Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: When was the Hunter × Hunter manga series developed?
Hunter × Hunter(Japanese:ハンター×ハンター,Hepburn:Hantā Hantā, abbreviated: HxH) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi. It has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine since March 3, 1998, although the manga has frequently gone on extended hiatuses since 2006. As of October 2018, 380 chapters have been collected into 36 volumes by Shueisha. The story focuses on a young boy named Gon Freecss, who discovers that his father, who he was told was dead, is actually alive and a world renowned Hunter, a licensed profession for those who specialize in fantastic pursuits such as locating rare or unidentified animal species, treasure hunting, surveying unexplored enclaves, or hunting down lawless individuals. Despite being abandoned by his father, Gon departs upon a journey to follow in his footsteps, pass the rigorous Hunter Examination, and eventually find his father. Along the way, Gon meets various other Hunters and also encounters the paranormal. The original inspiration for the manga came from Togashi's own collecting hobby.
The first Hunter × Hunter anime adaptation was produced by the company Nippon Animation and directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi, who had previously directed the Rurouni Kenshin television series.[48] A total of 62 episodes of Hunter × Hunter were broadcast on the Japanese terrestrial television network Fuji Television from October 16, 1999 to March 31, 2001 during the same Saturday evening timeslot as the anime version of Togashi's previous series Yu Yu Hakusho.[3][49][50] Additionally, Hunter × Hunter has aired on the satellite television station Animax.[51][52] Although it closely follows the manga, the violence in the anime version is lessened for younger audiences.[3] Marvelous Entertainment has released all episodes of the series in Japan on DVD in 13 separate volumes between September 20, 2000 and September 19, 2001.[53]
A spin-off manga titled "Kyō Kara City Hunter" was launched July 25, 2017 in Tokuma Shoten's "Monthly Comic Zenon" magazine. It is centered around a 40-year-old unmarried woman who is a fan of Ryō Saeba and the City Hunter manga, and suddenly dies in a train accident and is reincarnated into the world of City Hunter.
The original game was released in November, 1997. In 2003 Southlogic Studios was commissioned by WizardWorks to develop "Trophy Hunter 2003" and because of Trophy Hunter's success, they took over the development of the Deer Hunter franchise, with "Deer Hunter 2004" and "Deer Hunter 2005", distributed by Atari. Glu Mobile acquired the entire franchise in April 2012. The original "Deer Hunter" and its sequel "Deer Hunter II" have also been released for Macintosh computers.
Author Yoshihiro Togashi explained that one of his hobbies was collecting objects of all sorts, so he was inspired to create a manga involving collecting titled "Hunter".[14] He came up with the final name Hunter × Hunter while watching the television variety show Downtown, in which the hosts often repeated what they said to make the audience laugh.[14] The "×" in the title is silent.[15] As with his previous series, Yu Yu Hakusho, Togashi used drafting ink and Kabura pens for his illustrations but began using an eMac to color them.[16] Togashi uses few or no assistants in the manga's production;[17] however, fellow manga artist and future wife Naoko Takeuchi assisted Togashi in adding screentone to single-color pages for the first volume.[18][19] With the birth of their first son early in its publication, Togashi felt that this personal aspect of his life would be a great influence on his work, particularly the manga's theme of a young boy searching for his father.[16]
Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D, known simply as in Japan, is a manga adaptation of the Vampire Hunter D novel series by acclaimed horror writer, Hideyuki Kikuchi.
Written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi, the Hunter × Hunter manga began its ongoing serialization in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on March 3, 1998.[36] Shueisha has compiled most of the chapters into 36 tankōbon volumes as of October 2018.[37] In December 2011, Shueisha began republishing the manga into a magazine-styled sōshūhen format. The company published one volume per month for a total of six volumes, covering up to the end of the Greed Island story arc.[38] In December 2012, Togashi wrote a two-part manga titled Kurapika's Memories(クラピカ追憶編,Kurapika Tsuioku-hen) to act as a prequel to the first animated film.[39] Tokyo Ghoul author Sui Ishida created a 69-page storyboard of a manga chapter depicting the past of Hunter × Hunter's Hisoka. The storyboard was released digitally via Shonen Jump+ on June 2, 2016.[40]
Following is a list of chapters of the Japanese manga series "O-Parts Hunter
Written and illustrated by Seishi Kishimoto, the series was originally published as 79 chapters by Enix (later Square Enix) in the magazine "Monthly Shōnen Gangan" from 2001 to 2007. These chapters were collected into 19 tankōbon volumes. It was licensed for an English release in North America by Viz Media, who released it under the title "O-Parts Hunter".
