserried. The lack of consideration and self-entitlement of Benjamin, who for all his supposed “leadership abilities”, he simply cannot care for the life of his younger siblings. The egocentric self-preservation of Zhang Lei who, while neutral unless told otherwise, cannot bring himself to act against his own interest when considering the death of almost all of Wobble’s squad in chp. 361-362. The conflicted (but not yet conflictual) protest of Halkenburg, who although knows things can be better, he cannot find his own way out of the system (but becomes more deeply entrenched into it). This is obviously a selfish zero-sum economy, where you can expect any action to be selfish unless stated otherwise (and that wrinkle, even if it’s temporary alliance, is still ultimately selfish).
It’s selfishness atop selfishness, and when you trace it back into its roots, what do you find? A bunch of underdeveloped or maldeveloped immature & foolish children, who have never grown into adults due to their own deficiencies or environment, playing an adult’s game where people’s lives are involved. And like the supposition of any child, in order to win, you have to push everyone else down. This, to me, smells like corporatism (or perhaps a special vein of capitalism in general).
I know it seems absurd to make everything political, but politics is a concern of all those minds that cross into adulthood, and ultimately a hopeless energy-sucking struggle. And as we return to those weary, distant eyes of Kurapika in the volume cover… One has to wonder, if we go down this path, what good can we possibly encounter? What good can come out of this mess? The promise of the New Continent that attracted 200000 immigrate “sacrifices” hoping to find a new life is an obvious (to us) fool’s errand, a vain up making up the thinly-veiled pretence: they’re all sheep moving towards slaughter, acting as “power currency” for the individuals which truly matter. Most of the immigrants are Kakin people, yet neither the King nor the princes have ever pondered the thought of what would happen to them. They’re up-for-grabs for whoever ends up in the leadership; instead of being the central argument, the very population that makes this succession consequential is assigned to the utmost periphery of this conflict.
(And the few Spiders that meddle, why not, can enact a coup d’etat)
Ironically, it’s probably Togashi who best knows the depth of what’s truly wrong in this Story, and what’s gone awry. You’ve mentioned how hopelessly intermingled the story of Togashi’s hiatus is with the actual series itself. And maybe so. Maybe the Hiatus is actually one of the most fundamental aspects of this Story. Because where else can you get such a deep understanding of the faults of adult society but as an eccentric mangaka working for Shueisha, living in Japan? I think this is an intimate story of a personal, deep, profound embitterment… Expressed with drawings, brilliance and ideas, where it can truly hit others, rather than just mere words. This is as much criticism as it is shrewd introspection. It may be that Togashi, too, is boxed-in; and in closing up the readership in this story, he’s liberating himself, by making an astounding amount of money (and gaining lots of freedom) out of his own despite for the cutthroat environment in which this part of the Manga industry, and its readership, is tightly wrapped. This, my friends, is adult’s fiction; seinen, and it exists purely in the world of adults, yet it’s carefully nested in the abusive industry of adults working for adults to make money out of children (Shonen). And it hurts. Nothing good CAN come out of this but despair.
Dark Continent, thus, is a story whose emotional power is inherently limited by its reason of existence. It cannot offer the same emotional powerhouse that CAA did, but it’s alright, because its purpose is far more serious, wide, and thus mirky than CAA’s youthful vibrancy could achieve.
(I’d also expand on how if SBA = competitivity, DC = cooperation, and how bringing Leorio at the center stage of the series could take us past the middle age into the wise years, and thus make for a contradictorily more peaceful, enlightened, primal, and satisfying character story juxtaposed with the Horrors of DC. But that depends if Togashi reaches that stage, since he’s growing up with the story.
And I’m also so utterly sorry for writing this 2 hr monstrosity as a blog comment. So sorry!)
Guardian Enzo
February 10, 2018 at 8:32 amApologies unnecessary!
Stefan
February 10, 2018 at 9:10 amThank you. Who do you think will win the Succession War, Enzo? (if it even makes sense to worry about something like this)
Guardian Enzo
February 10, 2018 at 9:51 amHell, I have no idea. Knowing Togashi it could be Tserriednich. Or maybe a total wild card like Hisoka winning or something.
Stefan
February 10, 2018 at 10:46 amI’ll put my money on Wobble. Sure, it seems conventional, but I think there are multiple reasons why Togashi would choose her, and there are many unconventional scenarios which could lead to her win.
Plus, there’s the fact of being so obvious it’s not considered (like Gon digging through the walls in the Third Exam in order for all five to make it to the next phase).
