It was recently revealed that Yoshihiro Togashi’s Hunter x Hunter (also known as HxH) manga was originally supposed to have a timeskip very early on in the story.
The Japanese television show Iwakura to Yoshizumi no Bangumi (The Iwakura and Yoshizumi Show) aired a segment on November 14, 2023, in which guests sent letters to their favorite stars and role models. Then, when participating in the program, the guest will reveal the answer. Former idol group Sakurazaka46 (formerly Keyakizaka46) member Yumiko Seki and boy band Kis-My-Ft2 member Toshiya Miyata are this week’s guests. Both are crazy fans of HxH. Yumiko revealed that she and Togashi have known each other for a long time when he attended a Keyakizaka46 live event, and showed off all the illustrations he had specially made for her after she graduated last month. 4, 2023. She also revealed a big reveal: introducing some letters that Togashi had sent her in response to her questions. Notably, “How many [HxH] Did you think of the story before you started drawing it?”
Togashi replied: “Once I had a rough feeling of an otherworldly story that highlighted the Hunter profession, I felt like I could continue it indefinitely. So I decided to keep the manga alive for as long as possible and thought I’d start with the main character taking the Hunter Exam. What was decided at the start of serialization was the storyboard for the first 3 chapters, and the main character would fail the exam and it would skip a few years.
The actual content of the Hunter Exam has not been decided until then (because I also want to enjoy this unpredictable situation). In the end, the idea of Gon failing the exam was scrapped after discussion with my editor, so the answer to the question will be the first 3 chapters. However, I decided to introduce the main ally (Killua) and the antagonist (Hisoka) early in the exam.”
Togashi is a fan of Sakurazaka46: a few weeks ago, he broke his seven-month silence on Twitter/X mentioning the band’s song “Start Over.” The song was also featured in the Shonen Jump video of the Hunter x Hunter manga.
Togashi editors providing opinions on issues like the HxH timeskip is also not a one-time thing. As part of Elfen Lied author Lynn Okamoto’s recent viral X posts in which he expressed regret for not becoming a master artist, the mangaka shared a never-before-seen story to previously about Togashi: “I like the story of a Shueisha editor assigned to HUNTER×HUNTER early in their career,” Okamoto said. “They timidly made suggestions like ‘Wouldn’t it be better if you changed it like this?’ on the storyboards they received, and were surprised when Togashi-sensei actually revised them as suggested, thinking ‘Even Togashi-sensei edited the storyboards I revised…’”
HxH is currently on pause to give fans more time to watch. MangaPLUS offers the manga in English for free and describes the plot as follows: Gon may be a country boy, but he has noble aspirations. Despite Aunt Mito’s objections, Gon decides to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a legendary Hunter. The Hunter hopefuls begin their journey on the storm-battered ship, where Gon meets Leorio and Kurapika, the only applicants not ravaged by bouts of seasickness. Having survived the horrors of the sea, Gon and his companions must now prove their worth in various tests to find the elusive Exam Chamber. And once they get there, will they be able to leave alive…?
Source: Oricon© P98-20 /SHUEISHA Inc.
