Deconstructor Fleet / Hunter × Hunter

Hunter x Hunter is both a tribute to and examination of shonen battle manga. Many of the arc structures, character archetypes, and tropes common to shonen manga are invoked and twisted into darker, more grounded interpretations. The series uses these deconstructed tropes to make a point about shonen manga- that being, a world where shonen manga cliches are commonplace is a world that is much more dangerous, cruel, and violent than our own.

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Characters:

• Gon is a massive deconstruction of the Stock Shōnen Hero. While he is indeed a nice and kindhearted young boy, the series makes it clear that due to being a child, Gon lacks concrete morals. Instead, his Incorruptible Pure Pureness makes him come across as alien and confusing to his allies and foes. He gets irrationally angry at people who cross his particular standards of morality, while also being accepting of ostensibly bad people if they don't violate his tenets. A perfect example of this is his best friend Killua, who is by all possible definitions, a mass murderer and gleeful sadist. Killua has a ton of murders under his belt, but Killua is nice to Gon and his friends, so who cares? Gon often becomes laser-focused on achieving his goals, to the point of being a detriment to the people around him and himself, and his refusal to back down from certain situations comes across as naïve and shortsighted instead of brave.
  • Gon is specifically designed in tribute to Son Goku in several ways; there is a reason Gon catches a giant fish as his first act. And then of course, he risks his life to turn into a huge muscle-guy with endless hair in order to destroy the enemy who killed one of his friends... But where Goku mostly gets off scot-free from the problems he causes, Gon has to deal with the lasting impact of his actions, including utterly ruining his body following his rampage.
  • Unlike a lot of shonen heroes, Gon fails frequently. He loses battles, lags behind in his training, becomes a burden to his friends, and spends a lot of time working to become strong only for yet another challenge to get in his way. Instead of being happy about the chance to continue improving like so many shonen heroes before him, Gon becomes increasingly frustrated with his lack of power and begins to hate himself. He also begins ignoring his legitimate achievements and chooses to instead focus on how he can't measure up to the other Nen users around him. He even comes to blame himself for Kite's death during the Chimera Ant arc because of his low self-esteem, and goes through a very messy version of the Five Stages of Grief as the trauma of Kite's death weighs down on him. It takes Ging passionately talking to him and working things out with a revived Kite for Gon to finally come to terms with his weaknesses.
    Gon: I never knew... how frustrating being weak could be...!
  • Gon's potential is treated as an abnormality in-universe. His aura output is huge, his control over it is strong, and his Nen is simple and devastating- and all of this makes him a huge target to his enemies, and brings him under the notice of Hisoka.
  • Just because Gon's The Hero doesn't mean he always fights the Big Bad of a story arc; he's still young, which means that in terms of power and skill he's sometimes completely outclassed, and more often than not a much stronger character will face the main villain instead while Gon faces an antagonist closer to his level.
• Killua's character arc focuses around Defusing the Tyke-Bomb, but with a number of twists. Firstly, Killua doesn't want to be defused- his assassin training makes him excellent in a fight, and his bratty attitude and pride means that it doesn't bother him much. Second, Killua's father realizes the value in letting his son go free and see the outside world, arguing that keeping him isolated is only making Killua more likely to abandon his role as the next patriarch. Third, Killua learns that his assassin training has been compromised by Illumi, who has limited Killua's combat capabilities via an inhibiting needle injected into his brain. Killua gains the resolve to fight stronger opponents only after embracing his training and breaking Illumi's spell. Lastly, Killua resolves to remain vigilant and protective of Alluka by the end of the series, turning his training to kill into training to protect. Overall, Killua has a very complicated relationship with his assassin heritage, and the idea that he'll become "better" after being defused is called into question.
• Why does Leorio want to become a Hunter? So that he can gain access to a large amount of money and fund his real dream, which is to become a doctor. Leorio's approach to his problems is noted by many In-Universe to be a common reason why people join up to become Hunters, showing that there are more concrete reasons to become a hero than "being the best".
• Hisoka eventually becomes a deconstruction of Blood Knights later in the story. His constant drive to fight and kill tough opponents means Hisoka is offputting even to those he could charitably call his "friends", with even the stoic assassin Illumi finding him to be a weirdo. Where this crosses over into disturbing is that his two primary targets of the story are Gon and Killua, aka two children, and the Interplay of Sex and Violence invoked in his relationship is painted in a pedophilic light. After being pushed to his limits during his fight against Chrollo, Hisoka is blown to pieces and only barely comes back to life thanks to invoking the "Nen-after-Death" Vow on himself. While he initially acts satisfied that Chrollo and him had a solid battle, it's quickly revealed that Hisoka has absolutely lost his shit, and makes the entirety of the Phantom Troupe his enemy by killing two of their members in a brutal fashion. While Chrollo technically won, Hisoka isn't finished with him yet, and refuses to back down from pursuing his "prey", honorable battles be damned. The speed at which Hisoka throws away his values of fighting to focus on killing shows the self-destructive nature of Blood Knights, as well as pointing out how their need to fight turns them into a danger for the people around them.
• The Chimera Ant King, Meruem, is a deconstruction of a Might Makes Right Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy Enemy to All Living Things; in essence, he is a walking one of Cell. He's born as an incredibly strong demigod even without Nen, and will only grow stronger the more he eats humans, especially Nen users, until he eventually takes over the world through sheer might. Meruem starts off firmly believing in his own personal strength, valuing the lives of nothing around him as they are beneath him. As the story goes on, however, he receives several lessons in how the world really works that sends his lofty ambitions crashing down. For starters, strength can be meaningless in certain scenarios- he finds himself unable to beat Komugi at Gungi, and when he threatens her with violence, she doesn't react with fear and instead states she's ready to die. This renders Meruem's strength meaningless before her, and the resilience Komugi shows in the face of death instills a sense of honor into him. He then begins to understand that everyone has value in some way, and that his linear understanding of power from strength blinds him to meaningful experiences that others can give him. From then on, Meruem becomes much more mature and sophisticated, choosing to negotiate with Netero instead of fighting with him. This proves to be a mistake, since the King is a Naïve Newcomer to this world and underestimates what humans are capable of. Netero detonates an nuclear bomb in his chest at the climax of their fight, which nearly kills him outright and still ends up doing him in via radiation poisoning. The world governments had a perfect solution for the Chimera Ant problem the entire time, meaning that Meruem's goals of world domination would have been violently shut down even if the Palace Invasion had lost. The climax of his character arc is choosing to abandon his principles of might and power, and to instead form a legitimate relationship with his intellectual equal, Komugi. Meruem's character arc demonstrates how unrealistic a true genocidal conqueror would actually be, as well as how starved for meaningful interactions with the world and the people within it they would become by being all-powerful.

