Title: Hunter X  Hunter 32

Author/Artist: Yoshihiro Togashi

Distributor: Viz Media

American Release Date: April 1, 2014

Format: Manga

Genre: Action and Adventure

Publisher Age Rating: T+

Overall Personal Rating: B+

Warning: Spoilers may be ahead!

Basically a paid adventurer, Hunters are an elite group. They must past a test to get their license. Gon is a Hunter like his father.

Synopsis:

The election to decide the next Hunter Association Chairman drags on. Cheadle is up against 4 other opponents. The whole process is going rather crazy. No one can leave until a decision is made. Cheadle is trying to analyze the election politics and possible outcomes. Something odd is going on with the candidate Parison. What is really up?

Gon is still in the hospital, near death. Killua wants Nanika to heal him. As Nanika lives inside Alluka, he also wants to be able to free her from the take over of her body. But is preventing one of them from surfacing the right thing to do?

Was there ever going to be more to the relationship between Gon and his father Ging?

Someone claiming to be the former chairman’s son is challenging anyone who gets in his way. He is hired to reach the forbidden Dark Continent.

Commentary:

This is my first volume of Hunter X Hunter. I read the synopsis and character bios online. Jumping in at volume 32, I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to follow most of what was going on. Often wordy, there is a nice flow to the writing and conversations. The characters are easy to relate to and seemed to have nicely fleshed out personalities.

There were somethings that I thought were strange or at least different. I don’t know if these run though out the series. First was that some of the drawings get very simple, more of a pre-sketch or childish quality that didn’t seem to be intended to make a point or illustrate something. It felt more like they ran out of time. There is a wade range a art styles or abilities, more than I’ve seen in other series.  The second thing was that there was a chapter late in the book with almost no words. It was really interesting  how much could be conveyed through just pictures.

There is only one person I know who said this was a good series. Otherwise, no one seems to talk about it at all. From what I’ve read, I think if you like Arata or Toriko, this series might interest you.  Although Gon is the main character, it is the people around him and the adventures that make this all work. There is a nice balance between relationships and action, with enough intellect and comedy to round it out.

Written by the manga artist who also did Yu Yu Hakusho

Overall Grade: B+