Clarste
February 12, 2018 at 8:15 pmI respect the work you put into this comment, but I’d have to disagree pretty fundamentally. Mostly because the Chimera ant arc had most of the same criticisms thrown at it when it was still ongoing. In retrospect we can easily say it was a masterpiece or whatever, but at the time it felt like it was loaded with too many new characters and seemed shockingly nihilistic compared to what had come before. Not to mention all the hiatuses that also happened during its run–I’m not ashamed to admit that I managed to forget who everyone was multiple times. I won’t say this arc will end exactly as Chimera Ant did (what would that even mean, anyway?), but I don’t think it’s a particularly new style of storytelling for Togashi.
That said, this arc does remind me more of Yorknew than Chimera Ant so far. And that’s no surprise: once again Kurapika is at the center of everything, and everything more or less fits into the way he see the world. “Intrigue” is basically his default headspace. It remains to be seen whether Hanzo or Biscuit or maybe even the new characters like Oito or Bill can pack the emotional punch that Gon and Killua did in Yorknew, but I think we should give them a shot before we declare that Togashi is now much more cynical.
Stefan
February 12, 2018 at 10:04 pmYeah, I actually noticed that in the making of my comment. The Chimera Ant did seem far off from from anything else when the show started.
But I never said I thought Dark Continent is nihilistic. I’m saying it’s, so far, SELFISH, existing for its own sake. And rather than argue its “emotionally catharsis” is going to emerge out of a so far unknown theme, I’m going to bet that its vast ocean of selfishness IS its theme, starting from the very central hero, its ugliness (think death after death after death) and complexity raising a parallel to modern society. Rather than nihilistic, I’d say it’s misplaced; an aberration, which nothing good can come out of. Both the characters, the readers, and (I argued) the author are trapped in this ride… But for vastly different reasons.
The characters are physically trapped in the Succession War.
The reader is trapped in this Hiatus-ridden misadventure with little moral or empathic “centers”. (see Gon&Killua)
I don’t know if I can reduce this to a soundbite, but I’d argue the author uses selfishness and survival-treated-as-game as themes to depict adult human society, and that’d also be the discontent which produced this tale, since Togashi (I inferred) is also probably stuck in these dynamics in his own life in the manga industry side of corporatist Japan.
I argued, then, that this tale is criticism of Shueisha while also making money out of it, as a payback. Hunter X Hunter is carefully nested in Shonen because of its immense popularity and especially age and precedent. Togashi is an old guy basically integrated with the industry. Any new editor is going to be younger than him. They can’t influence him. This gives Togashi an unique place for self-expression. I’d argue Dark Continent is a fuller exploit of this trait than Chimera Ant.
Anyway, I don’t know if I expressed myself well enough in the original comment, so contact me if you didn’t get (or) disagree with something.
Guardian Enzo
February 12, 2018 at 10:11 pmWell, “old guy” Togashi is barely 50, ROFL. There are plenty of editors older than him.
Clarste
February 12, 2018 at 10:34 pmI meant that Chimera Ant seemed nihilistic, especially the early parts where the ants were running around eating everyone. Like, Togashi brought back Pokkle from the Hunter Exam just to kill him in an extremely cruel manner. The whole first half of the arc felt like that, honestly. It was difficult if not impossible to see where it was going from the beginning, so just the set-up itself felt cruel. And frankly I would argue that the first half went on a little too long.
This new arc is cruel in a different way, certainly. The cruelty of human ugliness rather than animalistic purity. But I still wouldn’t say it’s so different from Yorknew, which centered its plot around an underground auction for human body parts and the (seemingly) inhuman Spiders. Which I guess is just to say that I don’t see the Kakin royal family’s cruelty as all that much different from the Spiders, and just like the Spiders I’d expect a decent number of them to develop into interesting characters over the course of the arc. We can already see a little of that, like how Benjamin at first comes across as a dumb strongman but then we start seeing his soldier’s loyalty to–along with his loyalty to them, in his own way.
Stefan
February 13, 2018 at 6:06 amGood point, Enzo. Maybe it’s just my opinion, but it seems like Hunter x Hunter quite literally nested its way into this industry and has basically become a microcosm. Perhaps it’s just the laws of supply and demand that’s keeping it together, I don’t know.
Mayuf
February 10, 2018 at 6:07 amThanks Hunter
bennydelon
February 10, 2018 at 10:18 amPersonally, since the cockroach chapters I’m starting to connect with Woble’s group.