Story Arcs

• Each of the major story arcs is a deconstruction of a cliche shonen manga storyline. To get into particulars:
  • Hunter Exam Arc: The "contest" arc, in which several characters need to compete with each other in order to win a title. This arc examines what would actually happen in a contest filled with superhumans and normal people: the superhumans run amok, the normal humans die by the dozens, and Gon only makes it out because Hisoka comes to like him. The final battle to earn his title as a Hunter is also shockingly brutal for poor Gon, and is more of a test of willpower than of physical might. Finally, the contestants win on a technicality thanks to Killua freaking out and killing his opponent, which disqualified him and made everyone else a Hunter by default. So much for the tournament.
  • The Zoldyck Family Arc is the "rescue" arc, in which the heroes try to save a friend/teammate from peril. Unlike most rescue arcs, the heroes never get a chance to storm the castle and fight the bad guys—though they do make it past the front gate, which is no small feat. Instead, the situation turns out to be little more than a typical family spat, and gets solved just as quickly—it only looked dire because everyone involved is a superhuman assassin, so what could have been a rather normal argument with mom adds whips and guns.
  • The Heavens Arena storyline is one of the "training" arc, in which the heroes train their new abilities. As it turns out, the Heavens Arena proves to be a fairly poor place to train for a variety of reasons. Not only are the vast majority of people on the lower floors complete pushovers, but the jump between "normal humans" and "Nen-empowered individuals" is so vast that Gon and Killua cannot progress with their own talent, and must be trained by Wing or else they'll be killed. Heck, audience members and commentators can't even see the higher level fights, since they lack the ability to see Nen. The protagonists also never make it to the top of the tower, but they do: fight the same characters more than once, blow most their winnings at the beginning of the next arc, and spend two months meditating without even watching the ongoing tournaments. They don't get pitted against each other, or have a serious fight against their new rival/friend Zushi. Gon doesn't even win his final match against Hisoka, although he does seem to be personally satisfied by the outcome. And to top it all off, the very end of the arc sees their mentor figure, Wing, state that he regrets teaching his new pupils anything, since they're sure to become utter monsters. His reluctance to train them and the time needed to fully master Nen also means that Gon and Killua enter the next arc Incompletely Trained and lagging behind Kurapika.
  • Yorknew City Arc: The "villain squad" arc, in which the heroes face off against a group of evil villains. This arc examines what would happen if you took superpowered humans and put them in the real world- the power gap between the troupe and the mafia goons is massive, and only Kurapika, who has limited his arsenal to specifically only fight the troupe can stand a chance. Even still, Kurapika can only do so much, and most of the troupe escapes unscathed. The big focus of the arc is how the Phantom Troupe are remorseless murderers, and yet protest to caring about their members. As Gon points out, this is insanely hypocritical, since their understanding of what it's like to lose one of their own makes no sense considering how many people they kill. Instead of garnering them sympathy, this Moral Myopia just makes the Phantom Troupe come across as immature and selfish.
  • Greed Island Arc: The "deadly game" arc, in which the heroes must compete and win a game to survive; Inside a Computer System is thrown in for good measure. The Hunter x Hunter world is certainly different from ours, but the technology level is fairly similar...meaning the idea of literally transporting dozens of humans into a computer game is absurd. Through the clever use of Nen, the contestants are actually teleported to another real-world location, meaning the horrific injuries Gon and crew suffer are very real. This also examines the rather horrific situation of coming to Greed Island and not having Nen—Gon's group manages to start a collection of cards just by trading people a way out of the game.
  • Chimera Ant Arc: The "enemy army" arc, in which the heroes go up against a large enemy force with a powerful leader. Instead of fighting their way through the army and defeating the antagonist in a triumphant battle, the heroes launch a guerilla warfare campaign to subvert the army before it can even be raised. Lots of effort is put into creating an opening for a sneak attack against the King in his palace, with every member of the team contributing to the offensive in some way. And despite everyone's best efforts, the entire plan is sent Off the Rails by dumb luck on the part of the enemies. Gon doesn't even fight the Chimera Ant King, instead choosing to even the score with his more personal Archenemy Neferpitou, and even that ends in a Pyrrhic Victory for Gon. Even more deconstructive is that the humans actually cheat to win- upon learning that he will die and realizing no one else can stop the king, Netero detonates a nuclear bomb in his chest than eventually kills the King from radiation poisoning, rather than a straight up fight. The "final battle" of the arc isn't even a fight, but rather the King begging Palm to help him find Komugi before the radiation poisoning does him in. She relents, and the King is allowed to die happy.

