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Hunter x Hunter: Gon and Killua Return After a 14-Year Hiatus

ハンターハンター ゴン・キルア14年ぶり登場に日本ファンの反応

Hunter x HunterJapanese ReactionJapanese Fans
Hunter x Hunter: Gon and Killua Return After a 14-Year Hiatus
“Apparently My Hero Academia started and finished its entire run before Gon showed up again.”

ゴンが再登場するまでにヒロアカが始まって終わったらしい

— @フェニックス-k4b

On the newest Hunter x Hunter chapter, Japanese fans flooded a reaction video the moment Gon and Killua reappeared on the page after Yoshihiro Togashi's infamous hiatus — across 488 comments, the top-liked entry (2,615 likes) needed just one comparison to an entire other franchise's full run to land the joke.

The comment section turns the length of the wait into its own genre of joke: one fan lists nineteen separate manga that fully started and ended in the gap, others do the math against Dragon Ball's eleven-year run and come out shaken, and one comment darkly notes there's no guarantee Togashi or anyone reading will even be alive for the next installment. Once the shock wears off, the thread pivots to Togashi's art style itself — fans joke that he's forgotten how to draw Gon, compare the new linework to an English textbook illustration, and half-seriously credit his wife with inking Killua's suddenly gorgeous eyes.

Underneath the jokes, though, several comments genuinely well up at what the reappearance does in-story, including a moment about a queen quietly recognizing Kurapika's sincerity that one commenter calls flat-out unfair after so many chapters of dense political scheming — before the thread lands on one last punchline about just how long 14 years really is.

This titleJapanese reactions to Hunter x HunterRead all 2 roundups on the title page
（YouTube · ヲタク君の反応集）

Japanese fan reactions (excerpted from 488)

  • Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, and My Hero Academia all started and finished airing in that time.

    鬼滅、呪術、ヒロアカが始まって終わったよ

    — @キラークイーンだよ455 likes

  • - My Hero Academia - Hinomaru: Sumo - Demon Slayer - The Promised Neverland - Dr. Stone - Jujutsu Kaisen - Summer Time Rendering - Mashle - Undead Unluck - Kaiju No. 8 - Fire Force - The Quintessential Quintuplets - Tokyo Revengers - Call of the Night - Golden Kamuy - Delicious in Dungeon - Oshi no Ko - My Dress-Up Darling - BEASTARS Every single one of these ran from its very first chapter to its very last in the time it took for Gon and Killua to show up again.

    ・ヒロアカ ・火ノ丸 ・鬼滅 ・約ネバ ・ドクスト ・呪術 ・サマレン ・マッシュル ・アンデラ ・怪8 ・炎炎 ・五等分 ・東リベ ・よふかし ・金カム ・ダン飯 ・推しの子 ・着せ恋 ・BEASTARS これ全部ゴンキルが再登場するまでに連載開始から完結まで行ってる。

    — @和牛石舟斎宗厳2 likes

  • My Hero Academia legitimately started and ended in the gap between Gon appearances lol

    ゴン登場の合間にヒロアカ始まって終わってるのほんま草

    — @坪井千夏199841 likes

  • 14 years... 14 YEARS?!

    14年…14年！？

    — @つま-h8z302 likes

  • 14 years is roughly "JoJo parts 1 through 5 are all finished and part 6 is about halfway through" levels of time.

    14年ってジョジョで言ったら第１部～第５部が完結して第６部の中盤あたり

    — @blackcanvas0020 likes

  • 14 years is basically my entire youth!

    あたしの青春が１４年！

    — @えだまめ031726 likes

  • Wild that it's already longer than Dragon Ball's entire 11-year serialization.

    ドラゴンボールの連載期間11年よりも長いのはスゴいね

    — @やす-p7o7g191 likes

  • Wait, hold on, Dragon Ball only ran for 11 years total?! That's insane it packed in that much content in that time.

    逆にドラゴンボール11年しかやってないってマジかよ… それであのボリュームなのすごいな

    — @あぐみたこ46 likes

  • Put that way, I can't help but be stunned. Even Dragon Ball, which people never stopped calling "dragged out," only ran about ten and a half years... It's been twelve years since Gon smashed Pitou's head in? No wonder I've gotten old too...

    こう言われると驚きを禁じ得ない。散々「引き延ばしが〜」言われてたドラゴンボールでさえ約十年半なのかよ…。ピトーの頭叩き潰してから十二年も経ってたのか…そりゃ俺も年取るわけだよ…

    — @nagasaku191218 likes

  • 14 years...... seriously?! No way......

    14年……だと！？マジか……

    — @Akira_Alt097 likes

  • There's no guarantee Togashi or any of us will even be alive in 10 more years.

