Hunter x Hunter, Vol. 1

Plucky Gon’s quest to find his dad leads him into a whole world of crazy adventure.

Hunters are a special breed, dedicated to tracking down treasures, magical beasts, and even other people. But such pursuits require a license, and less than one in a hundred thousand can pass the grueling qualification exam. Those who do pass gain access to restricted areas, amazing stores of information, and the right to call themselves Hunters.

Gon might be a country boy, but he has high aspirations. Despite his Aunt Mito's protests, Gon decides to follow in his father's footsteps and become a legendary Hunter. The Hunter hopefuls begin their journey by storm-tossed ship, where Gon meets Leorio and Kurapika, the only other applicants who aren't devastated by bouts of seasickness.

Having survived the terrors of the high seas, Gon and his companions now have to prove their worth in a variety of tests in order to find the elusive Exam Hall. And once they get there, will they ever leave alive...?

Yoshihiro Togashi here. I'm back to doing a weekly serial, and here I am publishing the first volume already. Thanks to all my readers for their support. I am entirely indebted to you. I took this picture at a certain party, by the way, not at a shady membership club. I'll work hard to crank out dozens of volumes. I promise not to complain. I won't run away. I won't lose it. I think. Maybe. Yoshihiro Togashi's manga career began in 1986 at the age of 20, when he won the coveted Osamu Tezuka Award for new manga artists. He debuted in the Japanese Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1989 with the romantic comedy Tende Showaru Cupid. From 1990 to 1994 he wrote and drew the hit manga YuYu Hakusho, which was followed by the dark comedy science-fiction series Level E and the adventure series Hunter x Hunter. In 1999 he married the manga artist Naoko Takeuchi.