Shōnen Demographic Tropes

• Next Tier Power-Up is absolutely torn to pieces during the climax of the Chimera Ant arc. Gon, having been thoroughly broken over the course of the arc is pushed over the edge when Pitou definitively claims that Kite is dead. Enraged and filled with despair, Gon says that he "doesn't care what happens next", and that he'll "use it all" to kill Pitou. In doing so, he places a Vow and Limitation on himself, with his Nen using up Gons entire lifespan and all of his future potential as a Nen user and transforming him into a rugged adult. This is portrayed in-universe as a horrible thing to do, since Gon has thrown his life away so he can beat Pitou. The music during this scene is a far cry from the heroic scores that normally back these scenes, instead sounding more like Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima than anything else. This paints his transformation less like the hero successfully triumphing over his enemy, and more like a traumatized and broken child violently lashing out. Even worse, when Gon comes out of this transformation, he is immediately put on life-support and basically becomes mummified. Many characters state how Gon will die from the strain this transformation put on his body, and Killua has to use a Deus ex Machina in over to save his friend's life. The long-term consequences of using this transformation also become clear later, when Gon finds out that his Nen has become blocked. If he wants to learn how to use Nen again, he'll have to start from the very beginning. As it turns out, choosing to bypass naturally getting stronger with a transformation is devastating to your body, and Gon will now spend the rest of his life grappling with the consequences of using it. The consequences are so severe that they actually remove him from the position of protagonist of the manga—he has returned home to recuperate and has nothing more than a cameo in the subsequent Dark Continent arc, while Kurapika takes over the role of main character.
  • It's also deconstructed similarly with Kurapika in regards to his use of Emperor Time. Sure, it makes him significantly more powerful when he uses it, but that strength is coming at the cost of him burning himself out much quicker in the short-term on top of shaving away his lifespan by one hour for each second he's in it. By the laws of Nen, all that exertion is expected to put an equal amount of exhaustion on the user's body, especially one hastily seeking power at all costs without bothering with the essential basics like Kurapika, despite his potential. In fact, his Nen Master sums it up best with this advice:
    Izunavi: Nobody's equal in strength. How you feel day to day will affect you, as well as where you're fighting and its context. Nen is even more complex. Joy, sadness, fear, hatred, carelessness, devotion, excitement, doubt, pleasure, shame, determination — all the emotions you're capable of factor into Nen. It might enable something beyond 100%...
    
