Hunter x Hunter

Twelve years prior to the start of the story, Ging Freecss left his infant son, Gon, with Gon's aunt, Mito, on Whale Island. Gon, who was told all his life that both his parents were dead, finds out from Ging's apprentice, Kite, that his old man is still alive and has since become an accomplished Hunter.[2][3][4] Hunters are licensed, elite members of humanity who are capable of tracking down secret treasures, rare beasts, or even other individuals.[5] Gon leaves his home to become a Hunter like his father by taking the Hunter Examination, a series of brutal tests involving skill, survival, and teamwork.[2] During the exam, Gon meets and eventually befriends three of the other applicants: Kurapika, the last remaining member of the Kurta clan whom wishes to become a Hunter in order to avenge his clan and recover their scarlet-glowing eyes, plucked from their corpses by a band of thieves known as the Phantom Troupe; Leorio, a prospective physician who desires the financial benefits Hunters receive in order to pay for medical school; and Killua Zoldyck, another twelve-year-old boy who has left his former life as a member of the world's most notorious assassin family.[3][4][5] Among many other examinees, Gon continuously encounters Hisoka, a mysterious and deadly conjurer whom takes an interest in Gon. The Final Phase of the Hunter Exam sees Gon passing the official part of the exam in anticlimax and Killua failing after killing another applicant out of frustration. However, it is then revealed that one more secret task is required of the applicants for them to pass the Exam. The trio then travels to Killua's home estate in order to retrieve the boy from his overbearing family.

After Killua returns to the group, Leorio and Kurapika depart in order to accomplish their own goals; the four promise to meet again in Yorknew City in the September of that year. Gon and Killua decide to gain both combat experience and money at the Heavens Arena, a skyscraper where thousands of martial artists compete daily in fighting tournaments.[6] There they meet a kung fu master named Wing, who trains them in utilizing Nen, a Qi-like life energy utilized by Hunters to manifest parapsychological abilities--also considered to be the final requirement to pass the Hunter Exam. In the climax of the arc, Gon refaces Hisoka in the Heavens Arena in his final challenge of the Examination.

The next story arc reunites the main characters for the world's largest auction in the sprawling metropolis of Yorknew City. Gon, Killua, and Leorio try different methods to make enough money to buy Greed Island, an extremely rare and expensive video game with Nen-like properties that may help Gon locate his father.[7] Meanwhile, Kurapika starts working as a bodyguard for a mafioso's daughter--a teenaged clairvoyant flesh collector whom is interested in a pair of Kurta Clan eyeballs being auctioned off. While at the auction, Kurapika crosses paths with the Phantom Troupe, whom are in Yorknew City in order to steal all of the goods from the mafia's underground auction.[7] A gang war between the mafia and the Phantom Troupe rocks Yorknew City in the first week of September, eventually forcing the protagonists to all get involved and eventually cross paths. Kurapika struggles with his desires for revenge and his relationships, having to decide whether or not to sacrifice his friends as pawns in order to achieve his own vengeance. Hostages are taken and the climax of the arc results in an exchange between Kurapika and the leader of the Phantom Troupe, Chrollo Lucilfer.

In the final days of the auction, Gon and Killua are hired by a multi-billionaire to play Greed Island, the billion-dollar video game created by Ging Freecss that takes place somewhere in the real world. The game, created with Nen, rewards one by allowing them the choice of taking three magical items from the game into the real world. Inside Greed Island, the Phantom Troupe starts to play the game for mysterious reasons, a player's alliance becomes dangerously close to completing the game, and an unknown serial bomber has been murdering players in order to clear the game first. Gon and Killua, outclassed by the difficulty of the challenges in the game, are soon joined and trained by an experienced teacher of Nen and kung fu master: Biscuit Krueger. With her help, Gon and Killua begin to take on the challenges of Greed Island and attempt to get closer to Gon's father. In the climax of the arc, Gon faces the serial bomber mano-a-mano and eventually wins Greed Island. Using two of his rewarded cards, Gon and Killua travel to the location of a player whom they believe to be Ging. However, it ends up bringing them to Kite instead.

Alongside Kite, Gon and Killua briefly work as biological researchers in the country of Kakin. As they investigate a giant insect limb found on the country's shores, the group discover it came from a man-sized Chimera Ant queen, an insect that devours other creatures and then gives birth to progeny that inherit the characteristics of the different species it has eaten. The queen washes up onto an island nation called the Neo-Green Life (N.G.L.) Autonomous Region, inhabited by a neo-luddite culture. She quickly develops a taste for humans and builds a colony in order to conceive both an army of offspring and a Chimera Ant king named Meryem. The Chimera Ants proceed to wipe most of the population out before Gon, Killua, and Kite arrive. The queen dies during labor, and the king and his Royal Guards flee the N.G.L., secretly overthrowing the government of the nearby Republic of East Gorteau soon thereafter. Meanwhile, having left the N.G.L. for two months following an attack by the Chimera Ant Royal Guardsman Neferpitou, Gon learns that Kite is being manipulated by the ant and becomes enraged.

Under the guise of the former king of the Republic, Meryem initiates the process of forcibly awakening Nen in the civilians of East Gorteau in order to select soldiers to join his own personal army to conquer the world, and convert the remaining inhabitants to foodstock. As Ants formerly under the queen's rule rejoin the king, the Hunter Association mobilizes quickly to stop the oncoming genocide by sending in an extermination team of Hunters to East Gorteau. Looking for a way to restore Kite to his normal state, Gon and Killua join the extermination team in order to find Neferpitou. The confrontation reaches its peak during a battle between the Chimera Ant King and Netero, the chairman of the Hunters Association, and a second meeting between Neferpitou and Gon.

After the Chimera Ant incident has been resolved, the Hunter Association immediately begins the process of choosing Netero's replacement as Chairman, while the other Hunters try to have a new chairman elected by a voting system proposed by Gon's father Ging, Killua returns home to ask for his younger brother Alluka to help Gon, who is hospitalized in critical condition after his battle with Neferpitou. However, his family is unwilling to risk losing Alluka or having his dangerous powers used against them, but after evading his older brother Illumi's attempts to intercept him, Killua manages to bring Alluka to Gon's side and have him fully recovered, before sealing his powers completely to ensure his brother can have a normal life. After having a brief reunion with his father, Gon meets Kite once more and becomes relived that beside still living as an ant, he returned to his former self.

With the burden of his guilt gone; Gon returns to the Hunter Association to finally question his father only to find that Ging has disappeared, leaving a message to say he would be waiting at the top of the World Tree. Gon and Killua must part ways, and Gon quickly ascends and meets Ging at the peak of the tree. Gon questions Ging about his goals and discovers the true nature of his father's quest. Meanwhile, a man introducing himself as Netero's son Beyond declares that he is assembling an expedition to the "Dark Continent," a remote and unexplored region cut off from the rest of world over 200 years ago.