In 1999, Hunter × Hunter was adapted into a 62-episode anime television series produced by Nippon Animation and directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi. The show premiered on Japan's Fuji TV and ran until 2001. Three separate original video animations (OVAs) totaling 30 episodes were subsequently produced by Nippon Animation and released in Japan from 2002 to 2004. A second anime television series by Madhouse aired on Nippon Television from October 2011 to September 2014, with two animated theatrical films released in 2013. There are also numerous audio albums, video games, musicals, and other media based on Hunter × Hunter. The manga has been translated into English and released in North America by Viz Media since April 2005. Both television series were also licensed by Viz, with the first series having aired on the Funimation Channel in 2009 and the second series premiering on Adult Swim's Toonami block since April 16, 2016.
Hunter × Hunter is an anime television series that aired from 1999 to 2001 based on Yoshihiro Togashi's "Hunter × Hunter" manga. The story focuses on a young boy named Gon Freecss, who one day discovers that the father he had always been told was dead is in fact alive and well. He learns that his father, Ging, is a famous "Hunter": an individual who has proven themself an elite member of humanity. Despite the fact that Ging left his son with his relatives in order to pursue his own dreams, Gon becomes determined to follow in his father's footsteps, pass the rigorous "Hunter Examination", and eventually find his father to become a Hunter in his own right.
Hunter × Hunter has been a huge critical and financial success and has become one of Shueisha's best-selling manga series, having sold 66 million copies in Japan alone as of 2014.
The series has been released in three printed volumes by Tokyopop in North America, after Van Von Hunter: Circlet of Necromancy won a first-place trophy and $1,000 in Tokyopop's first Rising Stars of Manga contest.[3][4] The manga series runs a storyline that takes place after the events in the webcomic.
The Hunter × Hunter manga series features an extensive cast of characters created by Yoshihiro Togashi. The series takes place in a fictional universe where licensed specialists known as Hunters travel the world taking on special jobs ranging from treasure hunting to assassinations. The story focuses on eleven-year-old Gon Freecss and his quest to become a Hunter in order to find his father, Ging, who is himself a famous Hunter. While on his quest, Gon meets and becomes close friends with Killua Zoldyck, Kurapika and Leorio Paradinight who are also on quests to become Hunters for their own reasons.
Released on December 27, 2013, it is the second film based on the "Hunter × Hunter" manga series created by Yoshihiro Togashi.
 is used as an imprint label for publishing manga, most often for collected tankōbon volumes of manga series originally serialized in "Weekly Shōnen Jump" and other "Jump" magazines. "Jump Comics" is the most well-known of Jump manga lines, with books published under the label typically selling over 1,000,000 copies. Along with tankōbon editions of manga series, "JUMP Comics" also publishes one-shots. The most likely series of JUMP Comics (store-wise) would be popular manga series originally serialized in "Jump" magazines (such as "One Piece, Dragon Ball, Naruto, Shaman King, Mr.FULLSWING, Ichigo 100%, KochiKame, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Hunter × Hunter, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, YuYu Hakusho" and Yu-Gi-Oh!"). The publication of JUMP Comics is one of the most successful in the world, along with Shōnen Sunday Comics and Shōnen Magazine Comics. The JUMP Comics are published in the U.S. under the lines "Shonen Jump" and "Shonen Jump Advanced". "Shōnen Jump Advanced" was created for the distribution of manga series considered more mature due to content or themes. Series released under SJA include Eyeshield 21, Ichigo 100%, Pretty Face, I"s, Hunter × Hunter, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, (first edition) and Death Note.