    ...But that's never a good thing. Especially in combat. Using powers beyond your capacity will always cause strain! It will become a weakness, perhaps fatal. You need consistent power to always come out on top.
• Nen itself is both a massive deconstruction of Ki Manipulation in general while also playing it straight. Compared to similar techniques in other series, Nen has a very definite and detailed structure that determines how people develop the abilities they have and how to best make use of those abilities. How a person's Nen manifests (called a Hatsu) is heavily dependent on the individual and there are techniques that some people simply will not be able to use. Also in comparison to other series, where fighters generally spam their special attacks all the time, Nen users are incredibly conservative when it comes to using their abilities in order to keep their opponents from learning the particulars of that ability, including its strengths and weaknesses.
  • The series makes it clear that even though Nen is difficult to obtain, just about anyone has the potential to work towards unlocking it. The result is that there is no way for normal humans to ever measure up to those who have the capacity to use Nen, and the freedom this gives someone with no conscience world-bending powers is shown to be absolutely devastating. In particular, the fight between Chrollo and Hisoka has a large amount of civilian casualties due to Chrollo turning the entire audience into people-seeking bombs. This also becomes a problem later on in the Dark Continent arc, as unsavory characters like Benjamin and Tserriednich start getting their hands on some seriously devastating powers.
  • And more specifically, because the use of Nen can be summed up on the surface as Ki Manipulation + Personality Powers, this means that if any nasty people like the Kakin Princes mentioned above get ahold of it, they'll inevitably develop some equally nasty power (or a seemingly conventional or unimpressive one with some surprisingly scary uses) of their own choosing to go along with their now superhuman physical abilities. Ponder on that for a second; think of the worst person or people you know, and the kind of superpowers they'd kill to have if they could get it. In the world of Hunter X Hunter, not only is it possible, but there are already more than plenty of them already in the world doing god knows what (Hisoka, Genthru, the Phantom Troupe, a number of Chimera Ants, especially Pitou, etc).
• Ging is a deconstruction of the typical Disappeared Dad seen in Shonen stories. He's a badass, sure, but his neglect towards his son Gon is lampshaded and frowned on In-Universe. Gon's goal of finding Ging also deconstructs the trope of a Shonen protagonist going on a quest to find their missing parent. Gon spends a large part of the series looking for him, and while they do get along, even Gon acknowledges that he doesn't really see him as a father, but as an awesome relative he's heard great things about, and realizes that he didn't necessarily want to meet Ging so much as find him. After he finally accomplishes this goal he's left wondering where to go from there.

Individual Tropes

• Neo-Green Life, an isolationist nation introduced in the Chimera Ant arc, examines the Ludd Was Right trope and how difficult and dangerous an "all natural" society would be in the modern world. NGL permits no technology newer than agriculture, meaning visitors must discard everything from synthetic clothing items to necessities like eyeglasses, tooth fillings, and medical implants at the border crossing or face execution. The checkpoint (conveniently located just outside of NGL's actual borders) must employ highly advanced technology like MRI and ultrasound in order to effectively enforce this policy. NGL citizens would likely do what they could to protect themselves on the micro scale (e.g. treating a family member's disease or fending off a wild animal), but problems on the macro scale (e.g. an epidemic or an out-of-control invasive species) are, according to NGL's philosophy, "nature taking its course" and are probably impossible for the government to address anyway. The country's low tech level also means information moves extremely slowly within NGL (the internet is used at the aforementioned checkpoint for international relations, but only handwritten correspondence is permitted within NGL proper), which allows the Chimera Ant infestation to get out of hand before international aid can be summoned. It's eventually revealed that the country's founder and ruler simply wanted to ruin people's lives, and his personal guard all secretly have firearms anyway to protect him specifically.
• Kurapika's quest for revenge is a brutal deconstruction of But for Me, It Was Tuesday. If you galivant around the world killing whenever convenient, sooner or later you will piss off the wrong person.
• The Phantom Troupe takes an axe to Even Evil Has Loved Ones. The Phantom Troupe are a bunch of immoral rogues who kill and steal whomever and whatever they please, caring little for the damage they cause in their rampage. However, they have a strong bond due to having grown up in the awful Meteor City together, and there are numerous scenes dedicated to showing their genuine comradery with each other. This gets deconstructed when Gon meets them and points out that they're all huge hypocrites. Even though they protest to love each other as family, their lust for destruction shows serious Moral Myopia. If they can understand what it's like to love and be loved, how can they kill so many people without blinking an eye? While Uvogin's death does shake them up, Gon calls them out on their selfishness, which ends up making them look rather pathetic.
  Gon: I thought you were all a bunch of cold blooded monsters... but I see you can shed tears for your friends! So you're capable of empathy... but you've killed so many people! Why couldn't you feel that for them, what the hell is wrong with you?!