Hunter × Hunter
The "Hunter × Hunter" manga has received much praise for its plot and characters. In his 2007 book "", Jason Thompson described its storyline as "an almost random collection of psych-outs, battles, puzzles, and trickery" that works on both a chapter-by-chapter basis and a larger scale. Thompson elaborated that with all the goals and subplots of each of the main characters, the story could seemingly go on forever and is unpredictable enough to hold reader interest. In a different review for Anime News Network in 2012, Thompson wrote that it was hard to summarize the story because it is every "shōnen" manga in one, with training sequences, tournament battles, a crime-mystery story arc, and a virtual-reality, RPG-style story arc. But unlike most "shōnen" manga, he called "Hunter × Hunter" "incredibly dense." Examples being its fictional nen ability, which is explained "so thoroughly that you almost think it could exist," and the little challenges and games the characters face; "Over and over Togashi invents some little closed system or rules just so the heroes can break them; if he ever wants to change careers, I'd suggest game designer." Thompson praised the character art as great, pointing out how instead of alternating between realistic and chibi like other artists, Togashi has cartoony and realistic characters interacting in the same panels. Thompson did note how the artwork during its magazine run is often "sketchy" and missing backgrounds, but that Togashi goes back and fixes it for its collected "tankōbon" release. Mentioning Togashi's love of gore he stated "the whole manga is about the mixture of childish adventure and creepy, adult themes" and noted how some panels later in the manga are apparently censored for gore by being covered with screentone.
List of Hunter × Hunter characters
Meruem takes an interest in strategy games, defeating champion-level players by learning their battle tactics after disrupting the flow of their playing style. However, he is unable to overcome the skill of a seemingly dimwitted blind girl from the countryside named Komugi in Gungi, the game she reigns over. As Meruem finds himself unable to disrupt her flow, the challenge of playing against Meruem awakens Komugi's Nen ability, thus, increasing her own skills. To the dismay of the Royal Guards, Meruem even starts to show respect and care for Komugi while questioning his own violent methods as a way to rule. As such, the King wavers between his human emotions and animal instincts, ultimately deciding to compromise by taking over the planet for the Chimera Ants, but sparing humans and leaving them to live in reservations. Meruem's faltering leaves him vulnerable, almost being destroyed in the fight against Netero when the man detonated the nuclear explosive on his person as a last resort. But Meruem survived by feeding on the bodies of Pouf and Youpi, assimilating their powers alongside their aura. But besides being poisoned by the bomb's radiation, Meruem also suffered temporarily memory loss before he recovers his memories of Komugi. Netero's final attack would takes its toll on Meruem at the time as he finds Komugi, spending his final moments playing with her before dying in her arms.