A series of three film books based on the first anime series and authored by Nobuaki Kishikan has been released by Shueisha from December 3, 1999 to August 24, 2001.[108][109][110] A guidebook to the anime titled Hunter × Hunter Characters Book: World × Character × Blessing(Hunter × Hunter キャラクターズブック World × Character × Blessing) was published by Shueisha in January 2001.[111] A guidebook to the manga titled Hunter × Hunter: Hunters Association Official World and Character Guide(Hunter × Hunter ハンター協会公式発行ハンターズ・ガイド) was published by the company on June 4, 2004.[112] There is also an extensive trading card game by Bandai,[113] action and trading figures,[114][115] and various other collectables.[116][117][118]
There have been several instances in which Togashi has apologized to readers in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump for low-quality artwork and promised to redraw portions of the chapters for their tankōbon (collected volume) releases.[20][21][22] In addition, the publication history of the Hunter × Hunter manga has been plagued with hiatuses, in which serialized chapters would be separated by extended periods of time.[23][24][25] After returning from a two-year-long hiatus in June 2014,[26] and joining the English-language Weekly Shonen Jump lineup, the manga went on another just two months later.[27] The series returned from this hiatus, which has been its longest to date, on April 18, 2016.[28] However, just over two months later, Hunter × Hunter began another hiatus on June 4, 2016,[29] until resuming serialization again on June 26, 2017.[30] Just over two months later, on August 31, it was announced the series will go on hiatus again, with plans to return by the end of the year.[31] The series returned in the 9th issue of Shonen Jump on January 29, 2018,[32] before entering in hiatus again on April 9, 2018.[33] The manga returned on September 22, 2018,[34] and went on hiatus again in November after issue #52.[35]
The Hunter × Hunter manga has been largely commercially successful; having sold over 60.6 million collected volumes in Japan as of February 2012, making it Shueisha's eighth best-selling manga series.[119] This number had grown to 66.3 million copies by 2014.[120] Several individual volumes have topped Oricon's list of the best-selling manga in Japan during their release week; such as volumes 30 through 36.[121] Volumes 24, 27, and 30 through 34 were some of the top-selling volumes for their respective years.[122] Hunter × Hunter was the eighth best-selling manga series of both 2012 and 2013, with 3.4 and 4.6 million copies sold those years respectively.[123][124] In North America, volumes 23 through 27 have ranked within the top 300 best-selling graphics novels list of sales estimates by Diamond Comic Distributors.[125][126][127][128][129]
By 2016, the "City Hunter" manga series had sold over 50million tankobon volumes worldwide. In addition, the series was circulated in approximately 900million copies of "Weekly Shōnen Jump" manga magazine between 1985 and 1991. The series was voted the 19th "Most Powerful" series to have featured in Shonen Jump. In a 2005 poll held by TV Asahi, "City Hunter" was voted #66 out of the 100 most popular animated TV series, as voted by TV viewers. A TV Asahi web-poll put "City Hunter" at #65.
While predominantly depicted as human, examples of other types of vampire hunters also exist. Dhampiric figures, having a mix of human and vampire blood, are a popular form. Alucard from the "Castlevania" series, and the eponymous hero of the "Blade" series of comic books, movies, , and anime, are both examples of dhampir vampire-hunters. Even rarer are vampire hunters that are vampires themselves. Two examples of this type can be found in Morbius from "Ultimate Spider-Man", and Zero Kiryuu in the manga and anime series "Vampire Knight".
Hunter × Hunter is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi. It has been serialized in "Weekly Shōnen Jump" magazine since March 1998, with its chapters collected into thirty-six "tankōbon" volumes by publisher Shueisha. The first volume was released on June 4, 1998, and the thirty-sixth on October 4, 2018. In December 2012, Togashi wrote a two-part manga titled to act as a prequel to the first animated film based on "Hunter × Hunter". They were collected into a single "tankōbon", numbered Volume 0 of the series, that was given to the first one million theatergoers of "".
Van Von Hunter is a weekly hand-drawn parody manga begun in 2002 by Mike Schwark and Ron Kaulfersch of Pseudomé Studio, based in Cleveland, Ohio.[2] It has since been published in newspapers, books, and as a webcomic. The story takes place in the land of Dikay, a country fraught with undeath, and focuses on the warrior Van Von Hunter and his "never-ending fight against evil...stuff". The opening of the series and Von Hunter's presence gives the series a Castlevania-like feel, but essentially the comic spoofs role-playing games, fantasy creatures and folklore (in one instance Von Hunter slays an Irish pixie), among other things.
The novel is adapted into a direct-to-video film of the same name in 1985 and a manga series, "Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D", in 2007.
Before the first anime television series was created, a short film adaptation of Hunter × Hunter was shown as part of the 1998 "Jump Super Anime Tour" alongside similar adaptations of Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi! and One Piece.[77] Produced by Studio Pierrot and directed by Noriyuki Abe, it depicts the early events of the manga up to Gon's ocean voyage from Whale Island.
On November 2007, the first volume of Saiko Takaki's manga adaptation of Hideyuki Kikuchi's series was published simultaneously in the U.S., Japan, and Europe. The project, overseen by Digital Manga Publishing and Hideyuki Kikuchi, aimed to adapt the entire catalogue of "Vampire Hunter D" novels into manga form, however was concluded after the eighth volume 