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
is a Music Hunter and is the kind and understanding member of Neon's bodyguards. She is always ready to listen to anyone's confessions and has the gift to make people open up to her. As Leorio notes, she is one of the very few characters who has made Kurapika open up to her. Melody's physical appearance is in short contrast to her kind soul. Due to effects of the "Sonata of Darkness", a musical piece said to have been written by Satan himself and that whomever listens to it will be greatly cursed, her body is short and her right arm disfigured. One night, Melody and her friend were drunk, and her friend played the Sonata. Its power was so great, that upon hearing only the first movement of the flute solo, Melody was disfigured. Her friend was not so lucky; his entire body was disfigured like Melody's arm and he died after playing it. Melody gained her Nen abilities in exchange. Melody's goal is to find the Sonata of Darkness and destroy it. Melody has the ability to Emit her aura to people to soothe fatigue when she plays an instrument. Melody also has a very sharp sense of hearing and can tell a person's psychological state just by listening to their heartbeat. For example, she knows when people are lying or when someone has completely lost his/her temper. Melody reappears in the Dark Continent arc as part of Kurapika's party, becoming the bodyguard for the tenth prince of Kakin, Kacho. Melody was inspired by Nausicaä and Yupa in Hayao Miyazaki's "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind", or possibly Ashitaka from "Princess Mononoke" instead of Yupa. Melody came in twentieth place in the series' second popularity poll.