    10年後富樫も俺たちも生きてる保証がねぇよ

    — @ケン-h2l760 likes

  • Honestly, at this point I don't think Hunter x Hunter is going to finish within the author's own lifetime — like Berserk, or Crayon Shin-chan. Well... if he passes away, I'm sure assistants or AI will just keep drawing it. Once a series has run this long, it basically keeps existing independent of the author's own will at this point. (´ω`)

    そもそもにして作者が生きている間にハンターハンターは完結しないと思う。 ベルセルクとかクレヨンしんちゃんみたいに。 まぁ…、作者が〇んだらアシスタントとかAIが描き続けるでしょうけど。 ここまで連載続いたら、作者の意思とは無関係に作品が存在し続けるでしょうね （´ω`）

    — @木下池野1 likes

  • He's legitimately forgotten how to draw Gon lol

    ゴンの描き方忘れてるの草

    — @komon02761,752 likes

  • Togashi's always been someone whose character designs drift over time, though. Chrollo alone has gone from looking like L'Arc-en-Ciel's Hyde to looking like Hiroyuki.

    そもそも冨樫はキャラデザぶれる人だからなぁ クロロなんてhydeからひろゆきになるし

    — @romeo5272256 likes

  • Gon's art style now looks like an illustration straight out of an English textbook.

    ゴンの作画が英語の教科書みたいになってる

    — @rotomiii1,018 likes

  • Gon Horizon lol

    ゴン·ホライゾンw

    — @shitou41036 likes

  • Feels like his wife must have inked Killua's eyes for him ✨

    嫁さんがキルアの瞳のペン入れしてそう✨

    — @ワタ-b2r311 likes

  • Suddenly getting serious Sailor Moon vibes from those eyes 😂

    急にムーン感出てる😂

    — @aa-wh1yf27 likes

  • Yeah, that actually checks out.

    納得したわ。

    — @響-i8k11 likes

  • Killua's gotten a whole clean-cut, pretty-boy art upgrade.

    キルアが爽やかイケメン作画になってる

    — @檜山信行17 likes

  • It's funny how by the end, Kurapika and Killua's eyes got noticeably prettier, while Gon just looked like some random background extra.

    最後クラピカとキルアの目が可愛くなってるのおもろかった。ゴンはその辺のモブって感じやった。

    — @みなとN38 likes

  • Did Gon's face always look this much like Pac-Man?

    ゴンこんなにパックマンみたいな顔してたっけって思ったわ

    — @kuribo00x29 likes

  • Gon's basically a grown man now lol

    ゴン青年みたいになってて草

    — @遊TUBE_i31 likes

  • Someone called this Gon panel "Tatsuki Fujimoto self-portrait style," and honestly... it's more accurate than I expected lol

    ゴンがタツキの自画像いわれていて、思ったよりタツキで笑った

    — @d.d.daniel808725 likes

  • So wait, is this literally the first time in 14 years Togashi has actually drawn Gon and Killua?

    つまり富樫がゴンキルを描くの14年ぶり？

    — @kenkinu12347 likes

  • I'm relieved Gon is properly standing his ground on solid earth again.

    ゴンがちゃんと大地を踏みしめていて安心した

    — @あゆみ-e9j8n414 likes

  • The "this story's protagonist" line under Gon's name has already quietly disappeared from the volume bios.

    ゴンは主人公って記述がもう消えてる

    — @とわ-e8t29 likes

  • He'd already said himself it's fine if the story ends here, after all.

    もうこれで終わってもいいって言ってたもんね

    — @arcjav429125 likes

  • I didn't expect the protagonist we've all sidelined for years to end up helping out from completely outside the loop... this is exactly why I can't quit this manga.

    蚊帳の外から主人公が協力することになるとは…コレだからやめられない

    — @おやゆびリーゼント43 likes

  • It got me — Queen Oito seemingly picking up on just how straightforwardly pure Kurapika's trust really is, underneath all that cold, calculating exterior. It's not fair, Togashi-sensei, hitting us with something this simple and moving right after pages of dense, complicated plotting.

    怜悧で冷徹なクラピカのまっすぐでピュアな信頼をオイト王妃が見て取っているようで泣けた。さんざん細かくてムズい話の後にこういうシンプルに心揺さぶるのズルいよ冨樫先生。

    — @user-koeda4 likes

  • The previous arc's protagonist riding in to help out — now that's a hype development!

    前作の主人公が助けに来る熱い展開来た！

    — @母を訪ねて3ハロン6 likes

  • If it's really been 14 years, that's just a completely different person who was born sometime in between.

    14年も経ってるならその間に生まれた別人だろ

    — @崩崩-c5g61 likes

FAQ

How long had it actually been since Gon and Killua last appeared?
Commenters calculate it at 14 years, pointing out that several entire manga series — including Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, and My Hero Academia, plus over a dozen more that one commenter lists by name — started serialization and finished completely within that same gap.
Why are people joking about Togashi forgetting how to draw Gon?
Commenters compare the newly drawn Gon to "an English textbook illustration" and joke that his face suddenly looks like Pac-Man, while noting Killua and Kurapika's eyes look noticeably more polished — some jokingly credit Togashi's wife with inking those details, since Togashi is well known among fans for his character designs drifting over time.
Is there more to this chapter than the hiatus jokes?
Yes — commenters also react emotionally to the actual story content, including a moment where a queen character quietly picks up on Kurapika's sincere trust, and a scene where the previous arc's protagonist helps out from behind the scenes.
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