Not su much with Kurapika who is quite a cold guy, but Bill, Shimano and Oito are humanizing the group. I’m particularly enjoying Oito as a character, much more that I thought I would.
Of course it isn’t even close to what Gon and Killua bring to the series. But still, thanks to these characters I’m enjoying this arc much more than I did during the introductory part (when it was all about Beyond Netero’s group, the Zodiacs and the V6 planning the trip).
Stefan
February 12, 2018 at 10:37 amHey, Enzo, I thought of something.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_system#Complexity_and_chaos_theory
Chaos is intrinsically intertwined with Hunter x Hunter.
I’d argue Chimera Ant Arc is a chaotic system, or a system highly sensitive to its initial conditions. It’s deterministic, because if you had perfect knowledge of its initial condition and relevant equations describing the arc’s (as a system) behavior, theoretically you could predict all of its developments. The Palace Invasion is a good example of this.
Dark Continent Arc, on the other hand, is a complex system; or a system with extremely complicated information, where it’s impossible to whatsoever precisely predict the future. Since it’s impossible to predict its developments, it’s indeterministic.
And this quote got me thinking:
“When one analyzes complex systems, sensitivity to initial conditions, for example, is not an issue as important as it is within chaos theory, in which it prevails. As stated by Colander, the study of complexity is the opposite of the study of chaos. Complexity is about how a huge number of extremely complicated and dynamic sets of relationships can generate some simple behavioral patterns, whereas chaotic behavior, in the sense of deterministic chaos, is the result of a relatively small number of non-linear interactions.
Therefore, the main difference between chaotic systems and complex systems is their history. Chaotic systems do not rely on their history as complex ones do. Chaotic behaviour pushes a system in equilibrium into chaotic order, which means, in other words, out of what we traditionally define as ‘order’. On the other hand, complex systems evolve far from equilibrium at the edge of chaos. They evolve at a critical state built up by a history of irreversible and unexpected events, which physicist Murray Gell-Mann called “an accumulation of frozen accidents”. In a sense chaotic systems can be regarded as a subset of complex systems distinguished precisely by this absence of historical dependence. Many real complex systems are, in practice and over long but finite time periods, robust. However, they do possess the potential for radical qualitative change of kind whilst retaining systemic integrity. Metamorphosis serves as perhaps more than a metaphor for such transformations.”
Since the Chimera Ants came from the Dark Continent, I think you can say that Chimera Ant Arc is literally a subset, or a special case, of Dark Continent Arc! Its central premise (Chimera Ants) is one of the many species in the Dark Continent, and the dynamics of the Arc started with an Ant Queen crossing the Moebius lake from the Dark Continent. And, as a system, a chaotic system too is a subset of a complex system.
This cannot be spontaneously thought-up. Togashi had it planned.
YuudiHoshi
February 12, 2018 at 5:38 pmGon will return to the story. Maybe not anytime soon – and not even in this arc mayhap but it’ll be in a major way.
I have seen some peeps say that they think Togashi does not at all care for Gon, but that is not the impression I’ve gotten in the slightest in regards to my own experience with this series on the whole.
Finding Ging is not even close to the end of the line for the guy
Stefan
March 2, 2018 at 1:43 pmThings are getting pretty spicy in these last three chapters. Do you prefer the multichapter format, or is the schedule heavy right now?
Guardian Enzo
March 2, 2018 at 2:55 pmI have a lot on my plate, and I’m just generally backed up (more details to follow on that, actually). I’ll catch up eventually.
Stefan
March 3, 2018 at 1:32 amI can’t wait for more details of your situation! You sound pretty busy. Good luck, Enzo!
Tharizdun
December 2, 2019 at 3:48 pmDid you stop with these HxH manga posts? There are more chapters out?
Guardian Enzo
December 2, 2019 at 3:55 pmThe latest hiatus has been on for more than a year. Can’t cover what doesn’t exist.
Tharizdun
December 2, 2019 at 4:17 pmI know that, but you stopped at chapter 373. There are 390 chapters out.
Guardian Enzo
December 2, 2019 at 4:39 pmAh well, fair point. My plan was to do a summary post of the intervening chapters once the hiatus was over, as the last couple had been pretty short and I dared hope everyone had finally settled on a workable plan to manage Togashi’s health issues. I don’t see much point in doing anything as long as the series remains stalled, but the plan is to address all the material once it starts back up.